Onward to sustaining big changes
Parañaque 21st Cityhood Anniversary
When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came to o ce in June 2016, he vowed to make big changes to the republic. Local governments throughout the country heeded his call and rallied to his cause — among them, the City of Parañaque in southern Metro Manila.
This city of more than 600,000 souls has been making big changes even before the Duterte administration was in office. Through the leadership of incumbent Mayor Edwin L. Olivarez, the city has transformed itself through fiscal, executive and legislative reforms that have led to the city government providing its constituents with greater public service. But it’s one thing to make big changes to a city. Sustaining these changes is a whole other thing.
TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
One of the big changes that the Olivarez administration has started in the past two terms is with regards to the city’s impact on the environment. As the city continuously grows, the city government has to deal with problems such as solid waste management, cleaning the city’s waterways and ensuring compliance with environmental laws. In an interview with The Philippine
STAR, Mayor Olivarez discussed how these changes have been made. He said it began with fixing the city’s waste management system. Through the city government’s help, each of Parañaque’s 16 barangays was able to establish their respective material recovery facility, where solid waste can be segregated before collection. Each barangay also follows a strict “No Segregation, No Collection” policy.w
From these material recovery facility, biodegradable and non-recyclable trash are brought to a transfer station that the city government and a private contractor established in Kabihasnan, where it is impounded prior to its transfer to a landfill in Rizal Province. The system essentially made the city compliant with Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
“Our waste management system has efficiently collected solid waste from the city’s households, which in turn, help prevent our residents from disposing their garbage into our waterways that lead to Manila Bay,” Mayor Olivarez said.
He also added that to further prevent waste from accumulating in the city’s waterways, the city government conducted a census of informal settlers living along the Parañaque River. Of the 8,000 families living along the waterway, the city government has already relocated 5,000 families within and outside Parañaque. The relocation has helped reduce the dumping of solid waste and sewage into the river.
To sustain the change it has started, the city government is one of several local government units (LGUs) that participated in the Duterte administration’s recent initiative to clean up the Manila Bay. According to Mayor Olivarez, the city’s participation in the initiative builds on top of the city’s cleanup drive within the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park, which is along Manila Bay’s coastline.
“Even before the Duterte administration embarked on the initiative of rehabilitating Manila Bay, the City Government of Parañaque, with the help of non-government organizations, civic groups and the Department of Education, was already conducting weekly clean up of the Manila Bay shoreline along the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park,” Mayor Olivarez explained.
While weekly cleanups of Parañaque’s side of Manila Bay has helped reduce the accumulation of solid waste along the coast, there is a lot more to be done in terms of improving its water quality, which has deteriorated significantly due to
sewage dumping. To address this problem, the city government has worked with Maynilad, the water utility company that has concession in the city, to establish a sewage treatment plant in Brgy. San Dionisio and a 65-kilometer network of sewer pipes funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Development Bank of the Philippines.
The P1.4-billion sewage treatment plant can treat up to 76,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day and will help ease pollution loading in Manila Bay. Mayor Olivarez said the sewer pipe network will catch, collect, and convey wastewater generated by households in Barangays La Huerta, San Dionisio, BF Homes, Don Bosco, Marcelo Green Village, Moonwalk, San Antonio, and San Isidro to Maynilad’s sewage treatment plant.
“With the opening of Maynilad’s sewage treatment plant, Parañaque now has the largest sewage treatment facility throughout Metro Manila,” Olivarez said.
TOWARD SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
As Parañaque moves toward reducing the city’s negative impact on the environment, it’s also moving toward promoting sustainable tourism practices that would create livelihood for the city’s residents and generate revenue through taxes. The city has already made huge strides in tourism with the opening of the Entertainment City, which currently hosts three integrated resorts.
To further attract tourists into the city, the city government plans to redevelop the Fisherman’s Wharf or Bulungan in Brgy. La Huerta into a tourism complex which will host a new Dampa, which is a food park consisting of various seafood restaurants. According to Mayor Olivarez, the city currently completing a bridge connection from Macapagal Avenue to the Fisherman’s Wharf before redevelopment can begin.
“The redevelopment of the Fisherman’s Wharf will generate employment and livelihood among members of the fisherman’s cooperative in the area, which will greatly improve their standard of living,” Mayor Olivarez said.
The mayor added that the city government is also planning to establish a river cruise from the Parañaque River going to the Entertainment City, giving potential tourists an ecological experience apart from what they can already see and feel at the city’s integrated resorts.
Apart from the redevelopment of the Fisherman’s Wharf, the city government currently has on the drawing board a 3,000-seater coliseum that will be used to hold sporting events and concerts. It will be built on a governmentowned property along the CAVITEX, beside the recently finished Parañaque City College.
TOWARD SUSTAINABLE GOVERNMENT SERVICE
In the past two terms of the Olivarez administration, the city government also made big changes in the delivery of government services. What used to be a painstakingly long process of applying for business and work permits and licenses that takes several steps, forms and days, now takes a single form and three steps consisting of application, assessment and payment.
The city government also turned the city hall in Brgy. San Antonio into a one-stop shop where everything that people need for their applications can already be found: police, fire and NBI offices, barangay affairs, SSS, GSIS, BIR, even services such as medical, photocopying, and printing. An electronic queuing system has also made falling in line organized and efficient.
But given the perennial traffic problem in Metro Manila and the sheer size of the city itself, the city government feels it can better serve its constituents if there is a second site on the other side of the city, where it can bring the same public service closer to those who need it. A satellite office, according to Mayor Olivarez, would lessen the burden for Parañaqueños living in distant barangays like Baclaran, Tambo, Don Galo, La Huerta, Santo Niño and Vitalez of having to endure heavy traffic just to go to city hall and accomplish their applications.
To achieve this vision, the city government is entering into a public-private partnership with Anchor Land Holdings, Inc. (ALHI), one of the leading real estate developers within Entertainment City, to develop an office space complex consisting of three towers — one of which will serve as the city government’s satellite office. Of the total project area, 2,434 square meters of land will be devoted to the nine-storey satellite office, which will have four floors with 4,884 square meters of space for the city government and five floors with 6,785 square meters of space for lease. The other two buildings will be leased for office and bed-spacing use by ALHI, who will fund and construct the complex at no cost to the city.
According to documents signed by both parties, the PPP project will have period of 50 years, renewable for another 25 years at ALHI’s option. Upon termination of the project, ALHI shall return possession of the property including all improvements to the city.
“The satellite office will have all the services that we provide our constituents at the city. It will have a modern police and fire department, a command center for traffic and security monitoring, business permits and licensing office, city assessor’s office, city health office, and a tourism desk. This facility is really important given that we expect the influx of workers in the Entertainment City to grow even bigger, from the current 50,000 to 100,000 in the coming years,” Mayor Olivarez said.
These are just some of the few initiatives that the city government of Parañaque has embarked on to sustain the changes it has started two terms ago. There will be more to come as Mayor Olivarez guns for a third term; his vision clear and exact about leaving a legacy of change and improvement for the city.
Parañaque has changed a lot since it became a city more than two decades ago. As it celebrates its 21st cityhood anniversary today, it shall celebrate proudly, knowing that it has sustained the positive changes it has created through various efforts and services that truly made the lives of ordinary people better.