Quezon City is investing heavily on education and employment creation to sustain its economic and social development, Mayor Herbert Bautista said in his eighth State of the City Address last week.
He said the importance of strengthening foundations and improving on good governance are proven effective strategies, and “by the reckoning of the government and private-sector groups, the answer is ‘yes,’ for we celebrate a series of victories.”
Bautista highlighted several awards and recognition given to the city government, validating the local government’s competitiveness, particularly as the country’s Most Competitive City under the highly urbanized city category award, given by the National Competitiveness Council.
The city, according to the local executive, has the largest service economy in the country, with most of its more than 58,000 registered businesses engaged in wholesale and retail. It is a shopping haven, with more than 28 shopping complexes scattered throughout the city.
Noting the city’s right mixture of character that makes it an ideal livable urban area, Bautista listed its 24-hour communities, with businesses, residential condominiums, restaurants and malls in integrated developments. It is also a home to many information-technology (IT) companies, which are attracted by the wide choice of sites, a large source of manpower owing to the city’s huge population, and the wide variety of amenities. The city has the second densest concentration of IT parks and buildings in the Philippines.
Based on December 2016 data from Quezon City’s annual list of companies that paid for their business registrations’ renewal, there were 12,116 of those establishments. The micro enterprises with P500,000 capital and less totaled 9,789, while those with up to P1.5 million were listed at 1,409.
There were 689 small enterprises with up to P5 million in capital, while those with up to P15 million in capital reached a total of 171.
Forty-six medium enterprises with up to P60 million in capital renewed their business licenses last year, while 12 large enterprises, those with more than P60 million capitalization, also registered anew and paid their annual taxes.
These businesses do not represent the total registered businesses in the city, as there is a separate list that opted to pay early this year, including a considerable number of new businesses that filed their tax dues at the same time.
The list of taxpayers that renewed their businesses last year revealed much of the type of companies operating in the city, which included 982 manufacturers that either are producers or repackers, 5,457 wholesalers, 75 exporters and 1,127 importers.
In anticipation of the expanding business environment, the Quezon City government has two buildings within the city hall compound under construction—the Building Regulatory Offices for building permits, locational clearances and fire safety inspection certificates and the multilevel parking building.
According to Bautista, the recent approval of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board for the city’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) for 2011 to 2025 is a big step for long-term development planning. The CLUP is a long-term framework plan defining the city’s desired physical pattern of growth in the landscape, in business, nature, residential and disaster mitigation.
The list of businesses that renewed their permit to operate in the city last year includes 15,999 contractors, from those engaged in big-ticket road or housing projects to those engaged in minor house repairs and garden designers. The list also includes 2,600 financial institutions, segregated into banks, pawnshops, insurance, security and stocks dealers.
Also, about 3,221 restaurants and eateries renewed their licenses, together with 6,510 proprietors or lessors and operators of hotels, motels, inns or pension and other boarding or lodging houses. The list includes 415 amusement centers, entertainment establishments, bars, cocktail lounge, gaming activities and social recreations.
In the list also are 528 learning institutions, from the small- kinder-community-based types to major colleges and universities.
In education, Bautista said, the city allocated P2.17 billion for 2017 compared to P1.88 billion last year.
“We have 11 new senior high schools with a new building donated by a private company ready for inauguration [this] November. The building will be used by the Media Arts senior high-school students who are now temporarily holding classes at the Kamuning Elementary School,” Bautista said, adding that the city’s partnership with the private sector has brought concrete results in areas considered by the local government as priorities.
The city government, through the Scholarship and Youth Development Program, is now supporting 3,035 college students, while 25 scholars are taking their graduate studies, although Bautista noted a declining number of students graduating from high school, which he said should also be a concern of the education sector to take action on and not only for the local government.
Figures from the Quezon City Schools Division Office showed that the high-school completion rate declined to 76.65 percent, from 82.25 percent last year.
The enrollment participation rate was recorded at 95.43 percent for elementary school and 85.9 percent for secondary school, both public and private.
Bautista said the future of quality employment in the city requires a steady number of educated residents.
The local government is also continuing its effort in delivering high-quality health services.
Recently, Quezon City was awarded outstanding local government unit for National Tuberculosis Program by the Department of Health-National Capital Region.
In transportation, Bautista disclosed the proposal to call the MRT-LRT common station as the Quezon City Grand Central Station, which will be the site of one of the biggest number of mass commuters in Metro Manila.
He also mentioned the city’s donations to the Quezon City Police District of 50 mobile patrol cars, 12 digital composite facial sketch equipment, 539 bulletproof vests to total 1,000 within the year, 200 pieces of handcuffs and 10 photocopying machines.
This, according to him, despite a drop in the crime volume by 2,078 cases during the period of January to August 2017 compared to the same period last year.
The closure of Payatas sanitary landfill was also cited by Bautista as one challenge Quezon City has to resolve this year, saying “the Quezon City Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department has been doing its responsibility and full effort in turning the closure of Payatas landfill not a crisis by continuous garbage collection and series of meeting to find a temporary dump, resulting to more landfill operators to compete in the city’s garbage.”
To cap his annual report, Bautista said, “as you can see, the story of Quezon City is an ever-growing series of enriching episodes.”