The
Honorable Members of the Sanggunian,
Fellow
workers in government,
Friends,
ladies and gentlemen,
My
fellow Dagupenos:
Good morning.
Today I feel privileged to stand before you
as your City Mayor with a great measure of humility, respect and profound
affection for the wonderful opportunity to serve the people of Dagupan since
2013, and that you have renewed this confidence with a fresh mandate in 2016 to
lead with honor, honesty, integrity and performance.
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Mayor Belen T. Fernandez delivers on April 3 her State
of the City Address on her
second term as city's chief executive in a simple
ceremony at the city plaza before
the people of Dagupan City. (CIO photo by
Jojo Tamayo)
Our Good Lord has been amazing for the great
blessings He has bestowed upon this faithful city, and for this we are grateful
as He continues to direct our lives and make our communities and our families
more abundant, safer, more peaceful, healthier and happier.
Dagupan today is transformed from the Dagupan
of four years ago. We are successful and confident. We are proud. Four years
ago we watched the fiscal and administrative reforms usher slow and difficult
growth, but we were growing nonetheless.
In 2013,
I asked hard-working Dagupenos to stand strong, and persevere, because Dagupan
is not turning back. Not now, not ever.
It was this spirit of perseverance and
courage, which built the success of our city beginning in 2013. And this was
the same spirit that made us go through great uncertainties and difficulties.
After four years, we now have drawn positive
attention and admiration from many people, local governments, agencies and
institutions within the Philippines and from around the world.
No one could have imagined Dagupan would get
to where we are now in a short span of time. Now Dagupan City is one of the
leading and celebrated breakout stars among cities in the Philippines based on
the latest Philippine Competitiveness Index.
We have been adjudged the most improved among
all cities in Region 1 where we advanced in rankings while our neighbors
declined. Our drive for growth has been strongest as ever, zooming to the number
15 spot among cities throughout the country.
Since our founding of our city in 1947 we
registered below radar to be noticed. Today, we are on full throttle as we
endeavor to break into the league of the Top 10 cities in the Philippines.
My dear friends… Yes, Dagupan is now the nation’s comeback kid.
We have done ourselves proud with so many
achievements we have done together.
The dramatic rise of this great city did not
happen overnight nor by accident.
It was ushered by a shared belief that the
future of our city depends on the quality of our city government. And a good
city government depends so much on the quality of its bureaucracy.
The statement that the whole is the sum of
its part has never been truer than today. The state of our city is strong
because we now have an incredible wealth of honest, reliable and performing
corps of public servants at the City Hall.
The challenges we faced when we assumed
office in 2013 were the most profound in decades and that recruiting the best
public servants with the very best talents must be our greatest imperative.
Today, allow me to properly recognize the
Balon Dagupan team who shares the honor and pride for the changes we see in our
city.
Please stand all department heads, division
chiefs and all employees.
Many of our employees have spent many years
of their productive lives into serving our people. Since 2013, we have awarded
long service recognitions to more than 300 employees who served Dagupan at
varying lengths, from 10 years up to 40 years. They have received modest gifts
of 5,000 to 10,000 from their city.
I am filled with gratitude to work with such
a wonderful team so much that the only reward I can think of is to offer them
official appointments or promotions. Since 2013, we have issued nearly 175 new appointments and promotions,
many of whom have not received fitting recognitions for a long time.
Today is
a particular honor for all of us here, especially me, because at this moment,
it is just fitting and proper that I should share the stage with our 30 newly
appointed employees! My dear friends, let’s give them a warm of applause for
they have rightfully earned their positions… Given the enormity of the task
that lies ahead, let’s just be grateful that we have them as our partners in
public service. We need them, and we need each and everyone here to work for
the general welfare of our people, and this city we love.
All of you have been my great family. The
City Hall has been our most potent instrument to deliver good and effective
public service, and all of you have done so well. Give yourselves a tap on the
back and a hearty congratulations because you are all deserving of our
applause.
When I assumed office in 2013, we witnessed a
vast and inspiring fervor that was stirring in our city. Change and progress
does not come from the top; it starts and spreads in the hearts of the people.
And in the hearts of Dagupenos, our core principles are as strong as ever.
