(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
Reporting his 100 days in office
TACLOBAN CITY- Mayor Alfred Romualdez of this city said that his 100 days in office could be described as ‘full of hopes’ for not only for his administration but more so, for the Taclobanons.
Romualdez said that he is proud to say that in his first 100 days in office, he had made several actions that have set the tone of his administration’s track under his three-year term in office.
“I’m happy as we’re able to jumpstart the different policies that I have brought in in the city government in order to have a more effective governance,” he said Friday(Oct.11) in a press conference.
“I can say that the 100 days in office is very hopeful. We’re going beyond boundaries that have been set (for local governance),” the chief executive added.
According to the city mayor, among the things that his administration accomplsihed since he assumed his post June 30 of this year include the streamlining of personnel at City Hall, to include appointing new department heads and ‘empowering’ their assistants; establishing a City Hall in the northern part of the city to cater the needs of the more the 40,000 people who were relocated by the city government after Tacloban was pummeled by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in November 8,2013;forging partnerships and agreements with different state universities and colleges which aims to help his administration come up with policies that would further address the woes of the city and its people; coming with much needed infrastructure projects like a state-of-the-art cold storage facility; and the establishment of a night market where the displaced street vendors of the city in the light of the clearing operations.
Mayor Romualdez also said that the clearing operations, as mandated by President Rodrigo Duterte through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), here in Tacloban City could be described as successful.
“In fact, even before the DILG made such a directive, we have been doing it when I was the mayor of Tacloban,” he said.
Romualdez served as mayor of the city for nine years which ended on 2016. He was temporarily replaced by his wife, Cristina, as mayor from 2016 until June of this year.
The city mayor said that while he does not like to be ‘pressured’, he assured the Taclobanons to expect more projects for the next two years of his administration.
For one, he said, at least 11 vehicles will be plying more towards the resettlement sites to ensure the convenience of the people living there.
Mayor Romualdez also said that he would ask businessmen and investors to put up their businesses in the northern portion of the city to help the people find opportunities.
The chief executive described the northern portion of Tacloban as a site for ‘growth and development.’
Mayor Romualdez also said that he would further improve the city’s public market by making its fish and meat sections air conditioned as a way to make the buyers comfortable.
Mayor Romualdez, however, said that whatever policies and programs he would like to introduce in the city would not succeed without the cooperation and discipline among Taclobanons.
“Just have a little discipline…discipline not out of fear but discipline because they love their city and want to make it a beautiful and better place to live in,” he said.
And as part of this call, Romualdez said that he would revive his campaign of ‘I Love Tacloban’ which he used as a slogan during his previous years as mayor of the city.
