They say that a line divides, I believe that it connects.

It connects us to our past and tells us what we need to do to secure our future.

In 2013, we drew a line in Gensan’s history to remind us where we started, and where we wanted to go.

We named that line as, “Creating a Livable Environment for All Generals towards Nation Building” or CLEAN Gensan.

It is our pathway.

Our vision.

Our blueprint and our metric.

CLEAN Gensan is Good Governance, where the people play a vital role, making integrity, transparency, accountability, and God as the center for our local Governance.

Our pursuit is to position Gensan as an Agro-industrial hub, where we shall be known as the beating agricultural and industrial heart of Southern Mindanao.

We have established synergy and strategic partnership as our fuel towards a livable General Santos City.

In July of 2016, together with our mentor the Department of Interior and Local Government, we formally formulated the 2016-2022 Comprehensive Development Plan and along with a six-year Local Development Investment Program, where we made sure that what we planned, we can finance.

We have successfully removed bitter political affiliations.

Like what we said in 2013, “bisan unsa o asa kang partido gikan, kung pabor ka sa kaayuhan, parte ka sa CLEAN Gensan.”

We used our C.L.E.A.N. Gensan initiative to draw up our 10-point agenda.

Ang 10-point agenda mao ang nagtutok sa mga sector na nahimo natong prayoridad sa atong Comprehensive Development Plan and our Executive-Legislative Agenda:

1. EDUCATION
2. PEACE AND ORDER
3. HEALTH SERVICES
4. LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT
5. ECONOMIC SERVICES AND DEVELOPMENT
6. TRANSPORTATION
7. HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
8. SOCIAL WELFARE SERVICES
9. INFRASTRUCTURE
10. ENVIRONMENT

Education is one of our biggest field of focus, we put up a new division that we called AKLAT, o Alay sa Kabataan Lahat ng Alaga at Talino in 2013.

This jumpstarted our Education Agenda.

Now, we are proud to say that AKLAT has become one of the most powerful agents of change in our city.

From a deficiency of almost 400 classrooms and 14,000 armchairs, before we came in, karon wala na tay kulang na chairs and wala na tay kulang na classrooms.

With the help of our City Council, we were able to establish and institutionalize our Edukar Gensan Scholarship which is now changing the lives and fueling the dreams of more than 400 scholars in the city annually.

We also said we have to start young – that was why we launched our first innovation designed to support early childhood development: the Early Childhood Care Development Initiative or ECCDI.

From 163 Day Care Centers in the city in 2013, we now have 209 Day Care Centers that are free.

Just recently, RD Foundation also started the building of two daycare centers in Apopong and San Jose and we have distributed more than 4000 kiddie chairs and 740 kiddie tables to 185 daycare centers in the city with them.

 For our Day Care teachers, from an average of 3,500 per month, we will increase your allowance to 7,600 courtesy of the local government.

We will also begin converting their employment status from job orders to permanent plantilla positions.

As we promised in 2014, our Day Care pupils are now required to learn how to read and write at least five words before they graduate from daycare, and so far, gikan sa zero, we now have a 73% percent success rate para sa atong mga bata.

This year up to 2022, we will be monitoring the nutrition of our children in all our daycare centers we have allotted 11.5 million for these.

By the end of this month, we will open our very first central kitchen at Datu Dalid Acad Elementary School followed by two more central kitchens that will feed more than 2000 malnourished children in different schools. Thank you to our partner, the Jollibee Group Foundation for donating almost 3 million pesos worth of kitchen facilities in support of this.

Our private partners like the Sarangani Energy Corporation has also adopted some of our schools and has put up two central kitchens.

It always takes a village to raise a child, which is why let us recognize and thank our partners in raising the children of General Santos.

The Synergia Foundation for our Community Teach Program, Summer Reading Camp partners, Expanded School Board, School Governing Council, and Teacher ko si Nanay Projects.

We would also like to thank the South Cotabato Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce for continuously supporting the education sector by providing almost 2 million pesos for our school building projects per year.ginagami

Also, Save the Children Foundation for our Early Childhood Care programs and helping us train our teacher.

 In the next few days, we will be engaging with the Ayala Foundation as part of our continuous effort to improve and enhance basic education in the city.

This project costs more than 3 million pesos intended for training our teachers.

