Toward a More Equitable Iloilo

The Institute of Contemporary Economics (ICE) began its collaboration with the Province of Iloilo to support the Social Justice Program of Governor Arthur R Defensor, Jr.

The program aims to organize a targeted effort toward the elimination of malnutrition, improving access to safe and potable water, and addressing learning poverty.

The end goal is to create an environment promoting economic prosperity among Ilonggos.

This Program acts in conjunction with the other initiatives of the Governor under his MoRProGRes social justice platform.

Together with UP Visayas, ICE’s role will be to assist the Province in the drafting of a roadmap towards addressing these social inequities and mobilizing the private sector, the NGO space, the academe, and other institutions to create a sustained and sensible effort.

In his message to the Provincial Planning and Development Office, ICE Executive Director, Bonnie Ladrido, emphasized the need for a “whole of society” approach involving the rest of the community as critical to the sustainability of this effort.

He also touched on lessons learned from the past to avoid making mistakes leading to the failure of previous efforts and programs of this kind.

The ICE team included Mr Ladrido, PCCI-Iloilo President Engr. Fulbert Woo and Project Specialist Jean Pinuela.