Hence, in keeping with my duty under the
Local Government Code to report on the state of our city, may I invite you to
join me as we reflect on our incredible journey to where we are today.
We started 2016 with a bold declaration to make history. My dear friends, this is
our shared story of success.
1. Public Finance Sector
DAGUPAN’S FINANCE
STRONGEST IN HISTORY
For the last 4 years, this city
administration is fully committed to our balanced budget. We have learned
before that by not having a balanced budget, shrewd politicians and agencies
can hide money. Because every peso is not accounted for, waste is rampant and
fraud all too common.
But our vision for Balon Dagupan is about a blueprint
for change, and our commitment to change began by drawing a truthful,
functional and a balanced budget. Our commitment to this budget has given us tremendous
achievements to celebrate.
I am happy to report that Dagupan has now
closed the books on four straight years of actual revenue growth.
I
am happy to report that we have consistently posted exponential cash surplus
for four straight years, capped by our strongest showing in 2016 by an all time
high of more than 120 million pesos.
Our sources of income from market collections
also soared high during the last four years.
Aggressive tax mapping, collection efficiency
strategies and issuance of notice of delinquencies also resulted in improved
collections by our One Stop Business Center in business taxes and license fees.
The operation of our restrooms continues to
be impressive, notching a spike from 650,000 in 2010 to more than 7 million in
ONE YEAR.
Our strong finance has made possible for us
to grant full productivity and performance based incentives and hefty 13th
and 14th month bonuses to our583-strong personnel of the Dagupan
City government, and saved enough to meet the incremental increases to the base
pay of our employees pursuant to the provisions of the Salary Standardization
Law IV.
We have made all of these to ensure that
families of our city employees would enjoy the fruits of working for one of the
best performing local governments in the country today.
Let me stress that we also employed the
mightiest belt tightening measures to save money.
We beefed up administrative operations
without sacrificing quality public service and prevented waste of government
resources by rationalizing work implementation, saving our city millions of
pesos from overtime pay. Beginning 2014, overtime pay has gone down to its
historic lowest level.
We ended the era of wanton waste of
government resources, which have been abused for so many years.
Today we have managed to bring allocation of
resources for donation down to its lowest levels in our city’s history.
We
adopted reasonable austerity measures to ensure that we live within our
spending capacity. In 2016, we have brought down our foreign travel spending to
zero
We have instilled discipline in all fronts
when we rationalized our spending in repair and maintenance of our equipments.
in
repair and maintenance of motor vehicles.
when
we brought down our fuel expenses
…and
we instituted mechanisms to bring down our expenditures in the procurement of
our supplies.
Dagupan has never defaulted in its
contractual obligations by ensuring that we faithfully comply with our loan
repayments. By 2018, we shall achieve our strongest fiscal position when we
shall complete our final principal and interest payments to our last remaining
balance amounting to 30 million for the construction of the New Malimgas Market,
which the city obtained 15 years ago.
I am happy to report that our improved
revenues resulted from further streamlined processes for various government
transactions.
We maintained established quality management
system as certified by SOCOTEC Certification Philippines conforming to the
standards of ISO 9001:2008.
We received high customer satisfaction
ratings based on gathered customer survey question. We listened to our good
taxpayers because their opinion matters to us.
If we sustain our concerted efforts towards
honesty, performance, hard work, perseverance and fiscal discipline, in no time
shall we be able to build Dagupan as the
first one billion peso economy among towns and cities in Pangasinan.
My fellow Dagupenos we are proud to declare
that today we have built our city’s
strongest economy in the last 70 years.
GREATER EXECUTIVE AND
LEGISLATIVE COOPERATION
We could not have done this without the
support of and full cooperation of the Sanggunian Panglungsod for its approval
of many vital pieces of legislations and policy support initiated by the City
Mayor’s Office, specifically 85
ordinances and more than 135
resolutions which we have strongly endorsed for the Sanggunian’s
consideration since 2013.
1. Revised Comprehensive
Land Use Plan 2015-2025
2. Comprehensive Zoning
Ordinance
3. Revised Ordinance on
Issuance of Ordinance Violation Receipt (OVR)
4. Institutionalizing
Measures for the Promotion and Advancement of Bangus Industry in Dagupan City
5. Amending Ordinance No.
1748-2008 otherwise known as Adopting a Revised Comprehensive and Mandatory
Traffic Code in the City of Dagupan.
