Cadiz joins the world tourism month

The City Government of Cadiz will observe a World Tourism Month on September 2010, with the theme “Sa Turismo May Asenso”.

Spearheaded by the Tourism and Cultural Division, lined up activities include a motorcade around the City on September 10 at 7AM, followed by the opening program at 9AM. At 6PM, there will be a “Street Danz Riot”.

September 17, 6PM, will be a “Sayaw Kultura”, a folkdance competition for both elementary and secondary school; September 20, 9AM, Search for Grocery of the Year; September 21, 9AM, Search for Bakeshop of the Year;

September 22, 9AM, Search for Restaurant of the Year; September 23, 9AM, Search for Resort of the Year; and, September 24, 9AM, Search for Hotel of the Year and 6PM, Body Painting Competition and Awarding.

All events will be held at the Tourism Avenue along Cabahug Street, fronting Cadiz East I Elementary School (Gabaldon).

Meanwhile, the Tourism and Cultural Division attended the Western Visayas Regional Tourism Congress on August 20-22, at the Sugarland Hotel in Bacolod City, with the theme “Turismo: Tulay sa Pagbabago”. They were Senior Tourism Operations Officer III Juanily Pedrosa and Tourism Assistant Nelia Ventura.

Tourism staff Ernalie Cacanog, Amy Porter, Charito Sauce and Rex Montemayor also participated in the 5th Travel Exchange 2010 on August 21-22 at the fountain area of Robinson’s Place Bacolod where they set up the booth that will serve as the drop-off information center./*

Mayor holds free dance clinic for inmates

Mayor Patrick G. Escalante, a physician himself, expresses his being health advocate as the Tourism and Cultural Division is conducting a series of free dance clinic and Taebo exercise for inmates in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Cadiz City.

This morning exercise activity is held every Wednesday and Friday, at 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM, at the BJMP compound in the reclamation area. They have begun the project last August 11, this year.

The Escanillan brothers, Neil and Nilo, are the program’s regular trainors. Neil, who has been into dancing for years, plans to transform his participants into “dancing inmates” that can parallel to the popular “dancing inmates” in Cebu. The activity is part of the Mayor Escalante’s health awareness program for the inmates. Very soon, it will be done among PNP personnel./*

205M Cadiz City Commercial Port Inaugurated

The most awaited 205 million Cadiz City Commercial Port has finally completed and was inaugurated by the city officials headed by Congressman Alfredo Maranon III, City Mayor Patrick Escalante and Provincial Board Member Salvador Escalante, Jr last July 3, in Barangay Banquerohan, this city. It is the first commercial port ever constructed and run by the city government.

The port, has 22 lineal meters of commercial wharf to accommodate 600,000 to 700,000 meters tons of cargo annually, 1.80 hectares back up for service roads, storage facilities and area for local embarking and disembarking vessels.

Former Mayor Salvador Escalante, Jr., who is now a member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan briefly explained the history of the project saying “the port was the result of the study participated in by professionals and different sectors through City Development Strategic Planning (CDSP) and visualized the city as the “Gateway and Premier Center of Agro-Fishery Resources of Negros Occidental”.

While the permit is being processed, the port accommodates commercial fishing boats, oil tankers, passengers’ boat from and to Bantayan Island. It is an alternative pier to Bredco Port in Bacolod City. Former Mayor Escalante also reported that as soon the plans push through the port will serve as inter-island vessels from Cadiz to Iloilo, Batangas, Bantayan and cargo ships to Cebu.

Meanwhile, City Mayor Patrick Escalante, in his message thanked the Divine Providence for the completion of the biggest project the city has ever achieved. He said “there are many sacrifices, financial crisis and difficulties that we encountered during the construction of this port. The prizes of fuel and materials increased and the contractor was about to give up but with the effort and dedication of former Mayor Bading and his officials this project has come to materialize. “The port will benefit the people of Cadiz not only the business sector but also the people living in this barangay. This will help boast our economy, that’s why we must thank God for giving this gift to our city”, the mayor concluded.

Congressman Alfredo Maranon III who congratulated the city officials said “to undertake this port project takes a long period of time but with your patience you have finally come to realize it. This project has great and triple effects to the city of Cadiz.” The department heads and city officials historically laid down the time capsule which will be opened in the year 2032, thirty years after its inauguration.

