2014, Quezon City’s diamond jubilee year, was a watershed in the city’s history-making and governance.
In his 2014 State of the City Address, Mayor Herbert Bautista described QC as a city on the road to a new era of governance. His annual report focused on QC economic growth, job creation, sheltering those relocated from danger zones, constructing more public school buildings, and improving the city’s health facilities.
On the need to create more employment opportunities, Mayor Bautista said the QC government was working on the solutions to the need for more jobs. These solutions are: “Create more microentrepreneurs, educate and train more for entrepreneurship and employment, expand access to markets, further improve ease in doing business, and lay bigger and more enticing avenues for investments,” he said.
The Mayor also reported: “We have been able to increase the number of businesses formally registered in our city to 64,987 – the biggest number among all local government units in the Philippines .”
As of last year, QC had eight on-going housing projects and seven more new projects were in the pipe line.
QC also constructed 20 new school buildings, 13 for elementary and 7 for high school, with the help of the Department of Education.
2014 was also a year of festivities, the right time to launch a yearlong celebration of the best things about Quezon City .
These good things – the best of QC – include being the richest city in the Philippines , home to the country’s biggest student population, the biggest as a concentration of urban parks, business establishments, malls, universities, hospitals and churches.
Great things from the past also have to be remembered. Quezon City takes pride in its unique historical heritage, most especially for being the cradle of the 1896 Revolution. It was at Pugadlawin, in QC’s District 1, where Gat Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan launched Asia ’s first revolution against a colonial power. And, of course, for being President Manuel Luis Quezon’s dream city. QC turned 75thyears old on October 12 last year.
Weeks before the Founding Day anniversary, the city council, acting on a petition by the organization Pugad Lawin Philippines, passed a resolution urging the city’s six representatives in Congress to initiate and work for a legislation declaring August 23 as a national non-working holiday to be known as Araw ng Haringbayan. August 23 is commemorated annually in QC as the Cry of Pugadlawin. Haringbayan is a Katipunan-coined word that means “the sovereign people or nation.”
The diamond jubilee celebration focused on the socio-economic growth and gains of the city, highlighting the fact that QC is no colonial creation. No foreign power built QC for the Filipinos.
On the day of the diamond jubilee, a zumba gathering at the Quezon Memorial Circle, a Gawad Parangal Night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, a food festival at Maguinhawa Street and a street dancing procession to the Amoranto Sports Complex gave the city residents greater participation in the celebration. In the Indakan street dancing alone, about 40,000 public high school students had participated.
Last December, Quezon City retained its niche as the country’s Number 1 revenue earner, achieving before Christmas Day a total collection of more than Php 15 billion.
Noteworthy, too, was the selection of QC’s socialized housing program for the 21014 Galing Pook award. The QC government also was chosen by Pag-ibig Fund as one of its Top 20 developers for the year.
QC also won the 2014 Galing Pook award for its Men’s Sundown Clinic at Bernardo Park whose services focus on HIV and AIDS awareness, counseling and tersting.(Mencio)
Posted By: Edrillan Pasion
