Naga's Executive-Legislative Agenda

YESTERDAY morning, Mayor Robredo presented his Executive-Legislative Agenda (ELA) for his last term in office, which ends in 2010, before a crowd of around 500 at the Naga City Youth Center. The full text is available here; the Powerpoint slides follow after the jump.

It was smaller than those we had at Plaza Quezon when he gave his State of the City Report (SOCR) last February, but the exchanges towards in the open forum was more meaningful.

A banker asked how much is the entire plan package worth, and whether the city's financials is sound enough to support it. (Answer: the city is preparing an estimate of the funding requirements, and will secure external financing for those it cannot fund internally. The city's financial condition is sound -- in fact, it can be accessed from the city website -- as local revenues represent roughly half of its annual budget.)

Metro Naga chamber president Emiterio "Boy" Aman inquired about the city's tourism plan, especially in the context of the industry's resurgence in Bicol. (Answer: we are coming up with that document, part of the City Development Plan being prepared by the planning department, but it is built around Naga's role as staging area and the development of the limited natural tourism assets we have.)

Joe Quising of the Universidad de Sta. Isabel raised the issue of sustainability: what happens when Mayor Robredo is no longer around? (Answer: the managerial aspect of sustainability will be addressed by new investments in HRD, focusing on academically prepared middle managers; the political aspect will depend on the people themseves. But the incumbent administration will always offer itself as a choice to ensure continuity.)

A lady raised the issue of streetchildren which are growing in number at the city center, and suggested giving them jobs and other social services. (Answer: 9 out of 10 of these streetchildren come from outside Naga, and the city social welfare department's response is to always return them to their place of origin. Providing them jobs and housing will only encourage more to do the same.)

On the whole, this three-year program illustrates executive power to set the development agenda, something Manolo pointed out here. It also demonstrates the logic of having an ELA as key implementation instrument in the rationalized and streamlined local planning machinery in the country.

It may not be as sweeping as that recent lesson in Philippine geography, but this recent experience shows that this agenda-setting authority can be shaped and tremendously informed by key inputs from various stakeholders of society (especially our sectoral planning workshops last year), as well as the media and the academe's prophetic role of speaking truth to power.

We are already reaping the initial dividends of our partnership with the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning (thanks, Nora!) and the Ateneo de Naga University.