Batac officials visit Cabadbaran to seal sisterhood ties

An earlier signing of the same agreement in Batac City (IT file photo)

By Dominic B. dela Cruz

Staff reporter

Batac City—The entire officialdom of this city went to Cabadbaran City on Agusan del Norte to seal the sisterhood relationship between the two cities.

The Batac officials, led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta, visited Cabadbaran from July 25-29 as they also signed the sisterhood agreement. Cabadbaran officials, also led by their mayor, Dale Corvera, earlier visited Batac to sign the same agreement.

Cabadbaran receives a higher internal revenue allotment share than Batac as it has a bigger land area, which is triple of this city’s, and bigger population.

However, Batac Vice Mayor Ronald Allan M. Nalupta disclosed that their locally sourced income is lower than Batac. Batac actually doubles the local income of Cabadbaran, which signifies that Ilocos Norte’s second city is more progressive in terms of commerce.

After their visit, Mr. Nalupta related that Cabadbaran has an abundant water supplies wherein farmers can plant at least three cropping of rice.

The Agusan city is also host to a banana plantation of a giant multinational food company. On top of this, the area is also rich in gold, silver and copper.

Cabadbaran also has an accredited ‘AA’ slaughterhouse, a facility which Batac is still planning to put up in 2015.

According to the Batac vice mayor, the Cabadbaran slaughterhouse is clean, safe and

Their slaughter house was really sanitized, safe and healthy place, the vice mayor said.

The vice mayor added that what really struck him during their visit was the fact that the Agusan city has a separate legislative building within their City Hall complex. Aside from this, they are also planning a massive improvement of their public market.

Mr. Nalupta then divulged that one of the requirements in the search for the local legislative awards is a separate legislative building in order for each of the city councilors to have their respective offices, a requirement Batac doesn’t have though it is a national finalist last year.

The Batac entourage also learned that the Provincial Capitol of Agusan Del Norte will soon be transferred to Cabadbaran as their existing Provincial Capitol is located in Butuan City. Butuan was recently converted into a highly urbanized city.

The Batac officials also met Agusan Del Norte Governor Angel Amante Matba. During their meeting, Ms. Matba said she promised to support Ilocos Norte Gov. Ma. Imelda “Imee” R. Marcos if she runs for a national post in the coming elections, according to the Batac officials.

At the end of their visit, Batac Mayor Nalupta thanked all the officials and people of Cabadbaran for the war welcome as he also vowed that the two cities would have deeper friendship, stressing that the Cabadbaran mayor’s wife traces her roots to Batac.

Mr. Nalupta stated further that their visit to Cabadbaran was the realization of his promise that they would also visit the Agusan city after they visited Batac last May.

Both Batac and Cabadbaran mayors, who are similarly in their third and final terms, promised to share and complement one another in culture and the arts, commerce and trade, skills and livelihood development, tourism development, technology sharing, and urban planning and development.

Cabadbaran City became a city on July 28, 2007, the new capital of Agusan Del Norte has 31 barangays, 19 of which are rural while 12 are urban.

This city has an estimated population of 78,000 and has a land area of 32,746 hectares, its main source of income is agriculture, with mining and sand and gravel as secondary sources. Cabadbaran is also a host of triple A class sand and gravel export quality.   

Aside from Cabadbaran, Batac has already signed sisterhood relationships with the Naga and Carcar of Cebu.          

After their Agusan trip, the Batac officials also had the chance to visit the Davao City, which is located at the southern Mindanao, where they appreciated their command center for peace and order which has adopted the “911 scheme” in the US and Canada with complete personnel, vehicle and equipment. Davao has also installed approximately 100 CCTV cameras around their city to monitor insurgency, traffic violation and accidents.