San Fernando, Pampanga is boomtown via ‘Tuwid na Daan’

The City of San Fernando, Pampanga, which marks 12 years of cityhood this week, is gaining recognition as a success story of the “tuwid na daan” principle of good governance on which the Aquino government pins its hopes for economic growth and prosperity across the country. San Fernando today is a “boomtown” with a strong middle class that comprises, according to a 2011 survey of household incomes, over 59 percent of its population. The national average is just 19 percent, according to recent census results. This statistic could perhaps explain why the City of San Fernando is host to at least four malls—SM (which has two), Robinsons, and Walter Mart—and major retail chains S&R and PureGold. A steady yearly increase in the number of new businesses, which last year hit over 7,970, has also led to a growing number of new jobs created, which reached nearly 5,000 last year, according to city government data. “The purchasing power of the people of San Fernando is strong and this continues to attract investors to the city,” Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez pointed out in his State of the City Address delivered on February 4, the 12th anniversary of the city. Rodriguez said his administration’s moves to shake off inefficiency and corruption in City Hall and at the same time involve different sectors of his city in the determination of policy directions and major initiatives have also become key drivers of growth. Making operations efficient has resulted in faster delivery of services. For instance, in the processing of applications for business permits, the city holds a national record of approving in just 23 minutes applications with complete documents required. There are only three steps that applicants follow, down from nine in 2004 when Rodriguez was first elected mayor. Mayor Oca, as San Fernando residents call their top city executive, became one of the country’s early practitioners of the Performance Governance System (PGS), a technique derived from the management concept Balanced ScoreCard (BCS) that was developed in Harvard University. PGS was introduced in the Philippines in 2005 by former finance secretary Jesus Estanislao through the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA). At the time, Estanislao saw the need for change leaders in both the private and public sectors to consolidate gains earned by the Filipino people from the 1986 “people power revolt” and built institutions of democratic governance capable of initiating and nurturing economic reform. The City of San Fernando became one of the first LGUs to adopt PGS. With mentoring from Estanislao, Mayor Rodriguez and his staff soon saw early gains in the form of reduced dependence on Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) handouts from the National Government, reflecting “more fiscal responsibility” as well as increased local business confidence. A Multi-Sectoral Governance Council (MSGC) established by Rodriguez gathered representatives of various sectors—private business, academe, transport, agriculture, health, religious, civil society, women and youth—into becoming a community with a “shared responsibility” of setting goals and jointly working to achieve them. “All of these sectors have a voice in the management of the City of San Fernando,” says Rodriguez. “At MSGC we listen to the community’s representatives and weigh how all the opinions and ideas they present can contribute towards improving conditions in the city.” Consider the following samples of San Fernando’s achievements over only the past decade: * A high 93 percent of all San Fernando children are in school, thanks to the 14 integrated schools built during the Rodriguez administration. At the elementary school level, 91.7 percent finish their terms and move on to high school, where the passing rate stands at 91.2 percent. Rodriguez says that he made providing education a key priority of his government because it is “only with good education that people can have a chance to escape poverty and strive for a better future.” * Health facilities and programs have also started yielding dramatic results for the city. There has been no record of maternal death in San Fernando since 2011 and no major epidemic of any disease, including dengue. Just last week the City of San Fernando was given the “Central Luzon Excellence Award for Health 2012” by the Department of Health. The city also last year was host to the launch of an Asean-wide program for the prevention and control of dengue. * Infrastructure projects are getting an increasing role in the city’s economic advance. In the nine months of May 2012, a total of P224 million worth of infrastructure projects were completed, including 36 road projects in 15 barangays and 16 flood control projects.   Rodriguez is confident that this trend will continue to grow with the entry of new Private-Public Partnership projects in the city. * The cumulative amount of private capital invested in San Fernando has expanded to P21.7 billion as of end-2012, with the number of new businesses rising steadily from 3,574 in 2010 to close to 5,000 in 2012. * As the economy grows, safeguards to protect the environment are being put in place. Through the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, San Fernando has initiated such programs as a waste segregation policy, materials recovery facilities, tree planting, disaster resiliency training, among others. The city has also tied up with private groups like the Mother Earth Foundation for its waste reduction program. * San Fernando has a clear policy on the preservation of heritage sites around the city. There are now some 30 such heritages sites that are undergoing preservation to ensure that future generations will appreciate them. These are only a few of San Fernando’s accomplishments in the past 12 years as a city and as a follower of PGS governance scheme. Estanislao considers San Fernando as one of the top followers of PGS on the basis of results. Indeed, Mayor Rodriguez and the City of San Fernando have been honored with top awards for various achievements over the past nine years—at least 69 awards, including four conferred by international groups and 31 by national-level award bosies. Rodriguez was a recipient of the 2012 Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award personally handed by President Benigno Aquino III. Rodriguez was cited for “successfully elevating the City of San Fernando through a system of managing governance and performance that is anchored on the principles of transparency, accountability and participatory governance,” according to the Civil Service Commission which conducts the annual search for outstanding performers in government. On top of its recent achievements, San Fernando can also look forward to sustained growth in the coming years. Economist Bernardo M. Villegas, in a recent article, projected that “a metropolitan complex will evolve around the Angeles-San Fernando cluster that will rival Metro Manila as a highly urbanized and industrial zone” once the planned transfer of the Manila international airport to Clark industrial zone is completed. Villegas said that “60 percent or more of the 5 to 6 million people who live in Central Luzon [where San Fernando, Pampanga, is strategically located] will belong to the upper middle class households.” The last of Rodriguez’s three consecutive terms as mayor will end in June. At the February 4 anniversary ceremony, Rodriguez urged his constituents to “preserve and not allow to go to waste the many achievements we have made, which can be used as a foundation on which more prosperity for all can be erected.” If his people were listening, they would have heard that he also mentioned “Tuwid na Daan” as the only path to that prosperity. The author, Ping Galang, is a consultant to the Mayor of San Fernando.