No longer a top city
-A A +AMonday, August 20, 2012
WHAT do Iloilo and Davao cities have that is apparently lacking in Cebu? Transparency, financial accountability and good governance practices that made them among the top performing highly urbanized cities.
Not one of Metro Cebu’s cities made it to the top 10 in the list released by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) last week.
The list showed Cebu City losing its place in the top 10 best Philippine cities. Such poor showing should not be simply ignored. There would have been a round of congratulations and backslapping if Cebu made it to the list. It did not; so, there must be questions that Cebu’s leaders would have to answer.
Cebu City placed ninth in the same list in 2010. In the latest list for 2011, it lost its place in the top 10.
The DILG’s Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS), according to a Sun.Star Cebu report last Sunday, rated the cities’ financial accountability and economic governance, among other measurements. The 10 top performing highly urbanized cities in the DILG’s latest assessment are: San Juan City (4.9); Puerto Princesa City (4.88); Iloilo City (4.87); Valenzuela City (4.85); Makati City (4.819); Angeles City (4.816); Tacloban City (4.77); Quezon City (4.75); Taguig City (4.71); and Davao City (4.7).
The report said the cities were rated from one to five, with five being the highest, in the areas of administrative governance, social governance, economic governance, environmental governance and fundamentals of good governance, which include transparency, participation, and financial accountability.
The performance monitoring was one of the initiatives of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, who has been declared missing since Saturday after the plane he took from Cebu to Naga City crashed off Masbate.
The LGPMS website at www.blgs.gov.ph/lgpmsv2 quoted Robredo, in explaining the importance of the system, as saying, “Identifying and monitoring of appropriate measures are important to determine whether we are successful in our initiatives or not. What is more important is not what we have done but the impact that we have created in the lives of the Filipinos. We see LGPMS as a system that can help boost the performance of local governments.”
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama was surprised by the latest assessment and reportedly said, “Sports lang ta kay tingali ug nakalimtan ta nila, sige lang, mupadayon lang ta ug trabaho, syaro ug dili ta nila makit-an sa sunod. (We will be a good sport.
Perhaps they forgot about us, but we will keep working and make sure they notice us again).”
This nonchalance is not the expected response, considering that the failure of Cebu City to enter the list is a reflection of its leaders’ performance. Rama appeared unconcerned with the findings when the occasion required the giving of assurances that the City Government is doing its best.
There will be another assessment this year. Cebu City may be able to regain its standing in the best Philippine city list if it focuses on what Robredo said. It is not about what the City has done but on the impact it has created in the lives of constituents.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on August 21, 2012.
Opinion
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