Legazpi City has capacity for greatness – Salceda

LEGAZPI CITY — Albay's capital city and Bicol Region's regional center has the "capacity for greatness" and will provide direction for Albay's drive toward progress.

This was declared by outgoing Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda as he hopes to continue his "Global Albay" vision if he is blessed with another mandate as governor after the May 12 elections.

"Legazpi provides jobs for our people, markets for our products, credit for our businesses and schools for our young and gifted," he said in a statement.

"It is the window to the soul of the people of Albay. The people's first view of Legazpi is their first impression of Albay."

Aside from the famous Mayon Volcano, businesses thrive in the province.

Salceda said the Albay Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the second-oldest chamber of commerce in the Philippines on account of the province's rich abaca industry.

Over the past two decades, Salceda observed that "when the visions of our leaders aligned, Legazpi experienced an unprecedented infrastructure boom, through the shared efforts of local leaders and representatives on the national stage."

"For my part, we opened new roads linking Legazpi to its suburbs and neighboring towns, farms to urban centers, the new Albay International Airport and tourism sites," Salceda said.

"We also expanded the capacity of the Bicol Regional Hospital and Medical Center, put up the Bicol Cancer Center and Bicol Heart Center, and established the Bicol University College of Medicine."

Bicol University's facilities were modernized; the Legazpi City National High School expanded; and social infrastructures such as 58 covered courts, health facilities, 140 classrooms and evacuation centers were built under Salceda's watch.

Salceda said Legazpi gained immensely from being the regional city with the largest number of representatives in Congress — six at one time.

Salceda said he will finish what they have started and start new initiatives to make Albay and Legazpi truly global with more international flights; strengthen Legazpi as foreign tourists' gateway to the Almasor (Albay-Masbate-Sorsogon) Tourism Circuit; and build the Legazpi Global City at the old domestic airport with a Bicol International Sports Stadium as centerpiece.

"We will also intensify our efforts to fix Legazpi's water facilities, with an initial earmarked budget of P385 million," he said.

"We will likewise prepare Legazpi for greater things by making it more attractive to more investors and investments, with the Albay Electric Cooperative modernization, now being implemented with a budget of P1.2 billion, to stabilize supply and reduce systems loss, thus lower power rates. These are significant stewards of the realization of our goal to make Legazpi the first Highly Urbanized City of Bicol."