Baguio folks vigilant vs defective projects/ Cashless payments

 CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY -- Mayor Benjamin Magalong is pleased that residents are now becoming vigilant over the quality of the projects being undertaken in their communities.
    Recently, officials of barangay Lourdes Proper asked the mayor to inspect an ongoing multi-purpose building project that appears to be of inferior quality despite having a huge budget.  The mayor went to inspect and tasked the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) to assess and document.
    Since institutionalizing the conduct of ocular inspections of projects, the mayor had been appealing to residents to report substandard and defective ones in their communities as his way of driving a message that as end-users of these infrastructures, people have stakes on them and that they should be concerned if the desired output is not met.
    "It appears that people have started to develop a mindset that they have an important role to play in safeguarding their stakes on these public infrastructures.  The previous indifference is slowly being replaced by watchfulness and vigilance and it is a good sign," the mayor said.
    "From our end, we promise to achieve results out of the concerns raised to us so that your efforts will not be wasted," he added.
    Issues and concerns in communities may be forwarded to punong barangays with whom the mayor has a direct line or to the Special Services Division of the City Mayor's Office at tel. no. 4427295.
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Preparations are on for the launching of the “Paleng-QR Ph” cashless payment program set to be piloted in the city.
    An organizational meeting was held last June 21 among representatives of program proponents Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Dept. of Interior and Local Government, the city government's executive and legislative departments, financial institutions and service providers and other stakeholders to set ground preparations for the inaugural run of the program.
    BSP Director Joyce Suficiencia issued guidance to the city council represented by market, trade, commerce and agriculture committee chair Coun. Isabelo Cosalan Jr. on the passage of a legislative measure to pave the way for the program in the city.
    She said Baguio will serve as the model implementer of the program for other local government units to follow.
    The meeting also allowed stakeholders to discuss the concerns raised by market vendors during the initial meeting held July 13.
    The BSP officials led by Deputy Governor Berna Romulo-Puyat introduced the program to Mayor Benjamin Magalong who expressed reception to the scheme having been aligned with the city's own digitalization thrust.
Aimed at promoting cashless system as alternative method of transaction in public markets and local transportation, the program aims to create a digital payments ecosystem making use of existing financial service providers like G-Cash, Paymaya, banks and others to facilitate cashless transactions between merchants and consumers.  
    Magalong said the program will help improve the city's collection system and eliminate collection malpractices at the city market while also benefiting the vendors in terms of speeding up payment and ensuring integrity in transactions.
    He earlier assured that the program will not be implemented without preparing the merchants to the new system and without addressing concerns on the prohibitive transaction fees that may be levied by the service providers.
    Among the activities during the launching is the onboarding of interested merchants by the different financial service providers.
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1 August 2022 – The Environmental Summit will push through on Aug. 8-9 at 1:30 pm at the Baguio Convention Center with the theme, “Leapfrogging towards livable communities.”
    The activity is open to the public who may attend physically or virtually via Zoom or livestreaming at the Public Information Office Facebook page where they can put forward their questions, concerns or suggestions.
The Zoom meeting link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84612067837?pwd=aGpFU21CMnJhd0VvSXhENVlEdTVBdz09; Meeting ID: 846 1206 7837; Passcode: CPDO.
    The Aug. 8 session is dubbed as Environmental Summit for Children and is expected to be participated in by students from Grades 5 to Senior High and school principals or administrators.
    Topics and resource speakers are Mayor Benjamin Magalong on the Baguio City’s Agenda for Livable Communities; Urban Audit by City Planning and Dev’t Coordinator Arch. Donna Tabangin; Local Climate Change Action Plan by City Environment and Parks Management Officer Rhenan Diwas; Baguio City’s Urban Carrying Capacity by Dr. Gladys Navarro; Towards an Environmentally Conscious Community by Josefa Carino Elem. School pupil Arjon Samantha Namologo; and Mandated and Innovative Environmental Activities in School by Guisad Valley National High School student Bryan Bert Ganaden.
     The Aug. 9 activity on the other hand will be devoted to the adults with the invitees coming from concerned city departments, regional line agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs), punong barangays, officers of the Heritage Foundation, Creative Council and representatives from the youth, academe, senior citizens and persons with disability sectors.
     Mayor Magalong said the summit aims to gather inputs on how to address the critical issues affecting the city’s environment in relation to the thrust to save it from further decay.
     As a sidebar to the event, the City Health Services Office announced that summit participants may avail of vaccination services during the event as they will set up vaccination booths at the site.
     The summit will be facilitated by the City Planning and Development Coordinator (OCPDC) and the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO).