Congratulations, Rizal!
year, Rizal Province clinched the top spot in the list of the country’s Most Competitive Provinces. This makes it three years in a row for Rizal Province. It has been number one in this list prepared annually by the National Competitiveness Council through the Regional Competitiveness Committees under the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index. Rizal emerged from Number 6 in 2015 to Number 1 immediately the year after. It kept the spot in 2017 and retained it in 2018.
The council rates provinces, the various city types and municipalities in the country in four categories – economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resiliency.
These four parameters are internationally accepted indicators of productivity – what management gurus define as the ability of a person or an organization to produce optimum output from a specific amount of input. These indicators give potential investors a good picture of how well their investments may perform in a given locality. That is why the Index refers to “competitiveness” – to the ability of local governments at various levels to compete for the attention, preference, and loyalty of investors.
From the viewpoint of Rizal Province and our city of Antipolo, “investors” do not refer only to people and organizations who bring in business and enterprises to our community.
“Investors” include individuals and families who chose to make the province and the city their home.
By doing so, they also invest their presence in our communities. This kind of “investment” is an important element in social, cultural, and economic growth. The presence of people with talents, skills, and networks of social and business relationships plays a vital role in development, too. “Presence” is, therefore, an important contribution to the progress of a community.
Rizal Province and Antipolo have continued to attract both the business investments and the investment of “presence” over the past so many years. These investments – as well as the affirmation of competitiveness as indicated by the yearly Index report – prove an important point.
The point is that our local communities are empowering themselves and driving their own economic and social transformation.
The members of our local communities are collaborating to raise the levels of productivity. They have taken it upon themselves to better their lives and to make their provinces, cities, and municipalities ideal locations for those who will invest their money and their presence.
Antipolo City now ranks fourth in the list of the country’s Most Competitive Cities. It ranked Number 1 last year coming from the sixth spot in 2016.
I have been asked by many how it felt to slide down from First to Fourth.
I said I felt good about it. The 2018 rank tells us that the field has become even more competitive and that the standards have kept going up. It tells us that “business as usual” is no longer acceptable. We have to keep on looking for new and better ways of raising further our levels of efficiency and productivity.
Four Rizal Province municipalities continue to shine in the annual Competitiveness Index. Four of the 2018 Top Ten most competitive first-and second-class municipalities are from Rizal.
They are Taytay (Number 1), Cainta (Number 2), Binangonan (Number 6), and Angono (Number 8). We share in this achievement marked by our fellow Rizaleños from these towns.
We also congratulate all the local governments who fared well in the latest ratings.
Thank you, Readers
Last August 26, we wrote a column in Filipino on the role and value of a “Sariling Wika.” That particular piece received a lot of responses from our readers. May I share with you excerpts from an email we received from one of our readers in response to that piece. This is from Chito Geronimo: Ang ating sariling wika ay tulad din ng anumang wika sa bawat bansa. Mahalaga ito sa panitikan at pangaraw-araw na pakikipagtalastasan ng tao. Ang wika ay kaluluwa ng isang bansa. Ang mahalagang katanungan ay, nasa anong kalagayan nga ba ang kalusugan at kalaganapan ng wikang Pilipino sa ngayon?
Ang aking pangsariling pananaw ay dadako sa isyu ng teknolohiya sa ngayon – ang TV, radyo, mga babasahin, at ang Internet. Dito umiikot ang ating pambansang wika. Sa mga ito nabubuhay o mababago ang ating wika. Sa aking palagay, suliranin sa ngayon ang pagpapalaganap ng pagbabasa sa ating mga kabataan at pamayanan. Dulot ito ng teknolohiya. Kahit na ang pagbabasa ng pahayagan ay naipapaibabawan ng samu’t saring alternatibo sa mundo ng Internet. Ang malawakang paggamit ng texting ay hindi nakatulong sa pagpapabuti ng ating kasanayan sa pagsusulat sa kadahilanang hinihingi ng panahon. Ang mga texters ay nasanay nang gumamit ng mga bagong pananalita na angkop sa pakikipag-text.
Ang paggamit ng taglish ay laganap na laganap din, lalo na sa radio at TV, at pang-araw-araw na pakikipagtalastasan.
Sa kabila po nito ay aking ipinapanalangin na sana ay magkaroon ng tunay na pambansang kampanya ang mga kinauukulan at kaming mamamayan sa mga pagpapasagana, pagpapalago, at pagpapadalisay ng ating “sariling wika.”
* For feedback, please email it to antipolocitygov@gmail.com or send it to #4 Horse Shoe Drive, Beverly Hills Subdivision, Bgy. Beverly Hills, Antipolo City, Rizal.