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Saturday, December 31, 2005
Mayor renews commitment to good governance
BAGUIO City Mayor Braulio Yaranon Friday vowed to continue his dedication in supporting good governance in his administration this coming year.
"We pledge continuing dedication to serve others as a public servant and leader whose commitment is on public interest and welfare rather than personal aggrandizement," Yaranon said as he aired his New Year message to the local populace in his "Usapang Panlungsod" media briefing.
The mayor also expressed his wish for an improved economic and political condition in the country to unburden the people of the hardships experienced in the past year. "Hopefully, 2006 augurs well financially, economically, politically, socially, spiritually and morally for us," he said, adding his prayer for the country to be spared from calamities and disasters.
"We hope that there would be a rise in our economic condition and that there would be no more increase in gas prices to enable us to have a better living condition next year," he added.
Yaranon's pledge to sustain good governance is consistent with the thrusts identified in the Medium-Term Development Framework Plan of the City Government which was presented during the year-end consultation-meeting with the barangay chairmen held side by side with the mayor's media forum.
During the meeting, the City Development Council (CDC) also held a briefing on the ongoing verification process for the proposed development projects for inclusion in the Annual Investments Plan (AIP).
Members of the CDC executive committee earlier defended the delay in the completion of the AIP, saying a thorough verification is required to ensure full prioritization of the projects.
The delay of the submission of the plan was being blamed by the City Council for the non-approval of the proposed P730 million budget the other week.
The mayor upheld the CDC decision that development projects should be properly rationalized and prioritized to address all the sectoral needs raised in the CDC planning congress as captured in the resolution of the CDC execom whose members include Vice Mayor Peter Rey Bautista, the Association of Barangay Council (ABC) president, non-government organization and sectoral representatives.
"To submit a simple listing of project titles (as what was being done in the past) defeats the essence of development planning. At best the AIP should be responsive to the sectoral needs and to ensure this, a prudent verification of project proposals should be done," Yaranon said.
Councilor Rufino Panagan, ABC president, admitted that the delay in the AIP was also caused by failure of some barangays to submit the list of their priority projects.
Panagan said even last year when the new CDC procedure was not yet employed, there was also a delay in the identification of the priority projects due to the procedure that allowed each councilor to identify priority projects for funding under their P2 million allotted development fund. He said the procedure also resulted in problems like duplication of projects and non-inclusion of some barangays in the allocation.
He said to avoid the recurrence of the problems, he supported a recommendation during the planning congress for the scrapping of the P2 million development fund for each councilor and instead leave the prioritization to the CDC.
The CDC is evaluating the projects submitted even as over 20 barangays have yet to submit their list of projects. The criteria being used for the evaluation include the projects' impact and sustainability, effectivity, efficiency and relevance.
The CDC is due to submit the AIP to the City Council on the first week of January for the body's consideration in relation to the approval of the proposed annual budget for next year.
(December 31, 2005 issue)
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