STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS
CITY OF DIGOS
January 19, 2012
by
ATTY. JOSEPH R. PEÑAS, CPA
City Mayor
I Introduction
It is my great pleasure to welcome you all as I convey to you the state of the City of Digos under my humble stewardship. This report will cover the period beginning my assumption into office up to the present. We have a lot of good news to talk about. Some items may not be positive, however, we consider them as challenges to conquer. The very cornerstone of all our efforts is nothing else but the belief that all Digoseños deserve nothing else but a healthy environment, progressive and peaceful City of Digos to live in.
II Peace and Order:
At the outset of this report I have to candidly admit the fact that when we took on the mantle of leadership for the City, exactly 18 months ago, Digos was already considered a peaceful and orderly city. Thanks to our predecessor, former Mayor Arsenio A. Latasa, the incumbent Provincial Vice- Governor, whose leadership of 18 years saw the transformation of Digos from being a municipality to a component city. We built our humble efforts from that legacy.
For Digos City, sources of threats to peace can come from terrorists committing high profile crimes like bombing and kidnapping, communist armed group fighting the government, and the local criminal offenders. From 2010 to 2011, peace and order for the City was generally stable as we were spared from the share of terroristic acts committed by these highly organized armed groups as they have done to us in the past several years ago and continue to do to our neighboring cities and municipalities, inflicting casualties and injuries to both protagonists and innocent civilians. These kind of threats have been significantly contained. However, sporadic occurrences or incidents of crimes perpetrated by armed local criminal elements continue to happen, every now and then, but these are just but few and isolated ones. We may not be a totally “criminal free” or drug free” city but Digos is certainly a peaceful city.
Containing threats to peace and order certainly did not come as a product of our own efforts alone but by the tripartite cooperation between the Armed Forces of the Philippines, particularly the 39th IB, the Philippine National Police and the citizenry. Through the local leadership and elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, with their continuous military and police visibility, pulong-pulong and lectures and other community engagements, and, on the part of the citizenry, support and vigilance, without which, the preservation of peace and order would have been an impossible task. Towards this end, this leadership extends logistical and administrative support to the local commands of both the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. For 2011, from our annual budget we shared a sizable amount as our assistance in the attainment of maintaining peace and order in our city.
III Health and Nutrition
May I take you back to 2010 in the area of health. Immediately as we took on the reins of administering the city, we were initiated into a baptism of fire that came in the guise of a dengue crisis that confronted us. It was immediately at the beginning of our term when dengue struck and claimed the loss of 13 precious lives and a very alarming 1,195 dengue patients, admitted in different hospitals not only Digos City but also in Davao City, mostly children in their tender years.
Obviously this extraordinary circumstance calls for an extraordinary intervention. Finding ourselves pressed for solution, we sought the assistance of the honorable members of the 4th City Council, under the leadership of Atty. Reynaldo S. Hermosisima, by requesting for a resolution declaring the City of Digos under a state of calamity. Our request was duly granted and Resolution No.10-140 was enacted on July 09, 2010, authorizing my office to utilize part of the Calamity Fund in our fight against dengue. Honorable members of the 4th City Council, thank you very much for your support and cooperation. Equipped with that initiative we were able to implement measures that effectively contained the problem and significantly subdued it even beyond 2010.
After an aborted honeymoon period as a newly installed City Mayor, we buckled down to work training our sights towards the other aspects of keeping Digoseños healthy and well, as we duly recognize the invaluable contribution of our Barangay Health and Nutrition Workers who tirelessly serve the needs of our Barangay residents. They are the frontliners in providing the needed health services in the Barangays, and in promoting health advocacies like breastfeeding and extending supplemental feeding to both child-bearing mothers as well as to our identified undernourished children.
While our efforts are focused more on prevention, we have also programs that assist those who are sick and for those who may need hospitalization. Due to the fast growing economic and tourism activities bringing about rapid population growth, aside from the distance and accessibility to the nearest available health facility, a special attention was extended to Barangay Kapatagan and its adjoining Barangays, through the procurement of one unit service vehicle which could be utilized as ambulance or rescue unit for their emergency needs to be stationed at the Barangay Center. Relatively spared from recent calamities and disasters taking its toll in many neighboring areas, this leadership is also upgrading our preparedness in terms of dealing with our worsening and unpredictable climatic conditions and for other eventualities. A Radio Transmitter is installed at Barangay Binaton to facilitate communications, and an additional service vehicle for rescue operations is procured for the use of our disaster and risk reduction efforts. Through our Lingap Para sa Mahirap Program and through our expanded Philhealth Para sa Masa Program, we have extended substantial financial assistance to our indigent constituents. In 2011 we appropriated an amount for the procurement of medicines and payment of other hospital bills and 4.76M was spent for the Philhealth Para sa Masa Program covering 7,461 indigent family beneficiaries throughout our 26 Barangays.
IV Cooperative Development as Catalyst for Development
Another reality that must be hurdled inherent to the task we assumed is our battle against fiscal and economic constraints confronting most of the ordinary Digoseños. Everyone is complaining of finding ourselves in the midst of tough times. Towards this end, as strategy, aside from strengthening existing cooperatives we organize new ones where members are taught the value of team building, unity and cooperation. For 2011, aside from providing technical assistance and strengthening organized cooperatives, through our City Cooperative Development Office we extended the amount of 1.7 M as livelihood assistance benefitting 21 Primary Cooperatives. Our efforts in this aspect will continue to be monitored and evaluated.
