Sustainability has been one of the major thrusts of the City Government of Santa Rosa under the leadership of Mayor Arlene B. Arcillas, ever since she first served for three terms from 2007 up to 2016, and now that she is back with a fresh mandate as its mayor after the 2019 elections.
During her first State of the City Address in the July 15 session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, Arcillas reported the feats of the city for the last 15 years, which includes the time she served as the congressional Representative of the First District of Laguna.
With a firm belief that for development to be sustainable, Arcillas said it is vital to strengthen the fundamentals of the city in all aspects. For this, she established her administration’s platform of governance and framework of sustainable development, which she called the Four Pillars of Development.
After establishing the Pillars, the city worked on instituting reforms needed to sustain the city’s progress. Proof of the sustainable initiatives, the programs she implemented were institutionalized in both local and national levels.
In 2008, the city implemented the LOGOFIND to upgrade the system of Santa Rosa’s income-generating offices. This innovation resulted in the city breaching the P1-billion income mark by yearend. This was enhanced to support the city’s efforts to promote the ease of doing business standards required under its Blue Certification from the Office of the Ombudsman, which the city received in 2016.
Another testament of the city’s efforts to use technology to improve its services is the Recognition of Excellence Award from OpenGov Asia in 2018.
As an expansion of the Disaster Operations Center built-in 2008, the city established a modern and state-of-the-art Central Command Center facility in 2018. The center controls and monitors CCTV cameras and coordinates with the police, fire, rescue, disaster and traffic personnel when needed.
Santa Rosa also established the Dangal ng Pagbabago Rehabilitation Center in 2016, which gave a chance to 126 former drug users to start anew. This was later supported by the Philippine Mental Health Law or Republic Act 11036, where those who have drug addiction problems will be assessed and be given the necessary services.
In 2017, the city implemented the College Educational Assistance Program that supports deserving tertiary students. Boosting this was Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, benefitting millions of college students, including those at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Santa Rosa campus.
For healthcare, the Santa Rosa Community Hospital was constructed in 1995. Now, it has a dialysis center and physical rehabilitation center, and implements the Point-of-Care program in partnership with PhilHealth.
To support these initiatives, RA 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act was recently approved, mandating the inclusion of all Filipinos in the National Health Insurance Program and that no Filipino will be denied access to health care whenever they need it.
All these confirm that programs in the City of Santa Rosa are designed to be sustainable and are being promoted even in the national level. These, according to Mayor Arlene, will further aid the city government’s vision to make Santa Rosa a progressive city with sustained growth and improved quality of life for its residents, as captured in her slogan “Serbisyong Makatao, Lungsod Na Makabago.”