Mayor bares path in city’s battle against urban decay
For his second term as the city’s Chief Executive, Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the local government is focused on preventing the creeping tentacles of urban decay from strangling the Summer Capital that is deemed to be irreversible by 2043.
The Mayor, in his 100-day accomplishment report, Oct. 10, during flag-raising rites at City Hall, said both the executive and legislative divisions formulated a seven-point agenda last July that would set out the foundations for the city’s path towards preventing urban decay.
“What we decide to do today shall define what our city will be in the future. It is with this inconvenient truth that we are now living beyond our city’s carrying capacity, that this agenda is set,” Magalong stressed.
He explained that the seven-point agenda is a merging of his previous term’s 15-point agenda with the “express intention of merging parallel points in order to become an even more effective and measurable agenda.”
The seven-point agenda includes the protection, conservation and expansion of natural resources and land cover where the city’s rational land use will be defined and its existing green and blue assets that spells out the city’s search for sustainable solutions for transportation and mobility, solid and liquid waste, water, drainage and clean energy.
Climate and disaster resilience where the city aligns with the national agenda on lowering greenhouse gas emissions, expand its adaptation and mitigation programs, alleviate hazard-prone communities, promote risk-scenario planning and mainstream nature-based solutions; Urban regeneration where the city will continue to advocate gender equality and social inclusion, boosting health and well-being, expand and improve the coverage and access of residents to basic services.
“We will work on sustaining peace and order, providing more housing options facilitating land banking, promoting equity in barangay development, and celebrating indigenous knowledge, cultural and artistic identity,” the Mayor said.
On youth empowerment, the city will ensure their access to basic services, address education-industry gaps, raise access to academic financial aid, support entrepreneurship and innovation incubation, and integrate the youth in local government decision-making; on economic development and competitiveness, the city will cultivate more economic opportunities, enhance livelihood services, promote innovation and competitiveness, and advance Baguio’s creative economy as a Creative City.
He said that on smart city management, the city will continue to augment its technology infrastructure, expand real-time environmental data acquisition, implement the smart mobility plan, improve citywide connectivity and involve the academe in smart city research and innovation.
On good governance, the mayor said the city will continue to improve revenue generation and financial management, promote volunteerism, champion public participation and transparency, promote accountability and rule of law, and empower barangay governance.
“All these efforts that I have enumerated will not be made possible if they are not built on a platform of good governance,” he stressed. – Gaby B. Keith
