By Gail Momblan/Philippine News Agency

ILOILO CITY — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) 6 (Western Visayas) has secured a lot donation intended for its permanent office building from the Iloilo provincial government.
The lot located in Barangay Bolong Oeste, Sta. Barbara, Iloilo will house the PHP47-million three-story regional office of the DILG 6.
Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. and Ariel Iglesia, DILG 6 Regional Director, led the blessing and the ground-breaking ceremony for the office building on Friday.
In an interview Saturday, Iglesia said the office building, which is set to be completed this September, will boost the services of the regional DILG.
The building will house a conference room that will serve as venue for various capacity development trainings for local government executives and officials, he said.
“Our mandate is to develop capacities of every local government units and this could be a venue for such activities,” he said.
Iglesia thanked the governor for the lot donation, and the predecessors in DILG 6 who labored to secure the department with its permanent office.
The building will rise beside the new and permanent regional office building of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation and Department of Health.
Defensor said this is a partial fulfilment of his dream to make the area a government center in Western Visayas, and to quickly transform Sta. Barbara into a metropolitan Iloilo.
“This is part of a dream that I wanted to see come true. When you are in government service, you will never succeed unless you keep dreaming. Once you stop dreaming, that’s the end of it,” he added.
Defensor also assured that his son, Governor-elect Arthur Defensor Jr., will support the endeavors of DILG-6.
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