DAGUPAN Mayor Belen Fernandez will deliver her State of the City Address (SOCA) on March 18 at the CSI Stadia, 10 days before the start of the campaign period for local candidates in the May midterm elections where she is running for another term.

Fernandez said her SOCA will highlight the gains made by the city in 2024, which she described as a year of reconstruction and development, made possible through the combined initiative of both the national and local governments.

She is expected to showcase her accomplishments under her program UnliSerbisyo, which seeks to ensure that all Dagupeños, especially those who are poor, will benefit from the city’s development projects and services.

Among these:

• The scholarship program for 5,000 students from marginalized families wherein many already graduated from tertiary education with their chosen degrees.
• To give credit to national officials who provided support for projects in the city, including House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Rep Toff de Devenecia and the Abono Party-list.
• To highlight the big role of the five minority councilors and Vice Mayor Bryan Kua, the council presiding officer, in passing Supplemental Budget No. 2 of 2024 in the amount of P557 million, and the 2025 annual budget of P1.6 billion, which was made possible when they seized the majority following the preventive suspension of three opposition councilors by the Office of the President.

Fernandez said her administration was still able to deliver services and roll out crucial projects despite budget delays and limitations in the past two years due to obstructions put up by the opposition-dominated council.

She said her allies in the Sanggunian Panlungsod passed a record of 173 significant resolutions and ordinances for a period of just 60 days, compared to only 42 passed in a little over two years under the seven opposition councilors who make up the majority.

It will be her third SOCA since her return as mayor in 2022, and ninth since her first two terms in 2013 to 2017 after serving as vice mayor for two consecutive terms. (Leonardo Micua)

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