ShareThisDAVAO CITY — Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio refused to be bogged down by Mindanao’s peace and order situation and has declared a full blast campaign to promote the city’s tourism industry that will derive its strength from the peaceful co-existence of its tri-people.
“The Mindanao situation will no longer be my excuse; it is time to embark on a tourism campaign that captures our great city’s Muslim-Christian-Lumad peaceful coexistence and the wealth of our natural resources,” Duterte-Carpio said during her State of the City Address which also marked her 100 days in office.
She said eco-tourism has been identified as one of the city’s greatest assets with Davao currently ranked 6th as a travel destination.
The mayor has ordered the preparation of the city’s tourism industry, the grassroots based souvenir production centers, the pasalubong centers, the visitor centers, and the volun-tourguides.
Davao City, through joint efforts with the private sector, won the Best Booth in the Travel Fair City category and the Travel Fair People’s Choice overall champion during the recently-concluded 21st Philippine Travel Mart held in Manila.
Duterte-Carpio also cited the successful celebration of the annual grand Kadawayan Festival last August, thanks to a strong participation from the private sector. The city also hosted the 1st Asian Bird Fair and 6th Philippine Bird Festival last September.
Despite the significant role played by tourism under her administration, she has allocated only 16 percent of the city’s budget to economic development which includes tourism enhancement, and investment generation among others. The city government has not yet however released the exact amount since the budget will be submitted to the Sangguniang Panlungsod before October 15.
Majority or 46 percent of the city’s Development will go to Social Development “because the first duty of government is individual security and family enhancement.” Development administration with emphasis on barangay development gets 25 percent of the budget while infrastructure gets 13 percent of the budget “because we still have unimplemented projects carried over from the pump priming strategies of the past 3 years.”
Just like her father before her (former mayor but now vice mayor Rodrigo Duterte), the younger Duterte believes in the importance of peace and order for economic growth. As of the 3rd quarter of 2010, the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) has reported a crime solution efficiency rate of 24.26 percent for all crimes reported.
During the same period, the DCPO has recorded 308 cases of crimes against persons, and 1,131 cases of crimes against property. And to encourage the city’s police to improve their performance, she said, “have already submitted to the City Director an incentive project to increase solution efficiency which will take effect on the final quarter of this year.”
“We have started with the rice subsidy for all identified police units with computed monthly allotments which are released weekly. Our policemen shall be allotted with meals when on duty. And their gasoline rationalization shall follow suit,” she said.
Duterte-Carpio said there is also a plan to utilize the barangay tanods to beef up the city’s crime prevention efforts. A total of 3,100 barangay tanods are set to receive Philhealth contributions as well as honoraria from the city. They will also get lectures on strengthening barangay operations for security.