Yearender: 2006 a debt-to-riches turnaround for QC

2006 highlights the debt-to-richest narrative of a dramatic turnaround for Quezon City, from inheriting over P1 billion of bank debts and P2 billion payables, to become the richest local government unit in the Philippines for the past four years.

It was in the past year when the city government, under the stewardship of Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., had fully paid P1 billion debts while at the same raising the city’s savings to billions of pesos.

Belmonte said effective capacity building and financial management systems became the backbone and foundation of the city’s growing strength to become the highest earning local government unit in the country today.

The year also marked the city’s expanded government infrastructure development program.

The city government funded the infrastructure budget of over 700 road, drainage and sidewalk improvement projects and has paved more than 260 kilometers of roads.

"We have in five years, transformed a laggard into the most interesting premier metropolis of the National Capital Region," Belmonte declared during his state of the city address last September.

Quezon City’s success story has become a focus of attention of international development institution, business conglomerate and urban developers.

The city has also become a model of governance, a case study of effective strategies by national and local governments here and abroad.

The year also marked the transformation of the city as the information communication technology (ICT) capital with global IT firms setting up their headquarters in key areas, particularly in Eastwood City in Libis.

At least 45 public high schools will also get Internet access by yearend through the so-called "GILAS" (Gearing up for Internet Literacy and Access) program.

The year also saw the dramatic increase of beneficiaries of the Puhunang Pangkabuhayan Sikap Buhay, a collateral-free lending program to the poor which has now more than 14,000 members, mostly housewives.

Completion of infrastructure projects, road construction, pedestrian overpasses, school building and school buildings repair and construction also highlighted the year.

By the end of the year, work on 27 more school buildings with 360 more classrooms will be completed. A total of 54 school buildings with a total of 887 classrooms have been constructed since Belmonte assumed office in 2001.

Delivery of basic health services was also among the highlights of year with construction and repair of 24 health centers and the upgrading of six health centers into so-called "Super Health Centers" or mini hospitals to provide medical needs of city’s poor.

Energy from garbage

The year 2006 also marked the transformation of the Payatas dumpsite into a controlled facility with methane gas collected from decaying garbage, generating electricity for the area.

Last month, Belmonte switched on the perimeter lights powered by 100 kw methane plant at the Payatas controlled dump facility, the first landfill facility to generate electricity in the Philippines.

Under the Payatas Gas-to-Power Generation project, methane gas produced by the decomposition of garbage deposited at the dumpsite are collected and subsequently converted into electricity by the power plant.

Jameel Jaymalin, Payatas operation chief, said electrical distribution lines were installed around the 12-hectare disposal facility.

"The ceremonial switching of lights by Mayor Belmonte highlights significant of this clean and renewable source of energy," Jaymalin said.

The plant was a result of a study undertaken by the Philippine National Oil Company- Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC), under a memorandum of agreement with the city government in 2002.

According to the PNOC EC study, the dumpsite could produce sufficient gas for the next 10 years, enough to provide power to the local community.

A project that will involve collecting the landfill gas will soon be undertaken in order to help clean up the environment and ensure the safety of the disposal facility. Once implemented the project can qualify as a clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto protocol, an international treaty aimed at stopping global warming by minimizing air pollution.

During the initial launching of the project in 2004, Belmonte described the lighting up of the old dumpsite heralded the start of development in the area.

The city government has gained national acclaim as the first urban center to implement the Solid Waste Management Act with the Payatas power plant.

In his Christmas message to city hall employees, Belmonte credited the city’s gains for the past year to public servants — from the city councilors to the street sweepers — thanking them for their service to the city’s 2.5 million residents.