Among the hundreds of Cadiznon, media men from Bacolod City and city officials who witnessed the inauguration were City vice Mayor Samson Mirhan, City Administrator Atty. Michael Angelo Borromeo, and city councilors Dr. Abiezer Bacomo, Dr.Lilia Decolongon, Antonio Lacson III, Vicente William Tabanao, Wilfredo Cervantes, Denia Hinolan, Marcelo Metuda, Juan Musa and ABC president Arthur Lamis./*

Cadiz unveils One-Stop-Shop

Another milestone in effective governance was marked by the blessing and cutting of the ceremonial ribbon of the Land Administration and Management Service Office building or conveniently called One –Stop-Shop on July 1. City Mayor Patrick G. Escalante unveiled the markers of the edifice together with former mayor now Board Member Salvador G. Escalante, Jr. and Ma. Lourdes T. Reyes, ISF Manager.

Cadiz City is one of the cities all over the Philippines who passed the competitive selection criteria as one of the Programmatic Grant Awardees of the Land Administration Management Project-Innovation Support Fund, to effect systematic management of real property tax and tax mapping records, to improve billing and collection of real property taxes, and establish an effective land and tax-related information system that is accessible to the public.

The goal of One-Stop-Shop is to provide Cadiz taxpayers with efficient delivery of services by merging together in a single location all government agencies involved to enhance revenue collection, such as, Register of Deeds, CENRO, BIR, City Planning and Development Office, City Assessor’s Office, City Treasurer’s Office and City Administrator’s Office.

Mayor Escalante overwhelmingly acknowledged the 4.5 million pesos Australian Aid from the Australian Government. In his message, he highly hopes the innovation will generate more revenues without increasing the taxes, it will improve the city’s tax collection, and it will increase the efficiency in tax collection. The agencies involved will see to it that the transaction will be finished in one day, he added.

Present at the ceremony were special guests: Ian David Lloyd, LAM II Australian Team Leader for Australian Aid for International Development, who gave a very inspiring message as benefactor; LAM Steering Committee; SP Member Hon. Antonio U. Lacson III, Hon. Vicente William M. Tabanao, Hon. Juan Musa, Hon. Abeizer Bacomo, Hon. Denia P. Hinolan, and Hon. Marcelo Metuda; barangay officials; local offices led by the City Assessor’s Office department head Mr. Wilson J. Tajonera who is ISF Project Manager; BIR Victorias Chief Atty. Victoria Bojos; and national agencies based in the city./*

New Sanitary Landfill Photos

New Cadiz City Public Library Photo

Cadiz finalist in nat'l literacy tilt

Out of 126 cities in the country, Cadiz City was chosen as one of the top five finalists in the Search for Outstanding Local Government Unit in city category for 2010 National Literacy Award.

Group of evaluators from the National Literacy Coordinating Council headed by Director Emelyn Q. Libunao of the Philippine News Agency and Chairman of the Board of Judges conducted a 2-day final round of evaluation and met with the city officials, department heads, leader of non-government organizations, Dep-Ed officials for final interview and presentation of the project at SP session hall last July 23, 2010.

Director Emelyn Libunao who congratulated Cadiz City as champion for advocating literacy said one of the objectives of the search is to give recognition and honor to all the efforts of the LGU’s who are advocating literacy programs and to generate awareness on how important literacy towards national development. She added that the three areas of evaluation focused on the planning and development, management and implementation and impact of projects in the community.

Newly elected Provincial Board Member Salvador Escalante, Jr. presented and explained the programs undertaken during his term as city mayor through “Project Bading” which means Better Education through Alternative Delivery of Integrated and Nurturing Grassroots Programs conceptualized by the Cadiz City Literacy Coordinating Council (CCLCC).

Some of the projects were establishments of community learning centers in five barangays, Literacy Behind Bars for the inmates, MAGKAKAIBIGAN ALS Mobile Library, Project MMMK for mothers (Manahi,Magluto,Magmasahe Para Kumita), accreditation and equivalency program for OSY, Day Care Centers, Supplemental feeding, TESDA Training, Tindahan Natin Project and Health programs.

