COTABATO CITY — This city takes pride for being considered as the safest place in Region 12 by the regional police office with the dramatic drop in crime volume by 47 percent in 2017.
Such was stressed by Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi during her State of the City Address Tuesday at the City Mall multi-function hall here with local government, military and police officials in attendance.
“In simple words, Cotabato City is the safest place in Region 12,” the mayor said that was met by cheer and huge applause from the crowd.
Records from the Philippine National Police Region 12 Office indicated that the Cotabato City Police Office (CCPO) posted a high 46 percent decrease in crime rate in region last year.
Trailing the CCPO performance was the Sultan Kudarat Police Office with a 23 percent crime reduction then General Santos City posting the lowest crime drop at two percent.
“Indeed, peace and order stability is a very important factor in the performance of our duties and responsibilities to our constituents and it also assures the accomplishment of our programs and projects for our people,” said Sayadi.
“This is (the) reason why we will be putting up in a couple of months the city’s command center,” she added.
Guiani-Sayadi said the command center would manage and oversee the security operations in the city, noting that it would also serve as the central coordinating center of local law enforcement units in the city, including the city disaster risk reduction and management center and the public safety offfice.
The center, which would be situated at the back of the city hall, would be manned 24/7 by capable personnel. Early on, the PNP regional office has commended the city for its mayor-led nightly Ronda Patrol that has been proven an effective anti-crime mechanism and practice by city law enforcement units.
“In view of this, the PNP Region 12 office will be adopting our Ronda Patrol as a template for other local government units in Region 12,” Guiani-Sayadi said.
Due to its much-improved peace and order situation, the mayor said the city posted the biggest percentage increase in revenues at 22.79 percent, the highest so far in city’s history. Real property tax collection rose by 3.47 percent and business tax by 22.52 percent, among others, paving the way for an increase in the budgetary allocation for the Special Education Fund (SEF) by more than PHP500,000 or a total SEF allocation of some P12.9-M in 2017.
“The influx of investors that we have experienced last year was brought about by the huge improvement in our peace and order situation,” she reiterated, adding that such also made the locality gain the trust of investors.
An estimated PHP1.2-billion pesos worth of new investments came in last year, which resulted in the direct job generation for 1,250 Cotabateños.
Guiani-Sayadi also revealed that by Feb. 5, negotiations were up with the China Engineering Construction Company from Shenzhen, China, on the construction of Terminal 2 for nearby Awang Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, in a bid to decongest the latter from airport activities.
“We are also envisioning this new airport to cater to some international flights especially during the Hajj season,” the mayor said.
With the start of another fiscal year, she reiterated her request to government workers to give their best in the performance of their duties “because our people deserve nothing less but the best.”
This year, the city has an operational budget of PHP935.8 – million, some 14 percent higher than 2017’s allotment of PHP872.1-M. (PNA)