V Agriculture and Social Welfare Programs
It is said, that the ‘backbone of the nation are our farmers’. However, staring before our very eyes is the painful reality of how our farmers are faring amid the constraints we are confronted with. Our poor farmers are facing a two-edged sword, declining production in major agricultural crops due to the worsening effect of global warming and steep decline in the selling prices of crops aggravated by the rapidly increasing production cost. As intervention, through the Office of the City Agriculturist, we extended assistance to our marginal farmers in the form of seeds, trainings in crop and livestock production. Aside from the Agriculture Office, the City Veterinary Office also assist our farmers through the Animal Health Care and Artificial Insemination Program that helped in the propagation of small and large animals.
In pursuit of our desire for development we also give due recognition to the support and partnership we have established with other institutions through agreements of cooperation. In 2011 the City of Digos has allocated the amount of close to 5M as our share or counterpart in the implementation of foreign and nationally assisted projects. Worth mentioning among these are projects implemented with the assistance of the Davao Integrated Development Program, the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Food and Aquatic Resources, that included Farm to Market Roads, Agricultural Machineries and Facilities, Planting Materials for High Value Crops, Fingerlings Dispersal for Aquaculture and other technical assistance. These cooperations contributed significantly towards the growth of the farmer sectors in the rural areas.
Believing further that the human resource is the wealth of the City of Digos, in addition to our livelihood assistance through Cooperative and Agricultural development, the City has instituted a Scholarship Program benefitting 174 scholars and we have also fully implemented social welfare projects through the Child Welfare Program, Food for Growth Program and other programs benefitting women, children and senior citizens.
With the rapid increase in population and the demands of modernization, the City Government extended assistance to the Department of Education in their quest for providing quality education to our youth by providing additional buildings, facilities, equipments and enhancing the effectiveness of teachers through seminars, workshops and grants. Particularly, we have shouldered the amount of 1.2M for the construction of a building to be used by SPAMAST for their educational extension program catering to their students residing at Kapatagan and other nearby areas. This undertaking is in fulfillment of our share in a tripartite cooperation we entered into with SPAMAST and Barangay Kapatagan.
Roads, Drainage and Other Basic Infrastructures
As adherent to the belief that investing in infrastructures and other facilities will create a multiplier effect to growth and job creation, this administration has prioritized road maintenance, concreting of roads, especially in the Barangays, and improving our drainage and sewerage system not only around our public markets but also the immediate surrounding areas of the Poblacion of Digos. Despite our meager resources, from 2010 to 2011 we were able to set aside a total of close to 21M pesos for road concreting at an average cost of 150 meters per million. Continued financial assistance were also extended to the Barangays by funding their identified priority infrastructure projects. Additional street lights were likewise installed in the amount of 2.7M which also contributed substantially to our City’s peace and order stability.
In line with our tourism efforts, we all recognize the fact that tourist spots of the City are located within the Mt. Apo Natural Park, such that our approach to tourism development is anchored on Eco-tourism. Pursuant to this objective our Mountaineering and Trekking Ordinance was enacted years ago to make sure activities within the park are regulated. For 2011, we accommodated 703 registered climbers both local and foreigners and funds generated therefrom will be used to fund activities to ensure the protection of this watershed area.
VII Digos City’s Financial Capacity
At the end of 2010 we were able to collect a total income of 498M, broken down as 396M for Internal Revenue Allotment and 102M generated from the local sources. For 2011, our collection reached 536M with 426M from our share of the Internal Revenue Allotment and 110M from the local sources.
Imbued by our efforts towards stabilizing peace and Order and in investing in infrastructure, the conditions for a favorable environment for commerce was established. In 2011, we saw the completion and inauguration and now fully operational of two major endeavors. Despite countless obstacles and challenges all throughout, from conception to realization, the Don Pedro Estrada and the Digos City Central Public Markets now proudly stand. Not long after, towards the end of the year, we joined in the ribbon-cutting and opening of a multi-million project dubbed as the Gaisano Grand Mall of Digos City and the resumption of operation of the newly renovated but more spacious and convenient Digos Central Warehouse Supermarket. In line with the thrust of the National Government promoting Public-Private Partnership, these establishments definitely compliment our effort by providing employment opportunities not only to many Digoseños but also to residents of other Davao del Sur municipalities.
VIII Challenges and Agenda for 2012
There are two major developments by which Digos City will definitely be affected for the year 2012. One of these is the anticipated reduction of our share in the Internal Revenue Allotment from the National Government brought about by two factors; the Cityhood of the 16 Municipalities and the decline of collection in 2009 from which IRA computation will be based. The other development is the continued worsening condition of the environment bringing about frequent flooding in many neighboring areas that we must foresee by addressing our inadequate drainage and river flood control systems which requires a huge funding. Confronted by these realities, I may be considered pessimistic but, 2012 will be tough times ahead of us.
As always we will be confronted with the question whether we have the fiscal capacity to implement projects considering the above-mentioned realities.
Equipped with my long years in Government service in different capacities I am very confident that we have, because from these experiences, I learned that fiscal revenues can be raised and generated through hard work and toughness aside from belt tightening measures that we have to implement.
IX Conclusion
We will continue towards making this government a responsive and service-oriented one. We must expand government services to make these available even to the smallest unit in our locality. In this endeavor, I will need everybody’s support and cooperation, especially the active support of the Sanggunian. And I know that I can rely on you to pass measures to allow me to undertake reforms and programs that will bring a more vibrant economic climate for our beloved Digos City.
To you, peace-loving Digoseños, despite the difficulties and trials we encountered in the past, let us remember the lesson we learned that there is always a solution for every problem. Altogether let us carry on with the journey where every Digoseño can lay claim to a healthy, peaceful and progressive Digos City where she or he can proudly call home.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND MAY GOD BLES US ALL ! ! !
ABANTE DIGOS AND MABUHAY ! ! !
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