PROFILE

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The municipality of Polanco is lying on the northeastern part of the province of Zamboanga del Norte. Located between 8^o 19’ 0” and 8^o 35’ 0,” Latitude and between 123^o 19’ 0” and 123^o 30’ 0” Longitude. Polanco is bounded in the northwest and northeast by    the cities of Dipolog and Dapitan, respectively. Municipalities of Sergio Osmeña and Piñan bordered the south and east, respectively. In the southwestern is bounded by the municipality of Katipunan.  8The Municipal Hall of Polanco is located at coordinates 8⁰ 31’ 58.4” North Latitude and 123⁰ 21’ 42.19” East Longitude based on a hand-held Garmin Global Positioning System (GPS) readings.

The Municipal Hall and the commercial/business centers are situated at Barangay Poblacion North, which is about 7 kilometers land distance due southwest of Dipolog City, the seat of provincial government of Zamboanga del Norte.  It is readily accessible to any form of land vehicles through Dipolog-Polanco-Piñan and Dipolog-Polanco-Sergio Osmeña National Highways.

The municipality makes up 2.83% of Zamboanga del Norte’s total area with a land area of 206.88 square kilometers, or 79.88 square miles. There are 42,265 residents according to the 2020 Census of the Philippine Statistics Authority. This was equivalent to 1.09% of the total population of the Zamboanga Peninsula or 4.04% of the province of Zamboanga del Norte’s entire population. These numbers are used to calculate the population density, which comes out to 204 people per square kilometer or 529 people per square mile.

HISTORY

In the absence of a juridical personality, Subano as a tribe has already been dwelling in this place originally named Layawan derived from the river traversing the area called Layawan.  However, the settlers changed it to “Tillated” which was taken from an existing identity of a creek located in the center of the Poblacion.  Spanish Missionary named Fr. Polanco came and established Christian Missions and principally erecting a chapel.  He then assigned a priest to continue the conversion of the natives into Christianity thus developing people’s attitudes to have reverence and devotion to God.  Such an unforgettable deed, the people renamed the place after him: POLANCO.

At the height of the Second World War in 1941, the seat of the Provincial Government of Zamboanga situated in Zamboanga City was transferred to the municipality of Dipolog. In the month of June 1943, the Japanese Occupation Forces landed at Dipolog and occupied the area.  With this outbreak, Gov. Matias Ranillo, who was a native of Dipolog, decided to a temporarily station the Provincial Government in Dipolog.  Later on, the Provincial Seat of Government transferred to barangay Polanco due to the massive occupation of the Japanese Imperial Army.

The short period of establishment of the Provincial Government in Polanco has gained an incidental favor.  The refugees from Dipolog and other neighboring provinces who evacuated to Polanco devoted their time in agricultural pursuits, thus bolstering agricultural production. After the war, however, Polanco was a severely affected and money circulation slowed down. The after effect of the temporary station of Provincial Government here in Polanco had paved a way for the prominent leaders in advocating the law proposing a separation of barangay Polanco from the municipality of Dipolog.  With the strong representation of Governor Serapio Datoc, the President of the Philippines, His Excellency Elpedio Quirino, signed Executive Order Number 467 on August 22, 1951, creating the municipality, thus, from the ashes, it took enough initiative and courage of the civic leaders of Polanco to bring back prosperity of the people and prosperity of the land.

During the time of the American government in the Philippines, the prominent Realiza family, headed by Don Gaudencio N. Realiza, owned the majority of the land in Polanco. Large portions of Labrador (Prinda), Bethlehem, Dansullan, Guinles, Macleodes, New Sicayab, New Lebangon, Sianib, South Polanco, and Obay are included in the property they currently control.

Over the span of 60 years, Polanco’s population increased by 22,414 from 19,851 in 1960 to 42,265 in 2020. From the previous population of 39,347 in 2015, the most recent census results in 2020 show a positive growth rate of 1.52%, or a rise of 2,918 persons.

GEOGRAPHY

Geology

The municipality of Polanco is rich in raw materials for quarrying.  The existence and stability of these sources can supply nearby municipalities particularly in their road constructions and like projects.

Records of Mines and Geo-Science also revealed that the municipality has mineral deposits such as iron, gold, copper, manganese, silver, chromite and quartz.  However, the quantities of these deposits are still to be determined since no detailed survey conducted as of this writing.

