Sunday, October 05, 2008 Davao, San Juan cities ink sisterhood pact
DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, in behalf of Davao City, signed the first sisterhood pact the city has entered into with another Philippine city in the last 20 years.
Davao's last sister-city pact, which was with Quezon City, was signed during the time of late Mayor Elias B. Lopez.
The sisterhood agreement was signed in front of the 60-man delegation from San Juan City led Mayor Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito and Davao City officials in a luncheon at Harana Saturday.
Duterte, in his speech, thanked Ejercito and his party for being "brave enough" to visit Davao and pursue relations with the city even if others have shied away due to negative impressions and reports brought about by the conflict in Central Mindanao.
Ejercito, in response, called the mayor a "legend".
"It is not just the beauty of Davao that has attracted us but it is the discipline and the way it is run by Mayor Duterte," Ejercito said.
"Sana walang mangyari sa San Juan ngayon kasi nandito kaming lahat," he joked.
With Ejercito were his vice-mayor, members of the San Juan City Council and all the department head of the local government offices.
The group was also in Davao for its annual planning session held at the Pearl Farm Beach Resort.
"We hope to learn a lot from Davao in terms of policies as well as share what we call our "economic miracle" in San Juan to increase the income of Davao," Ejercito said.
He said San Juan only had 300 million in annual income but the City Government was able to turn it around, and now the city is earning P1 billion per year.
"Pareha lang tayong hindi umaasa sa National Government. Wala tayong nakukuha dun. We have to help our cities," Ejercito said.
Councilor Rachel Zozobrado, chair of the committee on international relations under which the development of sisterhood pacts fall, said that she is pursuing the creation of a technical working group that would craft policies and projects beneficial for the sister cities.
"Gina-compile na ni nato tanang data para makita gyud nato nga naa ni resulta atong pakipag-partner sa ubang city," Zozobrado said. (GLP)
