YES, WE CAN! SUCCESSFULLY RIDING OUT THE CURRENT CRISIS.

YES, WE CAN!SUCCESSFULLY RIDING OUT THE CURRENT CRISIS



Compared to the 5,337 registered businesses, it shows that 36% – or roughly one of every three – firms in Naga belong to the informal sector, further indicating a thriving underground economy that will serve our people well in these difficult times.

Most competitive small city. The recently released results of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) ranking of the most competitive Philippine cities is another basis of our confidence.

In spite of the expanded coverage, now covering 90 in the fifth round from only 10 when the ranking project was first conducted in 1999, Naga maintained its standing as one of the most competitive Philippine cities in the small city category, defined as those with population of 200,000 and below. In the Bicol region, only our city made it into the list.

Effective city leadership. Moreover, what buttresses our confidence is the continuing high level of satisfaction by city residents on the overall performance of their elected leaders. In the March 2008 Public Opinion Survey conducted by student researchers of the Ateneo de Naga University, under the supervision of its social science and research center (ASSRC), the net satisfaction rating of the incumbent city leadership ranged from as high as 67% to a low of 36%.

This is a marked contrast with the national leadership, whose net satisfaction rating during the same period was -38%, the lowest ever among the country’s post-Marcos administrations.


People-centered governance. The main reason why the administration continues to enjoy a high level of satisfaction and trust among citizens is our proven, time-tested commitment to improving the welfare of less privileged fellowmen. Over time, we have designed and implemented innovative pro-poor programs, starting with housing (Kaantabay), education (NEED, Sanggawadan and QUEEN), livelihood and enterprise development (Metro PESO and CSWDO’s microlending), health and nutrition (Sentrong Sigla, city hospital and the Nutri-Ataman/Nanay/Dunong initiatives) – all of which converge on alleviating poverty in the city, focusing on the lowest 20% of the population.

Their combined impact has yielded the following Millennium Development Goal (MDG) numbers for the city:



Applying these principles, we will pursue the following key strategies:

1. Integrated social safety nets. The city has gained renown for its innovative social programs, but these extraordinary times call that we do more and exact better outcomes from the same level of spending. This we will ensure through improved synergy through integration and convergence of our various social programs, all targeted towards the poorest 20% of the city’s household population.

We will intensify implementation of the QUEEN and QUEEN Plus programs.

These programs are intended to ensure that in spite of poverty, all Nagueno children of school age will have the opportunity to finish basic education by eliminating the barriers to entry to our public schools.

DepEd-Naga data for the current schoolyear shows a meager 1.4% increase in elementary enrolment compared to last year’s level. What is alarming is that 14% of those who entered Grade I last year did not proceed to Grade II this year. We will be working with the city schools divisions, the school and PTA heads and the various barangay officials in the city to improve outcomes in this particular area.

We will retool the Sanggawadan program to make it more responsive and comprehensive. Under the Expanded Sanggawadan, to be quarterbacked by the City Council for the Welfare and Protection of Children, we will bring in Metro Peso, the City Agriculturist, the Naga City School Board, the City Population and Nutrition Office, and the City Health Office to expand the menu of benefits for parents who will maintain their children in school and increase retention rates.


Coverage will therefore move from individual parents and schoolchildren to households. Poor families that commit and put their schoolchildren through school will benefit from livelihood skills training and micro-lending; rice and school supplies subsidy; center, school and home-based feeding; and regular immunization and free medical checkups.

We will continue to enhance our topnotch public health system by increasing synergy among our frontline health and nutrition units, improving beneficiary targeting through the ongoing i-Serve program, and increasing resources available to these units. We will fully implement SOMECAP, our local health insurance program, this year. We will review the city’s various nationally recognized nutrition programs, with the end view of bringing in more private sector partners that will pave the way for intensified spending in pre-natal, post-natal and maternal care.

Finally, we will expand the Bayadnihan work-for-pay program to enable urban poor beneficiaries of Kaantabay sa Kauswagan to meet their financial obligations under the program.

In particular, we look forward to mobilizing them in local environmental efforts, especially in cleaning up sidewalks, city streets and the Naga River; in improving its riverbanks, particularly at the urban district of the city; and in establishing and maintaining community gardens and parks.


2. Optimizing City Hall efficiencies. The Naga City government has gained a reputation for being a miser and spendthrift. Others view it with horror; in these difficult times, we should wear it as a badge of honor. Running a tight ship will enable us to do more for the constituency, which is what every public servant swears an oath to in their weekly panunumpa.

Except for fuel and oil, other operating expenses of the city government will remain at current levels.

We will review our procurement program and find ways of generating cost savings, particularly in the expanded use of cash purchases which we are already experimenting with.

Side by side, we will revisit our 5 -S strategies, with the end view of further economizing on the supplies and materials requirement of the entire city government bureaucracy.

Finally, we will extend this to our current level of service commitments to our customers at City Hall. We will revitalize our computerization program, with the end view of fully automating key phases in the business licensing and real property tax management.

