Leading the ‘Mega City By The Bay’ to prosperity
brought change to an otherwise rich but impoverished metropolitan area because of a P4-billion debt incurred by the previous administration.
Nevertheless, Olivarez decided, “We didn’t put any blame on anybody. We just had to move forward and do the best we can to make the lives of our constituents better.”
Of the said amount, by the way, Olivarez’s leadership had already paved the way for a P3-billion payment, and since then, the local government had never incurred any additional debt, running efficiently and effectively on its own collected revenues.
Expectedly running unopposed on his second term in the 2016 elections, Olivarez continued to run the bureaucracy with the same dedication and competence as before. For one, doing business in the city is a breeze under his administration, with no traces of red tape to be found in any part of the process. Securing a business to be specific is down to only three steps from a staggering 19 when he took over the mayoralty.
Not one to take the credit for Parañaque’s prosperity, Olivarez humbly said, “We are lucky that our city is situated along the bay. If you look around, the most progressive cities, which became mega cities around the world, are those with shorelines.”
He continued, “Coupled with our location, our innovation in the processing of business permits, I believe, has greatly helped in attracting a lot of these high end establishments to build their properties and operate in Parañaque.”
As such, the mayor and his staff regularly go around the city to listen to the problems of his constituents, unlike other politicians who only show up during the campaign period. Olivarez personally visits the different barangay communities and makes sure that the concerns of residents are addressed as soon as the local government can.
On top of his current priorities are the education of the youth, and the safety and health of Parañaque’s growing population, particularly those in the lower strata. top of tuition and other miscellaneous fees.
To address this, he resolved to build a day care center, and an elementary and high school building in each of the city’s 16 barangay communities.
so we made it a priority to build learning centers for their children, as well as facilities for out-of-school youths and continuing education for adults. In fact, we also plan to build our own university, the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Parañaque, to give everyone the opportunity to finish college,” the mayor explained.
Since 2014, within a year after he took his oath as chief executive of the city, Parañaque already took on 6,223 scholars, easily a record number among Metro Ma- nila municipalities. As of May 9 this year, 439 more applicants for scholarship have been accepted at the city hall from the different barangay communities.
According to the mayor, the gratitude of the citizens who were able to finish school for free comes to him in surprising ways. One such story he shared with
was over lunch at a buffet in City of Dreams, when he noticed how the chef would cut many more pieces of roast beef for him and in much thicker slabs.
Wondering about the gesture, the chef told him it is because of the mayor’s education and employment program that he landed a job at one of the country’s premier hotel and entertainment complexes.
For his very effective endeavor, Parañaque was given the Education Hub Award at
“The Philippine Model Cities: Beyond the Most Livable Urban Centers” forum held on May 11 at the New World Manila Bay Hotel in Malate, Manila.
The citation read, “The Education Hub Award is given to the city who has set its sights and heart on giving the best education to its constituents. With its leaders having high regard for education, the city aimed to provide quality yet affordable education and even made it a priority to build a public day care center, elementary school and high school in every barangay.” Still on the citizen’s welfare, and as someone who grew up in a city that could easily be submerged by flood, Olivarez had to come up with a quick and efficient solution to the persistent problem.
“We studied it. On my first year in office, it was my birthday in fact, on August 20 [2013], but we could not get to the other side because the water was chest deep. Sucat Road is the catch basin, so when the road is flooded, the whole of Parañaque is flooded,” he related.
By sheer political will three years ago, he was able to build a flood diversion channel in San Dionisio approximately 150 meters long and 35 meters wide, with heavy equipment on stand by, thus allowing water to subside fast during heavy rain.
For the informal settlers, many of whom were around the area where the structure was built, the city offered a cash out of P18,000 per family. Whether they accepted or resisted the offer, the city government pushed through with the project for the good of everyone.
Thankfully, there were no clashes during this relocation, like what normally happens in violent dismantling of shanties in other areas. And eventually, the affected families were thankful to Olivarez and his staff for the program that ensured their safety. To serve the close-to-a-million population better, Olivarez is further building a six-story hospital, with immediate plan for Ospital ng Parañaque 2 in the second district.
Early this month, groundbreaking for the LRT Cavite Line has also been done with Department of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade. The mayor was excited to share that out of the eight stations in the 12-kilometer stretch, five stations are located in his city.
Also, Ayala Land Corporation has already cleared the land to build its biggest mall along the Special Investment District, to complete the ongoing Entertainment City plan.