Celso urges brgy execs to center dev’t, investment plans on CDS
Mayor Celso Lobregat told barangay officials to base their development plans and investment programs on the City Development Strategies (CDS), saying it is the “mother of all plans” for the development of Zamboanga, Asia’s Latin City.
Speaking at the orientation workshop on barangay development plans and investment programs last Wednesday, Mayor Lobregat said the CDS was approved in 2006, providing the city’s roadmap to development that should also harmonize with those in the barangays.
He said the CDS had passed through four phases, one of which was the assessment phase that collated all information about the city’s population, land area, households and establishments, among other data, to find out where the city is.
“All the barangays should also have a program like this, knowing where you are right now before knowing where you are heading for,” Lobregat told the barangay officials attending the orientation held under the auspices of the City Planning and Development Office headed by Melinda Cabato.
The next phase is the vision, where do you want to go as a city or as a barangay. This, he said, falls under the visioning phase which includes the branding. In the case of Zamboanga, it was and can still be known as City of Flowers. But unique is the city’s Spanish derivative language called Chabacano, thus the most fitting branding is “Asia’s Latin City.”
Another phase of the development, according to the mayor, is knowing the weaknesses and strengths of the barangay just as the city government did for Zamboanga in coming up with the CDS about three years ago.
He also talked on the city’s sound financial management, the increasing budget and the ballooning appropriations for different infrastructure projects spread all over the 98 barangays of the city, even as he also took pot shots at some of his critics.
During the program, Lobregat also consulted the barangay officials on his plan for the 2010 elections, asking them whether or not they would still support his reelection bid, to which the answer was a resounding yes. (Vic Larato)