City Mayor Dr. Patrick Escalante also cited several additional programs which were Speech Laboratory for English and Call Center Representative Training Center, Gravid Crab Propagation in Brgy. Tiglawigan, Jatropha plantation considered as the largest plantation in the country, Mural paintings on Coastal Habitat Protection & Management, Farmers Integrated Technology Service (FITS), Practical Skills Training, Amlig AMBOK – a disaster preparedness program by the CREATE, Sanitary Landfill, Physical Alternative Therapy, Association of Character Cities and Towns in Occidental Negros (ACCTION), Balay Dalangpan and Child Learning Center.

Members of the evaluators’ team were Dr. Norma Salcedo, Head of LCC Secretariat; Cecelia Soriano, National Coordinator E-Net Phil., Ma. Teresita Manolo, Project Assistant III; and Corazon Polohan, Chief Resource Mobilization Special Project Program.

City Vice Mayor Samson Mirhan; Councilors Dr.Lilia Decolongon, Dr. Abiezer Bacomo, Wilfredo Cervantes, Antonio Lacson III, Bamboo Puey Hinolan and Juan Musa; former Councilor Sofia Prado; City Administrator Atty. Michael Angelo Borromeo; department heads Elena Serenias and Melecio Bacomo; Dr. XZ Dignadice, City Schools Division Superintendent; Dir. Alberto Rico, Executive Director PNU; DILG Officer Danilo Geroso; OIC City Treasurer Cristina Fuentes; and Rolando Gumban and Marissa Delina, NGO, were among those attended the evaluation./*

Cadiz info office designs system, creates data bank

The City Information Office of Cadiz City, under the administration of Mayor Patrick G. Escalante, has recently designed and implemented the Information and Publication System or IPS on August this year, as part of its innovation and development program for the City Government of Cadiz.

The IPS, as an implementation arms that will create a centralized data bank for the City Government, is the art and science of collecting, classifying and documenting the current information about Cadiz.

It has three components or the main sources of information. These are the Barangay Component or the Barangay Information Initiative (BII), Local Component or the Local Information Initiative (LII) and the National Component or the National Information Initiative (NII).

Each component has its own respective agencies. Under the BII are the City’s 22 barangays; LII, the city government departments and other selected divisions; and the NII, the national offices and the government-owned and controlled corporations situated within Cadiz City.

The City Mayor or its authorized representative shall designate an interim information coordinator or IC who shall serve as the contact person of the CIO. The IC’s function shall include to write and/ or submit monthly reports and/ or news stories, and coordinate with the CIO for photo-video coverage and documentation.

The materials submitted by the agencies and/ or gathered by the CIO, such as monthly accomplishment reports, agency profiles, schedule of activities, and/ or event or coverage details, shall become raw IPS materials.

The CIO, upon receipt of the raw IPS materials, shall classify and catalog them according to components, and decode and encode in the database.

The database shall be the IPS Data Bank. This IPS Data Bank shall be the vast source of information for the identified significant outputs.

The significant outputs are: online publication on the websites, production of city directory and profile, press release production and distribution, publication of Cadiz Bulletin and The Bulletin, production of Annual Accomplishment Report, administration of the Cadiz Information Center, and establishment of e-research for general public./*

Cadiz mayor gives free consultation during medical mission

A Medical Mission was conducted whole day on Saturday, August 14, 2010 at Villacin National High School covered court on Barangay Tinampaan in Cadiz City.

City Mayor Dr. Patrick G. Escalante and City Councilor Dr. Lilia O. Decolongon, both medical practitioners, attended to hundreds of barangay folk who came seeking medical attention. Leading cases of cough and fever were averted by the presence of several doctors who started the medical consultation earlier in the morning. Pre-natal check ups and weighing of children were also done.

The health team from Cadiz City Health Office was composed by Dr. Victoria Ibanez, Medical Officer IV, public health nurses, public health midwives, barangay health workers, barangay nutrition scholars and other health personnel. Vice Mayor Samson Mirhan joined the medical team later part in the morning. Free medicines were distributed to all patients and a feeding program followed.

Meanwhile, Punong Barangay Manuel Villacin assured that Dengue patients in his barangay were in their state of recovery as of press time./*