A poorly managed city
IN the last few years of the Marcos presidency, a special assistant in the Office of the President in Malacañang ecstatically reported during a cabinet meeting that he was able to build 50,000 public school classrooms in time for the opening of the school year.
The report looked impressive. More jaw-dropping when featured in media. Until some officials from the education and public works ministries made a field audit and found that what the country needed at the time were 200,000 classrooms.
In a somewhat related scenario, this time in a Central Luzon province, the governor boasted of having constructed three concrete bridges. He said they were vital in transporting food and province-made handicrafts to town centers.
Later, the sangguniang panglalawigan learned that only one of the three bridges was useful for transport purposes. The other two were really useless because they were far from the main highway but near the pieces of real estate property of the governor’s relatives.
These monumental government blunders somehow typify the pathetic fate of Quezon City which – in spite of its vast resources and potentials – is one of the country’s poorly managed cities.
Take a look at these neglected opportunities:
It does not utilize the full potential of its business prospects. Instead, it relies chiefly on its soaring real estate taxes. It does not exploit the potentials of business revenues from its thousands of small and medium enterprises. Instead it depends so much on the yearly dole-out called Internal Revenue Allotment.
It does not put up modern, income-generating mall sites. Instead it relies idly on the initiatives of private investments. It does not have a sustainable income-plusrecreational places for public leisure in such strategic population centers like the Quezon Memorial Circle.
It does not give full attention to creating presentable tourism districts that can attract foreigners and out-of-town visitors.
These are some of potentialearners that need the serious attention and planning of the Quezon City government. These are areas that could bring more opportunities in terms of business income to City Hall and employment to residents.
If the above were operational, they could contribute immeasurable financial gains to the city.
Some years ago, the city government already showed signs of being a poor manager. In the early 2000s, it faced payment claims of over 11.4 billion and a bank debt of 11.25 billion.
To think that those claims and debts represented non-remittances to the national government like the BIR and GSIS – not counting those demanded by utilities like Meralco and PLDT.
In other words, the city was operating on a budget that was way beyond its income. Is this being repeated now? I am not qualified to answer.
But in more ways than one, the sad state of affairs of the Quezon Memorial Circle speaks of how poor management keeps on bedeviling this huge urban domain known as Quezon City.
The observation is that the city must hire competent and highly experienced urban planners and business strategists, with the end in view of pouring more profits into coffers of the city.
For example, these professionals and experts can put up presentable restaurants inside QMC to highlight the country’s laurels in culinary competitions, like the recent ManilaMadrid Fusion gathering.
Or, better still take advantage of the fame of Ms. Gaita Fores – a Quezon City resident herself – who, in 2016, was adjudged “the best chef in Asia.”
Why not allocate a certain area in QMC and convert it into sort of a gourmet alley where there are worldclass-rated restaurants to attract foreigners?
I have been frequenting QMC lately. I noticed that people come to the place only Saturdays and Sundays mainly to dance the “zumba,” and dater partake of “bibingka, suman at ibus, sapinsapin, and mais-con-yielo.”
Those displays of cheap clothing and house care gadgets only make the area too much of a humdrum. One encounters massage therapists, fortune tellers, and peddlers of old folks’ medicines.
True, the city government only wants to help ordinary folks earn a decent living.
To its credit, City Hall still maintains a wet-market “talipapa” behind the administration building, at the corner of East Avenue and an alley beside a PLDT branch.
Here one can buy fresh fish, meat, and fruits and vegetables from 2 o’clock to 5 o’clock in the afternoon, Monday to Friday. Are the prices subsidized for the welfare of QC residents?
Go and ask the guys at City Hall’s better business bureau, if there is an office like that.