The Belmonte Administration

08 December 2008

Seven years of prudent fiscal management, aggressive tax management strategies, as well as increasing efficiency and growing discipline in the management and use of our resources has made Quezon City one of the most competitive cities in the Philippines today.

At the center of economic competitiveness
As a result of Belmonte’s leadership, Quezon City’s reputation as a model of best practices is recognized in the local and international community.

Among the reasons cited consistently is the credibility of the local government whose governance initiatives have made Quezon City a favorite case study of international institutions like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Other surveys and studies cite Quezon City for the dynamism of its local economy, the quality of life of its residents and the responsiveness of the local government in addressing business needs.

In 2007, Quezon City was ranked No. 7 Asian City of the Future, based on a survey commissioned by the London Financial Times through AsiaBiz strategy, an investment and trade promotion consultancy based in Singapore. It joined the ranks of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei, besting more than 200 Asian cities.

Furthermore, the Asian Institute of Management, in its “2007 Philippine Competitiveness Ranking Project” ranked Quezon City as the most competitive city in Metro Manila and second most competitive in the country. The study covered 90 cities, classified into metro, mid-sized and small. They were ranked according to how effective these cities were in providing an environment conducive to business and industry.

In a 2008 Tholons special report on global services, Quezon City ranked among the top 50 emerging global outsourcing cities. They conducted a location assessment based on scale and quality of workforce (including education), business catalyst, cost, infrastructure, risk profile, and quality of life. Within the six categories are 15 subcategories that differentiate cities, and to a large extent determine their individual capacities to fulfill particular services. Quezon City ranked as the number 21 emerging global outsourcing city, the highest among all nine new entrants.


Sharing best practices with the world
Belmonte explains, “I am lucky to be mayor at a time when the global trend is that cities have become the center of economic competition. Cities are now the new nations, able to source for themselves investments, business opportunities and resources. In the Philippines, more progressive cities like Quezon City are igniting the engines of growth. Competition becomes easier now that we have put our “house” in order.”

Because of the City government’s best practices and innovations, Mayor Sonny Belmonte has become a sought-after speaker in international forums sharing governance practices.

In 2007, the German Government invited Belmonte to be panelist in its symposium focused on the theme, “Crisis of Governance.” He was the first elected Filipino official to be invited to this internationally attended workshop series organized by the German Federal Intelligence Service Bundesnachrichtendiest. The BND asked him to share with about 400 Asian and European officials and experts, his successful governance strategies at Quezon City. The symposium tackled the question on how internal conflicts could be confronted and managed in megacities, with the help of an internationally coordinated policy.

In June 2008, Mayor Belmonte was chosen panel speaker on behalf of Southeast Asian countries in the East Asia Summit Conference on Livable Cities held in Singapore. He shared his experiences and views on good governance of sustainable cities with approximately 1,500 delegates composed of city mayors, top government officials and policy makers, senior officials from international organizations, academicians and business leaders. The Ministry of National Development of Singapore cited him for his achievements in turning Quezon City into a model urban center.

In Honolulu, Hawaii, Mayor Belmonte joined the ranks of leaders of emerging urban centers in the Asia Pacific region in a mayor’s and leaders’ roundtable discussion organized by the East West Center for its latest seminar series, “Urban Asia: Challenges of Transition and Governance.”


Dramatic turnaround from bankruptcy to viability
When Belmonte was first elected mayor in 2001, Quezon City was the most financially distressed local government unit in Metro Manila and perhaps, nationwide. The city had a debt of P1.25 billion to the Land Bank and payables to various contractors amounting to P1.4 billion. The general fund was overdrawn by P10 million. In just two years, he was able to turn a bankrupt city into the richest city in the country, a feat very few mayors have achieved.

Consistently, for four years since 2002, the Commission on Audit and the Department of Finance regarded Quezon City as the local government unit (LGU) with the highest net income in the Philippines. For seven straight

years (2002-2008), the City produced a budget surplus averaging P307 million annually. The City government ended 2008, with an income of P8.02 billion.


Investments in a better life
These resources are being parlayed into the development and transformation of Quezon City. The people of Quezon City are now enjoying the fruits of more than P 13 billion worth of infrastructure investments. These are investments to make people’s lives better – through safer communities, through more productive environments because people and vehicles can move faster and more conveniently to destinations, and through more pleasurable and healthy surroundings.

Throughout his administration, Belmonte has been investing in LIFE:

§ Livelihood and entrepreneurship, which mean investments in productivity that lead to enterprise creation and job generation

§ Infrastructure development, which redound to investments in the physical transformation of the City, improving the overall environment for business and almost all aspects of community life

§ Fiscal and financial management, which are continuing investments in strengthening governance and management capacity

§ Education, which represent significant initiatives in knowledge creation and expansion.