6. Declaring every 23rd
day of December in the City of Dagupan as Victor Edades Day)
We are grateful that they have also the given
positive approval to our 858 million pesos annual appropriations and our
various development plans last December 1, 2016 --- the swiftest we have seen
in many years.
In behalf of the people of Dagupan, please
accept our sincere thanks for your support.
2. Social Services Sector
HEALTHIEST, SAFEST, HAPPIEST
CHILDREN IN THE COUNTRY
With our economy rebounding,
the last four years were the perfect time to make smart and strategic
investments in our city and our people.
Improving the quality of life of our people
has always been at the center of my development agenda.
And for the last 4 years we committed
ourselves to support and make the children of Dagupan the brightest, the
healthiest, the safest, and the happiest in the country.
EDUCATION
First I believe that the success of our
economy depends largely on educating city’s future workforce.
Hence, I have given the highest preferential
attention to our MBTF Scholarship Program
beginning 2014 where before there was none. With incremental increases, we have
allocated 10 million in 2016 to send more than 500 well-deserving children of
needy Dagupeños to universities and colleges, to pursue a career of their own
choice.
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I’m
also pleased to inform you that from a total of 520 scholars, 120 of them have
already graduated, which means that our city’s future is getting more secure.
At
this juncture, please allow me to present all of our scholars, our first batch
of college graduates as well as their proud parents. My dear friends, these are all
the outstanding scholars of the City of Dagupan.
We have again brought together parents,
teachers, and all stakeholders in the annual
Children Summit where every year we gather 20,000 children as we discuss
about health, safety, security in schools, the music and the arts. We celebrate
artistry and creativity, we boost knowledge and confidence, and we teach them about
staying away from drugs. This is our biggest celebration for children because
we love the children of Dagupan.
We have also given full support to the Balon Dagupan Children’s Choir and the Balon Dagupan Children’s Orchestra. For
the last 3 years, they have given us so much pride and honor whenever they
perform before us, in the country and overseas.
Our
Manlingkor Ya Kalangweran remains to
be one of the most admired development programs for children in our country
today.
Right now, Dagupan is one of the first few
local governments in the Philipppines enrolled under the Juan Konek program of
the Department of Science and Technology.
Our Balon
Dagupan Mobile Library continues to bring excitement and fun to all day
care centers.
Dagupan eyes on becoming a more digitally
empowered and digitally literate community through Department of Science and Technology Information and Communications
Technology’s TECH4ED program. We are fortunate to have been selected as beneficiary
for the program through education, entrepreneurship, employment and economic
development. In 2016, the Dagupan City Library has been named the Top 2 Performing TECH4ED Center Library
among the Luzon cluster.
SPORTS
For many years, our sports program did not
merit the attention our children rightfully deserve. Beginning 2013, we vowed
to end the dry spell in the medal tally for Dagupan by extensively reforming
our policy and administrative structures that led to the creation of the Dagupan City Sports Council and the Dagupan City Sports Commission as well
as stronger collaboration with DepEd, our sporting officials, coaches and many parents.
It is quite unfortunate that we have always
been at the perennial bottom of the rankings ladder, at best only manage to
bring home the pitiable Best in Uniform award for our athletic delegation. By
building fire in the hearts of our athletes, we have provided them full
compliment, encouragement and proper guidance. As a result, we are now on the No.
2 spot for two straight years.
We are proud that we have achieved our
biggest medal hauls in practically all sports disciplines in both elementary
and high school divisions, even beating our own grandest expectations.
R1AA MEDAL COUNT (DAGUPAN CITY)
FROM
3 GOLDS and the BEST IN UNIFORM award IN 2013.
(golds)
(silver) (bronze)
2014
18
36 35 RANK # 7
2015 44 38
38 RANK
# 2 (1st place)
2016 51 40 41 RANK # 2 (1st place)
Dear friends, this is Dagupan’s best performance ever in the history of our participation in
the Region 1 Athletic Association Meet for the last 30 years. There is no
denying that our city is an emerging sports powerhouse.
I vow to continue to throw our full support
to developing our young athletes, many of whom are either chalking new records
or breaking old ones.