We are blessed in the education sector because a lot of organizations are willing to help us realize our plans, that’s why we organized the education coordinating council aron organisado ang tabang ug suporta nato sa edukasyon sa atong mga kabataan hangtud sa sila makapangita ug trabaho.

The education coordinating council is composed of education-related agencies such as DepEd, CHED, DOST, TESDA, PSBEA, DSWD, and DOLE headed by the LGU.

My personal advocacy in donating my salary since my days a councilor in 2010 and as your Mayor is still continuing.

Thank you very much sa effort and hard work sa team ng AKLAT headed by Phillip Pabelic ug ang atong “nanay sa edukasyon,” Councilor Lita Nunez.

More importantly let us extend our special gratitude to the Department of Education, Division of General Santos City, its officials, employees, and our beloved teachers, who have tirelessly worked with us thru the years.

Because of our work in the education sector, we have received the prestigious award the Seal of Good Education Governance.

The national government recognizes our efforts in championing education in this city.

We are proud to inform everybody that aside from an increase in enrollees, General Santos City is now enjoying a zero dropout rate in our schools as reported by DepEd.

In 2017, we were awarded, yet another first national recognition for our City, the Galing Pook Award, where we bested 158 other Local Government Unit, for our LIKAY DROGA or Lingap sa Kabataang Ayaw sa Droga.

We cannot leave our out of school youths behind.

When we came in, according to the Alternative Learning System ng DepED, 1 out of 8 nga bata in Gensan is an out-of-school youth, that’s more than 15,000 nga kabataan nato.

Sila nahimong mga biktima sa pag-abuso ug gigamit sa kriminalidad ug droga tungod kay wala sila naga eskwela ug kulang sila sa edukasyon.

We recognize this as a failure of our local government, but now we are proud to say that by working together with our private and public partners like Marcelin Foundation, RMMC and DepEd ALS we were able to help more than 6,000 of these out-of-school youths and have introduced them to different alternative learning systems or ALS through our Likay Droga Program.

All in all, almost 16,000 OSY’s regular learners have benefited from the Likay Droga program of Gensan since 2014.

And we are not done yet, by next year, we shall start developing our Likay Droga Center, worth P10 million pesos which will become the city’s training center for our out-of-school youth and our assessment center for our Senior Highs School Graduates.

That will be located somewhere here in our Lagao Gym compound as part of our usufruct agreement.

We can now fully utilize and use this facility. Thank you TESDA and Sen. Manny Pacquiao for shouldering the renovation.

Dili nato ma-deny na droga ang isa sa problema sa General Santos City when it comes to peace and order.

Because we are a road network, transshipment and an economic hub, dako ang chance na diri mag-agi ang mga drug traffickers and mga drug pushers. This is not just a problem in General Santos but a region-wide problem.

Ninety percent ng mga inmates natin sa region 12 are there because of drugs and according to our data, 65% of inmates in Gensan face drug-related cases.

Even before the Duterte Administration came in with the intensified campaign against illegal drugs in 2016, Gensan has already developed our own multi-level anti-drug campaign.

We told our law enforcement partners that we will support them. The City Government added 16 brand new patrol vehicles and 12 motorcycles to the General Santos City Police Offices’ existing fleet.

We provided the Gensan Police with additional communication logistics and sets of desktop computers. The local government will also add nine patrol cars for our police on top of the rifles and training that we have already provided for them.

To help them, the LGU and our private partners will focus on organizing community efforts, developing and institutionalizing this programs to combat illegal drugs and criminality.

If our youth is educated, less of them would be victimized and used by the drug syndicates, if they have jobs, they will not be lured into the drug business and more of them will become productive contributors to society and positive agents of change.

Our experience in Likay Droga taught us, if we work together, provide a better program, and educate our children, especially the out of school youth the less they will become victims.

We are proud to inform you that other cities are now copying our approach in dealing with the issue of drugs and criminality especially when it comes to youth intervention.

Next on our plan is to strengthen our PLK or Purok Laban sa Krimen.

We believe that “a chain is no stronger than its weakest link,” ug sa away nato kontra sa krimen ug kriminalidad, dili pwede nga naa tay weakest link.

Kinahanglan nato magtinabangay ug magkahiusa aron makahimo ug usa ka lig-on nga komunidad.