Mineral Resources

                Chromite is the metallic mineral resource of the municipality but relatively low grade and somewhat friable and occurs as pods and lenses.   Such mineral resource found in barangay Milad and presently mined on a small-scale capacity

            Another important ceramic raw material used in the production of bricks and pottery predominantly found in barangay Obay.

Watersheds and Water Resources

Polanco is subdivided into 7 sub watersheds. The Sub watershed 1 named Opao River has an area of 174.361 hectares. Sub Watershed 2 named Nipaan River having an area of 2001.634 hectares, Sub Watershed 3 named Dipolog River, with an area of 6238.975 hectares, Sub Watershed 4 named Anastacio-Bandera Creek having an area of 323.953 hectares, followed by Sub Watershed 5 named Part of Layawan River with an area of 2,577.23 hectares, Sub Watershed 6 named Diwan River with an area of 3005.833 hectares, and the last Sub Watershed 7 named Diwakat Creek having a catchment area of 963.943 hectares.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

All operations of the municipality was handled and managed by its own Local Government Unit. The Local Government Unit of Polanco was the one responsible for the growth and prosperity of the municipality. As a 3rd class municipality, Polanco has an estimated average annual income of Php 60,000,000 – Php 80,000,000.

The current administration, spearheaded by its 3-time elected Mayor Hon. Evan Hope “Boyet” D. Olvis have shown its dedication towards achieving a prosperous Polanco. Over the past few years of his service as the Municipal Mayor, Mayor “Boyet” successfully brought services, programs and projects to the municipality’s constituents more closely. Under his slogan, “Polanco, Lungsod ko, Pinangga Ka”, it is the aim and hope of Mayor “Boyet” to rally all polancohanons towards becoming a First Class Municipality.

Social Services

• Education

Educational structure in the Philippines follows the two (2) basic types; Formal Education and Non-Formal Education (NFE). Formal education follows the educational ladder of 6+4 structure; however, it restructured into K12 program, a flagship reform program for the Philippines educational system.  The K12 program covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education (six years of primary education four years Junior High School, and two years Senior High School) to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle skills development, employment and entrepreneurship. Non-formal education (NFE) is design to help out-of-school youth (OSY) and adults (OSA) who are unable to attend formal education due to economic, social and geographical limitations in developing literacy and employable and productive skills.

One of the fundamental indicators of enhancing student’s academic performance especially for elementary and high school are the presence of school facilities like good classroom, laboratory room, library, shop, playground, school clinic and comport rooms are the fundamental indicators. Based on survey and inventory, which is design to provide the overall assessment on the condition of existing facilities of elementary and secondary schools in Polanco disclose the following observations:

• School Sites

Elementary school occupied a total land area of more than 43 hectares (43.53 ha.) distributed into two (2) districts.  District I with 19.70 ha and District II with 23.83 ha. Meanwhile, Secondary school occupied a total land area of more than five hectares (5.02 ha). Based on standard requirements of school sites for elementary schools, the municipality did not met the standard area of school sites, however, schools are able to met the minimum requirement  for rural areas describe as follows:

a. 0.50 hectares for central school that have six classes and for non-central school that have three to four classes,

b. 1.5 hectares for schools which have from seven to ten classes; and

c. 2 hectares for schools which have more than 10 classes except Obay Elementary School having more than six classes with only 0.65 hectares land area.

While in secondary schools it shows that, the municipality not able to meet the standard area, hence, most of the schools occupied an area less than 2 hectares of having more than seven classes.  Further, Isis and Lingasad National High School Annexes utilized school site of elementary schools. With the strong support by this administration to education, recently, the Sangguniang Bayan authorizing the Municipal Mayor to sign a deed of donation of a certain lot own by the LGU in favour to Lingasad Integrated School in barangay Lingasad, Polanco, Zamboanga del Norte. 

• Laboratory Facilities

Elementary and High schools in Polanco have no laboratory facilities, library and shops and if there is one, it is in poor and critical condition. Out of six high schools, only National High School located in Barangay Poblacion South have laboratory facilities and library that is well maintained while the rest have access such facilities but in poor quality.

