“The state of the city is strong – and it will be stronger. The best of Bacolod is yet to come,” Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said in his first state of the city address on Wednesday, July 5.
Benitez, in his speech delivered at the Bacolod City Government Center, cited increased city revenues, business investments and improved services under his watch, and spoke of more programs geared towards making Bacolod a “super city”.
Clean, efficient and people-centered government is what is needed to transform Bacolod into a Super City, Benitez said.
Benitez said he has zero tolerance for corruption, abuse and neglect of duty.
The old system of having ghost employees, ghost beneficiaries and ghost projects has been put to a stop, he said.
Under his administration the city government’s bidding process is transparent and competitive and has resulted in savings of P43 million, he also said.
The city government has also launched a QR code system where Bacolod residents can send in their complaints so they can be acted on, Benitez said.
Since September 2022 the city government received
1,980 complaints, 1,130 of which were for the delay in the collection of garbage and 1,105 or 98 percent were addressed immediately, Benitez said.
Benitez reminded Bacolodnons not to be afraid to complain because it is their right and responsibility to hold their officials accountable.
BE THE CHANGE
The mayor said he signed City Ordinance 1042 that establishes the “Be the Change” Program on Tuesday.
“Through the Be the Change Program, we want to instill discipline and promote volunteerism, we want Bacolodnons to be good citizens, and agents of development. We will make Bacolod a disciplined city like Singapore,“ he said.
BUSINESS-FRIENDLY
The city government has also accelerated digitalization to hasten the release of business and building permits.
The Office of the Building Official (OBO) was the first to adopt the Integrated Business Permits and Licensing System, he said.
That is perhaps why the collection of the OBO has increased from P48.27 million from July 2021 to June 2022, to P55.76 million from July 2022 to June 2023, he said.
This has also exceeded the pre-pandemic collection in the period of July 2019 to June 2020 that was at P42.27 million, he added.
The city government has established an online tracking system of documents that are assigned QR codes, which has hastened the release of permits and eliminated the need for fixers, he said.
Security features that include QR codes have also been put in place to prevent the proliferation of fake business permits and documents, he said.
To bring services closer to business owners, the city government has also launched the Bacolod Express Service Office at SM City and another one is being set up Ayala Malls
Capitol Central, Benitez said.
The city government is also promoting cashless payments at the City Treasurer’s Office, he said.
GOLDEN AGE
The Bacolod City government is also processing a P4.4billion loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines to finance a golden age of infrastructure in Bacolod City and pump-prime the local economy, he said.
This includes the construction, improvement or
rehabilitation of roads, he said, pointing out that the Old Airport Access Road will be open soon.
He also said the improvement of the city’s public markets will start at the Burgos Public Market, and that super health centers,
a recycling center, a solar power generation facility, and the construction of government buildings will be undertaken.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
“The innovations we are implementing to enhance economic governance and fiscal management are drawing strong interest, support and assistance from the private sector,” Benitez also said.
There is an initial proposal of P4.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Manokan Country to promote food
tourism and another for underground cabling with an initial cost of P200 million, he said.
GREEN DEVELOPMENT
“We are also committed to promoting green development. A Super City will not be super if it is not green,” Benitez said.
With renewable energy, the electricity rates of Bacolod could also be further reduced, he said.
Bacolod will host a Power Summit “to mobilize industry partners as we target 100 percent renewable energy in 10 to 15 years” he said.
The city government is jumpstarting energy transition by installing solar panels on city government buildings and
school buildings, to be funded by the loan from DBP.
“Bacolod as Super City also means Bacolod improving garbage collection, reducing plastic pollution and recycling waste”, he said.
A Bacolod Integrated Recycling and Technology Hub will be built next to the city’s sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa that is targeted to recycle at least 80 percent of Bacolod’s solid waste, Benitez said.
This will be under a public-private partnership with an estimated investment of P1 billion, he said.
PEACE AND ORDER
Benitez also reported that from 1,463 crime incidents in July 2021 to June 2022, in Bacolod, the number has dropped to 1,277 in July 2022 to June 2023.
This is even lower than crime incidents before the COVID-19 pandemic that were at 1,793 from July 2019 to June 2020, he said.
Benitez commended the Bacolod City Police Office and Col. Noel Aliño, city police director, for a job well done.
The city government is setting up the Bacolod Command Center to assist the police is preventing crimes, he also said.
The command center will be supported by a network of 400 CCTV cameras, and enabled by artificial intelligence, will be the eyes of the entire city, he said.
“Through real-time video feeds, we can assess the situation on the ground and direct quick response. The criminals can no longer hide,” he said.
TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
New traffic management schemes have been implemented to ease traffic, Benitez said.
“But despite our efforts, we anticipate that traffic in Bacolod will get worse in the future as more and more cars ply our roads,” he said.
The magnitude of the problem requires expertise not only in operations but also planning, he said.
The mayor urged the City Council to reconstitute Bacolod Traffic Authority Office into a full-fledged department with a bigger staff and budget to address the growing problem of traffic.