It is worth to mention that Janelle Alisa Frances Lin of
the Balon Dagupan Swimming Team set three new national records in the 2016
Batang Pinoy National Championships held in Tagum City, Davao Del Norte
last year. She competed in the under 12 years old category in five swimming
events, and holds the distinction as the first
Dagupan athlete who broke three national records in the Batang Pinoy National
Championships. May I present Janelle, the pride of our city and the current
toast of Philippine swimming circle.
HEALTH
Since 2013 Dagupan has
strengthened access to quality health care especially among low-income
families.
We directed our full
attention to care for many of our poor families, for both inpatient and
outpatient care, who are entitled to treatment without charge.
Through improved
coordination, elimination of duplication of activities and enhanced
complementation of assistance, our allied health workers have achieved so much
in many areas.
Our Medical and Dental
missions have benefitted thousands of infants, children, adults, pregnant
mothers and senior citizens for the last four years. Also, our Dental Health
Bus has been actively serving our constituents with dental problems in all of
our 31 barangays.
With that, we also would
like to take this special opportunity to thank our reliable health care
partners: the University of Sto. Tomas, Pangasinan Dental Health Association,
Pangasinan Medical Society and the Villaflor Hospital.
With the help of Philippine
Tuberculosis Society Inc., its local chapter thru Dr. Jennifer Wi, our city’s TB
patients and patients with lung problems will soon be treated with highest
quality health care through the use of STATE OF THE ART FACILTY at our soon to
be constructed Chest Clinic.
SOCIAL
WELFARE
Nutrition Program
Supplemental feeding programs in our daycare
centers as well as our early childhood care and development programs remain to
be greatly admired throughout the region, benefitting more than 2,500 children
every year since 2013.
Our 46 accredited
day care centers continue to receive our full support, as we also manage to
extend important assistance to children
in conflict with the law, children in need of special protection, and
children in custody.
My dear friends, I am pleased to report to
you that Dagupan is set to build our Bahay
Pagasa in Bonuan Boquig to serve as a safe sanctuary for children in
conflict with the law. With total funding of 15 million pesos, this
demonstrates our strong resolve to provide care, compassion and support to
vulnerable children who seek refuge from beatings and cruelty from their own
families. They deserve our love and our support no less with our new Bahay
Pagasa.
Since we initiated our pioneering programs
against bullying as well as house life and protective services, our
social welfare workers continue to work round the clock for our needy clients.
For the last 4 years, Dagupan’s out of school
youth find greatest fulfillment through the values
orientation, self enhancement and
trainings conducted for its active Pagasa
Youth Association.
We have never wavered in helping fellow
Dagupenos through our emergency relief
foods assistance and emergency
shelter assistance, especially during calamities for the past 4 years,
benefitting as much as 30,000 families,
and at least 4000 families receiving
5,000 to 10,000 pesos each for home
repairs and improvements.
We made strong investments in livelihood
opportunities through skills training and
basic business management seminars with the help of the DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
AND EMPLOYMENT which translate into improved earnings for their families.
We have also intensified assistance for people with disabilities --- both adult and
children --- by continuing to offer them medical missions, bantay-presyon,
eye screening/checkup/cataract operations and social pension specifically
for them.
Dagupan is the envy of other senior citizens
throughout the region because of the many valuable benefits we give to our
elderly like:
·
Free access to movies,
·
Special classes on
yoga,
taichi,
·
and
important lessons like operating a
personal computer and communicating through social media sites like facebook
STRONGEST SUPPORT FOR WOMEN
Women in Dagupan now have a stronger platform
for participation and engagement through our SAKADA, or the Samahan ng mga
Kababaihan ng Dagupan, and our city has greatly benefitted from their
support.
My fellow Dagupeños, it is
my honor to report to you another first in the history of Dagupan – our Women Center
has finally opened.
LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT
Dagupan has thrown its full support to
helping our people find opportunities to work locally or overseas. Since I
assumed office, we have aggressively pursued…
·
local
and special recruitment activities,
·
job
fairs, special program for employment of students or SPES beneficiaries,
·
government
internship, and
·
resolved
cases through our OFW migrant desks.
For
the last 3 years, several hundreds of firms, companies, corporations, manning
and recruitment agencies have set up in Dagupan to offer employment, and many
have since joined the labor force and now earning for their families.
