Mandaue, Dumaguete mull sisterhood accord

CEBU, Philippines - The mayors of the cities of Dumaguete and Mandaue in Central Visayas Monday agreed to come up with a sister-city relationship.

This developed as the 24-man mayor’s  team headed by Dumaguete City Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria visited Mandaue City as part of the city’s “lakbay-aral” program.

Aside from Mandaue City, Sagarbarria’s team also visited the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Cebu.

 â€œThere are many things we can learn from Dumaguete and adopt these in our city,” said Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes during a meeting with the visitors at the city’s Hall of Fame.

Cortes immediately coordinated with the council to formalize the plan and pass an enabling ordinance.

According to Cortes his administration has strengthened public-private partnership program in addressing the basic needs of Mandaue residents and one way of involving citizens’ participation in local governance.

DILG city director Jhoaden Lucero presented to the visitors the city’s best practices which included the implementation of Anti-Red Tape Act and the survey of  Civil Service Commission  (CSC) which gives Mandaue a passing rate of 85 percent; the automation of Business Processing and Licensing Section (BPLS).

Other best practices include the relocation of informal settlers living in the city’s danger zones; implementation of Performance Governance System (PGS) in partnership with the Institute of Solidarity in Asia (ISA); school-building projects in partnership with the Aboitiz Foundation; and digitization of maps, among others.

Sagarbarria for his part said coming up with a sister-city relationship with Mandaue City is a welcome development.

“Aside from promoting camaraderie, it enables both cities to help each other,” he said, adding that he is particularly interested in how barangays Canduman and Pagsabungan recycle their plastic waste.

Elvira Alagao, executive assistant of Mayor Sagarbarria said they are also interested in the city’s program for informal settlers, like the setting up of a relocation area.  (FREEMAN)