“City remains strong” — Mayor Fernandez
Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr., in his State of the City Address, declared that Dagupan remains “strong”.
At the same time, he rallied officials and the people to “rise to make this city better than we have known”.
Fernandez, speaking on January 26 before the Sangguniang Panlungsod presided by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez held at the Dagupan City People’s Astrodome, credited the stability and successes of the city to “innovative governance” and “shared responsibilities”.
The mayor’s SOCA touched on a wide range of topics, from social programs to infrastructure, food production and peace and order, as well as efforts to professionalize public service and instill discipline among the city government’s workers.
“With innovative governance, we strived to be worthy of recognitions that have come our way in 2008,” said Fernandez, pointing out that such a trait runs deep in the foundation of Dagupan’s spirit of service.
Last year, Dagupan was adjudged as the Most Business Friendly Local Government Unit by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was listed as one of the “highly competitive city” by the Asian Institute of Management.
With strong labor potential and infrastructure support, and in collaboration with the academe, Dagupan is now being dubbed as one of the “Next Wave Cities” by the country’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry, he said.
The Regional Inter-Agency Committee for Older Persons (RIACOP) recognized the city for its “Best Local Practices in the Implementation of Programs and Services for Senior Citizens”.
Dagupan had also been cited as a global model on disaster management by the United Nations Strategies for Disaster Reduction.
Dagupan is one of the few pilot cities in Asia of Project PROMISE, a program on disaster risk mitigation funded by USAID, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and Center for Disaster Preparedness.
Fernandez said by displaying “shared responsibilities”, Dagupan easily recovered from the major destruction wrought by Typhoon Cosme that lashed out Dagupan and most parts of Pangasinan in May last year.
CHILD WELFARE
Furthermore, the mayor said child welfare was made a priority in 2008, with the city government focusing on programs related to children’s rights to a healthy, caring, protective, educative, stimulating, non-discriminating, inclusive and culturally rich environment.
He vowed to continue this in 2009 even as he thanked the City Supermarket Inc. Jaycees, Rotary Club of Uptown Dagupan, ABS CBN Foundation and other groups for helping address the challenge of fighting malnutrition among children.
At the same time, he said, Dagupan’s 600 strong work forces is turning a new leaf in public governance with the full implementation of the Results Performance Monitoring System.
“At City hall, we have reduced overhead expenses and made many other operational reforms focused on improving service while reducing cost,” he said.
HEALTH CARE
The mayor said that for the first time, the people of Dagupan have benefited from an unprecedented health care initiative with the opening of the City Health Office (CHO) for six straight days, including Saturday, allowing service to more than 300 patients everyday.
He said the CHO has been granted a license to operate as a clinical laboratory by the Bureau of Health Services and Regulation of the Department of Health and can now perform, for the first time, diagnostic test in hematology, clinical microscopy, clinical chemistry and serology.
The city also distributed 6,225 PhilHealth Family Cards to provide free health care benefits to more than 31 beneficiaries among Dagupan’s indigent families.
Fernandez said the city opened new opportunities for persons with disabilities by employing them at the Dagupan City Citizens’ Helpline for information on all services of the city government.
The Helpline is a part of the Emergency Operations Center put up by Fernandez that operates 24 hours a day, similar to the 911 service in the United States.–LM
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