MONDAY, July 31, was an extraordinarily busy day in Lucena City. In the morning at 9 a.m., Kuya Mark Alcala, the mayor of Lucena, delivered his State of the City Address at the City Hall, with all the officials of the city, including barangay chairmen and officers, present. It was well covered by the local media, and the young mayor was ecstatic in dishing out a well-written report on his accomplishments during the first year of his term. Of course, the former mayor and, now VM, his father Roderick Alcala was very happy to see his son report on the city’s gains.
The Alcalas are the first son-and-father team to lead the local government of Lucena, the capital of Quezon province and now classified as a highly urbanized city.
In the late afternoon, it was the turn of Quezon Gov. Doktora Helen Tan to report to her constituents on what transpired during her first year in office.
Her “Ulat sa Lalawigan” was quite long, mainly because Governor Helen had a lot to report on the gains made by the Tan administration during its first year. It is just fine that Doktora Helen had a very helpful acronym to guide her report: HEALING.
HEALING represents the first letters of her platform of government, and being a medical doctor, the term fits to a T the governor’s personality, character and public image. HEALING means Health, Education, Agriculture, Livelihood, Infrastructure, Nature and Environment/Tourism, and Good Governance.
In each of these sectors, Governor Tan reported the gains made by her administration during its first year in office.
Tan acknowledged that many Quezonins are poor and are barely sustained by the province’s agricultural economy, the provincial government under her leadership was able to make significant headway in the delivery of meaningful and sustainable services.
She said that the Quezon Medical Center (QMC) in Lucena City is now in the middle of massive physical renovation and management improvement.
The governor is happy that the QMC is now enjoying public confidence through its delivery of improved services. QMC was also able to bring down to 400 what used to be a 600 average occupancy for the hospital which only has a 200 authorized bed capacity.
She also highlighted the implementation of PhilHealth’s Konsultasyong Sulit at Tama or Konsulta Package in Quezon as one of the five pilot local government units where the public can access preventive care services, including free medicines and laboratory tests for out-patient consultations.
As part of her continuing advocacy for the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act which she authored when she was a member of Congress, Tan reported that she has signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) together with all the city and municipal local chief executives along with the Department of Health (DOH) for the implementation of the Province-Wide Health System Integration that is considered as the first in the country.
“With a provincial government that is deep in debt and with very little financial resources, not much can be done. But I am happy to report that we have done so much,” Tan said.
She also cited the implementation of the One Family, One College Graduate Scholarship Program and Priority Courses Scholarship and Return Service Program, formation of 31 cooperatives for the coconut farmers in line with the Coconut Farmers Industry Development Program, and various infrastructure projects.
She underscored the observance of best managerial practices, good financial housekeeping, and prudent use of funds under her leadership that paved the way for the Provincial Government to get the highest audit rating from the Commission on Audit (COA) or the “unmodified opinion” for the first time, a coveted mark from the country’s supreme auditing arm as it indicates a culture of clean financial governance.
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