HOUSING
“Bacolod as Super City means Bacolodnons having a comfortable life, a life of dignity. And homeownership is the beginning of a life of dignity,” Benitez said.
Bacolod City is the first local government in the entire Philippines to implement the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino program through joint venture agreement, he said.
Through the joint venture with Scheirman Construction, the first building of the Yuhum Housing at the Arao relocation site in Barangay Vista Alegre will be completed by October, he said.
“We aim to build 10,000 units through this joint venture, with total investment from Scheirman of P10 billion,” Benitez said.
Beneficiaries will pay P1,600 a month to Pag-IBIG, after subsidy from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, he said.
HEALTH
“No Bacolodnon should be denied of healthcare, of medical treatment,” he said.
That is why the centerpiece agenda of his administration is the Bacolod Comprehensive Health Program or BacCHP, Benitez said.
There are already 16,517 BacCHP cardholders in Bacolod and the target is to enroll 70,000 more household heads or at least 50 percent of total families in Bacolod, he said.
The program started with two partner hospitals, the Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital and the South Bacolod General Hospital and Medical Center, he said.
Benitez said he has requested the City Council to pass a resolution granting him authority to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with Riverside Medical Center.
BacCHP members will be admitted in these hospitals even without down payment, and will be assisted by liaison officers in each hospital, he said.
To decongest major hospitals, the city government is also building “mini-hospitals” or Super Health Centers in barangays 12, Alijis, Cabug, Mandalagan and Vista Alegre to bring health services closer to the people, he added.
The city government is also upgrading the existing temporary treatment and monitoring facility in Barangay Vista Alegre and the Midway facility in Barangay Alijis to infirmaries with 10-bed capacity, he said.
The city government is also allocating P 220 million for the improvement of the City Health Complex.
He said his wife, Nikki Benitez, has also organized a series of medical missions through Nikki Cares Foundation that served 393 individuals, including 127 patients who went under major surgery.
EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Since July, the Bacolod Public Employment Service Office conducted 15 job fairs. A total of 57,300 jobs were open but only 8,600 were filled, he said.
Most of the jobs that were not filled were in the BPO Sector, because applicants lacked the skillset, he said.
The city government will strengthen linkage with higher education and technical and vocation education institutions, and industry associations to craft workforce development plans to support various industries, particularly the IT-BPM industry he said.
“We need to rethink the direction of Bacolod City College – and refocus its programs towards reskilling and upskilling,” he said.
TOURISM
Benitez also cited the tourism gains of Bacolod City and the success of the 2022 MassKara Festival.
He noted that in the First Quarter of 2023, local tourist arrivals at 177,298 exceeded the pre-pandemic figure of 171,674 in the same period of 2019.
INVESTOR CONFIDENCE
“All these reforms and innovations are gaining the interest of investors to locate their business or expand their existing operations in Bacolod,” he said.
Data from the City Treasurer’s Office shows that local revenues for the First Quarter of 2023 amounted to P1.08 billion.
This is a 24 percent increase in tax collection compared to the same period last year he said.
Compared to the pre-pandemic collection, the 2023 First Quarter collection has already exceeded the collection for the entire 2019, he said.
Gross reported sales of registered businesses in Bacolod increased by 35.31 percent from a pre-pandemic figure of P87.78 billion from July 2018 to June 2019 to post-pandemic gross sales of P118.78 billion from July 2022 to June 2023, he said.
For the same period, business renewal increased by 6.41 percent and business expansion increased by 57.38 percent, he added.
We may be seeing a golden age of construction in Bacolod City, he said.
Applications for locational clearance from July 2022 to June 2023 cover 94 hectares, with an estimated aggregate cost of P2.7 billion, he said, adding that 80 hectares of which involves Megaworld Upper East, Rockwell and SM at BREDCO projects.
He also cited the development of the Old Bacolod Airport, and the Bacolod-Victorias Coastal Road of Rep. Greg Gasataya to decongest the Bacolod North Road and mitigate flooding in coastal barangays.
Benitez is urging the City Council to pass an ordinance that will elevate the existing Local Economic Development and Investment Promotion Office into a full-fledged department that will market Bacolod as a prime investment destination, strengthen investor relations and design and implement programs to support local enterprises.
The mayor said he has also instructed the City Administrator to draft an Executive Order creating an External Affairs Office to strengthen the linkage between the city government and international financial institutions, international NGOs and donor agencies, as well as Bacolodnon OFW communities.
BACOLOD NOT AN ISLAND
Benitez stressed the need for Bacolod to collaborate with the Negros Occidental provincial government and other local governments in the province, as well as with those in Panay and Guimaras.
“We may be an independent highly-urbanized city – but independence does not mean isolation. Bacolod is not an island,” he said.
CITY COUNCIL
He thanked the members of the Bacolod City Council led by Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran for their support and cooperation.
He also congratulated the city councilors and Familiaran for an outstanding record of 39 city ordinances, 10 appropriation ordinances, and 1,484 resolutions.
UNITY
The key to our success is unity in purpose and action, he said.
“We do not need supermen to become a Super City. Ordinary people coming together can achieve extraordinary things,” he said.*