CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – Calamba City celebrated its 17th cityhood anniversary with strides of accomplishments and economic milestones as the 9th high-income city in the country in 2015, with PHP 5.63 billion net worth and the 13th on the list of the Most Competitive Cities in the Philippines by the National Competitive Council.
City Mayor Justin Marc SB Chipeco, in his State of the City Address, in line with the anniversary celebration on Saturday, summed up the achievements of his administration in the past five years as evidence of good governance and effective public service.
Chipeco took pride that in terms of financial management, the city bagged the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) “Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping” and “Seal of Good Local Government” as economic milestones.
“I am happy to report that the past five years is a celebration of our unity, not just to meet the standard but to surpass it and go for the best practice,” he said, adding that “the best evidence is the award of the Seal of Good Local Government from the DILG we received last year.”
He bannered the “remarkable financial condition with an income of PHP 3.36 billion from tax collections in 2017, added with PHP .92 billion in Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA). He also said this is “a record increase of 23 percent from the previous year’s figure,” which was PHP 2.68 billion in tax collection and PHP .77 billion in IRA.
The Mayor also noted that more than 45 percent of the city’s income was derived from business taxes while an increase in real property taxes by 40 percent was observed, which “reflects business confidence and effective tax campaign added with investment promotions program.”
“We make sure that business is both highly-profitable and relatively easy in Calamba through our Business One Stop Shop,” Chipeco said, citing that new business permits with complete requirements could be had in two days and renewals would be processed in a day.
He assured that the increasing city’s income would enable the local government to expand public services.
Other achievements are on medical services as the Best Performing LGU and Hospitals in 2016 by the provincial government; for social services as Seal of Child Friendly Local Government; for educational services where its City College of Calamba ranked No. 6 as Top Performing School in the Philippines in 2016 while ranking 35th place in Secondary Education Program in the country.
For infrastructures, there is the Stand Alone Senior High School Building, Special Program for the Arts Building; City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office Building, in addition to roads for 41 barangays, drainage systems, street lights, among others.
Chipeco also reported that some 5,166 housing units were constructed in seven relocation sites for those living in danger zones and informal settlers with additional 1,000 units commitment from the National Housing Authority this year.
For agricultural services, the Department of Agriculture awarded the city with the Rice Achievers Award; the Cooperative Development Authority conferred the Hall of Fame Award to the cooperative and livelihood office; and the Department of Tourism recognized the city as the Top LGU Overnight Tourist Destination for Calabarzon in 2016 with 1.1 million recorded visitors.
On top of the services for Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities, the Mayor’s “Serbisyo Caravan” has reached 18 barangays and provided services to 24,000 individuals in 2017 and three barangays in the first quarter of 2018 with 9,000 individuals receiving direct services in their own place.
In terms of human resource management, the city has reached the 4 HR System Maturity Level II of the Civil Service Commission, an indication of the efforts for breaking their own records of achievement, according to the Mayor.
“In spite of our recorded achievements, we still want to achieve more. We go for global competitiveness. Having received ISO 9001:2008 certification, we are currently transitioning to the new ISO 9001:2015 and become one of the few local government units certified with international standards,” Chipeco said.
Chipeco also recognized the efforts of the Public Order and Safety Office in its strict implementation of the traffic code of 2011 and other ordinances while calling for the cooperation of the public in promoting order in the streets and other public places. (Zen Trinidad/PNA)