We came up with a community-based program which focuses on four key areas;

1. Our continuing Community-based drug rehab initiative and family-based anti-illegal drug advocacy called Pamilyang Ayaw sa Droga (PADR);
2. Our Barangay Watch Project, which provides for a strengthened security planning and execution;
3. Our Barangay Peace Advocates, our conflict-resolution efforts, by deputizing our community leaders to help resolve conflicts in the barangay
4. And the Barangay Information Project, which will help bring the right information to everyone and allow a feedbacking system even from the purok

With this akong gihangyo ang atong SP na ipasa na ang PLK Ordinance; akong gihangyo ang atong maabtik na chairperson sa Committee on Appropriation; ug usab akong gihangyo ang atong budget Officer, si John Quimosing ug ang Local Finance Board, na aprobahan na usab ang 500 thousand per barangay na budget, solely for the use of PLK in the barangay on top sa P2 million na giset aside nato na budget for the PLK in 2016.

Ako pud gihangyo ang matag barangay na mohimo ug kapareho na ordinansa ug mugahin ug budget alang niini.

We have already submitted our request to the Office of the President, through our Senator Manny Pacquiao, to allocate an additional 1 million peso budget per barangay alang sa atong programa na Purok Laban sa Krimen.

Let us also commend our city law enforcement units, the GSCPO and the Joint Task Force Gensan for playing important roles in protecting and safeguarding not just our city but our country.

Dili lang ang education and safety sa atong mga residents ang atong gitutukan. We are also looking after the health and welfare sa siyudad.

We note that we have a problem with our health sector when we came in. Ang atong hospital ginatawag na Mona Lisa Hospital, “when you go there, you die there.”

It’s not something to joke about or be proud of, but we took that criticism as a challenge.

We installed a Special Action Team, headed by the Hospital Overseer, Glenville Gonzalez to monitor the changes that we needed to implement.

While Dr. Jorge P. Royeca hospital is still a level 1 city hospital, kini lang ang level 1 hospital na adunay kaugalingong dialysis center, mammogram center ug radiology center.

Of course, being a level 1 hospital, its budget and facilities is limited only to 100 patients.

Mao na ang ideal number, but we are serving more than 400 patients a day, sobra pa sa kapasidad sa atong hospital. Ang atong bed capacity dapat naa lang sa 100 beds, but that in reality, we are over-serving by 305 percent.

Dali kaayo mubantay sa kakulangon sa atong hospital, but our city hospital is serving more than its capacity and serving more than it can handle.

Let us applaud our officers and staff at the City Hospital for maintaining a low mortality rate of more-or-less five percent despite the challenges they are facing.

Wala’y hospital nga dili mamatyan because that is the reality of life, but the grim joke that our city hospital is Mona Lisa Hospital is no longer true. You do not go to die at our hospital.

Our City Hospital has the top Performing Tuberculosis Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course or TB DOTS Center as awarded by the Department of Health Region 12.

We were also recently awarded the MEGA award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Post-Partum, IUD Insertion, and Exemplary Family Planning Services.

A Blood Station duly accredited by the Philippine National Red Cross.

And we have already had the groundbreaking for an additional 5-story building which will house a state-of-the-art intensive care unit, additional operating room complex, labor and delivery rooms and other specialized units.

In the future our City Royeca Hospital will also add solar panels to help reduce their electric bills and edible gardens alang sa pagkaon sa mga pasyente.

The local government is also working towards a Level II accreditation for our hospital.

Recently gipasa sa atong Sangguniang Panlungsod ang Level II organizational structure sa DJPRH.

We have also approved an additional 10 million pesos para sa Emergency Medical Assistance Program for our indigent patients and hopefully, by 2019, we can increase that to 24 million.

Padayon gihapon ang atong implementation sa No-Balance Billing sa atong hospital.

Gamay hangyo lang sa atong mga healthcare staff, kabalo mi na you are working hard and most of the time dili mapasalamatan ang inyong efforts, but that is government service we should be extra, extra patient and more understanding sa mga nagareklamo sa ato.

Kita ang nasa serbisyo ug kita dapat ang musabot sa atong ginaserbisyohan.

We are also thankful to our private sector and others for augmenting the capabilities of the city. Presently adunay ongoing development of three state-of-the-art private hospitals in the city.

This will help decongest our public health facilities and we can ensure that only the poorest of the poor ang serbisyuhan sa atong hospitals.

