LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The provincial government of Pangasinan is set to establish a tourism office in the mountain village of Malico in San Nicolas town soon.
In addition, the provincial government will also establish a barracks for the Philippine National Police as it underscores its rightful ownership of the village atop the Caraballo Mountains that is being claimed by Nueva Vizcaya.
Gov. Ramon “Mon-mon” Guico III has also visited Malico twice in a span of nine months.
GUICO
The governor first traveled to Malico as governor on Oct. 19, 2022 to dialog with village residents there after he spoke at the Ilocos Region Indigenous People’s Summit.
Then, last March 20 this year, Guico returned to the village to inaugurate its Barangay Disaster Operations Center. The inauguration coincided with the first out-of-town session then of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan led by Vice Gov. Mark Ronald DG. Lambino.
“The governor’s visits were clear affirmation that Malico is part of Pangasinan,” said provincial administrator Ely Patague.
Malico is a one-hour drive via Pangasinan-Nueva Vizcaya Road or Villa Verde Trail from San Nicolas. The village is being claimed by Nueva Vizcaya as part of its Santa Fe town.
It is called “Little Baguio” owing to its cold climate similar to that of Baguio City’s, although it has higher elevation than the country’s summer capital.
The Pangasinan-Nueva Vizcaya Road, which crosses the Caraballo Mountains, is the newest direct link of the Ilocos Region to the Cagayan Valley. The other one is the Maharlika Highway, which connects Pagudpud town in Ilocos Norte province and Santa Praxedes town in Cagayan province.
Despite Nueva Vizcaya’s territorial claim, the mountain village continues to benefit from the services rendered by the Pangasinan provincial government.
Just last December, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) conducted a Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation-Disaster Risk Reduction and Basic Life Support Training in the village.
At least 40 barangay officials and health workers in the village participated in the training.
After the training session, the PDRRMO distributed 300 family food packs and 50 health kits and vitamins. The Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office also gave special gifts to the village’s elders.
Even a check on the Department of Education record shows that for the longest time, the Malico National High School and Malico Elementary School belonged to the DepEd’s Pangasinan II division.
During a meeting at the Governor’s Office here last year, Malico barangay captain Jaime Segundo said that Pangasinan was the only province to which his village belonged.
Segundo, 61, says that it was in that mountain village of Pangasinan where he was born and where he grew up, and he has always been proud of San Nicolas as the town of his birth.