• School Clinic

School clinic is present in some elementary schools like Anastacio ES, Polanco CS, Bethlehem ES, Dansullan ES, New Lebangon ES, San Pedro ES and Silawe CS.  Out of seven (7) schools only Polanco CS and Silawe CS has such facility that is in good condition.  While in secondary schools, out of six (6) schools only Polanco National High School has access to school clinic. 

• Comfort Rooms

 Both elementary and secondary schools are access to toilet; however, most of it is in dilapidated state and need for repair and rehabilitation. 

• Playgrounds Facilities

  Both elementary and secondary schools have access to playground facility; however, further improvement of the area is necessary.

Through these present physical situations of basic facilities, it would affect the poor learning absorption of the students and even lead to poor academic performance of the elementary and high school students. 

In this premise, planning interventions should focus more on advancing the quality of education through provision of state-of-the-art school facilities in all elementary and secondary schools in Polanco. Education sub-sector overarching strategies should put substantial focus on enhancing literacy and producing more professionals in the municipality in the next forwards years.

The Local Government Unit of Polanco has several social facilities that provide basic services to the vulnerable sector in our community. In the sector of children, the existing facility that the Municipality has is the existence of a Day Care Center / Child Development Center in all barangays. Presently, it has a total of thirty-four (34) Day Care Centers / Child Development Centers and one (1) National Child Development Center managed by the Local Government Unit. The table above illustrates that most of the Child Development Centers were well maintained since the DSWD, ECCD Council  in coordination with the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office conducted accreditation to all Child Development Workers and Centers. There are three (3) barangays that have poor physical conditions that needs to be improved because of lack of funds by the barangay.

Health

            The Municipality of Polanco has one (1) Rural Health Unit located at Poblacion South. It has one (1) Doctor to the Barrio (DTTB), four (4) Midwives, four (4) Rural Health Midwife Placement Program (RHMPP), one (1) Public Health Associate (PHA) and two (2) Sanitary Inspectors. This RHU has eight beds.

            In addition, this municipality has twenty-three barangay health stations. Each barangay health station has its assigned nurse the so-called Nurse Deployment Project (NDP) and they are only fourteen (14) in numbers. NDP is a Department of Health (DOH) project that aims to improve local health systems and support the Philippines’ attainment of Universal Health Care or “Kalusugang Pangkalahatan.” NDP assists in the implementation of various health programs of the LGU in accordance with the program, goals and objectives of the DOH and the Health Sector. The barangay officials also required to hire a Barangay Health Workers (BHW) depending on numbers on their Purok to assist the nurses and midwifes assigned in each barangays.

• Housing

            Polanco is a developing municipality of the province that expect increase in population and formation of new households that requires new housing unit for shelter.  Of the foregoing projection, it requires land area where the projected housing units of a household to be built.  In this case, the municipality has sufficient land area to provide the demand based on the computed residential density of 73 persons per hectare of residential area and a household density of 15 household per hectare of residential area.

            However, not all households may have sufficient financial resources to pay for the housing needs, thus, the LGU through the mandates of RA 7279 to have an inventory and identify lands specifically for socialized housing.

The municipal government had able to identify of about 58.572 hectares of potential land for socialized housing located at barangays of Poblacion North, Isis, Villahermosa, Lingasad, Silawe, San Pedro and San Antonio. Most of the identified areas are privately own land.

In terms of tenurial status, 59.08% of the households owned or are amortizing their housing units, 3.58% renting, while 39.91% are occupying the lot rent-free with the owner’s consent. On the other hand, 261 or 2.72% is squatters, occupying the lot without the owner’s consent. The remaining 0.37% was unclassified.

            The trend, state, and condition of houses since from the creation of the municipality up to year 2022.  It is observe that number of housing units in years 1991 to 1995 was doubled-up in years 1996 to 2000. This tremendous increased of housing unit was brought by the operation of two (2) subdivisions and other three (3) economic socialized housing applicants that are still processing their application for socialized housing subdivision to fully operate. During this time, doubled-up household was reduce.

• Protective Services

Pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act 6975, otherwise known as the Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990 as amended by RA 8551. The Police Security Unit (PSU), which was the forerunner of the present Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG), is mandate to “provide security for government officials, visiting dignitaries and private individuals authorized to be given protection”.