With the help also of our City Veterinary office, headed by Dr. Antonio Marin we are on track to declare General Santos as Rabies Free by 2022.

While we have gained a lot in our health services, there is still so much to be done.

That’s why we-along with Dr. Jette Oco of our city health office has enrolled in the CHLG or the City Health Leadership and Governance course.

We want to change our approach in our health services, dili lang simpleng service delivery but also to improve health care access sa atong mga katawhan.

The issue of labor and employment is closely tied with the growing economic potential and capability of the city that is why we cannot talk in length about our efforts in the job market without also considering our economic status.

But as far as setting a good working example, your local government has started it in our own backyard.

This year, we are awardee for prime human resource management under the Civil Service Commission; this means, that we take seriously the welfare of our employees. First-time ni sa history sa Gensan.

Congratulations to the team of Leah Tolimao sa ating Human Resource Management Development Office.

Right now, through the efforts of our HRMDO, we have addressed skills and competency gaps and provided a more structured approach in hiring civil services workers in the LGU, aron masiguro nato na ang naga-serbisyo sa atong publiko, competent ug maayo.

 For the first time, meron na tayong CIAS Manual or City Internal Audit Services Manual, this is to make sure na wala tay mahimong mali in the process of serving our people.

Let us commend our CIAS officer in the person of Coralyn Gacal Espinosa.

Ang atong CIAS karon is being commended by the Department of Budget and Management Region 12.

 We will show you how we are doing it inside the City Hall we try to balance our efforts towards social development and economic gains.

In the sector of labor and employment, with the help of our Public Employment and Services Office or PESO, we have facilitated the hiring and placement of more than 36 thousand applicants from 2015 to 2018 alone.

That means our employment generation strategies are working because more and more of our unemployed constituents are finally getting jobs.

Thank you to the team of Nur Juanday from our Public Employment and Services Office for a job well-done.

Ang paghiusa sa government sector, private sector and ang hinay-hinay na pagbag-o sa atong economic landscape ang pwede natong gamiton as opportunity aron maka-provide ug masdaghan pa na trabaho sa mga residente sa siyudad as well as reduce poverty incidence in our city.

Next to come is the proper staffing for our PESO Office so we can serve more and facilitate more job generation.

As we said a while ago, our job and employment sector is closely tied to our economy.

Kung kusog ang ekonomiya, muhimo kini ug dugang trabaho sa Gensan.

We listened to our businessmen and investors, we realized that we can strengthen our communication, transportation, banking and finance, manufacturing, services and other sectors kay mao na ang kinahanglan sa business sector.

Because of these we have seen a steady increase in our city’s revenue collection from an average of P1.6 billion in 2015, your local government was able to collect almost P2.2 billion in 2017.

Our city was also able to achieve total gross sales of 101 billion pesos last year which is the highest in the Region. Making us among the top performing highly urbanized cities in Southern Philippines.

We would like to acknowledge the effort and the work of our investors and partners as well as the City Treasurers Office headed by our able Treasurer Rodilon Lacap and the members of the Local Finance Board.

And in the first 6 months of this year, we have made almost the same amount as we did in the whole of 2015.

Thank you also to Vice Mayor Shirlyn Bañas Nograles, our upcoming representative sa 1^st District ng South Cotabato and the Sangguniang Panlungsod for helping prepare and craft the comprehensive land use plan of the city.

The issue of land use in General Santos is very complicated, but with the CLUP we have integrated factors such as climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction including ancestral domain, biodiversity,, and heritage sites.

We are doing that because we want our policies and strategies to be resilient from environmental risks and hazards especially in the usage and development of our land.

More importantly, we want a definitive guide na makasiguro ta nga sustainable ang development and efficient ang management sa atong physical resources alang usab sa inclusive economic growth which factors in our environmental and sociological welfare.

For that, we have to commend the team of Nael Cruspero and the City Planning Office, with the help of our other partners from USAIDE-SURGE, Gemma Borreros.

We also made our city, even more, business friendly with the introduction of the Presumptive Revenue Level Assessment Approach Ordinance.

Kini na ordinansa, ang usa sa mga rason nganong three steps na lang ang pagkuha sa atong business permits as compared to 13 steps in the past years. And from 7 days karon posible na makakuha ug business permit in one day.

