A new Alaminos City is shaping up, fast.

Less than 300 days into its new administration, the signs of a turn around are palpably visible. Initial results of strategies and programs implemented have been dramatic. Agricultural farms clustered into innovative management units called Ocho-Ocho are registering yield increases from 30 – 100%. A repositioned tourism industry is putting the Hundred Islands, the City’s centerpiece attraction, back into the map of travelers and events organizers. The tide of criminality is under control and illegal activities that threatened the Hundred Islands marine ecosystem are being reversed, with the cooperation of the people themselves. But much still needs to be done.

Alaminos City is in a race against time, towards destiny. As a new city at the heart of Western Pangasinan, it is struggling against the bane of all urbanizing areas - congestion, population escalation, criminality, solid wastes and inadequate facilities, infrastructure and services. And, with an economy reliant on low-output agriculture and fishery but propelled by the merchandise trading sector, poverty and marginalization threaten to divide, negating even the gains that commerce brings. The once nurturing environment, particularly the sea, fell prey to desperate measures in past years. Illegal fishing destroyed a good portion of the city’s fishing grounds, threatening even the ecosystem of the famed Hundred Islands. Tourism had been stagnant, unable to spur a rebirth of sorts for the city.

But the new Alaminos City is leaving no stone unturned in reversing the tide of events. The new administration is re-writing the city’s development books, making a determined bid to prevent confusion, crime, helplessness and environmental abuse from permanently setting in. The new Alaminos is a model of sustainable, equitable progress that is already beginning to happen. The city is doing this with a combination of bold and visionary leadership, hands on, no nonsense management styles, a development paradigm emphasizing growth with equity, a common strategic direction, and a new found optimism among its people.

The development paradigm of the city prescribes the kind of development that the city should follow. Growth with equity, or progress originating from and benefiting broader segments, competitiveness of all segments, resource management and sustainable use, the provision of basic services and social safety nets for the vulnerable and family centeredness form the core principles of this development paradigm.

The vision of the new city reflects its development paradigm and the most powerful aspirations of its people. It paints a picture of peace and progress, of uplifted citizens sharing in development, and of a vibrant, competitive local economy serving as a living showcase of sustainable, family centered progress with equity.

The 10 – Point Agenda of governance of the new city administration translates the development paradigm and vision into action areas to be pursued within 1000 days.

The 10 – Point Agenda of the City is as follows:

  1) Innovative Agricultural Development And Modernization
  2) Tourism Revival Through Repositioning, Remarketing And Redevelopment
  3) Environmental Conservation And Coastal Resources Management

These are the anchor thrusts of the ten point agenda.

  4) Provision Of Improved Basic Services For All And Social Safety Nets For The Elderly,
      Disabled, Vulnerable Youth And The Abused
  5) Public Order And Safety

These agenda ensure a safer and more humane city.

  6) Infrastructure Development
  7) Enterprise Development
  8) Investment Promotion

These will lead to competitiveness and growth for broad sectors

  9) Human Resources Development.
  10) City Government Modernization.

These will strengthen governance, improving the efficiency, transparency, and responsiveness of the city government.

Strategies and Programs have been laid out to operationalize the 10 – Point Agenda and achieve the goals and vision for the city.

Agricultural Modernization, one of the flagship programs of the city. Boasts of an innovative concept, called the Ocho-Ocho, or the clustering of farms into larger units of eight hectares each, for a collective, entrepreneurial approach that ensures higher productivity, farm management efficiency, competitiveness and greater gains from farming.

The Tourism Revival Program, another flagship program promises to “Recapture the Magic of the Hundred Islands”. It repositions the national park as the ideal destination for eco-adventure and family oriented tourism with wow experiences that happen “only at the Hundred Islands”. With high profile tourism events and developments lined up for the next 300 days, the city expects to reclaim its title as the tourism mecca in Luzon for outdoor enthusiasts.

The Coastal Resources Management Program seeks to protect, conserve and rehabilitate the coastal and marine resources of the city that have been threatened. It promises a more sustainable basis for the livelihood of families in the 10 coastal barangays of the city, including Lucap, where the Hundred Islands are nestled.

Accompanying these programs is a wide menu of programs and projects addressing all the critical needs of the city and its people, including those for peace and order (emergency quick response), infra-structure (potable water, sewerage and wastewater treatment systems, flood control), expanded health services delivery, computer literacy, crisis intervention and good governance (city information systems development). Updating of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan and physical master planning for the city are to be started soon.

While the programs and projects of the city are anchored on local needs and aspirations, they also reflect national developmental thrusts as laid out in the Medium Term Development Plan and the 10 – Point agenda of governance of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Thus both the MTDP and the 10 – Point agenda of the President are realized at the city level.

The city government invites its partners – the national government, particularly the Office of the President, national development agencies and lawmakers, the private sector and non-government groups, Alaminian balikbayans and the general public to join in the effort to build a new Alaminos. Its message to its partners: “Join us in building an edifice of peace, progress and economic stability in Western Pangasinan. Help us recapture the magic of the Hundred Islands, restore a marine ecosystem and build a sustainable local economy.”

Related Links History of Alaminos City Information City Profile