WHILE she appreciates that Davao City has constantly been winning awards from different national government agencies, Davao City Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio is not enamored by it, even teasing Davao City Administrator Zuleika Lopez about these.
"Trapuhan trapuhan niya yung kanyang mga plaque, mga trophies niya (She would wipe these plaques and trophies)," Duterte-Carpio said, flashing a smile, in her speech before the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII) last Friday at the SMX Convention Center during their 50th Annual Installation of Officers and Board of Trustees.
Davao City won several awards last year. It was announced in November 2017 that the city won the 1st Asean Clean Tourist City Award, the award of which was to be given in Chiang Mai, Thailand during the Asean Tourism Forum. It was given the Tourism Hub Award in The Manila Times' Philippine Model Cities Forum and Awards in May 2017. It was the Third Place in the Highly Urbanized City Category of the 2017 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index Awards in August 2017. It won the Kalasag Award for Best Disaster Risk Reduction and Management and Most Child-Friendly City for Highly-Urbanized Category and the Hall of Fame Award for Child-Friendly City in December 2017.
But for the city mayor, these do not provide a real gauge of what the city has achieved and is doing.
"My city administrator Atty. Lopez always prides herself with the numerous plaques and trophies and that she's usually the one who receives the award in behalf of the city and I always say sa kanya, 'Alam mo invalid lahat ng awards mo dahil ang presidente natin ay former mayor mo. So lahat iyan ay hindi totoo' (I always tell her, 'All your awards are invalid because your president is your former mayor')," she said in a teasing voice.
The mayor has consistently been focused on the work on hand instead of the awards the city has been winning.
Among others, the mayor announced that the city is now set to review the Davao City Investment Incentive Code and that she intends to seek another term to ensure that the high-priority bus system and the farm to market road system are all set in place.