‘Zamboangueños praise SOCA, local government’
ZAMBOANGA CITY - Local residents have praised Mayor Beng Climaco for her many achievements and accomplishments and vowed to continue their support to her administration following her State of the City Speech.
“She is the best mayor for me. She works hard and even harder to ensure peace and progress in Zamboanga City. Her State of the City Address (last week) was well elaborated. She deserved all the praises for a job well done,” said Gloria Sanchez, who admitted following Climaco’s political career since the past decade.
Rah Tulawie Amaraja, who follows Climaco’s Facebook page, thanked the mayor for her hard work. “Thank you for the good governance. May the budget in health sector, both in public and private facilities, increase po and for the maintenance of City's sanitation po,” she said in her comment.
Those who listened to Climaco’s State of the City Address had this to say. “Congratulations Mayor Beng Climaco. Keep up your good work,” said Janet Ko.
Both Tony del Pacia and Nino Domine also congratulated Climaco. “Congratulations to Mayor Beng and civilian and military law enforcers and protectors. Well done,” Del Pacia wrote on his comment on Climaco’s Facebook page.
“Congrats my Boss Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar. You are the best mayor and a boss, God bless always and your family,” Domine said.
Climaco’s speech this week which lasted over an hour was lauded by officials and those who attended her State of the City Address. She thanked the members of the City Council for their support to the various programs and projects of the local government, citing Zamboanga’s P4.26 billion budget which was passed and approved by law makers.
“This time, we must think big and dream even bigger for Zamboanga,” Climaco said, stressing that her administration remains faithful to its purpose of improving the well-being and social needs of her constituents.
She said a sizeable bulk of this year’s budget has been allocated for social services. “The overall standing of this sector in this year’s total allocation clearly manifests our unceasing efforts to promote Security, Health and Education above all else - these have always been the battle cry of this administration since day one,” she said.
In her speech, Climaco said the local government allocated some P100 million for the popular “Largo Vida” program for senior citizens. The funds would be used to purchase medicines for the elderly population of Zamboanga; and P26 million for birthday cash incentives and P6 million for free cinema for senior citizens.
She said for the first time, at least 500 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) will soon receive cash incentives from the City Government after the passage City Ordinance No. 505.
The local government, she said, will also construct Zamboanga’s very own “Balay Silangan” in Barangay Pasonanca. Some P10 million in funds were allocated for the in-house reformation center for drug offenders, and another new building for the expansion of the Mendicants Center in Barangay Culianan worth P5 million.
She said the 2020 budget also included allocation for the completion of the on-going climate-change resilient school buildings at Don Gregorio Evangelista Memorial School in the following barangays - Santa Catalina, Arena Blanco West Elementary School, Calabasa Elementary School, Landang Gua Elementary School, and Upper Pasonanca Elementary School.
And Sinubong National High School, Mercedes Central School, Vitali Central School, Boalan Elementary School, Cristino M. Paragas Memorial Elementary School in Quiniput, Baluno Elementary School, Canelar Elementary School, Lunzuran Elementary School, Pasobolong Elementary School, Sinubong Elementary School, Rio Hondo Elementary School and at the Zamboanga City High School Main. This project is worth P306 million.
Climaco said some P80-million is also made available for a school building at the Colegio de la Ciudad de Zamboanga and for the hiring of additional teachers, personnel and staff to expand the operation and programs of the new college.
She also announced further rehabilitation and improvement of the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex worth P30 million and at the Mayor Vitaliano Agan Coliseum for another P40 million, including the P8.7 million rehabilitation and improvement of the main public market and Santa Cruz Commercial Complex.
Climaco said the local government will also put up resettlement and evacuation centers in the amount of P150 million and will continue to fund the site development of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office Building with Command Center in Cabatangan worth P30 million. This building will serve as the command, control and coordination unit on all emergency responses in Zamboanga.
SOCA Highlights
“After completing the desiltation of the Tugbungan River a few years ago, we also completed in 2019 the desiltation of the Vitali River in the amount of P7.9 million. The dredging of river is periodically being done in order to maintain depth of the river channel and remove silts to address flooding issues at downstream areas.”
“We have completed the asphalt overlay of the roads at the central business district and the city roads in Barangay Zone II, Zone III, Zone IV, Camino Nuevo, Santa Catalina and Santa Maria, all amounting to a total of P116.9 million.”
