Urdaneta City, Pangasinan
14 March 2016

President Benigno S. Aquino III met with several leaders and the community of Urdaneta City, where he expressed his contentment on the positive changes that the province of Pangasinan has undergone in a span of six years.

Highlighting Pangasinan’s improvement in terms of infrastructure, fisheries, agriculture, education and social welfare, President Aquino said that majority of the Filipinos living in the province benefitted from the priority projects spearheaded by his administration.

Among the projects mentioned were the major road projects such as the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), the Bobonot-Tambobong Road, the Pangasinan-Tarlac Road, and the Pangasinan-Zambales Road. President Aquino reported that Pangasinan’s infrastructure projects have been allotted with PhP 20.13 billion from 2011 to 2016. The budget was used to improve not just roads, but bridges, airports, seaports, health facilities, and flood control projects.

On the fisheries and agriculture sector, Php 9.96 billion was given to Pangasinan to help improve its farm-to-market roads and irrigation system. According to the President, this paved the way to an increase in production and profit of fishermen and farmers in the province.

On the administration’s goal of improving the country’s education system, backlogs in classrooms have been addressed, wherein by the end of the President’s term, 185,000 classrooms have been funded and will be constructed across the country.

Likewise, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps has benefitted almost 125,000 Pangasinenses, compared to the 14,292 beneficiaries before. On PhilHealth, 2.6 million people in the province benefitted from it, which comprises the total of 93 million beneficiaries in the whole country.

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