Platform and Programs for Cagayan De Oro City
I. Introduction
Cagayan de Oro City is one of the fastest growing cities of the Philippines. The city is now the center of education, trade, commerce and industry in Northern Mindanao. It has sufficient infrastructure, transport and communication facilities, electric and water utilities, and services sector to support its growth.
However in spite of its rapid development and generation of
wealth, gross inadequacies exist. While we have good medical institutions, our children in the far flung rural barangays and in blighted or high density poor urban areas are denied medical care.
While we have educational institutions which are centers of academic excellence, many children of school age are not attending our elementary and high schools. Of our high school graduates, a big number are not able to afford a college education.
While we have expansions in our trade, commerce and manufacturing industries, more and more of our city’s labor force are either unemployed or underemployed.
Therefore, the limited resources of government, including my countryside development funds as Congressman, should be focused more on people rather than physical structures; on health, education and employment rather than more roads, buildings, bridges and waiting sheds.
“Ang Katawhan Labaw Sa Tanan”! (People Above Everything Else !).
II. THE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT (HEED) PROGRAM
Our program is capsulized into four components:
Health : Provide adequate nutritional and medical
services to those in need.
Education : Provide educational opportunities to all.
Employment : Provide linkages for employment opportunities to the unemployed.
Development: Work for the over-all development of the city of Cagayan de Oro
To implement our HEED program, we will avail of the mechanisms established under the Local Government Code of 1991.
Secs. 106 and 117 of the Local Government Code of 1991 provides for a Barangay Development Council (BDC) to be headed by the punong barangay and composed of the following members:
1. Members of the sangguniang barangay;
2. Representatives of nongovernmental organization operating in the barangay, who shall constitute not less than one fourth (1/4) of the members of the fully organized council;
3. A representative of the congressman.
Sec. 109 provides for the BDC to mobilize
people’s participation in local development efforts and to prepare barangay development plans based on local requirements.
Sec. 111 provides that each BDC shall create an executive committee to represent it and act in its behalf when it is not in session and to ensure that the decision of the council are faithfully carried out and implemented;
Sec. 112 provides that the BDC shall form sectoral or functional committees to assist them in the performance of their functions, while Sec. 113 constitutes for each local BDC a secretariat which shall be responsible for providing technical support, documentation of proceedings, preparation of reports and such other assistance as may be required in the discharge of its functions.
The Barangay Development Council BDC shall be reactivated and strengthened. The BDC through its Executive Committee will be the institution that shall carry out our HEED program.
A. HEALTH
No child shall be deprived of proper nutrition and medical
services.
No barangay resident shall be denied adequate medical care.
1. Basic Barangay Health Services
The BDC shall have a Health Committee to plan and implement programs for the health of all the barangay residents. The Health Committee shall be composed of the Barangay Chairman, the Barangay Kagawad in charge of health, the Barangay Health Worker, the Barangay Nutrition Scholar, a representative of the NGOs in the barangay and my representative as the Congressman.
a) The Health Committee shall immediately conduct a survey of the health of the people and children in the barangay. This survey shall find out who the malnourished children are and what sickness afflict them. The survey should also list down the residents who are sick and the nature of their sickness.
1. Malnourished children should be provided with proper
food and vitamins.
1. Sick adults who cannot afford should be provided with
the necessary medicines.
The expenses for the survey, food, medicines and vitamins and honoraria for the committee shall be taken from my congressional assistance fund.
1. Modernization and Upgrading of the J.R. Borja Memorial
City Hospital.
No resident of Cagayan de Oro City specially the poor shall be deprived of modern medical facilities and expert medical care. We will replicate good practices from other cities, such as Makati City.
From my countryside development funds, from city government funds and loans from financial institutions, the J.R. Borja Memorial City Hospital shall be upgraded, refurbished and modernized.
While the rich and middle class residents in the city can have easy access to the private hospitals and clinics in the city, the poor could not afford such facilities.
A joint venture will be signed by the J.R. Borja Memorial City Hospital, and the St. Ignatius Doctors Group, an NGO of volunteer doctors, and the latter shall provide expert but affordable professional services.
1. Satellite Hospital in Lumbia
A satellite hospital will be established in Lumbia to handle emergency cases for residents of far flung barangays all the way from Mambuaya, Besigan and Tumpagon, the frontier barangays of the city.
Indeed when the children in the barangays are healthy, they can proceed to get a good education. With the lack of proper nutrition and medical care, they might not even reach school age. These children will someday become professionals or wage earners and uplift the status of their families in the barangays.
B. EDUCATION
No child in the city shall be unable to attend elementary or high school because of poverty.
No high school graduate shall be unable to secure a degree or a vocational/technical course because of poverty.
1. Basic Barangay Education Program
The Barangay Development Council shall create an Education Committee consisting of the Barangay Chairman, the Barangay Kagawad in charge of education, a representative of parents in the barangay, a representative of the public schools located in the Barangay, a representative of the NGOs in the barangay and my representative as the Congressman.
a) The Education Committee shall undertake a survey of all children of school age in the barangay and find out who are attending classes and who are not, and find out the causes why they are not in school.
b) It shall conduct seminars for parents about the Convention of the Rights of Children. Children below 15 years old shall not be employed or made to work and that they should be provided with primary education. Those who finished primary education should proceed to high school.
