|
Thrusts and Priority Programs |
THRUSTS
Davao City, with its vast natural resources,
rich collective cultural heritage and a driven
people is in the forefront of the country’s
development. The development vision, goals and
objectives, as outlined in the City’s
comprehensive Development Plan shall be actively
pursued. The mandate and prerogatives of the
City Government under the local government code
of 1991 shall be exercised. Major initiative in
consonance with and complimentary to the
national goals, objectives and thrusts shall be
undertaken. The program thrusts of the city
shall be guided by the principles of sustainable
development.
The key roles of civil society, the business
sector and the city government shall be
recognized to ensure the harmonious integration
of a sound and viable economy, responsible
governance, social cohesion and ecological
integrity. The program of government will focus
on the following priority thrusts – peace and
order; the environment; health, education and
social services; shelter; livelihood;
infrastructure; agriculture and fishery
development; investment and tourism; revenue
enhancement; and good governance.
PRIORITY PROGRAMS
1. Peace and Order – The campaign to
maintain peace and order in the city will be
intensified and sustained. Recent developments
show that the city can never be complacent and
waver at anytime in ensuring that the people of
Davao live peacefully. There are prevailing and
emerging threats to the peace and prosperity of
the city and its people. Lawless elements must
not be allowed to roam the streets freely and an
effective and efficient peace and order program
in partnership with uniformed police and
military units must be implemented. Discipline
on the streets and in the communities shall be
encouraged with the cooperation of all the
productive and responsible sectors of the
society. There is no greater satisfaction than
knowing that city residents can productively
work, enjoy the fruits of their labor and
contentedly relax at home confident that there
is peace, security and prosperity in their
locality.
2. Environment – As the carrying
capacities of the natural environment are
continually challenged, it can be expected that
calamities can be in the offing if measures to
arrest the indiscriminate and mindless
activities that degrade the environment are not
adopted. Programs and projects aimed at
enhancing the environment and mitigating
degradation, both in the built-up and upland
areas, shall be major priorities. These include
integrated solid waste management, urban
forestry, watershed management, ancestral domain
management, coastal resources management,
beautification and cleanliness and people
participation and citizen’s action on
environmental protection and rehabilitation. The
protection and conservation of the environment
is everybody’s concern. Only with committed,
aware and responsible citizenry can the city be
assured that development will be a
life-sustaining process.
3. Health – Good health care must be
within reach of the city’s most important
resources – its people. The cost of the medical
care has become prohibitive and a large segment
of the population simply cannot afford good
health care. It is imperative that strong
preventive measure that will insure the
continuing well-being of our people are put in
place. A mass based, affordable health program
must be designed and implemented through the
initiative of the city government. The true
measure of commitment in serving the people is
in making sure that those who may be considered
less-fortunate will find solace in the fact that
their public servants are exerting all efforts
in making available and within their reach
essential health services and life-saving
medical care and medicines.
4. Education and Social Services – The
city government shall be specially sensitive and
responsive to the concerns of the children, the
youth, the women, the elderly, the specially-abled
and the disadvantage. Policies and programs
addressing the concerns of these sectors must be
given priority for us to take the pride in
pursuing a truly meaningful development of our
city and our people. The future lies in the
ability of the generations after us to take the
cudgels of development. We must exert every
effort to ensure that they become productive
citizens of our city and are provided the
opportunity to realize their potential to the
maximum. Gender bias and barriers should be
eliminated and removed to optimize the role and
contribution of women in development. The
welfare and concerns of the elderly, specially-abled
and the disadvantaged should be looked after and
addressed. The best basic things for our
children must be provided.
5. Shelter – The city has an enormous
shelter backlog. Majority of the urban-poor,
especially those whose present dwelling units
are along danger zones and those who will be
affected by the implementation of major
infrastructure projects look forward to being
assisted in acquiring decent shelter. The
comprehensive shelter program must be put in
place to effectively address the informal
settlers and the problems of squatting in public
and private lands. The assessment of existing
relocation and resettlement sites must be
undertaken and an appropriate upgrading program
formulated. Provisions must be made for the
acquisition of lands that are suitable
relocation sites.
6. Livelihood – Sustainable livelihood
programs must be reinforced and/or initiated.
Opportunities must be identified and anchored on
the natural competitive advantages of the city
and its people. Economic activities that will
result in more stable, socially empowered,
gender-sensitive and broad-based development
must be prioritized in the provision of access
to capital and inputs. Livelihood opportunities
that provide direct and concrete productive
linkages between communities and established
businesses should be pursued. The creativity,
skills, diligence and talents of the people of
Davao, individually and collectively, must be
harnessed to produce goods and services that can
compete with the world’s best. Cooperatives
should be organized to optimize total available
resources and strengthen access to markets.
