LGSP-LED

Population:

310,065

Land Area:

292,228 ha.

Cities:

Alaminos City

Municipalities:

Anda, Agno, Bani, Burgos, Dasol, Infanta, Mabini, Sual

Economic Drivers:

Agriculture and tourism

The One Pangasinan Alliance of LGUs (OPAL) consists of nine LGUs (one city and eight municipalities) in the western portion of Pangasinan, the largest province in the Philippines. OPAL is an economic alliance originally composed of the six municipalities of Anda, Agno, Bani, Burgos, Mabini and Sual, and the City of Alaminos. In 1995, they undertook a common development program under the “Bayanihan 2020 Program for Sustainable Development”. Natural links between OPAL members exist due to the current agricultural trading flow in the province. Agricultural produce from the municipalities often converge in Alaminos City for processing and trading. Realizing the advantages of working together, particularly in promoting sustainable agriculture and tourism, two other municipalities (Dasol and Infanta) joined the Alliance in December 2010.

LED STRATEGY

OPAL is adopting a value chain approach to increase income of farmers by improving productivity, reducing production costs through organic technologies, farm management innovation and value-adding through agro-processing and marketing, as well as harness the area’s ecotourism potentials. Predominantly coastal and agricultural, OPAL is historically vulnerable to extreme weather because of its location in the traditional typhoon corridor of Luzon, with coastal areas bordering the South China Sea. Over the years, the OPAL area has experienced the disastrous effects of both El Niño and La Niña. Thus, OPAL has also identified Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) as essential components of its LED Strategy considering that both agriculture and tourism are highly affected by climatic conditions.

OPAL is unique among the four LGSP-LED Alliances in that the Provincial Government is not directly involved in the Alliance activities. Thus, it did not have the benefit of a Provincial technical staff to help sustain OPAL activities when municipal mayors and their staff were too distracted by local election campaigns to pay much attention to Alliance matters. It was only after the May 2010 elections and the subsequent transition activities of the local governments that the institution-building activities of the Alliance could begin with LCE involvement.