Wednesday, November 23, 2011

ULAT SA BAYAN NI HON.MAYOR JAPAL J. GUIANI,JR.

ULAT SA BAYAN

21 November 2011
Good morning ladies and gentlemen!
    
Once again, I am making a report of the accomplishments of the City Government for the past 10 months of the year.
    
Despite the flooding that disrupted the economic condition of a large portion of our population last June, I am proud to say that we now have recovered.
    
A clear manifestation of this is the 10.98 percent increase in our aggregate income as compared to the same period last year.
    
From January to October 2010, the city only had an income of P88,048,244.42.

For the same period this year, we posted an income of P97,717.746.34 or an increase of P9,669,501.92.
    
From local taxes alone, we posted an increase of 12.87%.
    
Meanwhile, the Permits and License Division of the Office of the City Mayor posted a total collection for the period of P60,132,044.54.
    
A total of 4,831 Business Licenses were issued. This is aside from the 912 Business Licenses issued to vendors at the Mega Market and 145 at the City Arcade.

Moreover, this figure is way beyond the 2010 performance wherein only 4,455 Business Licenses were issued for the whole year.

For the period, our two public markets - Mega and Arcade - posted an increase in its revenue collection amounting to P653,403.00 representing stall fees and Business License as compared to last year.

Another good thing is that the City Central Arcade has already completely paid its Loan Amortization with the Land Bank of the Philippines last February 2011 thus all its income and revenues directly goes to the coffers of the city government.

To put law and order in our markets, illegal structures and unauthorized extension stalls were demolished. Massive clean-up day for at least twice a month aside from the regular cleaning activities were conducted.

Saturation drive against illegal vendors within the vicinity of Mega Market and City Arcade is done daily.

To protect the welfare of the consumers, we installed a “Timbangan ng Bayan” and confiscated defective weighing scales.

There were also instances when “hot meats” were seized by personnel of the City Veterinary Office.

And for the first time in the history of Cotabato City, we included our market vendors in our health program. They were given free AH1N1 and anti-tetanus vaccination by the Office on Health Services.

Aside from that, we conducted a “Symposium on the Economics in Islam” featuring right pricing, proper weighing scale, usury and other related topics. This was undertaken with the support of the Darul Ifta and Ulamas in Cotabato City, led by Ustadz Jaafar Ali and Ustadz Abdulsalam Alabat.         

As part of the regulatory function of the City Government, a Task Force was created purposely to ensure that all business establishments and activities in the city have the necessary Business License.
    
In the course of their inspection, the Task Force found out that some 133 business establishments were operating without license. They were issued notices and given 30 days to comply with the requirements of law, otherwise their establishments will be closed.
    
Immediately, 53 complied before the expiry of the deadline, 57 complied after their establishments were padlocked, 11 opted to cease from further operating, and 12 entered into a compromise agreement with the City Treasury Office as to the schedule of payment of their taxes and penalties.
    
Our campaign against the continued operation of unlicensed business establishments still continues. We believe that there are still a lot of them. Thus, we would like to call their attention to immediately comply because we will not hesitate to enforce the full force of the law.
    
Parallel to this, our Office for Legal Services vigorously and diligently defended the City’s interest against telecommunication companies who are consistently claiming for tax exemption.
    
These efforts yielded positive results as manifested by the collection of real property taxes from the Pilipino Telephone Company, the predecessor of Smart Communications, amounting to P5,679,426.61.
    
Talks are still underway concerning the real property tax delinquencies of the other telecommunication companies.
    
Complementary to our revenue generation efforts, the Office of the City Assessor for the first nine months only of 2011 has already posted a percentage accomplishment of 136.33 percent on the planned targets versus their actual accomplishments.

For the period, the Office of the City Assessor assessed more or less 12 million pesos worth of new real properties, with a corresponding real property taxes for basic worth P141,697.46 and P125,953,30 representing the Special Education Fund.

The increased revenues helped us implement various development projects for our people.
    
Presently, the City Engineering Office is busy with the completion of 31 various infrastructure projects.
    
These includes: construction of flood control and drainage systems, repair of Camasi Bridge, renovation of eight Day Care Centers, repair of General Luna Street, development of the Tantawan Park, rehabilitation of the burnt portion of the City Arcade and the perimeter fencing of the Mega Market.

On November 23, work will start for the renovation of our city Plaza.
    
By the way, we would like to thank in advance the Growth with Equity in Mindanao or GEM Program of the United States Agency for International Development for their funding of the construction of the Boat-landing Building at the Bagsakan Riverside of Barangay Poblacion Mother. Work on the project will commence next week and is expected to be completed by the middle of February 2012.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment has given us support funds for the declogging of flood control drainage system in the 26 barangays affected by the flooding. The DOLE gave us P660,000.00, representing 60 percent of the total project cost, while the other 40 percent was shouldered by the City Government out of our Calamity Funds.
    
Moreover, to mitigate the problem of flooding in the city, particularly in the low-lying barangays, the City Government entered into a P76-million loan agreement with the Land Bank of the Philippines for the purchase of one brand new Amphibious Excavator, one brand new Vibratory Compactor and two units of brand new Garbage Compactor Trucks.
    