Pioneering in many areas

It is under the Mayor’s leadership that Quezon City achieved many firsts:

§ 1st to computerize revenue collection and assessment function

§ 1st to grant to barangays (community-level local government unit), full fiscal control over their share of real property tax collections

§ 1^st LGU to develop an extensive and continuous training curriculum for barangay leaders

§ 1st to institutionalize Citywide citizen participation in governance thru the City Development Council

§ 1st Urban Center to implement the Solid Waste Management Act

§ 1st to use Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) as biogas-reduction strategy and revenue generation mechanism from waste

§ 1^st to operate the Biogas Emission Reduction Project as the first clean development mechanism (CDM) project in solid waste management in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia.

§ 1st LGU to manage an advanced computer training center

§ 1st to enact a Gender and Development Code for the protection of women and children


Effective fiscal management
Belmonte is best known for his fiscal management acumen. Among his first moves as QC mayor was to revitalize tax collection. His focus on computerization has instituted efficiency and service innovations that has made taxpaying easy, accurate and less prone to graft. The City government developed a database system that now contains around 400,000 real property units with capability to record payments, and the capacity to service 20,000 taxpayer transactions a day.

Belmonte was bold enough to pursue needed resource-saving and revenue-generating strategies that other politicians may steer clear off as unpopular moves. Early on in his first term, he let lapse the contracts of about 3,000 casuals whose services were no longer needed by the City government. The City also raised business taxes considerably, to make QC rates closer to the tax rates in neighboring cities. According to Belmonte, these were sacrifices that had to be made in order to realize the vision of a "Quality Community."

Now, his administration is further tapping the benefits of technology, principally, Geographic Information Systems, to create new revenue sources, to ensure a continuously increasing revenue base for the City.


Participative governance
Belmonte is an advocate of participative governance. Because of the management policies and strategies of SB:

§ Barangay captains are being trained to become effective “little mayors” in their respective localities

§ Like Mayor SB, they are trained to become good fiscal managers by the City’s giving them full fiscal control over the barangay share of the real property taxes, and teaching them to properly account and budget these;

§ Since 2002, P2.53 B real property tax shares has been remitted to the barangays

§ They regularly attend management and public administration seminars thru a specially developed training program in governance and fiscal management, developed by the City government in partnership with UP’s National College of Public Administration.

Moreover, Quezon City is the only local government unit with a regularly functioning Local Development Council. It was organized and launched for the first time under his administration. The CDC meets regularly, with the full complement of 142 barangay captains, 50 representatives of NGOs and POs, 4 congressmen and the chair of the City Council’s Appropriations Committee


Setting the pace in environment management
Belmonte has led Quezon City as a pioneering local government in environmental management. In 2007, the City developed and implemented the Biogas Emissions Reduction Project, the first clean development mechanism (CDM) project in solid waste management in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. It was registered under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on February 1, 2008.

The project, which converts biogas emissions into electricity, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an annual average of 116,000 tonnes CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). It will improve local air, water and soil quality, eliminate fires and explosion hazards and trashslides in the dumpsite.

Aside from generating electricity, employment and building capacity from the transfer of technology and know-how, the City has gained new revenue sources from the sale of CERs (Certified Emission Reduction) or carbon credits and the electricity generated and exported to the grid. This is Quezon City’s humble contribution to the mitigation of global warming and climate change.

Quezon City is the first Urban Center to implement the Solid Waste Management Act. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Special Award given to the Quezon City local government in August 2004, recognized the LGU’s “promising and innovative program in achieving environmental improvements with the conversion of the Payatas Dumpsite into a Controlled Facility and being the first in the country to capture methane gas from the dumpsite as an alternative energy source, thus ensuring the health and safety of the community.”

The Belmonte Administration’s reengineering interventions improved the dumpsite’s operational efficiency, restructured, and upgraded the dumpsite, while resulting in savings on its operating costs, and at the same time, making the facility safer and more environment-friendly. The program is widely recognized for being a laboratory and showcase for solid waste management initiatives and a model for other local governments.

Quezon City has been accorded the accolade of being the 2nd Cleanest and Greenest City of the Philippines, according to the country’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The breadth of Quezon City’s environmental programs are unprecedented among LGUs. The City pioneered in a package clean-up system, to replace the corruption-prone and contractor-influenced “per-trip” system This resulted in a much cleaner city, with 500 tons less garbage a day, at a collection cost that was P 20 million a month less.


Urban transformation strategies
Among the first dramatic transformations in Quezon City under the Belmonte administration happened in Novaliches which now has its park complete with a fully lighted fountain and promenade areas. Concreting and widening of streets, development of inter-linking roads, rationalization of traffic and discipline of pedestrians relieved years-old traffic problems in the area.

