By Brenda Jocson
Lawyer Sheena Alyssa P. Tan, the newly-elected mayor of Santiago City in Isabela said she is pushing for more business investments to make the city the region’s new business hub.
Tan said this can be possible through her “4K” program of governance translated as “KABUHAYAN, KALUSUGAN, KAHUSAYAN AT KAAYUSAN” or livelihood, health education, and peace and order while continuously looking to generate income from its local sources because 360M was deducted from the cities National Tax Allotment (NTA)
‘To combat poverty we had to be hands-on and look for more investors to generate job generation but we had to prepare the Santiagueno’s to be receptive, healthy, educated, capable, and law-abiding to enable everybody to the dynamic changes coming in the future,” she said.
As part of the program, the local government initiated the “KAISA KA KABUHAYAN” cooperative, where it granted interest-free loans to 178 market vendors to contribute to the financial growth of Santiago City.
Livelihood innovations are also encouraged like the construction of the modern slaughterhouse which generated P12.3 million in annual revenues, while the Integrated Transport Terminal Complex got P5.2 million in income.
The Balay ng Santiago Museum and market rentals garnered the local government revenues of P28.7 million.
Tan has also recently conducted an assistance program for farmers, after the lifting of restrictions due to COVID-19. She said some 30,937 farmers received seeds, fertilizer discounts, financial assistance, and training.
The local government also deployed farm machinery for land preparations of 218 hectares of rice land tilled by 1,500 farmers. The use of machinery is subsidized and has benefitted hundreds of farmers. Some 346 farmers also received livelihood assistance to recover their losses during the floods brought by Typhoon Paeng.
Mungbean production is introduces to these farmers by the city government and their children given scholarships.
Urban gardening was encouraged too after lockdowns. Plantita raisers were assisted in their urban setting and organic farming.
Sugarcane production is hugely encourage by the city government via opening the Banuag Norte food processing and full packaging plant to create an economic enterprise to MSME’s in partnership with the DTI
The KAISA KA KABUHAYAN cooperative initiatives of the city government invested to 178 market vendors in interest-free loan and capitalization to contribute to the financial growth of Santiago through Santiago Economic Enterprise Investments.
Livelihood innovations are encouraged like the construction of the modern abattoir/ slaughter house which generated 12.3 M in annual revenue after its utilization, while the Integrated Transport Terminal Complex accumulated 5.2 M income. The Balay ng Santiago museum and market rentals posted the highest revenue at 28.7M which give Tan the drive to continue looking for revenues from local sources to augment the loss on NTA
Santiago average 46.3M in revenues from its economic enterprise alone added to the city’s general income of 320M generated from local sources while Santiago’s tax allotment consist of 85% of the whole budget from 2018 to 2022, to which 13% comes off from revenues from local sources.
Tan aims to combat poverty in her city by reviving “The Santiago Commercial Business District to augment post pandemic economic undergrowth. The renaissance of the New Central Commercial Business District recently, which break ground is a sign to the business sector nationwide that Santiago is now open to bigger business portfolios to catapult the city as Cagayan Valley’s dynamic business hub in the future. One of these fresh investments opened in 2022. The 1st Business Process Outsourcing Company in the whole region that employs young people as call center agents.
The BPO aims to showcase Santiago’s produce and business opportunities. Santiagueno’s consider it as an indicator of the cities potential and is a welcome road to business investors.
In statement Tan Said “We have to had a pleasant market. The sign of a pleasant market are 3P’s meaning people, produce and physical infrastructure. These aims to bring-in new infrastructure. It’s like hanging a sign that Santiago is now open for more bigger business. We need a new, modern business hub that speaks of progress to come. What we will build is a civic-data modern market hub to match our equity.”
The tourism aspect of Santiago boost of 90,000 visitors and excursionist who check-in at the different hotels to see the sights the city has to offer in the post pandemic era. Observing the droves of tourist, the local chief executive aims to position Santiago as an R and R powerhouse by developing activity and adventure spots to attract more to boost the local economy by leveraging the cities inherent accommodation, accessibility, amenities , activity and attraction to offer visitors fun, fantastic food, hospitality and exhilarating visitor experience to drive them in.
The lady mayor knows that she could not achieve all her goals alone but the citizenry of the city must be healthy to cope-up with the developments. “We must have a healthy population” Tan told.
The City government invested in health and social services base on the belief that to maximize growth potential its people is its greatest resource.
The 1st Santiago Subsidize Dialysis Center vision of the city government and the Office of the District Representative of Isabela 4th Congressional District, Engr. Joseph S. Tan (former mayor of Santiago) was one of its flagship programs coupled with the construction of the city’s own hospital in Barangay Rosario.
The 1st Santiago subsidized dialysis center is estimated to cater to 364 patients or more annually who pays Php 5,500.00 on a twice or thrice a week per session.
Additionally, social services geared to secure the health of Santiaguenos were protected services on anti covid vaccinations where the people injected for first dose was 136, 929 and those innuculated for 2nd doze was 127, 316. Other health-social services rendered were as follows: free medicines, vaccinations against flu and pneumonia, physical therapy and rehabilitation, diagnostic services like x-rays, free medical care, health promotion and disease prevention. Other basic social services were shelters for youth and women, capability building, funeral services, senior citizen cash gift, cash for work and funeral services.
Just recently the mayor started the KAISA KA KARAVAN themed as Serbisyong KABSAT in medical services, statistics, agriculture and ayuda to senior citizen (OSCA) were launched. The program aims to bring the basic social services of the city government closer to the people especially to the far-flung barangays of the city like Santa Rosa. The said barangay is approximately 12 kilometers away from the heart of the city. The caravan gears to dispense services which the common folk seek from city government especially the senior citizen who were to old to eck-out a living but still had to pay more than 60 pesos just to go to the city health office to have a check-up or avail of the free medicines like Losartan and vitamins.
Tan also specified in her recent state of the city address that the city government under her leaderships had invested in education to prepare the Santiagueno youth as future builders and pillars of the city for the 21th century enabling them through education via scholarship to be capable as its major work force in the fast developing growth of Santiago. Some 1,857 college students were shouldered by the city government per semester; and 14,114 students including college and Alternative Learning System (ALS) were recipient of cash gift in the form of gadgets dubbed as the KAISA KA GADGETS with the city government shelling out 2M and 71.5M financial help to the Department of Education in the procurement of Monoblock chairs and tables, school facilities development, finances during competitions and mandatory contributions for boys/girls scouts and red cross.
The LGU spent 270% more than the allotted special education fund. The 45M extra is considered as investments in holistic development and education that would reap-in high rewards in the future to come.
Tan believed that for business to prosper and investors to be lured to put-up capital in the city, Santiago must be a hub of peace and order.
The Santiago City Police Office lead by Police Colonel Tirso Manolin recently got commended for its almost 100% crime clearance efficiency and 92.6 crime solution effectiveness with 26 barangays drug cleared and 1,578 fully rehabilitated drug users.
In statement Tan said, “We had to understand that we need long term visions to accomplish what we need. Leaders should listen more than they talk, let us build not just a livable city, but a progressive dynamic city caring for its people.”