Senator to sponsor bill creating MNDA
By Jason B. Neola
The 18 member-LGUs of the Metro Naga Development Council (MNDC) is readying a bill that seeks to institutionalize it as Metro Naga Development Authority (MNDA), a course of action that will don the council with institutional power to carry out its plan to provide adequate social services, promote employment, and improve the quality of life of the constituents.
The proposed establishment of MNDA was discussed by Naga Mayor Nelson Legacion, who is the MNDC chairman, and the Metro Naga mayors in a meeting conducted on Saturday, June 3, this year, with Senator Francis Tolentino.
Tolentino, the ninth chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) from 2010 to 2015 and the principal sponsor of RA 11708, an Act creating the Metropolitan Davao Development Authority, offered help to the 18 Metro Naga mayors to sponsor a bill in the Philippine Senate that will establish the MNDA. A similar version of the bill will also be filed at the House of Representatives.
The MNDC was created thru Executive Order 102 of former president Fidel V. Ramos which was issued on June 18, 1993.
The 18 member-LGUs of the MNDC: Bombon, Bula, Canaman, Calabanga, Camaligan, Gainza, Libmanan, Magarao, Minalabac, Milaor, Pili, Naga, Ocampo, Pamplona, Pasacao, San Fernando, San Pascual Masbate, and Siruma.
Unlike the MNDC, the MNDA, which will come into existence by way of legislation, will pave the way for a very strong coordination among the LGU members in terms of policy, policy direction, infrastructure planning, solid waste management direction or coordination, transportation, and intermodal coordination.
Aside from that, coordination between the national government and the LGUs to realize plans for the entire Metro Naga that will fire up socioeconomic growth and sustainable development will appropriately and expeditiously be facilitated.
Legacion said that institutionalizing the MNDA will further empower those localities within its jurisdiction as well as allowing them to promote a sustained and all-inclusive decentralization in Metro Naga area.
“As a key in driving economic growth, MNDA, once established, is expected to boost also Metro Naga’s effort to generate jobs and attract new investments as it is perceived to fire up rapid socio-economic growth, urbanization, and sustainable development not only in the entire Metro Naga but in the whole of Camarines Sur as well and the Bicol Region, Legacion said.
“Like the Mega Cebu Development Authority (MCDA), among the perceived functions of MNDA, once established, include the formulation, coordination, regulation, and monitoring of the short, medium, and long-term plans, policies, and programs for the sustainable development and integration of the Metro Naga area,” says a stakeholder.
Legacion said that manifestation of Senator Tolentino to sponsor the MNDA bill comes at the time the Metro Naga mayors are seriously taking up matters to address the common concerns on infrastructure development, solid waste disposal and management, sewerage and storm water management, and disaster risk reduction management.
At present, under the MNDC arrangement, the local government units allocate
The MNDA likewise ensures that plans, policies, programs and services are pursued for the purpose of realizing the mission and vision of Metro Naga, executing its development strategy of competitiveness, livability, mobility, and metropolitan management.