Other redevelopment efforts have taken place in the Tomas Morato Avenue areas, Metro Cubao, Libis and the other northern portions of the City. Belmonte’s administration has inspired such confidence in the private sector that investments in private developments have grown exponentially since SB took office. These are evident in the rise of new shopping malls, as well as in wide-scale real estate developments for commercial and residential uses.

Investors are finding Quezon City to be a most cost-effective location, with the most expansive lands still available for broad-scale development.

The Belmonte formula for development for 2007-2010 is spelled out clearly in his ABC of Development, which underscores his priority thrusts:

§ Alleviate poverty

§ Build up the city

§ Compete on efficiencies

This formula is intended to create a more competitive Quezon City, able to spread the gains of development to all constituents.


Recent awards and citations received

§ Outstanding Congressman of the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th CongresS

§ Gintong Ama Awardee in 1993

§ Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Club of Manila

§ Model Filipino Awardee of the World Family Institute in 1994

§ Outstanding Alumni (Lyceum of the Philippines)

§ Benedictine Centennial Awardee (San Beda College)

§ Outstanding Filipino in Government Service of the Philippine Jaycees and Insular Life Philippines, 2002

§ 2003 Most Outstanding City Mayor (Local Government Leadership Awards)

§ Huwarang Pilipino Awardee for Local Governance (Huwarang Pilipino Foundation)

§ CEO Excel Awards for Communications Excellence in the Government Sector, 2006

His Governance of Quezon City further resulted in:

§ 2008 Gawad Galing Pook Award for the Payatas Dumpsite Transformation Project

§ 2005 CEO Excel Award in Communication Leadership for Government

§ 2005 Gawad Galing Pook Award for Outstanding Government Program, Molave Youth Home (Galing Pook Foundation)

§ 2003 Gawad Galing Pook Award for Effective Fiscal Management (Galing Pook Foundation)

§ “Most Business Friendly City” awardee for 2003, 2004 and Hall of Famer in 2005 (Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

§ DILG Model of Good Governance citation (Department of Interior and Local Government)

§ 2003 Livable Community Award (Metrobank Foundation)

§ 2003 Livable Community Award (Metrobank Foundation) Kabalikat sa Pabahay Award for the Local Government with the Most Number of Community Mortgage Programs (Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council)

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Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte, Jr. was born in Manila on October 2, 1936 to Court of First Instance Judge Feliciano Belmonte, Sr. and his wife Luz.

During the Aquino Administration, he gained a reputation as being a turnaround expert for failing corporations. He was President/ General Manager of the Government Service and Insurance System, the Manila Hotel, and the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Philippine Airlines. It was under Belmonte’s able leadership when PAL registered an unprecedented profit of P1.2 billion, enabling it to pay all its obligations without borrowing a single peso or even firing a single employee despite the pressures from competition.

Thrice elected Congressman of the 4^th District of Quezon City (virtually unopposed in his second and third run), he was able to serve both as House Minority Leader and House Speaker of the 11^th Congress, a feat only Belmonte has done.

During his incumbency as legislator, he authored and co-authored major bills such as the General Appropriations Act (R.A. 7845, 8174, 8250 and 8522), the Act Providing for a Dual System of Education (R.A. 7686), An Act Increasing the Bed Capacity of the East Avenue Medical Center (R.A. 8374) and Joint Resolution No. 1 – Salary Upgrading of Government Officials and Employees otherwise known as the Salary Standardization Law. Belmonte shone even brighter in the public eye when he was chosen and entrusted to lead the prosecution panel in the impeachment case of President Joseph Estrada and the rest, as they say, is history.

His credentials as a private citizen are equally impressive. He became President of the Philippine Jaycees in 1973, and in 1976, he brought honor to Filipinos by becoming the President of Jaycees International. In the mid 1990’s, he was selected President of the University of the Philippines Open University Foundation. He was also a member of the Philippine Delegation to the 1957, 1997 and 2000 International Labor Organization’s International Conferences held in Geneva, Switzerland.

His family remains Belmonte’s greatest achievement. His wife, the late Betty Go Belmonte, founder of the Philippine Star, was a woman of courage and true Christian faith who stood by him in everything he did. They both shared a passion for political idealism, publishing and art. They have three sons and a daughter all of whom are successful in their own right – Isaac, editor-in-chief of the Philippine Star; Kevin, President of Philstar.com; Miguel, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Star Group of Companies; and Joy, an archeologist and civic leader.

Mayor FELICIANO BELMONTE, JR. has inspired his colleagues, constituents and even adversaries in making a difference in public service even in a graft-ridden society like ours by promoting productivity, efficiency and accountability. He has given a new meaning to the term Government Official by virtue of his outstanding accomplishments over the years. He was once quoted as saying, “I saw that bureaucracy is almost by definition the first hindrance to quick action, and that the government does not operate on the basis of ‘value for money’ as should be the case. It is not just a question of climate or culture, but also of morale and incentives in action.”