ILOILO City – This southern city is on the right track with Mayor Jerry P. Treñas as its leader. The city’s chief executive got an “excellent” public satisfaction rating of 88.8 percent for his performance, the latest Random Access Consultants, Inc. (RACI) survey showed.
The survey was conducted from Feb. 4 to 6, 2022; 600 randomly selected respondents from the city’s seven districts were asked about their public officials’ performance.
Treñas, reached for reaction by Panay News, said he was humbled by the excellent satisfaction rating he got. He vowed to continue providing for the needs of his constituents.
“Public service demands that we do our best for our people,” said Treñas, a Presidential Lingkod Bayan awardee of the Civil Service Commission in Western Visayas.
He envisions making Iloilo the “most livable city” by 2028.
Treñas has made it his goal to sustain what the “City of Love” has achieved as evidenced by various awards and accomplishments the metro garnered. These include the ASEAN Clean Tourist City Award (2020-2022), Top 8 Safest City in Southeast Asia (2019) by Numbeo, Most Bike-Friendly City in the Philippines, Most Business-Friendly City Outside Manila (2019) by Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Most Resilient Highly-Urbanized City Outside the Capital (2019) by Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index Awards of Department of Trade and Industry, Bike-friendly City (2021) by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Most Bike-Friendly City, Gold Awardee, by Mobility Awards (2021).
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which started in 2020 has not hindered the city mayor from working hard for the city.
HEADING TOWARDS RECOVERY AMID PANDEMIC
The fight against COVID-19 itself is a challenge but the city was able to mitigate its ill-effects through various initiatives successfully implemented with the help of multi-sectoral stakeholders, partner agencies and donors.
As the city heads towards healing and gradually reopening its economy, it employs high-impact strategies such as managing the COVID-19 situation by carefully balancing the concerns of its constituents’ lives and livelihoods; ramping up the vaccination rollout; enhancing the business environment for trade to thrive through tax incentives, digitization of the Business Permit Licensing System, and fast-tracking Safety Seal applications to allow establishments to increase capacity and ease restrictions.
“This means that I have to be on top of things both on the ground and at City Hall, making sure the local economy runs despite a substantial stoppage of production and economic productivity or activities due to sudden imposition of quarantine classifications, strict health protocols and physical distancing requirements, and travel restrictions,” Treñas shared during a forum late last year.
Through persistent lobbying and following up of requests to the national government, Iloilo City was also able to have its own 77-bed modular hospital to accommodate increasing demands for healthcare services.
Meanwhile, infrastructure and economic boom continue to provide jobs here despite the pandemic.
For instance, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies continue to expand and employ.
Based on the leading real estate company Leechiu Property Consultants, Iloilo City has also overtaken Cebu and Clark in terms of space take-up for BPOs at the height of lockdowns in 2020.
With big investor’s confidence and a favorable business climate, Treñas believes Iloilo City is on the right track of treading the road towards recovery.
Moreover, the city mayor said Iloilo City is also geared towards sustainable solutions by developing more open spaces, greening the environment, at the same time enhancing disaster preparedness and resiliency.
He said plans, programs and priorities for natural calamities have now taken into consideration how to incorporate adjustments in a way that can make these relevant and practical in the time of pandemic.
Putting words into action through bayanihan (volunteerism) is one of the secrets of success of the city.
The city mayor touted that the Uswag Community Kitchen and Kitchen Patrol for frontliners, JPT Ediscape communal gardening in the barangays, and Ilonggo pandesal for the poorest of the poor have ensured that no one is left hungry.
The Iloilo City government also ensures inclusive and participatory governance. It gets backing from strong public-private partnership.
Treñas is guided by his inclusive development and good governance roadmap called WHEELS – Welfare, Health and Sanitation, Education, Environment, Livelihood, and Sustainability – that makes sure no one will be left behind.
The city mayor also touted Iloilo City as a place where Ilonggos and visitors can leisurely walk the streets because of a safer environment and a walkable community.
The widened Diversion Road and protected bike lanes have been complimented with waiting sheds and “green tunnels” (trellises) for bikers and pedestrians.
Plazas are being renovated to bring back open spaces for people while esplanades are planted with flowers and trees for people to enjoy walking, jogging, biking or hanging out in close communion with nature.
Iloilo City aims to be a top tourist destination with its beautiful heritage sites and structures and various tourism spots.
Iloilo River is also regularly cleaned up and its banks are planted with more mangroves, participated by environment advocates, to preserve the waterway at the heart of the city for the benefit of today’s and future generations.
Treñas envisions a vibrant, well-governed and prosperous Iloilo City with a healthy and productive population enjoying equitable access to basic services; with a world-class convention and tourism center, progressive mass communication industry, adequate housing and human settlement, and progressive revenue collection, among others./PN