A MORE RESILIENT CITY
Our city has maximized resources in order to
respond to emergency situations by establishing the Basic Emergency Life
Extending Network 16911 or B.E.L.E.N. 16911, which consolidates the resources
of the government units or agencies under one command center and operates 24/7
to meet even the worst hazards in a well coordinated manner.
Since its
establishment in 2013 B.E.L.E.N. 16911 has already responded to 871 cases
ranging from vehicular accidents, medical, fire, mauling, shooting, OB cases
and patient conduction, among others.
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
Dagupan has greatly improved its capacity to
respond to disasters and other forms of emergency, hence, we can state that our
city is stronger than ever.
With that, I invite you to look at the
necessary upgrades we’ve especially taken and how our dynamic CDRRMC personnel
have leveled up for the last four years.
And not only that, I’m happy to announce that
we’re putting up a new CDRRMC building, while improving the technological
capacity of our Command Center. We have initiated these important measures
because of what we’ve learned during the productive WCCD seminar in Dubai Last March 7 & 8.
But
above all, we express our deepest gratitude to our heroes on the streets, hence,
we offer our applause to the men and women of the Belen 911 hotline and the
CDRRMC.
PEACE AND ORDER
We are extremely pleased to report to you
that Dagupan has and continue to be one of the dynamic communities in the
region where sound peace and order sustains our growth and progress.
Our city is one of the first local
governments in the country to make its boldest declaration of support to the
drug prevention and anti-criminality campaign of His Excellency President
Rodrigo Duterte, not to mention our city’s “Sagip
User Rehabilitation and Empowerment” or SURE program, which is purposely created
to contribute to our president’s anti-drug campaign.
To date, we have sealed an important
partnership with Region 1 Medical Center, DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation
Center, the Catholic church and other faith-based organizations to help carry
out this program.
Therefore, I am happy to inform this
honorable body and our people that our reform strategies are working positively
to make Dagupan a drug-free city.
3. Economic Services
Sector
STRONGER AGRICULTURE
Our river clean up drive, particularly our
plastics debris retrieval initiative, is now at the heart of our sincere,
no-nonsense campaign as Dagupan is now recognized as a global leader in ocean
protection following my commitment before the United Nations.
With the assistance of the Pasig River
Rehabilitation Commission, we obtained proper guidance on how to care for our
internal waters while the University of the Philippines Marine Science
Institute extended assistance by conducting a reconnaissance survey and
provided recommendations for us to pursue.
Since 2013, we have dismantled nonstop
illegal fishpens throughout Dagupan’s river system, and up to date, our
Taskforce Bantay Ilog has now cleared more than 90 hectares of our rivers from
(712) illegal fishing structures, and this is our boldest campaign yet to ensure
that our small fishermen would be given opportunities to earn decently without
hurting our environment.
Tourism
Today, Bangus Festival has evolved into one of the major festivals in the Philippines and loosely acknowledged by the Department of Tourism as the biggest street party there is. Our Festivals of the North, Bangusan Street Party, Bangusine, Gilon Gilon ed Baley, Bangus Rodeo, our multi-stage events and concerts, and our spectacular fireworks are perennial crowd-drawers as we endeavor to bring the spotlight on Dagupan as a serious global investments destination.
Last December our Paseo de Belen has emerged as the runaway favorite among the scores
of visual attractions among towns and cities and Pangasinan, with our
hardworking barangays producing the most captivating and colorful Nativity
scenes, tapping the best talents in our barangays.
We tapped into the emotional consciousness
and newfound excitement of young and old Dagupenos and visitors with the return
of the grand Carnival reminiscent of our great tradition of Dagupan fiestas of
yesteryears.
Our Tondaligan
Beach has received a new shot in the arm after we finally emancipated our
seashore from eyesores that have driven away potential tourists and residents from
enjoying the best sunrises and sunsets in the entire Lingayen gulf.
After decades of abuse and neglect, plans are now underway to effect a massive Tondaligan Redevelopment Plan together with the help of our good Congressman Toff De Venecia. According to the plan, we shall be clearing the remaining obstructions of our ocean’s beautiful view, construct boardwalks, biking and jogging lanes, swimming pool, cleaner shower and restrooms, play grounds and implement year-round events to celebrate the great bounties of the sea.
