State of the Province Address

State of the Province Address
10 July 2008
Capitol Social Hall
Governor Gwen Garcia




Each year in July, in the humid air that always hints of yet another rain, we gather in this storied hall, to perform and to participate in a ritual as old as our democracy itself.

Here, where we, your leaders raised our arms to take an oath to serve, you call on us again to account for the trust that we had sought, and which you had given.

It is a ritual no less sacred than the oath itself. For right here, and now, we measure our worth: whether we have served with faithfulness equal to the faith reposed in us; and whether, in the past 365 days, we have indeed given meaning to the mandate we so gloriously celebrated a year ago, almost to this day.

It scarcely makes this task easier that our mandate was strong, was clear, and was, by any measure, historic. On the contrary, it makes the task of measuring infinitely more difficult.

For, coming here again, buoyed by a mandate of almost half a million votes, we realize that the weight of our mandate, and the height of our people’s faith, are the exact measure of their hopes and their expectations.

We took that mandate not so much as a vote of confidence in what we had done, as a signal to do more, and more urgently.

And thus we began the past year. Knowing that in the first term of this administration, we had perhaps succeeded in breaking the clouds of cynicism about government that had long hovered above our people. And that, having broken those clouds, we were now witnessing the torrential outpouring of expectations, and the daybreak of a renewed hope.

The task, then, as it continues to be, was to feed that new hope, and to sustain it.

And so on this July evening, we are here again, to proudly report that, ladies & gentlemen, the state of the province is strong. The strongest that it has ever been.

In 2004, we assumed the leadership of a strong province: we had over 5 billion in assets, and we led all other provinces in the entire country in terms of assets, in equity, and cash. Hundreds of millions in surplus, and zero debt.

Today, we are proud to announce that as of December 31st, 2007, in just a little over three years, we have increased our total assets by more than 300%, now standing at almost 17 billion pesos.

We are now, without any doubt, the richest province in the country, not just in the present, but at any given time in this country’s history.

We have sustained the growth of our total income, with almost 1.5 billion pesos as of 2007, projected to be the highest for any province in the entire country.

And we are proud to report that, despite a phenomenal increase in spending for infrastructure and basic services, we maintain an unequalled surplus of over 1.3 billion pesos.

And -- unlike many other local government units in the country, including one whose local Chief Executive seems to draw sustenance from his hostility to and obvious envy of the province -- we remain debt-free.

In fact far from being a debtor, we have become the total opposite: the Province of Cebu has officially become a creditor, as we have opened credit facilities to local government units in the province to finance worthwhile and revenue-generating projects. In so doing, we are able to help our towns and our cities, while growing our assets at a rate higher than any banking institution can offer for our huge surplus.

We will not be drawn into a war of words, or odious comparisons that are the mark of a basic insecurity. But this much we can say: We have not mortgaged our present, much less our future, for a debt from which there seems to be no relief in sight.

We have, instead, secured the birthright of future generations of Cebuanos, because, of this wealth, we cannot act with arrogance as though we owned it, but must, with the humility and responsibility of faithful stewards, nurture and take care of it.

In fact, rather than squandering that birthright, we have exerted all our efforts towards enhancing it, and increasing it, by recovering prime real estate in the City of Cebu belonging to the province. To date, we have recovered a total of 164 hectares of property in the City of Cebu, including the 80-hectare Camp Lapulapu property which past administrations had tried, but failed, to recover; and the 22-hectare Boy Scouts Camp, which includes the Cebu City Zoo.

Our strong financial position has allowed us to spend unprecedented amounts of government funds where they should be spent: not in debt-servicing but in vital infrastructure and basic social services.

In infrastructure, a man for whom I have the greatest love and respect, and in whom I depend for wisdom and support, paid me the supreme compliment by declaring again and again that I, as governor, have accomplished more than all the past governors combined.

I do not know if it diminishes the significance of the compliment that this man happens to be my father; or whether it in fact heightens the significance because Deputy Speaker Pablo Paras Garcia was also once a governor.

So I will let the figures speak for themselves:

By end of 2008, we shall have asphalted 534 kilometers of provincial roads so that, with the mere 164 kilometers left, not one inch of provincial road shall remain unpaved by year 2009.

Belatedly, because of my father’s compliment, I asked the provincial engineer to do a simple computation, to put this accomplishment in the proper context. And he reported that out of the total inventory of 825 kilometers of provincial roads when I assumed the governorship, this administration has been able to pave 68%. Indeed, more than all the past administrations combined.

While we have focused on provincial roads, we have continued to help barangays in the improvement of barangay roads through our Barangay Road Concreting program. To date, we have distributed a total of 294,000 bags of cement to barangays all around the province, for an equivalent length of 81.67 kilometers of concreted barangay roads.

And as we are completing the improvement of existing roads and road networks all around the province, let me restate our commitment to connecting all of these road networks to a common backbone. The Vice-Governor and I are determined to begin the development of the Trans-Axial Highway.

Since we began, we have converted 69 bridges from wooden to concrete, such that not one wooden provincial bridge remains. So much, in fact, that we have -- on our own, and at our own expense -- turned to concreting 7 national bridges, and are poised to convert the last remaining wooden national bridges in the province as well.

Our commitment to helping the national government achieve its infrastructure goals is not new. As we said in the beginning, we will, because we can, take care of our own. While education is strictly a national government concern, we have completed construction of 71 2-classroom schoolbuildings or 142 classrooms. By end of 2008, a total of 217 school buildings, or an equivalent of 434 badly needed classrooms shall have been constructed all over the province.

We have contributed to the national government’s nautical highway program by constructing the Daanbantayan Ro-Ro port slated for completion by next quarter of 2008, increasing the trade and tourism potential of that part of the island.

