Rinconada

 

Generally, Bicolanos refer to the 4th congressional district of Camarines Sur comprising the towns of Baao, Balatan, Bato, Buhi, Bula, Nabua, and the city of Iriga as Rinconada.

 

Why Rinconada?   Rinconada ,as referred to in the olden times, was used to describe  the geographical location of the district.  

 

In Spanish, rinconada means corner. If you look at the provincial map of Cam Sur, by tracing the outer boundaries of the district, one forms the 3 corners of a triangle hence Rinconada.

 

In the present, Rinconada refers to the unique language spoken among the residents of the 6 municipalities mentioned, and the lone city of Iriga. In Buhi, both Buhi-non (dialect of Bicol Albay which is prevalent among most residents) and Rinconada dialects are spoken. Thus Rinconada language is distinct from the Bicol language generally spoken in most parts of the Bicol region.

 

The 4th district of Cam Sur represents a quarter of the population of the province, with Iriga City, Nabua, and Buhi within the Top 5 most populous cities and municipalities of Cam. Sur (the 2 others are Naga City and Libmanan). The district is blessed with a well-balanced topography of a rich agricultural land both plain and hilly, several natural lakes, varied flora, coastline which it shares with the Ragay gulf, natural springs, beautiful waterfalls, Mt. Iriga, and of course its people. Owing to several universities, and technical schools in the area, Rinconada has a pool of service, technical, maritime, and IT-skilled manpower, and white-collar professionals (nurses, engineers, architects, lawyers, etc) who join the job pool every year.

 

Despite these, the district is not able to take advantage of these God-given opportunities,and not enough development interventions are made. Job-creating industries are absent, and livelihood opportunities are very much limited. Thus the district seems to lag behind in development when compared with other cities and municipalities of the other districts in Cam Sur and neighboring Albay.

 

With these resources, Rinconada's economy can very well leapfrog assuming a comprehensive district-wide development plan is put into place by various stakeholders mainly the local government, and complemented by private entities, and non-governmental organizations.

 

The task at hand is to pump prime the district's economy by promoting SME’s (Small Medium Enterprise) as engines of growth, creating industries to generate jobs and livelihood, maximizing the agro-livestock industry by infusing modern technology, harnessing the development of a sustainable environment-friendly eco-tourism, and marketing the district as a viable alternative overall for investments in manufacturing, energy, trading, and service industries, in particular the booming business process outsourcing industry.

 

With only superficial changes on the surface, and   without these elements in place as the foundation, the district shall continue to lag behind, and miss out on development opportunities.

 

Today, the most viable alternative calls for Rinconada to correct the mistakes of the past and willingly embrace positive change in the journey towards development and progress.