MANILA -- Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte on Thursday said despite being a small city with a smaller budget, Davao City can teach many lessons to larger local government units like Quezon City.
“Even if we are a bigger city with a much bigger budget, there really are many things to learn from Davao City which is a smaller city with a smaller budget, but with a good leadership,” Belmonte said during the closing ceremony of a convention held in Davao for Quezon City barangay officials.
The vice mayor lauded Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte for her good governance, which she mentioned, is the key to the peace and order and competitiveness that the city upholds.
“Inday Sara is a very compassionate leader. She was able to adopt her father’s style of maintaining peace and order, but at the same time, she incorporated her compassion as a woman. I really do admire her a lot,” Belmonte said of the daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“And Davao taught us to maximize our resources. They were able to make a lot of things out of all the resources they have. That’s why their economy keeps on flourishing,” she added.
Belmonte bared on Tuesday her plans of adopting Davao City’s emergency response practices, which she deems an effective way of responding to disasters and many kinds of emergencies.
Together with the officers of Sangguniang Kabataan and barangay officials, Belmonte went to Davao City for a training convention, in partnership with the Davao City local government, that aims to demonstrate the city’s best practices that can be applied on Quezon City localities.
“It is a learning experience for them because the program was arranged for us by the city of Davao through Mayor Sara Duterte. I asked this from our sister city and they immediately did it for us. I am thankful to them for allowing us to learn many things from the Davao City officials themselves,” Belmonte said.
In November last year, Mayor Duterte’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago formed an alliance with Belmonte’s Serbisyo sa Bayan Party, which sealed the two leaders' partnership.
“I look forward to more partnerships with Davao because we have been helping each other to address our city’s local issues and problems. It is indeed a fruitful partnership,” Belmonte said. (PNA)
