Belmonte bares plans for next three years

Newly-reelected Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has vowed to vigorously pursue his administration’s programs on social and health services, education, housing, peace and order and waste management in line with its goal of transforming Quezon City into a "quality community."

"The overwhelming new mandate the city constituents have given me requires us in the government to work even harder in providing them projects and programs that they cannot only clearly see but deeply feel," Belmonte said.

The mayor, attributing his victory to his administration’s solid performance in his first three-year term as city chief executive, vowed to improve the delivery of services in areas of concern, where city residents would need them most."

He said these concerns include health and social services, education, housing, employment, peace and order and waste management.

Belmonte said the city government will likewise pursue its aggressive tax generation campaign to raise the city’s revenue collection and to translate this into improved delivery of basic services.

In his first three-year term as mayor, Belmonte built several super health centers scattered in the city’s most populous and depressed areas like Novaliches and Kamuning.

The mayor has also distributed PhilHealth and SB cards to the city’s poor families, volunteer workers, BSDO members, and low-salaried City Hall employees in a bid to provide the underprivileged sectors greater access to quality health care. Renovation of various health centers are also ongoing.

Health card owners are entitled to free hospitalization and medicine amounting to P5,000 at city-based government hospitals like East Avenue Medical Center, Quezon City General Hospital, Novaliches District Hospital, Quirino Memorial Medical Center and the Lung Center of the Philippines.

In education, the city government has built a dozen of schoolbuildings, consisting of 124 classrooms in a bid to attain the 45-60 ideal number of students per classroom for the more than 335,000 students in the city’s public elementary and high schools.

Belmonte has also ordered the repair and construction of other schoolbuildings in time for the opening of classes this coming June 7.

He has also directed the Scholarship and Youth Development Office to increase the city’s scholars from 2,500 to 5,000 to accommodate more poor but deserving students.

"SB" scholars receive tuition fees and book allowances from the city government until they finish their four-year course in any university or college of their choice.

In waste management, garbage collection in Quezon City has been made a model for several local government units for its efficiency, particularly in recycling and segregation schemes.

No less than Environment Secretary Elisea Gozun has lauded the city’s waste management system, urging other local government units to duplicate it.