Yearender: 2009: Debt-to-riches climax for Quezon City

MANILA, Philippines - Year 2009 was the highlight of the dramatic turnaround of Quezon City from a P10 million deficit in 2001 to a whooping tax collection of P10 billion this year, making the city maintain its status as the richest local government in the country today.

It was also in 2009 when the city finally harvested the fourth local governance Galing Pook Award for best park management. Other Galing Pook Award in past years were fiscal management, the Molave home child center and the Payatas Controlled facily – a final tribute to the SB Performance team led by Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. City treasurer Dr. Victor Endriga, said as 2009 ends, he expects the tax collection to breach the P11 billion mark the biggest tax haul of the city government’s financial history.

When Belmonte took over the reign of the city government nine years ago, the government was empty, inheriting over P1 billion of bank debts and P2 billion payables. Three years later Quezon City had fully paid P 1 billion back debt at the same time raising the city’s savings to billions of pesos.

The mayor 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 government’s infrastructure development, constructing more school buildings. Sidewalk development which covered almost major streets in the city, were also done.

The success story of Quezon City has become a focus of attention of international development institutions, business conglomerates and urban developers. The city has also developed to 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 UP Ayala IT Center along Commonwealth Avenue.

Garbage-to-power first in Asia

Two thousand nine highlighted the final transformation of the Payatas dumpsite into a controlled facility with methane gas from decaying garbage giving electri-city to the residents in the area. While raging flood waters devastated several areas in Metro Mania, the Payatas controlled facility withstood the floods with zero casualty among the residents in the area during the rage of tropical storm Ondoy.

Under the Payatas gas-to-power generation project, the methane gas produced by the decomposition of garbage deposited at the dumpsite are collected and subsequently converted into electricity through the Pilot Methane Power Plant.

The garbage-to-power project is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.

The pilot plant was a result of the study on the extraction and commercial utilization of methane gas from the dumpsite undertaken by the Philippine National Oil Co. - Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) under a memorandum of agreement with the Quezon City government in 2002.

The PNOC-EC study showed that the dumpsite could produce sufficient gas for the next 10 years, enough to provide power to the Payatas community.

The Quezon City government has gained national acclaim as the first urban center to implement the Solid Waste Management Act, by pioneering in the conversion of the Payatas open dump into a controlled facility.

Christmas message

In his Christmas message to the city hall employees, Belmonte credited the city’s gains for this year to every public servant – the city councilors, city hall employees, street sweepers and others – who are working together to ensure the delivery of basic services to the city’s 2.5 million people.

In his state of the city address in December, the mayor reported the gains, challenges and the triumphs of the city government in the past eight years particularly its rise from a financially distressed local government unit to the richest and the most economically resilient city despite the raging global economic storm that swept across the globe.

“Yet here we are, standing strong, economically sound, fiscally resilient and brimming with optimism about the future”, Belmonte said.

He attributed the city constituents and inventors’ confidence that catapulted the city to its status consistently ranking near the top of the highest revenue earning local government unit in the Philippines.

Quezon City is also now between the top Information Communication Technology (ICT) and business outsourcing center and fast becoming the wellness center in Asia.