2nd Power Plant May Make Sual Richest Town in the Country

SUAL, Pangasinan – Officials here led by Mayor Roberto Arcinue are optimistic that this fast-growing town  would likely pole vault to the top spot in the list of richest municipalities if the plan to put up another power plant  pushes through.

Sual Mayor Bing Arcinue interviewed by media men at his office.Photo by Mortz Ortigoza.

According to a report released by the Commission on Audit (COA), the municipality of Sual maintained its position as the fourth richest municipality in the country with assets amounting to P2.037 billion.

Only Sual - among Pangasinan’s 44 municipalities – made it to COA’s top ten richest towns, besting such other first class towns as the capital town of Lingayen, Bayambang, Mangaldan, Malasiqui, Binmaley, and Calasiao.

“The people of Sual, indeed, happily welcome this good news and we are confident that we might be able to go up even to the number one spot if the plan to put up another power plant in our town hopefully becomes a reality,” Mayor Arcinue told reporters.

The mayor said that the revenues generated from the operation of the Sual Power Plant and from the hundreds of fish cages in Sual Bay contribute to the town’s stable and strong financial performance.

“This enabled Sual to jump up from fifth class to first class municipality,” he said.

He said that with the  real property and business taxes collected from the power plant the municipal government has been able to pursue various projects such as the construction of a new municipal hall, legislative building, sports center, police headquarters, health facilities, multi-purpose covered courts, day care and health centers in all the barangays, school buildings, concreted roads, municipal wharf and many more.

The municipality also bought multi-purpose vehicles for every barangay, police patrol cars,  and ambulances.

If the plan to put up another power plant in Sual materialize, he said,  more projects and facilities are expected to be put up or acquired, thus increasing the chances of Sual to go up in the COA list possibly to the top spot.

Mayor Arcinue said ninety-nine percent (99 %) of the people of Sual welcome the operation of a second coal-fired power plant because of the huge benefits it will provide to the residents and the municipality.

These include thousands of jobs, more scholarship grants, continuous power supply to the municipality, cheaper electricity, and millions of pesos in revenues estimated to be in the vicinity of P800 million annually.

He explained that the revenue to be generated from the second power plant is huge as it is privately owned, compared to the existing Sual Power Plant which is partly owned by the National Power Corporation which is exempted from paying real property taxes on the land on which the plant was built.

“Ang maganda nito, yong proponent ng bagong power plant ay willing to pay the taxes due to the local government kaya tuloy-tuloy na ang pag-unlad ng Sual,” Arcinue said.

The mayor said the foreign investor from South Korea is prepared to invest roughly  two billion US dollars for the construction of the proposed 1,000-megawatt power plant in Sual.  (P.R)