“Our social services also received a huge chunk of the budget last year. By virtue of City Ordinance No. 466, the local government was able to grant 26,000 senior citizens of their cash incentives. Likewise, City Ordinance No. 481 providing Libre Cine to senior citizens was launched last year. As of this date, some 13,644 senior citizens, maga lolo y lola el ya puede mira libre sine na KCC.”
“For 2019, we have completed a total of 176 infrastructure projects with total amount of P732. 8 million and included here are multi-storey, climate-change resilient school buildings with rain water collectors at Mangusu Integrated School, Zamboanga Central School, Magsaysay Elementary School in Lamisahan, Manicahan Central School, Salum Elementary School in San Roque, Tugbungan Elementary School, Talisayan Elementary School and at the Tuan Datu Hadji Abdullah Nuño Memorial High School in Taluksangay. We will ensure that we continue to provide quality infrastructure projects for our people through our monitoring teams together with our civil society organizations’ partners and we warn erring contractors that we will file cases through the City Legal Office for substandard and defective projects. We all deserve the best.”
“Zamboanga City was conferred the Top 1 Performing City award for the 2019 Regional Disaster Preparedness Index by the Department of the Interior and Local Government R-IX. The City Government of Zamboanga bagged the award as the Regional Winner for the 21st Gawad Kalasag Search for Excellence in Disaster Risk Reduction Management and humanitarian assistance for best Highly Urbanized City category.”
“It was in 2019 that the Zamboanga City Police Office was conferred with the Best Police Office Award besting other police offices in the country, recognizing its accomplishments and the capacity of its facilities especially by housing the Security and Surveillance Equipment and System project of the local government completed last October 2019. Since last year, we have been implementing the best in class Command Center with 12 large format displays to monitor the 130 full high definition cameras installed around the central business district that can provide video analytics such as face recognition, unattended object detection and smart searches for specific objects.”
“For our fight against illegal drugs, the Zamboanga City Police Office together with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a total of 1,062 operations, which included 968 buy-bust operations, 23 interdictions, 45 search warrants, 11 warrants of arrest, 14 police response, and one Oplan-Sita resulting in the arrest of 1,416 drug personalities, which included 13 who are high value targets. Confiscated during the said operations were 11,428.4 grams of shabu with a total estimated street value of P77 million.
For 2019, we have declared 9 out of 98 barangays as drug free. Enhorabuena to Barangays Pasilmanta, Landang Laum, Tictapul, Sibulao, Lumayang, Lanzones, Capisan, Dulian in Upper Pasonanca and Tigbalabag for being drug-cleared. There is still so much work to be done but we are gaining grounds in our fight against illegal drugs. Efforts to have more drug-cleared barangays will continue, with PDEA targeting a total of 20 drug-cleared barangays for 2020.”
“President Rodrigo Duterte reappointed Mayor Beng Climaco as the chairperson of the Regional Peace and Order Council of Zamboanga Peninsula. The mayor expressed her gratitude to the President for the trust he bestowed on her to help consolidate efforts in the region in fighting crime and terrorism and ensuring regional cooperation in the maintenance of peace and order. We have maintained our record of zero bombing, zero kidnapping in Zamboanga City and zero piracy in our seas for the last four years (2016-2019).”
“For the first time, in our modern day history as a City, we have managed to record a drop in shooting incidences to a half. In 2019, there is a drop of almost 50% on the total number of shooting incidents and 26% decrease in our non-index crimes. Antes, todo kita miedo na monton de tiroteo que ta sucede na diatun Ciudad. But with the efforts of our local police force together with Task Force Zamboanga and the support of the local government to all our units, we have significantly improved our peace and order situation.”
“Zamboanga City is a finalist in the Most Business-Friendly Local Government Unit Award City Level 1 given by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. We were cited for exemplifying commendable initiatives towards good governance reforms that promote trade and investment and significantly contribute to local economic development.
“Our economy has expanded exponentially with registered business establishments now totalling to 13,076 in 2019 compared to 9,232 business establishments in 2014. We are experiencing an unprecedented boom as our vibrant economy is now a home to 6 malls, 11 canning factories, 8 private hospitals, 49 pension houses, 36 hotels, and 86 banks (and counting), not to include the international brands of restaurants and retail shops, car companies and automotive manufacturers that opened here.”
“The ease of making business here is far better now. In the opening of this year, the business sector felt again the speedy processing of business permits with our Business One-Stop Shop or BOSS that has streamlined processing of business permits from its multiple steps years ago to just two-steps since last year – application and payment and you will have your permits issued right away in just a few minutes.” (Zamboanga Post)
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