re-post: Manila Bulletin's Eli Cinco on Calbayog City

(Last Wednesday, I featured in this blog Mr. Eli Cinco's column in the August 20, 2008 issue of the Manila Bulletin. I received a good number of emails and a phone call. It turned out that a good number of blog viewers were not able to access the links I have provided. I am posting the whole column, or the part about Calbayog. Try checking this link, in case does not work, do read what I have posted)


Calbayog gets PCCRP ‘Top Performing City’ Award
By Elinando B. Cinco

NOW Calbayog City has all the reasons to attract investors and draw visitors after it has been awarded last July 4, the much-coveted Top Performing Metropolis Award – Small-sized Category – by the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center, in conjunction with its biennial Philippine Cities Competitive Ranking Project.

Only 12 cities, out of 45 covered by that category, made it to the ranking, Calbayog among them.
Launched in 1999, the PCCRP is a two-year independent study conducted throughout the archipelago "to rank cities on the basis of economic performance and responsiveness to business enterprise."

There are two other categories – Metro Cities and Medium-sized Cities – involving the Philippines’ 90 cities surveyed nationwide.

Rating of the contending cities was based on such factors as (1) dynamism of the local economy, (2) cost of doing business, (3) infrastructure, (4) human resources and training, (5) responsiveness of local government units to business needs, and (6) quality of life.

In a front-page news story in the Manila Bulletin last July 5, to project the importance of the biennial awards, Dr. Federico Macaranas said city competitiveness is vital in national development.

The AIM Policy Center has this study and its goals "to promote national competitiveness by encouraging healthy competition among highly urbanized and emerging cities."

"By gathering and compiling strategic data and providing focused analyses of the results, the PCCRP also seeks to cultivate competitive industries, promote healthy communities and maximize the economic performance and responsiveness to business enterprise,"Macaranas emphasized.

Since the first city awardees were bestowed almost 10 years ago, results of the PCCRP research and evaluation have benefited those local government units. They came in the form of accurate and workable city planning, realistic and, therefore, attainable development objectives, all combining to make intelligent implementation effortless.

Now, what does this ‘Top Performing City’ Award mean to Calbayog? A bagful, if you ask me. One is that the place is now in a position to engage in many revenue-generating projects, independent of the national government. Revenues make a city in-step with progress, and the multi-faceted effects redound to the development of private enterprises, and improved income of the city residents.

The award will also be seal of quality for Calbayog to become a top priority in foreign-assisted projects. Just as it is an attestation of its viability when securing financing for its people-centered ventures and tourism-attraction undertakings.

Furthermore, to my reading, the recognition means Calbayog itself and the inhabitants are a fertile market even for non-traditional goods and services. An asset of a small metropolis that trumpets to the outside world that it is now in business!

I take my hat off to City Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento who personifies a dynamic local government executive, always on his toes looking for avenues and opportunities to position his city in vying for 21st century enterprise and technology.

Similarly, kudos to the city council and its presiding officer, Vice Mayor Onald Aquino, the heads of different departments of the city administration who must also share the credit in attaining the enviable recognition.