Public Infrastructure – Markets
I am delighted to inform you that we have
made significant improvements in our public markets as a key economic
enterprise activity, and these improvements are:
·
The
New Galvan Market has been repaired and elevated.
·
Repair
of consignation market
·
Reyes
Street, the access road to the Magsaysay Fish Market, has now been upgraded to
finally end the perennial flooding in the area.
·
Repair
of Makong Market
We also have expanded
the deboning area at the New Malimgas Market, and installed smoke fish machine
and other equipment.
4. General Public
Services Sector
“Dagupan Lungsod ng Disiplina”
Lasting Solutions to
Dagupan’s Traffic Woes
Even if it personally takes me to stand under
the heat of the sun to fully understand and find ways to solve our chronic traffic
mess, I will do so. And that is exactly what I did.
Idle for nearly 15 years, we directed the reinstallation of our traffic lights with
digital counters in key strategic points in the city.
We also implemented the sidewalk recovery program as well as enforced pedestrian discipline, which was integral for the new traffic scheme
to work.
We have restored the use of sidewalks for
pedestrians by removing obstructions placed by many business establishments.
Aside from that, we have worked with the DPWH for the repainting of road
signages.
The full range of measures to address traffic
congestion also included the enforcement of the Comprehensive and Mandatory
Traffic Code of Dagupan, which provides for new
loading and unloading stations for public utility vehicles plying our
streets, as well as implementation of
clearing operations on illegal parking, and apprehension of barkers which have long been the front of “kotong”
Because of our intensified “Zero Kotong Policy”, I’m proud to
report that our collection from traffic violation has tremendously increased
from an average of P200,000 to a million, and that’s only for the month of
January!
By signing up with an agreement with the Land Transportation Office to deputize select POSO personnel, we are indeed,
doing our best to strictly implement our traffic laws.
And we have installed CCTV cameras in strategic locations throughout the city,
which is manned by competent Public Alert and
Response Monitoring Center personnel
on a 24/7 basis to ensure public safety.
Waste to Energy
Dagupan is close to ending its 50-year
garbage problem with the forthcoming implementation of the waste to energy
technology to manage our waste.
All roadblocks have now been cleared, and in
fact, our Waste to Worth Facility has already been awarded. Now, this is to
show that we’ve been working on this matter very seriously. In fact, this
garbage problem has been our priority, and we’ve been treating it with a sense
of urgency, as opposed to the negative rumors being peddled by some fake newsmen.
My Dear Kabaleyans, let’s all be patient,
because every step we take must be in compliance with the Implementing Rules
and Regulation of DENR. With that, our people are assured that their government
is truly for them, and that I, as your chief executive, is 100% committed to
following our laws, as well as taking the next bold step to managing our waste.
Today, the stage is set for us to benefit
from the blessings of a modern technology at no expense to our city. To prepare
for this, we are now procuring at total of 10 dump trucks to haul wastes in all
31 barangays in our city. And we are working closely with barangays in the
enforcement of solid waste segregation, composting and sustained information
and education on proper waste disposal.
Massive Physical Infrastructure Spending
Since the start of my administration,
building the physical infrastructures to support our growth has been the most
aggressive since the massive rehabilitation of Dagupan after the devastation of
the 1990 Luzon earthquake.
Over the course of the last four years, we have
built completely new roads and rehabilitated old ones in 17 barangays in
Dagupan, as we endeavor to start new ones in the remaining 14 barangays in the
next few years.
By emphasizing the importance of fiscal
prudence and judicious utilization of resources, our 20% development fund
translated into the implementation of nearly54
million pesos for the maintenance of our city roads.
Since 2013, we have thrown huge resources
of government to rehabilitate many long
neglected and flood prone sitios in Bacayao Norte, Barangay I, Bonuan Boquig,
Bonuan Gueset, Calmay, Caranglaan, Herrero Perez, Lasip Chico, Lasip Grande,
Lucao, Malued, Manguin, Mayombo, Pantal, Pogo-Chico, Pogo Grande and Tapuac. All
of these have a combined length spanning nearly 8 kilometers long throughout the city. May I invite you to witness
the numerous projects in the city UNDER YOUR TAXES MADE IT POSSIBLE PROGRAM:
For the last four years, our public schools
have enjoyed the biggest funding support from the city government apart from
the funds we obtained from the national government and from private institutions
and individuals. My dear friends, I am
happy to report that these are what we have built since 2013.
