Davao City is possibly oozing with money. Imagine, the local legislative body easily approving a P2.21 billion first supplemental budget of this year with P354 million for training purposes way into the first month of the second half of the current year.
And imagine too, the inclusion in the additional allocation in the same supplemental budget the amount of P354 million for training purposes under the City Social Services and Development Office (CSSDO). The amount is called by councilor Dr. Bernie Al-ad as “excessive.”
Yes, what are the programs and projects that the said Department in the city government is planning to undertake this year and how many personnel are required that need to be trained? The CSSDO should inform the public what these programs and projects are and why these require capacity building to so many personnel that P354 million to fund. Are the workers that the said office will be training intended to carry out the implementation of the CSSDO programs and projects? Will the project benefit the very disadvantaged sector of the city’s population – especially the natives residing in the remotest of the highlands of the city?
Will they be fanned out by the CSSDO to villages that are located on top of the mountains and accessible only on either horse back or simply by foot on journeys that take as long as three to four hours?
We are asking these questions because based on our own observations most of those assigned to deliver social services under the umbrella of the CSSDO are only concentrated in barangay or village centers.
And what are the skills that these workers should be provided or upgraded? Is the city’s “investment” of P354 million for training expected to have its desired Return on Investment (ROI) in terms of the enhancement of the lives of people in the city’s many blighted areas and those living in the remotest of hinterlands like the mountain villages in Tapak or Dalag Ayo?
How lucky are those that will undergo the trainings to be conducted. According to Councilor Bernie the P354 million will be intended to foot the bills on training venues and food for the trainees as disclosed by a representative of the CSSDO during the SB No. 1 deliberation.
And perhaps even luckier is or are the venues that will be selected for the holding of the training. That is something worth watching by the Davaoenos. After all it is their tax money that will be used by the city government.
With Councilor Bernie having the guts to manifest his dissent in the passage of the Supplemental Budget even if his protest is like a voice in the wilderness, we owe him our congratulations.
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In an official statement Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio calls for “effective leadership and flood control.”
We have no idea what motivated the VP in making such a call when she is part of the leadership in this country. We are also wondering why some areas in Davao City including its business districts and certain areas within the peripheries of the urban center are easily inundated with flood water every time strong and prolong rains fall in the city.
Did Davao City have the appropriate programs and projects when the VP was mayor? In fact as the VP herself claimed she waded in chest-deep flood water when her parents’ house was submerged by flood a few years back.
However, only this year floods destroyed houses, infrastructures, vehicles and other personal belongings in areas like Baliok, Bago Aplaya and nearby barangays in the city’s south sector. It also submerged a wide area in the Bunawan-Lasang districts in the city’s northern part and made a “lake” in the La Verna stretch of the C.P. Garcia Diversion Highway a week or two back.
Clearly all those flood incidences can only be indicative of either the absence of the appropriate anti-flood projects in Davao City, or that if the city has it based on the VP’s official statement, the likelihood is that the plans or programs are still in the blueprint stage and far from being in place.
So with this Davao City experience will the VP be able to convince the Filipino people that she has what it takes to provide the “effective leadership” to conceptualize and implement the appropriate flood control infrastructure in the country?
We are also a bit confused when in her official statement she said, “I am here to show our government officials how to lead effectively.” Why, is the VP not the second highest official of the land?
We hope that her ambivalence can be effectively explained for the people’s better understanding. Making the most credible explanation will surely see Vice President Inday Sara through to wherever she intends to bring her political journey to.