The maintenance of peace and security of the municipality is taking cared by the existing forty-five (45) active PNP personnel with its headquarters located at the municipal hall compound, this municipality.  It is equipped with police patrol car, motor vehicle, radio base & internet communication, computer, long and short firearms & other protective equipment.

Deterrent of criminals, law-breakers, lawless elements and other form of groups in disturbing the calmness of the municipality, police box located at barangay Macleodes established, it was manned with three (3) PNP personnel with the presence of Civilian Volunteer Officers and Barangay Tanods.

Presently, police-population ratio of the municipality is 1:939; it means number of PNP personnel is sufficient based on national standard of one policeman per 1,000 populations. For the Municipal Fire Station, it consists of 19 personnel, equivalent to a ratio of 1:2,224.

Aside from the Philippine National Police serving in the Local Government Unit, the Police Aide, civilian volunteer officers (CVO’s), barangay tanods, auxiliary services, disaster response team, anti-drugs team, and barangay council for the protection of children and 101^st Brigade stationed in Piñan are allies in providing security in the municipality.

Table 22 outlines the different services provided by both volunteers and staff, along with the facilities and equipment they use, along with their condition. After a thorough assessment, it’s been found that there are a total of 246 volunteers and staff members, out of which 150 belong to the Peace and Order Services. They make use of flashlights, megaphones, and radios, all of which are in excellent condition.

Moving on to the Auxiliary Services, there are 60 staff members who operate from the Municipal Hall, which is also in great condition. For Disaster Services, there are 6 staff members who work with facilities such as barangay halls and evacuation centers, all of which are well-maintained. Their operational equipment includes medical supplies, first aid kits, and handset radios.

When it comes to Traffic Services, there hasn’t been any observed traffic in Polanco, so there are no hired staff, volunteers, facilities, or equipment dedicated to that service. Lastly, for other services, there are 30 staff members situated across various facilities like health centers, ECDC, and barangay offices, all of which are also in good condition.

• Sports and Recreational Activities

             Sport provides not only health benefits for young participants but also instils qualities such as teamwork, discipline and a competitive spirit that prove valuable in adulthood. It therefore warrants a prominent place in the educational system.

Sports also inculcate valuable qualities in young people. They learn how to cooperate with one another and to subordinate their selfish desires to the interests of the team. They learn to play the game, practicing fair play and showing generosity towards their opponents. In other words, they cultivate the quality of sportsmanship, which consists in playing a game according to its rules and accepting defeat with good temper. They are likely to follow the ideal of sportsman spirit in life also, showing honesty and uprightness in their dealings with others and never using unfair means to attain personal ends.

            In local scenario, the most popular sports played by the children and adults are basketball.  Because, of an insufficient of playgrounds of the municipality, it is observe that basketball enthusiasts religiously utilize area under coco trees, streets, right of way and other shade areas just to play their love-sports “Basketball”.

Most of the level-up sports facilities of the municipality are established in the urban area or in Poblacion area like; Municipal Gymnasium, Tennis Court, Skating Ring, Basketball Court, Badminton Court, and oval located at Polanco Central School.  Based on 2022 data, most of the barangays sports facility is basketball court some barangays have 2 or 3 facility of the same Video K hauz is the most common recreational area in rural areas but some barangays has billiard hall, majong house, volleyball court, WiFi vendo machine, and school parks. 

In terms of sports development and physical fitness activities, the Local Government and Sanguniang Kabataan must work hand in hand to development viable Inter- Barangay sports development program. The local Government Unit must also appropriate funds for the construction and improvement of some sports facilities and for the purchase of sports equipment.

Upgrading of sports facilities in every barangay is so vital in order that the heights of youths in involving their selves in sports will be sustained.

LOCAL ECONOMY

Agriculture

Polanco is an agri-based municipality and agricultural farming is a primary livelihood of the local communities.  About 15,607.44 hectares classified as agricultural area equivalent to 86.10% and 2.14% of the total agricultural area of the municipality and province, respectively.  Majority of the area planted with the key crops such as rice, corn and coconut and some of the areas planted with High Valued Cash Crops (HVCC) like root crops, vegetables, fruit trees and trees.