Likewise, we also purchased one pontoon barge for the use in our flood mitigation.

Aside from these equipments, we also purchased earthfill materials and distributed them to low-lying barangays for the rehabilitation of their barangay roads which were damaged by the June flooding.
    
Moreover, we appropriated P4.6 million for the improvement of the perimeter dike system at the Biniruan dumpsite.
    
The amount of P1,725,000.00 was also appropriated for the purchase of solar-powered street lights.

In other developments, the Office on Social Welfare and Development Services was very busy during the period. Aside from attending to the needs of the thousands of our residents affected by the June flooding, the OSWDS was never remiss in the performance of its mandate.
    
At the forefront of its mandate is the Day Care Services program.
    
With a manpower compliment of 60 Day Care Workers, the City Government’s Day Care Service Program has decreased capacity to serve pre-school children by a slight 1.3% to 2,528 from 2,652 in 2010 because of institutional restructuring in preparation to the implementation of DepEd’s K12 Education System.  Children whose ages are 5 to 6 years old will be taught by DepEd’s accredited mentors and no longer be considered under Day Care Service Program.
    
The City Government’s special program for disadvantaged and street urban working children served 379 street children—a 59% decrease over 2010’s figure of 933 children but an almost 22% over its target of 484 this year.
         
In anticipation to additional acceptors of rehabilitation program of the City Government, we have allocated the amount of P360,000.00 for the rehabilitation of ten 10 street-based children who were once tagged as rugby users at the Marcellin Foundation in Gen. Santos City.  The city government provided P 3,000.00 per month per child for their subsidy in the center. 
    
Similarly, we provided financial assistance to 24 children who are in crisis situation (abused, abandoned, child labor, children in conflict with the law). To date we have three abandoned children placed in a temporary custody as their papers for declaration of abandonment were being processed.
    
Also, P50,000.00 was allocated for the continuous feeding to 70 street-based children who could not find comfort staying at home with their families.

To provide productive activities for the sector every year, the office conducted children’s festival both at barangay and city level.  This annual program is undertaken every children’s month celebration with a budgetary support of P 93,000.00. 
    
In support to children with school needs, the City allocates yearly budget of P 1,500.00 per client as financial assistance to indigent school children who are not beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4P’s to buy school supplies, shoes and uniforms.  A total of 66 children benefited this year’s P100,000.00 budget.
    
They were community-based street children who were found to be in–school children have availed of school supplies for their educational needs. 
    
Funded annually in the amount of P 666,000.00 in the form of volunteers’ honorarium, the program on street children was sustained by the presence of 37 Street Education Volunteers whose skills were enhanced through the Family Tracing and Reunification Project of the UNICEF.
    
This project aims to reunite our street-based children to their families by providing support services and other psychosocial interventions. Moreover, this facilitates the involvement of others partners who are committed to provide welfare for our disadvantaged children.
    
Since the start of the project, a total of 284 street and urban working children have been registered. Out of this figure, 120 children are now being prioritized and served according to the urgency of their needs, of which 22 street-based children were now either reunited to their families or turned-over to their parents who reside in nearby towns.  Thirty-eight children are now enrolled in different schools in the city.

However, street children phenomenon cannot be eradicated overnight considering that our City is rapidly urbanizing.  Furthermore, Cotabato City, as we all know, is surrounded by conflict-affected areas as we expect an influx of more families to the City to seek safe and profitable refuge, thus, compelling the City Government to exert its best effort to provide timely program and services to lessen the burden of the problem. 

Another mandate of the OSWDS concerns women’s welfare. This year, the OSWDS provided counseling services such as maternal and child-care, self-enhancement and awareness on community participation to 140 community-based women. 
    
Likewise, the Productivity Skills Capability Building for Disadvantaged Women provided skills training on sewing to 85 women this year.   These skills made them capable in engaging in productive livelihood activities and eventually contributing to increased family income.
    
Moreover, 20 differently-abled persons or persons with disabilities availed of the physical restoration program of the City Government.  They were recipients of assistive devices in the form of wheelchair, prosthetics, eyeglasses and artificial legs. 
    
The City Government also extended educational assistance to 70 disabled persons amounting to P 140,000.00.
    
On the matter of the OSWDS program for the elderly, 470 members of the senior citizens sector were provided assistance ranging from capital and burial assistance, social and self- enhancement, counseling sessions and referral services. 
    
During the height of the flooding last June, the City Government, thru the OSWDS, served 88,770 individuals who were provided relief assistance from the calamity fund of the city government. Likewise, non-governmental organizations, private individuals, people’s organizations and other government agencies have also extended support from relief to cash assistance.
    
A total of 60 families who were fire victims were also provided with immediate relief and emergency cash assistance taken from the calamity fund. There were 13 individuals who were victims of bomb explosion where in the city have shouldered their hospitalization and other medical expenses.
    
Cotabato City is a recipient of the Pamilyang Pilipino Pantawid Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. 
    
