By JANICE D. HIDALGO General Manager
URDANETA CITY – Mayor Amadito Perez, Jr. admitted to the Pangasinan Today that Urdaneta is not yet ready to be an independent city.
But Perez quickly quoted authorities of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) to have said that Urdaneta is fast becoming the leading city in the Ilocos Region.
The NEDA authorities came up with their remarks about Urdaneta after having conducted an assessment of nine other big cities within the northern part of
Luzon. The assessment was based on factors that include major infrastructure developments, income and economic status of all 10 cities including Urdaneta that were covered by the NEDA for the purpose. Perez also quoted the NEDA officials to have cited the Urdaneta City Government to have exercised good financial management since he assumed responsibility as the duly elected mayor here. A concrete manifestation of this situation could best be described by the fact that when Perez assumed the mayorship of Urdaneta from his predecessor, several years back, the city coffers have been virtually drained of cash as the city government then incurred indebtedness that amounted to nearly P400 million. Despite this huge indebtedness, Perez said with pride that through his stewardship, he was able to source out funds that enabled the city government in reducing its loan. He cited Fifth District Rep. Marc Cojuangco for having spared more than P5 million which supported the city government in building its public market including road widening works. He also mentioned donations given to the city government by balikbayans who live in California,
United States of America, for having exerted effort in sourcing out funds for the implementation of other development projects including the purchase of equipment
Source: http://pangasinantoday.prepys.com/2008/01/05/urdaneta-a-leading-city-in-the-north/
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