The table reveals the crop areas and volume production during the years 2021 and 2022. It further shows that in terms of volume of production, coconut has the largest output. This can be justified through its vast area, 13,848.64 hectares, compared to the other major crops. Next is rice, it has a total area of 2,212 hectares. Out of this number, 1,064 hectares are irrigated and 1,130 hectares are rainfed.  Meanwhile, corn is the third leading commodity that occupies about 411 hectares, some of the corn areas are under coco trees.  Over the years, the municipality has been one of the major corn cluster and rice seed producers in the region identified by the Department of Agriculture.

Additionally, it can be observed from the table that there are no changes in the land area between years 2021 and 2022; hence the volume of production has also been assumed to be the same for both years. However, there are crop areas intended for pineapple and coffee cultivation, but there is no production of either crop.

Forestry

The forestland areas which are found in the upland barangays comprise 5,709.853 hectares or 31.50% of the total land area of the Municipality, hence, there is a need to maintain and preserve these areas, considering the fact that if it’s not properly managed it will cause an ecological imbalance resulting to landslides, flood, and drought which then will affect the lowland areas, the main areas producing food and crops such as rice, corn, coconut, and other root crops. It will also affect the supply of water for domestic use and irrigation. At the same time, this plan helps in preserving the Municipality’s biodiversity such as trees, wildlife, and flora and fauna.

Condition of Natural Resources Assets

The Municipality of Polanco, DENR, and other line agencies were able to maintain the remaining forests and forest land areas despite various violations with respect to forest preservations such as: Kaingin, and Illegal cutting of trees for establishment purposes.

Forestlands of Polanco account 31.50% or an equivalent of 5,709.853 hectares of its total land area of 18, 127.604 hectares. These include forerst and ogged over forest. Most of the forests are found in the western barangays  (Maligaya, Milad, New Sicayab,). and eastern barangays ( Linabo, Deventa Perla, Macleodes, and San Pedro) of the Municipality of Polanco.

Trade, Commerce, and Services

Commercial activity of the municipality is not vigorously playing as compared to other municipality, which is distant from the central business district since investors are favoured to engage business to the central business district of the province, City of Dipolog, about 7 kms from the poblacion. Based in the 2000 Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the municipality allocated an area of 91.0 hectares for commercial area. The existing commercial area identified of the municipality is along the national highway towards the poblacion.  Commercial areas include public market, recreational center, sports and commercial strip.  The public market located in Brgy. Poblacion North has a total area of 3,067 square meters. Followed by commercial strip in Barangay Poblacion North, Poblacion South, Obay, and San Pedro with approximate areas of 20,000 square meters, 10,000 square meters, 5,500 and 5,000 square meters respectively. The recreational center in Poblacion North occupied an approximate area of 9,000 square kilometres. These commercial areas of the municipality are catering local market.

Industry

Polanco is an agriculture-driven community.  As such, industrial activities mostly geared towards processing, manufacturing, and other light and medium industries.

Agro-industrial area of the municipality has enough space to accommodate prospective investors who will venture agribusiness in incoming years. Based on its historical data, figure is insignificant in relation to the economic development of the municipality.

Drawing from its natural resources and have good number in human resources, Polanco’s development should be focus in developing its potentials. This means making initiatives to improve agricultural productivity of the locality.

The Municipality of Polanco has a total of 36 industrial establishments, with milling services in Polanco are prevailing in terms of numbers, totalling to 13 milling establishments. This is reasonable since 86.10% of the total area in Polanco is devoted to agricultural land, thus there is a need to establish milling services in various barangays for easy accessibility for the farmers. Furthermore, the remainder are composed of 10 gasoline stations, 5 sand and gravel businesses, 2 marketing businesses, 2 aggregates, 2 sawmills, 1 producer of herbal medicines, and 1 producer of local noodles.

In terms of capitalization, Polanco-Petron Service Station located at Poblacion North has the largest capitalization, amounting to ₱6,195,000.00, operated with 3 employees – 2 males and 1 female. This is followed by JM Gasoline station located at Macleodes, with a capitalization of ₱2,000,000 and has 4 employees – 3 males and 1 female. The remaining industrial establishments have less than a million in capitalization.

Investing in businesses can significantly enhance the economic status of the Municipality of Polanco and can create job opportunities for every Polancohanon. Among the industrial establishments in Polanco, they were able to employ 121 people, comprising of 100 males and 21 females.