Naga benchmarks with Quezon City for digitalization initiatives

MANILA, Philippines —Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo on Friday met with Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte to discuss best practices in digitalizing various processes in local government operations.

Robredo said the Quezon City government agreed to send an information technology team to Naga to assist in its digitalization efforts. Last month, representatives from Naga city offices went to QC to observe its digitalization initiatives, particularly on e-services platform that hosts services to residents.

Aside from digitalization, Robredo and Belmonte discussed QC’s best practices on housing, human resource development and other good governance programs.

Robredo was in Manila to meet with the Commission on Elections over the upcoming plebiscite for Naga’s conversion into a highly urbanized city.

In a separate social media post, she called out false information regarding her travel to Manila.

“I don’t usually respond to trolls. It’s a waste of time and they don’t deserve any attention. I am going to make an exception this time. I don’t travel to Manila every week. I only go once a month, usually on a Thursday or Friday, so I can spend Saturday with my daughters, two of whom live here in Manila. I return to Naga on Sunday. This is easily verifiable because I post updates about my activities every day,” Robredo said.

She added that the monthly trip was to seek assistance from national government agencies and private-sector partners.

“It has paid off. Even before completing my first year in office, Naga had already received more than P1 billion in assistance through our efforts. Because of this, we no longer have to resort to borrowing, as was previously done, just to finance infrastructure projects,” Robredo said.

The mayor denied charging travel expenses to the city government, saying even official trips were charged to personal expense.