Using a World Bank study on the cost of doing business in the Philippines and abroad, we will aim to improve targets by at least 10% across the board – and this will include national government agencies involved in business licensing. Our goal is for the city to have the fastest business registration process in the country.

3. Calibrated capital investment. While tightening our belt on the one hand, we will not shirk from our duty to ensure the city's continuing competitiveness one the other – but calibrating it to suit current realities.

The proposed completion of the Naga City Coliseum is the demonstration case for this strategy. We remain convinced on the necessity of putting this key facility. Thus, we will proceed with the needed borrowings, to take advantage of the fixed competitive interests rate still available in the market.


But given the P155 million adjusted project cost, driven by the 100-200% increase in cement, steel bars and other construction materials, we will, for the interim, build a roofless coliseum that will immediately be operational within one year.

We will defer its roofing – which accounts for about half of the total project cost – until such time that the cost of construction materials eases, or we are able to secure national government funding for the roofing.

The unused balance of the loan proceeds will finance the construction of pedestrian bridges, access and greenways connecting CBD 1 and CBD 2 – our response to the behavior changing unabated rise in fuel prices.

4. Managed real property valuation reforms. We will clearly distinguish between real property valuation (which is a technical exercise mandated by law) and taxation, which is what I will put on the table for discussion and negotiation.

To us, the former is non-negotiable – good governance principles dictate that we put in place a reliable SMV that reflects current realities. It will send a clear signal to the national and international community that we have the political will needed to put our property valuation regime in order.

But in the same breath, we need to accept reality that prudence is paramount in these difficult times, and balance the need for shared sacrifice by stakeholders commensurate with their respective ability to bear the social burden.


Toward this end, and in response to the position taken by the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we will further reduce existing tax rates (which are already the lowest in Bicol) and assessment levels to effect the following outcomes:

For the first year, a 10% increase over the current bill of real property owners that will allow us to keep pace with inflation

For Year 2, an additional increase of 15%, bringing the total to 25% over the 2008 bill, and

For Years 3, 4 and 5, an additional annual increase of 25% over the 2008 bill so that the full 100% increase will only take effect on 2013, on the fifth year of the SMV's approval and adoption.

5. A clear fiscal policy to guide planning and budgeting. Side by side, we will put in place, by ordinance, a more coherent and responsive policy of allocating the city government's financial resources to ensure greater fiscal discipline, transparency, accountability and predictability in their use.

Personal Services – that is, the salaries and wages of the City Hall bureaucracy – will funded mainly by the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share of the city from the national government, net of the mandatory deductions, particularly the Local Development Fund (LDF) .

Maintenance and Other Operating Expenditures will be drawn from business taxes, licenses and other local sources of income – except real property taxes -- of the city government.

The LDF, together with unallocated proceeds from business taxes, fees and licenses, and other local income will fund the city's social programs

Real Property Tax revenues of the city government will exclusively finance the city capital investments – especially key infrastructure projects – that will ensure its continuing vitality and viability.


The last one is your guarantee that real property tax payments – with the exception of the SEF which will fund the local public school system -- will not pay the salaries of our people at city hall, nor the operations of our various departments, agencies and instrumentalities but will only fund programs, projects and activities that enhances the real properties that underpin this specific tax.

6. The Barangay Performance Indicators System (BPIS). This is the mechanism through which we will encourage our barangay officials to align their plans and resources towards the realization of our 12-point Maogmang Lugar vision.

We are currently refining the BPIS, in close consultation with the Association of Barangay Councils, to put in place a mechanism through which ordinary citizens can assess whether their elected barangay officials are living up to the basic demands of barangay governance.

The system will be so designed as to put more weight on the alignment aspect, as well as the effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness of barangay governments in respect to their mandate under the Local Government Code of 1991.












But there are doable initiatives we can already pursue, to which the executive will commit its focus and resources. They answer the question: “What activities can I do starting tomorrow that will contribute to the realization of our ‘Maogmang Lugar’ vision?” Let me share with you some of the things I have in mind. Starting tomorrow:

I will look for the Nagueno streetchildren and scavengers, put them in school – formal or through alternative learning – and see to it they will finish elementary. I will assign agents that will monitor Balatas-Dayandang and the Isla-Penafrancia area 24-7 –

to contain illicit drug trade that continues to proliferate. I will organize motorcycle-riding PSO personnel that will go after and stamp out motorcycle-

riding snatchers in the city. I will ask the QUEEN Parents Association and all barangay captains to coordinate with school

principals and find out who, where and why 14% of the Grade I pupils who enrolled last year failed to move on to Grade II this year.

And I will invite everyone who believe they can help turn around the agricultural sector in the city

to join us and take on the City Agriculturist portfolio of the city government.

In the face of these difficult times, I will ask the same question of every Nagueno: “What little things can I do starting tomorrow that will make Naga a better place?” Your positive response to that question will ensure that we will once again overcome the new challenges to our society, and successfully ride out this crisis. Our track record, not to mention our history as a confident, hopeful and capable people with a strong sense of community, is our greatest assurance that “Yes, we definitely can!”


YES, WE CAN! SUCCESSFULLY RIDING OUT THE CURRENT CRISIS.

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