Tungod ana, we have more or less a 20% increase of new business sa General Santos.

I would like to thank our partners the Bureau of Fire Protection, Pag-Ibig, Philhealth, SSS and BIR for helping make this a reality.

Because of these, we were awarded as 3rd Best in eGov Business Empowerment (G2B) Award for Friendly-Accessible-Simple-Timely (FAST) processing.

This also contributed to the steady rise of Gensan’s ranking under the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI).

From 33 highly-urbanized cities in the country we ranked 17th in 2015, 15th in 2016 and 2017, and now General Santos city is ranked 14th for 2018. And we ranked 9^th as the most improved highly urbanized city in the country.

We can thank the General Santos City Chamber of Commerce headed by their President Elmer Catulpos, and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council, and its President Felicidad Into and our team from CEMCDO, headed by Leonard Flores.

And we must commend the efforts of our Licensing Division headed by Geraldine Zamora.

Also, we would like to thank South Cotabato Electric Cooperative for keeping their promise to remove the 8-12 hour rotational brownout that we were experiencing on a day-to-day basis back in 2012.

Dako ni siya na tabang to return investor confidence and increase the difference sa cost of doing business in the city and our investors’ profit.

Since 2015 until last year, we have posted a steady annual increase of 11% to 12% in tourism growth, we have received almost 5 million visitors.

This is worth more-or-less P6 billion in revenue from 2015 until the 1st half of 2018.

General Santos remains the Top 1 in the highest number of accredited tourism-related establishments as of 2018.

At this point, I want to recognize the effort of my confidant, my adviser. The mother of my children, my wife, and life-partner my first lady Jane Gollon-Rivera for her efforts and support.

To be honest Jane has been my consultant in some of my key decisions and strategies in running the city.

Under her leadership, and the efforts of the Gensan Tourism Council, the Department of Tourism and other partner agencies, tourism in General Santos has flourished.

I am looking forward to the completion of the General Santos City Museum, another first in our city.

We have also to acknowledge that we have the biggest and longest youth festival in summer in our General Santos City Youth Festival, which we are now in the 5^th year, and by next year we shall host the International Youth Camp together with our partners from Korea.

A big thank to the very active team of Elmer Cequena at the Youth Affairs Development Office.

Because of all these efforts that we put into improving our economic services and development, right now our city is the highest revenue generator in SOCSKSARGEN pouring in around P2 billion pesos.

We know daghan nagatang sa isyu sa transportation, and we understand why.

Our transport sector is full of issues and is really one of the most neglected sector in the past years.

Mao na gusto naku karon, dinhi sa atong SOCA inyong madungog ang tinuod na istorya sa atong transportasyon, pagahimoon ug ang ugma niini.

Una, atong pasalamatan ang atong Sangguniang Panlungsod, hilabi na ang Committee on Transportation nga sulod sa duha katuig, nakig bisog, nagpanday ug naningkamot nga mamugna ang pinaka una na Transporation Code sa atong syudad.

Pinaka-una ug Comprehensive na Transportation Plan.

Ikaduha, pasalamatan natu ang National Government pinaagi sa Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board or LTFRB, sa pagpili sa atong syudad na pinaka-una na aprubado na Local Public Transport Route Plan or LPTRP.

We are the first and only LGU in the whole Philippines to have an approved LPTRP.

This just proves that your LGU knows the situation is urgent, dili tinuod na wala tay ginahimo.

Ikatulo, ang LPTRP ug ang Comprehensive Transportation Plan sa syudad are just among first of our many steps to take in order to cure the transportation problem in our City.

Ika-upat, walay abolisyon ug walay phase-out. Iplastar tanan, walay ma-displace. Solusyon na base sa balaud, gitun-an ug gikonsidera ang kahimtang sa tanang mga maapektuhan.

Magtukod ta ug opisina na mututok sa pagpatuman ani nga balaud.

We are also requesting our City Engineer’s Office through Engr. Kits Provido to submit to our office the necessary new alternative roads, aron mahimong priority sa infrastructure development sa mga sunod na katuigan.

We are also directing the CEMCDO Cooperative Division to prioritize the processing of the transportation cooperatives and help strengthen them.

Never leave any cooperative for the transportation sector behind.