Some 1,461 families from Barangays Kalanganan Mother and Poblacion Mother were initially identified as beneficiaries of the 5- year program.
    
Overall, Cotabato City has a total of 9,972 beneficiaries from the 37 barangays.
    
On the aspect of health development, the Office on Health Services has immunized against measles some 34,438 children aged 9 to 95 months old or about 85 percent of the target.
    
To address the problem of malnutrition, the OHS in partnership with the two international introduced the Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition Program in the barangays last June 2011.
    
The project has identified 2,175 infant patients. 25 of them were classified as severely acute malnourished while 77 were classified as moderately acute malnourished.

Meanwhile, the Office on Health Services received funding and technical assistance from the Department of Health. The amount of P1.5-million was given as additional fund for the City-wide Investment Plan for Health and P1-million fund support for the OHS Maternal and Neonatal Care and Nutrition. This is aside from the various trainings on health programs given to OHS personnel.

With regards to our solid waste management program, we could say that our efforts are paying off.

You may have noticed that, unlike in other places wherein the number of dengue cases is on the rise, here in Cotabato City the number is going down.

We may be one of the cities, if not the only one, in the country where the number of dengue cases is dropping.

This is because of our intensified solid waste management program.

This down trend began when our people started to be responsible about their garbage and heeded our campaign to segregate and recycle.


Because waste segregation and recycling means reducing the volume of garbage, thereby reducing also the cost of hauling and transporting the collected garbage to our dumpsite.

These are just a few of the benefits of our solid waste management program.

That is why I would like to reiterate my call for everybody to do their share in reducing and segregating our garbage.

We can achieve a lot if only we cooperate and do our share for the benefit of everybody.

On the aspect of peace and order and security, the City Government appropriated P2-million for the closed circuit television or CCTV surveillance system. This security system is now functional.

Aside from this, radio communication equipments were procured for the use of the police and the barangays.

Likewise, the City Government continues to extend support, in various forms, to our City Police, including the Philippine Marines and other law enforcement agencies in the city, so as to ensure the safety of the residents of Cotabato City.

To further improve the crime-fighting capability of our police, the City Government, in cooperation with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, conducted a seminar-workshop on strengthening the Role of the Cotabato City PNP and other law enforcers in the prosecution of cases. Aside from the police, elements from the Philippine Marines and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency were also among the participants.

To help alleviate the economic status of our constituents, the Tourism, Trade and Industry Division of the Office of the City Mayor conducted series of livelihood training on bangus deboning and smoked fish production, crab and bangus relleno preparation and shrimp kropeck production.

On the other hand, we also handed out 315 bags of certified palay seeds to our rice farmers. Likewise, 25 sets of gill nets and 15 sets of multiple handline fishing gears were also given to fisherfolks at the coastal fishing barangays of the city.

Meanwhile, I am glad to announce that no less than the national executive director of the National Meat Inspection Service would be coming today. The purpose of their coming is relative to our plan to establish the country’s first Halal-certified slaughterhouse.

The National Meat Inspection Service has committed P10-million pesos for the project.

Along this line, I have issued instructions to our City Veterinarian, Dr. Robert Malcontento, and our City Planning Officer, Roseller Papa, to fast-track the finalization of the project design and program of work.

This early, I would like to thank all those who have pledged their support and assistance towards the realization of this project. Foremost is the Mantana Foundation, led by Dr. Danda Juanday, and Dr. Norodin Kuit of the Muslim Mindanao Halal Certification Board.

Aside from the delivery of basic services to our constituents, the City Government also takes care of its personnel.

That is why we have the Friday afternoon “Got Talent” showdown among our personnel and barangay officials.

To quote the Proverb “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” it means that “If you only work, and do not take the time out to have fun, then you will become a very boring person. Or in the worst case, it will make you go mad.

Moreover, we also gave additional incentives to our employees. First was the Economic Relief Assistance of P10,000 for plantilla personnel and P5,000 for contractual employees. The first half of which was given last June 2011 and the second half was released last August.

Over and above these, our personnel will also be receiving an additional year-end incentive of P5,000 which will be released next month.

Likewise, members of the City Police, Bureau of Fire, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Administration and even our more than 1,000 public school teachers will also be receiving an additional year-end incentive from the City Government of one thousand pesos each.

If our financial standing continue to get better next year, more benefits will be coming for all of us.

In closing, I call on each and every Cotabateño to do their share in making our city peaceful and progressive.

Pagtulungan nating panatilihing maayos, malinis at matahamik ang ating lungsod tungo sa kaunlaran ng lahat.

Walang ibang dapat na mas higit na magmamalasakit at magmamahal sa ating lungsod kundi tayong mga Cotabateño, maging anuman ang ating pananampalataya, tribu o political affiliation.

Alam ko na walang ni isa sa inyo ang nagnanais ng hindi maganda para sa ating lungsod.

Let us join hands in the attainment of our vision of hope, happiness, peace and prosperity for Cotabato City.
Maraming salamat at magandang umaga sa lahat!  

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