Maasin City mayor delivers last State of the City Address (SOCA)

By BONG PEDALINO (PIA Southern Leyte)
January 24, 2007

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte  –  Damian Gaviola Mercado, the bachelor Chief Executive in this 6-year old city, outlined the major tasks he had accomplished thus far throughout the nine consecutive years he held office, including the changing of the municipality into a component city.

“My dearest wish is just to make a positive difference in our people’s lives as I know history will judge me at my accomplishment.  Part of this wish has already come true.  You can see how Maasin has transformed after six years - the fruit of our endeavor, making our conversion into a city,” Mayor Mercado said in a speech marking his last State of the City Address (SOCA) at the gymnasium here Friday, Jan. 19.

This year’s address was a departure from tradition, where it used to be held only in the confines of the Sangguniang Panlunsod Session Hall in the past.

But the change was deliberate to highlight the occasion as the Mayor’s last address, said Vice-Mayor Maloney Samaco in an earlier radio interview.

Listening the Mayor speak were barangay captains or representatives from this city’s sixty-nine out of seventy barangays and heads of city offices, and the speech was preceded by a formal opening session of the City Council in complete attendance presided by Vice-Mayor Samaco.

Mayor Mercado mentioned in particular early on in his speech the citation received by the local government unit in October 2006 as best performing LGU in finance operation.

He stressed that revenues generated by the city had increased year to year as businesses slowly came, opened shops, and made their presence felt.

This enabled the city government to plow back monies as capital expenditures in such priority areas as agriculture, farm-to-market roads, farm inputs, and access to technology which resulted to better crop harvest, Mayor Mercado said.

In infrastructure projects, the Mayor underscored that over 100 kilometers of road concreting, accessible cross country road networks traversing interior barangays, including bridges, had been finished, the latest of which was a steel bridge linking barangay Canturing and Mambajao under the President’s Bridge Program of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

For social services, he cited an ongoing water system project from barangay Matin-ao which was programmed to reach barangay Hantag within the year, the setting up of day-care centers in all 70 barangays, a plan to establish a City College, and another Rural Health Unit Station, a third health station unit to cater for the health and nutrition needs of outlying barangays.

Among the awards, recognitions received by the city LGU under his watch were the accreditation of all health centers as “Sentrong Sigla” by the Department of Health, the Most Child-Friendly LGU for nine straight years, a consistent winner in Nutrition awards, including the Green Banner Award, and five other Regional Awards for Healthy City initiatives.

All the development projects and allocations for social services totaled an investment of about P 800 Million, Mayor Mercado emphasized.

The SOCA speech lasted 23 minutes and was interrupted by applause 13 times.

He thanked all supporters and all the people who have had faith in his capacity to lead the city, saying it was his “driving force, inspiration of success.”