By Henry Empeño / January 17, 2025

BOTOLAN, Zambales — This town—the biggest in Zambales in terms of land area—is expanding this 2025 on another frontier, pushing a P200-million infrastructure program to further boost a development momentum that has made it the third biggest revenue generator among the 13 municipalities in the province.

Botolan Mayor Jun Omar Ebdane said four big-ticket developments will anchor his town’s infrastructure construction program: the municipal administrative building, to be built at P24.9 million; municipal motor pool at P15 million; municipal commercial building at P90 million; and commercial spaces at the New Taugtog Resettlement Area at P70 million.

The new projects, coming at the heels of a successful infrastructure program in 2023, will be backed by the funding facility of the State-owned Land Bank, the mayor said.

These undertakings, Ebdane told residents in his State of the Municipality Address (SOMA) recently, “will boost economic growth, generate new revenues, provide additional office spaces for government services, and create new jobs.”

In his SOMA, Ebdane also said the town government is acquiring four lots with a total area of 10.7 hectares and at the total cost of P26.97 million for the expansion of LGU operations and programs.

These properties will be the location for the planned municipal motor pool, as well as new buildings for the town’s fire and police stations; a Municipal Agri-Demo Center for various agricultural projects, including dairy industry development programs; a materials recovery facility for better waste management; and the future home for the barangay government at Eastern Nacolcol.

At the same time, Ebdane said the LGU is processing titles for government facilities like the Polytechnic College of Botolan (PCB), which straddles variously titled private lots.

Ebdane also highlighted in his SOMA the completion last year of some P41.8 million worth of infrastructure projects under the town’s 20% Development Fund, as well as another P12-million projects for disaster preparedness and mitigation.

Meanwhile, the LGU reportedly carried out various community services and specially provided about P8.5 million in scholarship grants for college students and P4.12 million for high school students.

Ebdane also pointed out that the Botolan LGU procured information technology (IT) equipment in 2024 to develop the first smart classroom in Zambales, and, with the help of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), provided internet connection to schools in remote Ayta villages through Star Link dedicated satellite interface.

For these projects, he said the municipality received several citations last year, among them national awards for the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) and the Anti-Drug Abuse Council Performance. Botolan received a P1.3-million prize for the first award and P150,000 for the second, Ebdane added.

Botolan also received a “Gawad Timpukan” from the Department of the Interior and Local Government in 2024, and topped the provincial competition for High Value Crop Development Program with its “Gulayan sa Barangay” project.

Botolan, which has the biggest land area and the third largest population among the 13 municipalities in Zambales, generated in 2023 a revenue of P494.2 million, the third biggest in the province, according to the Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index. The town has 31 barangays and a population of 66,739 in the 2020 survey. 