For the last four years, this city
administration has aggressively pursued the construction of many socially
relevant infrastructures for women, the youth, our senior citizens, among many
others. My dear friends, may I ask you to watch these new infrastructures that
has changed the skylines of our city.
For the last four years, our Dagupan has made
its biggest investments with our acquisition of the largest fleet of emergency
and service vehicles, dump trucks, boats, modern construction and dredging equipment,
tools and implements in our broadest and optimistic strategy for economic development
and growth.
For the last four years, we have made our
strongest investments to position Dagupan as one of the country’s Smart Cities
through various initiatives which are responsive to the 21st Century
ASEAN Design challenge, along with our strong support to our fully functional
Public Alert Response Monitoring Center which currently is the most
instrumented center of its kind in this part of the country.
In
2017, we shall continue to lay the brick for the next chapter of growth of our
city with the following projects under our 20% Development Fund and
Supplemental appropriation for 2017 which includes the:
-Installation
of more traffic lights and CCTV.
-Construction
of Youth center
-grant
of one time gratuity pay to job order and contract service workers in the
Government
-purchase
of 22,019 sq meter lot for core shelter at bonuan boquig
-completion
of the three (3) storey Special program for the arts School building at DCNHS
-construction
of Magsaysay Merket Extension
-additional
cost for the upgrading of PCC Pavement and construction of lateral drainage at
Calarin Road, Malued
-
additional cost for the extension of waiting area at Sitio Korea Health Center,
-
procurement of signboard with reflectorized sticker
-training
of teachers and students for ROBOTICS as part of the Dagupan City's priority projects. and more….
Soon
to start projects including our first ….
TEEN CENTER
We can
do all these. I know we can, because we’ve done it before.
That’s why, I’m very optimistic, that we can
build a New Government Center, which will serve as our major step-forward in
realizing our city’s economic progress, an economy that is built to last.
As soon as I woke up this morning, I received
an extraordinarily gracious call from someone, whose heart is also directed
towards the fulfillment of this proposed Government Center. And although he
knows I’m speaking before you today, he reminded me of our father’s legacy,
adding that as a family, we can make a difference in this city that has been so
good to us. In short, he surprised me with an idea – a surprising idea that
he’s donating his property in barangay Pantal, which I think is a perfect
location of this New Government Center.
That’s why, right now, the only thing left
for us to do is to ask our dear SP members about whether or not they’re happy
with the donation. After all, it’s a DONATION.
I share the belief and conviction of many
that when leaders are leading by example, sincerely working together for the
best interest of our city by COMPLETELY ERADICATING RED TAPE and CORRUPTION in
all of our government processes, then progress must be inevitable.
That’s what we’ve been doing through our
Investment and Development Board, and that should be the reason why we have
earned the trust and confidence of our stakeholders, especially investors from
multi-national companies like SM, Double Dragon Properties Inc., Sta. Lucia
Land Inc. and a lot more…
For four years, we have accomplished so much
to keep the state of our city strong. In fact, our city is way above stronger
today than the way we found it in 2013.
And Dagupan is not turning back. Not now. Not
ever.
We are stronger today than four years ago
because we have established a good and just system of governance, stronger
economy, stronger barangays, stronger schools, stronger participation and
engagement by women, children, people with disabilities, and senior citizens.
We are stronger today because we fortified our city by working on our weaknesses to build our strength. And we are stronger because we have done away with waste and acted swiftly without complacency.
It has been said that history is driven, over
the long haul, by what men and women honor, cherish and worship; by what
societies deem to be true and good; by what individuals and societies are
willing to stake their lives on.
My fellow Dagupenos: The state of our city is
strong because we all committed to clean and good governance, accountability,
and transparency and, with my life, I shall always hold dear my oath to always faithfully
serve our people.
Laging
po ninyong tatandaan: Sa kagustuhan kong maging mahusay at maging magaling,
hindi kailanman natin ipinagpalit na maging mabuti. Mahal ko po ang ating lungsod at mahal ko po
ang bawat Dagupeno.
Thank you very much.
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