Atong pasalamatan usab ang atong Sangguniang Panlungsod for the approval of the Business Enhancement Services Trust Fund or ang BEST Ordinance, that will be the anchor for our livelihood assistance alang sa atong transportation sector ug sa uban pa na sector nga nanginahanglan ug assistance, hilabi na ang atong mga kooperatiba.

We are also directing our City Housing and Land Development Office to prioritize our drivers sa atong Shelter Plan Beneficiaries.

Lastly, we will come out with an Executive Order for the creation of an Interim Office on Transportation Concerns.

This interim office will help study and make progressive ordinances and policies on transportation that is aligned with our LPTRP and our Comprehensive Transportation Plan.

All of these will not happen overnight, experts estimate that the city will have more or less four years to fully implement the transport plan.

Your local government is on track to add 30 new traffic lighting systems in different intersections in the city in addition to the existing 11 traffic signals to they can be modified for integration to the newly completed City Disaster Management Center.

General Santos will soon have a CCC or Command and Control Center complete with a CCTV system will be installed in 65 traffic signal locations.

This will be complete with a Traffic Management System Software via Fiber Optic Backbone.

This is fully funded by the local government at around 465 million pesos.

 In 2011 there are almost 22 thousand informal settlers in the city.

More than six thousand are living in danger zones.

In 2013, with the help of the Sangguniang Panlungsod we passed an ordinance which required housing developers to allocate an equivalent of 20% of their projects for socialized housing, as mandated under the Urban Development Housing Act or UDHA.

Because of that, we had our groundbreaking for our two-hectare resettlement site or what we named as GenSan Homes R1 which will house more than 300 household’s alang sa mga residenteng nagpuyo duol sa mga danger zones.

Naa na sad tay P100 million na dugang budget pangpalit ug relocation under sa City Housing.

I would like to thank our City Housing and Land Management Office headed by Mary Ann Bacar for helping us facilitate and follow through with this promise.

We have successfully implemented our Oplan Pailaw which helped more than 18 thousand families in our city have access to legal electrical connection.

And according to our private partners sa Oplan Pailaw which is ang South Cotabato Electric Cooperative or SOCOTECO they will help connect the remaining households na wala pay legal na connection sa kuryente.

This is important because we are providing safe and legal electrical connections sa atong mga residente, which in turn help reduce fire incidents in areas covered by Oplan Pailaw by as much as 91% according to the Bureau of Fire Protection General Santos.

This also opened up opportunities in education and economics, nisaka ang scores sa mga kabataan nato sa National Achievement Test ug ang effectivity and efficiency of education sa mga lugar na sakop sa Oplan Pailaw.

Pasabot ana, our kids are learning better because they can now study kay naa nay suga sa ilang mga balay. Even their parents are benefitting because electrification means better economic opportunities sama sa retail, small food processing and service delivery.

That’s the power of working together and making private institutions as our trusted partners.

When we first came into office, one of our plans was to provide for our resident’s social welfare needs gikan sa pag-anak hantud sa kamatayon or the full cycle of human life.

Let us commend our team sa Local Civil Registrar, headed by Isabelita Tablizo nga namahimong hall of famers, sa National Best Local Civil Registrar awards.

We should also look at the efforts of our CSWD and local population office for the following distinctions:

• Seal of Child Friendly Local Governance in 2016
• Fully Functional Local Social Welfare and Development Office in 2017
• Timely submission of documents for CY 2016 additional beneficiaries of Social Pension Program in 2017
• First LGU to replicate the implementation of Comprehensive Intervention Against Gender-Based Violence Program in 2018
• LGU to conduct Family Risks and Vulnerability Assessment and the First LGU to utilize the Family Risks and Vulnerability Assessment – Information System in 2018

Let us also congratulate Atty. Doan Balboa, Joel Duterte and Chief of Staff Voltaire Chiu, along with all our officers and staff for the successful establishment of our AMPING program.

Amping or the Auxiliaries and Medical Programs for Individuals and Needy Generals is an emergency assistance program alang sa atong mga residente nga dunay mga medical and hospitalization needs.

It has a budget of almost P32 Million and has hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and funeral homes as our local partners.

This year we are giving AMPING benefits to our 12 Thousand Clean Gensan Family Card Holders, aron ang atong mga beneficiaries makatagamtam sa benefits sa duha ka programa ang Clean Gensan Family Card ug ang AMPING.

