The provincial government of Antique hosted  the 2nd Quarter Regular Meeting of the Regional Development Council (RDC VI) in Western Visayas held at  the CAP Auditorium, San Jose, Antique on June 19.

In her welcome remarks, Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao appealed to members of the  RDC VI to give Antique a chance to experience economic growth and social development through a renewed focus and support from national government.  She specifically called for support in the areas of  fisheries and aquaculture, production of high-valued vegetables, decorative stone and gem processing, adventure tourism, cattle and dairy production/processing, protection of rare flora and fauna, and community empowerment.

Engineer  Nestor M. Domalanta, Manager of the  Physical Evaluation and Planning,  Department of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), presented the list of tourism infrastructure projects for Western Visayas  as well as the  guidelines, criteria and requirements in submitting proposals to TIEZA.

Acting RDC VI Chairperson and NEDA Regional Office (NRO) VI  Regional Director Ro-Ann A. Bacal, on the other hand,  presented the Council’s agenda forecast based on the Work Programming and Agenda Setting Workshop for 2015 to June 2016 held last April 15 to 16 in Bacolod City. She discussed the highlights of EO 183 creating the Negros Island Region and the need to nominate a new RDC VI Chairperson.

Meanwhile, the Council passed 21 resolutions for the quarter based on the reports presented by the RDC VI sector and special committees including: (a) endorsing the request for pavement of  the San Miguel-Sebaste road in Guimaras; (b) launching a campaign to control the increasing number of HIV-AIDS cases in the region; (c) conducting   a study to deputize LGUs to regulate the use and extraction of groundwater for various uses; and (d) for local chief executives to convene their respective City and Municipal Census Coordinating Boards in light of the 2015 Census of Population on August 2015.