SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – Mayor Pablo C. Ortega assured local residents of improved and continuing public service as the city continues to gain success in the various facets of governance.
“The pulse of our commitment is as strong as ever, before we move forward to an even healthier 2015,” he said as he stressed that the positive development in the city is the result of a collective achievement in 2014 with the stakeholders, City Council, led by Vice Mayor Hermenigildo “Dong” Gualberto, and the residents.
Mayor Ortega pointed out that the formation and implementation of his administration’s programs were health-centered and very much focused on performance, one of them is his aim to provide residents with health security with the aspiration of being a region for Health and Wellness in five years;
His governance also embarked on economic activities in agriculture, trade and tourism and made sure that food, investments, livelihood and safety among the residents is secured with the partnership of the police, local businessmen and barangay officials, who recently launched their respective income-generating projects, using their signature products.
He said that the establishment of a public order and safety office, Police Assistance Box in the Streets (PABS), and CCTVs, which proved to show that all goals will not be achieved without law and order.
He added that the launching of a food terminal; the fast-tracked acquisition of business, working and licenses permits; an offering more assistance to farmers in terms of funds, seedlings, experimental crops and training and workshops, help effect more produce in agricultural products.
Boosted public service delivery institutionalization, such as computerization in all transactions is now more organized and systematic, as proven by an E-governance award given last year by an international organization as a positive result to the document tracking system set-up.
The said scheme improved policies and systems in the City Hall and made an employee’s job easier, he described.
The indigents, youth, women, and elderly were not discounted with the support and supplementing of needs for the implementation of national government programs such as the Garantisadong Pambata Nutrition Program, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, free wedding of indigent couples and baptism of indigent children, in the social services. It was accentuated by the Christmas gift-giving of Mayor Ortega to three most Senior Citizens in the city by giving them P150, 000.
Mayor Ortega also initiated the educational benefits of 21 out-of-school youth by putting them in the Pag-asa Youth Association of the Philippines educational class, to prevent them from bad influence.
Business also perked up with the holding of, among others, the Let’s Go Negosyo Agri-Tourism exposition, amounting to P 6 million gross sales, exceeding its total earnings and other product exhibits in other places. These exhibits are income-generating as well as encouraging livelihood among residents.
The plan to achieve its institutionalization stage for 2015 and beyond is being pursued as it adopted the Performance Governance System (PGS), which was set in 2015 and its “Islands of Good Governance’s” commitment to present the 12 model barangays to the APEC Summit in November this year.
As a pre-requisite, these barangays must be ISO (International Organization for Standardization) E-HAS-certified and must have a net income from its IGP (Income Generating Project) and upgraded health facilities and aptly-skilled volunteers, which were the former barangay health worker volunteers.
During his first term, the Mayor said, he will begin from the barangay level as take-off to start his governance.
“Together, we will do our part, in whatever possible way we can, always keep in mind that what we think, feel, say and do must be for the good of our city and its people,” he said.
“It is our role to reach out even beyond our city boundaries to share our ideals and successes in delivering expanded public services.”