Alang sa atong mga PWD constituents we have recently opened our Persons with Disability Affairs Office (PDAO).

Your local government has also forged partnerships with Marcellin Foundation, RD Foundation, Ma. Goretti Home for Girls and St. Agnes Homes so we can build our “Bahay Pag-asa for Boys” in Brgy. Sinawal.

The presence of this residential care facility for boys will now provide the much-needed interventions programs for Children in Conflict with the Law or CICL. Naa na tay kabutangan alang sa mga bata nato nga kinahanglan ug dugang guidance.

One of the pillars of this administration is our goal of social protection especially dito sa mga napasagdan for the longest time.

Sa atong mga igsuon na Indigenous Peoples, we have always been your partners.

That’s why we made sure na makaabot sa ilaha ang almost P5 million worth na “Classroom Construction for Lumads” or CCL projects sa government, DepEd and DSWD.

We are now constructing six classrooms in Barangays Tambler and San Jose to benefit more than 380 lumad households with 175 children beneficiaries.

These ventures along with our efforts in our “Batang may Pangarap Project” help ensure that we have a robust frame of projects and options in delivering social services to our people.

Ako usab na ikalipay na i-balita kaninyo na adunay nay 12 milyon na nagahin ang DPWH alang sa construction, sa proposed Indigenous Peoples’ Kasfala Center, kini atong pun-an in order to establish another first in our City, a Center for Cultural Communities diin atong ipakita sa usa ka gambalay ang atong mga igsoon na B’laan ug atong mga kaigso-onan na Muslim.

In addition, we are also proud to announce that the city has recently passed two, very important ordinances for our residents who follow Islamic traditions and beliefs.

We are the 3^rd city in the whole Philippines to pass the Halal ordinance which requires food establishments and supermarkets to separate Halal food items. This will help in our pursuit to develop the Halal industry and increase the number of Halal certified establishments in the city.

And our Sangguniang Panlungsod also recently passed the Shari’ah Atas Bitiara Ordinance that will establish a group of Shariah counselors, Ulama and traditional Islamic leaders to work on resolving marital disputes among Muslim couples.

The city government of Gensan will show the country that we are a Muslim and IP friendly city that respects the different culture and beliefs of each other.

Thank you, Janena Tito and Jo Lambac Kanda of the Integrated Cultural Affairs Division for helping our Sangguniang Panlungsod in passing these ordinances.

In our Social Welfare Services let us thank and recognize the efforts of our CSWDO headed by Rebecca Magante.

We are expecting a lot of additional infrastructure projects in General Santos and nearby areas especially on our roads because of the national governments P139.6 Billion build-build-build infrastructure budget for Mindanao.

From 2013 to 2017 we have more than 260 infrastructure projects in the city amounting to P1.2 billion pesos. With another P290.7 million for 21 projects allocated for this year alone.

Almost 200 of these projects are either completed or are currently being constructed to date.

One of these is our brand new Disaster Risk Reduction Management Building or DRRM Building while others are focused on infrastructure that positively impacts socio-economic development to help reduced poverty incidence like roads and bridges, electrification, water system, and public buildings/ structures.

Lahi pa ang atong mga flood control infrastructure. Ang napasagdan natong drainage master plan, ginahinay-hinay na nato ug padayun ang pagtukod as you can see with the nonstop construction of canals and drainages in some parts of the city.

To date, naa na ta sa almost 37% percent sa atong drainage master plan. Atong giuna ang mga lugar sa downtown and sa atong central business districts.

For our road network master plan, out of the total 924 kilometers na mga kalsada sa Gensan, 279 kilometers na ang atong nasemento or more than 30%.

As promised in 2013, we will coordinate our road network master plan with the national government. That is why we would like to thank our counter-part from DTI and DPWH who are helping us through their Roads Leveraging Linkages of Industry and Trade or ROLL IT.

With their help, we are now concreting Blagan-Datal Laguh San Jose-Pao Pao Sinawal Road connecting to our Gensan Diversion Road.

Dako ang support ani sa atong Agri-Business Industry with a total road length of almost 14 km and a total cost of P337.5 million.

Let us also thank our City Engineer’s Office for helping install and change 2005 units of LED Streetlights.

These LED lights replaced most of our existing High-Pressure Sodium Lamps to effectively reduce power consumption and be more environmentally responsive.

This will also contribute to the improvement of peace and order and security.