7. Infrastructure – In the city’s march
to development and prosperity, it is important
that infrastructure, both horizontal and
vertical facilities are in place and continually
enhanced. The fast pace of development shows
that the existing network of roads and bridges
are no longer adequate to cope with passenger
and vehicular traffic. There is a need to
upgrade the city’s roads, canal and drainage
systems; provide alternative road for both
northbound and southbound traffic; and relieve
commuters and vehicle owners of unwanted anxiety
caused by traffic delays. The city cannot afford
to lose precious time, productivity and
potential income simply because the essential
infrastructures are not in place. A
comprehensive infrastructure program should be
put in place to rationalize the allocation and
optimize the utilization of the resources that
can be made available.
8. Agriculture and Fishery Development –
An integrated agriculture and fishery
development program should result in optimum
utilization of the city’s agricultural lands and
natural fishing grounds. Sufficient resources
should be channeled to enhance the city’s
natural competitive advantages in attaining food
security. The enhancement of incomes of farmers
and fishermen are imperatives in the programs
and projects that will be initiated. Converted
lands account for only a small portion of
available agricultural lands. What is more
important is the full development of idle and
underutilized lands due to limited access to
capital and essential inputs, outdated farming
tools, non-dissemination of appropriate
technology and inadequate post-harvest
facilities.
Sustainable inland fishery and mariculture
should provide adequate income to our fishermen.
Animal disease prevention should result to
productive endeavors for livestock and poultry
producers as well as the safety of people and
consumers from the dangers of potentially fatal
diseases.
9. Investment and Tourism – Investment
and tourism can only be sustained and promoted
when the city is conducive for continuing growth
and development. The city will ensure pro-active
support and forge coordinative undertakings with
the private sectors in the initiative to attract
investors and tourists to the city. The
operations of the Davao City Investment
Promotion Center will be strengthened and
intensified. The priority areas for investment
will be reviewed and expanded/amended, as
appropriate. Physical and social infrastructure
support in existing and new investment and
tourism sites will be prioritized. The
enhancement of the incentives packages for the
existing and new investors will be thoroughly
studied and adopted. A comprehensive investment
and tourism promotion program will be formulated
in partnership with the private sector and
national government agencies.
10. Revenue Enhancement – The city’s
traffic center must be substantially allocated
with essential appropriations for their
efficient operations. There are enough
revenue-related ordinances which when
implemented judiciously can result into
substantial increases in revenue collection
without necessarily increasing or enacting new
legislation. What is important is for people to
see and appreciate where their taxes go. This
will augur well for the continuing development
agenda of the city. An expansion of the tax base
and the plugging of loopholes in revenue
collection will result in the city being able to
provide the services the people so desire and
deserve.
Creative and innovative strategies to implement
existing tax ordinances will have to be explored
and adopted. As the projected incomes from
traditional sources cannot fully finance the
development programs envisioned in the city’s
comprehensive development plan, viable schemes
in generating revenues and financing will have
to be seriously considered. The operations of
the city’s economic enterprises will have to be
rationalized in order to bring these units into
the mainstream of productivity, revenue
generation and income viability.
11. Good Governance – The improvement of
the systems and procedures in the provision of
effective and efficient service must be
continuing priority. The people expect no less.
We must strive to enhance the capabilities of
our human resources. Training and skills
development programs will be so designed to
bring out the best of our human resources. We
must strengthen and capacitate to the fullest of
our barangays. People in the barangay must be
able to appreciate what the local government can
do for them and more importantly, what they can
do for themselves. The ultimate goal of having
the barangay residents arrive at a consensus on
their own areas’ development scenario will be
vigorously pursued until they are able to
effectively manage the resources that are
available to them,_small.jpg) network to optimize the
opportunities on hand and assert themselves to
get what is rightfully theirs.
Meanwhile, development in the lowest level of
government can be realized with pro-active
Barangay leaders and residents charting their
own future in consonance with the development
framework of the city. The review of the
comprehensive development plan and the land use
plan will be a continuing activity to ensure
that development efforts are attuned to the
changing times. Policy initiatives shall be
transformed to updated ordinances, rules and
regulations duly consulted with and widely
disseminated to the people.
The city shall keep abreast of the advances in
the information technology (IT). The
strengthening of the city’s IT capabilities and
use of the Geographic Information System in all
aspects of planning, programming and project
implementation will enable policy makers and
implementers to intelligently analyze critical
information and arrive at sound decisions in
project prioritization and resource allocation. |
|
|
.jpg)
