BOTOLAN, Zambales — Following the successful implementation of various infrastructure projects last year, the local government unit of Botolan, Zambales is preparing for more than P200-million big-ticket developments in 2025 to sustain the growth momentum in this first-class municipality.
Mayor Jun Omar Ebdane said the Botolan LGU will undertake four construction projects this year under a Land Bank funding facility. These are the construction of a municipal administrative building at P24.9 million; municipal motor pool at P15 million; municipal commercial building at P90 million; and commercial spaces at the New Taugtog Resettlement Area at P70 million.
The projects, Ebdane said in his State of the Municipality Address (SOMA) recently, “will boost economic growth, generate new revenues, provide additional office spaces for government services, and create new jobs.”
Alongside these developments, Ebdane said the town government is also acquiring four lots with a total area of 10.7 hectares at a cost of P26.97 million for the expansion of LGU operations and programs.
These properties will be the location for the planned municipal motor pool, as well as new buildings for the town’s fire and police stations; a Municipal Agri-Demo Center for various agricultural projects, including dairy industry development programs; a materials recovery facility for better waste management; and the future home for the barangay government at Eastern Nacolcol.
At the same time, Ebdane said the LGU is processing titles for government facilities like the Polytechnic College of Botolan (PCB), which straddles variously titled private lots.
Ebdane also reported in his SOMA the accomplishments by his administration in the preceding year. He said the LGU completed some P41.8 million worth of infrastructure projects under the town’s 20% Development Fund, as well as another P12-million projects for disaster preparedness and mitigation.
The Botolan LGU also continued with various community services and specially conducted scholarship programs with P8.5 million in grants for college students and P4.12 million for high school students.
Ebdane also pointed out that the Botolan LGU procured information technology (IT) equipment in 2024 to develop the first smart classroom in Zambales, and, with the help of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), provided internet connection to schools in remote Ayta villages through Star Link dedicated satellite interface.
For these projects, the municipality received several citations last year, Ebdane said, among them national awards for the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG), for which the LGU received P1.3 million, and the Anti-Drug Abuse Council Performance Award, for which it received P150,000.
Botolan also received a “Gawad Timpukan” from the Department of the Interior and Local Government in 2024, and topped the provincial competition for High Value Crop Development Program with its “Gulayan sa Barangay” project.
Botolan, which has the biggest land area among the 13 municipalities in Zambales, contributes the third biggest revenue in the province at P494.2 million, according to the Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index in 2023. The town has 31 barangays and a population of 66,739 in the 2020 survey. – Taktikom News & Features
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