Lahi pa ninii ang more than 100 million project natu sa street lightings sa atong major roads and highways that we started in 2013 and still continuing even these coming years.

In 2013 one of our biggest problems when it comes to infrastructure was the city’s Sanitary Landfill Facility or SLF located at Barangay Sinawal.

After revisiting the plan and putting competent people in place, we are now proud to announce that our Sanitary Landfill Facility is now fully operational.

In May 2017 of last year, our Waste Management Office or WMO took over the operation and management from our partners Phil-Eco/RII Builders.

And now that our WMO has taken over operational and management control of the SLF we are set to add a Central Material Recovery Facility or CMRF in the area.

This is the first large scale mechanized CMRF in the country we can process as much as 40 tons of thrash per day na himuon natong organic fertilizer or concrete pavers na pwede gamiton sa atong mga infrastructure projects.

35 million worth na project fully funded by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization or UNIDO, walay gasto ang city.

We would like to recognize the efforts of Nonoy Pareja of our Waste Management Office in helping us secure this huge project.

Under the Coastal Resource Management Program (CRMP), vegetative cover in Gensan has increased by 81% from 2015 to 2018.

We also have our ISF or Integrated Social Forestry Project with around 200 farmer beneficiaries. These farmer beneficiaries are regularly provided with forestry extension services which helped us increase our vegetative cover by 152% from 2015 to 2018.

While the riverbanks of the four major river systems are green protected and saved with an increase of 432% of vegetative cover.

Daghang salamat sa atong team sa City Agriculture and CENRO headed by Merlinda Donasco and Val Lastimoso.

Ladies and gentlemen, even our campaign for a smoke-free General Santos is gaining success. 98% or 1,360 are compliant to the ordinance.

Hapit napud natu mahuman ang another first in our city, The Comprehensive Environment Code, atong pasalamatan ang atong Councilor Beth Bagonoc ug iyang kumitiba niini.

Among other upcoming projects of the city, is our Community-Based Monitoring System or CBMS. This would determine the socio-economic status, poverty situation and hazard profiling to know household hazard at risk.

Our dream of having a Walkable Government Center is now also set to come true because of our Green Gensan initiative.

Green Gensan is an urban design and greening project which will be funded by the Department of Budget and Management at an initial investment of P35 million pesos.

We will develop our government centers including our Freedom Park through landscaping and incorporating walkable areas and pedestrian walks complete with bicycle lanes and a Central City Landwalk.

With this project we hope to reduce traffic congestion in certain areas in the city, help promote urban greening and tourism.

Public-Private-Partnership or PPP will also play a big part in the upcoming days with PPP projects lined up to further improve our management of the Sanitary Landfill Facility, additional improvement for our Central Public Market and Queen Tuna Park, and the establishment of the Integrated Food Terminal Complex.

Gawas sa atong nahimo na ug ginahimo pa lang, daghan pa tang naka-line up sa atong plano as outlined in our CLEAN Gensan and CDP-ELA.

Sobra kadaghan ug positive news, achievements and information na pwede nako i-share about our city that one of the biggest dilemmas of my speech today is unsaon pagbutang tanan nga walay makalimtan ug walay dili mapasalamatan.

To all departments, divisions, officers, personnel, NGOs and private partners who have contributed a lot to our beloved city’s growth but was not specifically mentioned, accept my personal apologies, you are held dear by a grateful city and you are all appreciated, dili lang gyud makaya sa oras na isa-isahon pa ta mo.

The fact that General Santos City is moving fast towards the right direction means that collectively, we are all working hard.

This administration believes that good governance is the key to our success.

That form of good governance earned us a spot as one of the finalists for this year to the most coveted Seal of Good Governance of the DILG while it has eluded us, this just proves that we are on the right track.

The line that we made in 2013 was just the starting line as we continue to follow our 10-point agenda and city development plan that we laid down, we are connecting ourselves to our greater vision for General Santos come 2022.

That is the state of General Santos City for 2018, ug ako ang inyong mayor, Ronnel C. Rivera I am inviting everyone to come and help me build and secure my vision for our city.

DAGHANG SALAMAT SA TANANG MGA NIUBAN UG NITABANG SA ATO, UBAN GIHAPON TA SA UMAABOT NGA MGA ADLAW ALANG SA GENSAN.