1. While tuition may be free, many school children cannot
afford to buy the school uniforms, to pay the miscellaneous fees and other expenses. Also, they cannot afford transportation fares in going to school. These fees, transportation and other expenses shall be subsidized .
d) The school children shall be given food at the school for lunch. The parents shall take turns cooking the lunch of the children.
We shall bring all children of school age in the barangay to the schools at whatever cost. After high school, all graduates shall have the opportunity to take degree courses or vocational/technical courses, depending on their mental strength or aptitude. It is only through education that families can be liberated from the bondage of poverty.
The expenses for the survey, seminars, school fees, transportation and other expenses of the school children shall be taken from my countryside development funds.
1. Establishment of the P. N. Roa Memorial City College.
We should establish the P.N. Roa Memorial City College for the poor but deserving students from the barangays in the city. While the city is home to no less than ten colleges and universities, poor but deserving students are unable to pay the tuition in said schools.
There must therefore be a College financed by my countryside development funds, the City Government, and if necessary through loans from financial institutions in order to provide standard but affordable education to the poor students from the barangays of the city.
The College shall focus initially on three degree courses namely:
a) Nursing
b) Education
c) Information Technology
d) Maritime/Nautical
These four courses are geared towards professions in demand in the United States and the rest of the rich countries. These courses assure immediate employment abroad at high wages in Dollars. The College will likewise assist in placing them for overseas employment so that after graduation and some training they will be able to get employment abroad. When our professionals are earning dollars abroad they will remit them to their families in the barangays and hence uplift their families from poverty.
The Nursing Department of the College will be tied up with the modernized J.R. Borja Memorial City Hospital.
The College will likewise offer technical education and skills development courses for hotel and restaurant management, tourism, marine transport, agricultural technology, auto mechanics, electrician, plumbing, pipe filters, air conditioning, refrigeration, tig welding, flame cutters, furniture making, heavy equipment operators, cooking, sewing, etc. which will be tied up with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and its ladderized education program. The College will likewise assist in their placement for employment abroad or in the City.
C. EMPLOYMENT
No graduate of degrees or technical education in Cagayan de Oro shall be denied opportunity for work abroad or locally.
Unemployment or the inability to get any income destroys the dignity of man. If man is unproductive, he is discouraged and frustrated. There shall be work for those able and willing to work.
1. Investment in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
In coordination with the City Government, we shall provide for facilities and incentives to the business process outsourcing industry which refers to the outsourcing by large companies of some of their back-office operations such as accounting, contact center services, human resource administration and logistics to other companies for a fee. These call centers, medical and legal transcription companies will locate themselves in Cagayan de Oro. These BPO companies require a lot of manpower that will give employment to Cagayan’s labor force. Our City College will tie-up with these BPO companies so that our graduates will be trained by them and then employed by them.
1. Employment after graduation
As stated earlier, our city college, the P.N. Roa
Memorial City College will produce professionals and technical and skills educated individuals who will work abroad and locally.
The College will tie-up with the industrial, commercial, trading and services, including the business process outsourcing, sectors in the city so that our students will already have an apprenticeship program with these companies, assuring that when they graduate they will be hired. Our students will be trained in accordance with the needs of these sectors.
1. Employment in the Barangays
The Barangay Development Council (BDC) will create
an Employment Committee composed of the Barangay Chairman, the Kagawad in charge of economic activities in the barangay, a representative of the NGOs in the barangay and my representative as Congressman.
a) The Employment Committee will conduct a survey of residents of the barangay who are employed and who are not. Those who are not employed shall be advised to go to the Placement Office of the City Government and the Congressman.
b) The Placement Office of the City Government and the Congressman, jointly funded by the City Government and my countryside development fund, shall act as a matching agency where labor demand, international and local, shall be matched with labor supply in the City.
c) This office will send missions abroad such as in the U.S. A. , Europe, Middle East and East Asia, to big companies in Metro Manila and the different economic zones of the country, to look for job opportunities for the residents of Cagayan de Oro.
This office will likewise make representations to all government departments, agencies, bureaus, corporations to be able to place Cagayanons in said offices.
III. CONCLUSION
A three year term as Congressman is so short and funding is likewise limited. I intend to concentrate and achieve results on our Health, Education, Employment for Development (HEED) Program.
I do not wish to promise so many things which cannot be realized. There are so many things to be done for our beloved city, but we can only do so much. I believe that this program which is people oriented is so basic that it should be addressed first.
We focus on People. See the smiles of the small children. Watch the children happily going to school. Hear of the successes of our graduates working abroad and locally. Look at our workers contently doing their jobs. See our families united and free from economic want. Observe joyful marriages of two lovers. Hear the cries of a newly born baby! This is the circle of life! Make every Cagayanon’s life meaningful and fruitful !