We are likewise poised to begin, simultaneously, the development of the Naga International Port and the Lilo-an International Port, which will further boost Cebu’s profile as the shipping capital of the country. The development of these ports in the north and in the south will decongest the existing international port in the city, and free ships from the burden of having to negotiate the increasingly tricky Mactan Channel.

In our efforts to free the national government of the burden of tertiary health services, we are completing by this year the construction of two provincial hospitals, in Carcar and in Danao City, and the evolution of the much-improved Balamban District Hospital and the Bogo District Hospital into provincial hospitals.

All this goes hand-in-hand with our continuing rehabilitation and improvement works on the rest of the 16 district hospitals all around the province.

In waterworks, we have completed 22 Level-III water projects around the province, and are completing 15 more within the year, bringing water directly to thousands of households and to people who had never known the simple comfort of water flowing from their own faucets all their lives.

In rural electrification, we have, under our Memorandum of Agreement with KEPCO and CEBECO, distributed a total of 2,500 electric poles around the province, and have energized the first batch of 81 sitios in 17 municipalities. This number brings us closer to achieving 100% electrification of the last remaining sitios in the very near future.

Our efforts have been to provide the infrastructure to prepare Cebu for that era of unprecedented growth and progress that is within reach, if not actually already here. In this, we are extremely proud that the private sector has gained enough confidence in Cebu to invest in the necessary infrastructure that will sustain that growth.

We especially note, with gratitude, that the combined capacities of KEPCO in Naga City and Global Business Power Corporation in Toledo City will provide an additional, in-land capacity of 436 megawatts of power for Cebu by 2010. This should be more than sufficient power to sustain our expected growth in the next 10 years.

In water, the province has begun the process of bulk water supply development from three water sources -- in Carmen, in Sogod and in Badian -- to supply the entire island of Cebu. With private sector participation, and the province as the clearinghouse for private sector proposals, these water sources will have a combined volume of over 100,000 cubic meters a day. More than enough water for an island that doomsayers have predicted, for the past century, to go dry, but hasn’t, within various deadlines that have come and gone.

The phenomenal increase in spending for infrastructure has been matched by an unprecedented increase in spending for social services that take care of our greatest resource: our people.

In health, we have achieved an unprecedented level of Philhealth enrollment for indigents in the province in conjunction with the equal efforts of our cities and municipalities. To date, we have enrolled a total number of over 103,000 indigent families in the Province of Cebu, the biggest, we are told, in Philhealth history. All told, the benefits of health insurance have been extended to an estimated half a million indigent individuals in the province even as, together with our 44 towns and 7 cities, we are aiming for universal coverage, or 100 percent indigent family enrollment by the end of 2009.

Our outsourcing program of medical personnel has achieved not only improved services in our district hospitals, but savings ranging from 25 to 35%. These savings have since been invested in preventive health maintenance programs, such as supplemental feeding, which we regularly conduct, and the provision of sanitary toilets, of which we have distributed close to 4,000 to barangays all over the province.

We have likewise enrolled more than 11,000 barangay officials and workers under the GSIS Group Accident Insurance, sending notice that we shall take care of those who are at the forefront in providing basic services to our constituents. To this end, we have provided police jeeps to all our police stations throughout the province. Firetrucks, mini dumptrucks, ambulances and multicabs have also been distributed to our LGUs and barangays.

In education, aside from providing classrooms, we have continued providing free school supplies to all elementary and highschool students around the province, and have expanded the program to benefit not just the provincial division but all city divisions as well.

I knew, when we began the program, that it would help parents everywhere in no small way. But I never realized the depth of their gratitude to the province until a woman, in tears, came running and hugged me while I was inspecting the South Bus Terminal. “Daghang salamat, Gov, daku kaayog natabang ang inyong school supplies” she said. Our small contribution had meant more rice to feed her five schoolchildren.

It is the efforts of these parents who labor, under the direst circumstances, and against all odds, to send their children to school that inspire us -- that push us -- to ensure that this education will work for their children. To give them a fighting chance in this world that they may build an even much better one when their time comes. In exchange, we ask only that they work hard and study hard and plant jackfruit or nangka trees. To this day, more than 2 million nangka trees have been planted and are growing all over our province, planted and cared for by our children in the hope that their future will, in some way, be taken cared of by the fruits of these same nangka trees.

To bridge the divide between the more fortunate private schools and our public schools, to close the gap between schools in the metropolis and those in our countryside, we have begun distributing, in cooperation with the Gilas Program of the Ayala Foundation, 10 computers each, with Internet connectivity, to high schools around the province. To date, we have provided these packages to 45 national high schools and 2 collegiate schools. And we shall continue, in the months to come, until the last high school shall have been connected.

We have, as well, more than tripled spending for programs to reach out to, and empower, sectors that need our services the most: children, women, the disabled and senior citizens through our ECCD supplemental feeding program, the GRAMEEN for women empowerment and the provision of medicines and assistive devices for the elderly and disabled. Never before has this province invested so much in seeing to it that children everywhere have enough to eat, that women become equal partners in the household, and that the elderly will find fulfillment in their twilight years.

In agriculture, we have redoubled efforts to train our farmers in new technology and techniques that will uplift them from this era of decreasing yields. To respond to the rice crisis, we have launched the SAKSAK or sinanduloy alang sa kabusog, sinanduloy alang sa kahimsog program, together with an intensive camote production program, participated in by all the cities and municipalities of the province and all elementary and high schools of the Department of Education.

The initial success of the program has gratified us no end, not only because the rice-camote mixture is a cost-efficient way to achieve even greater nutrition, but because it proves that a people in crisis can look back to their past, and rediscover how their forebears dealt and coped with periods of scarcity.

To help small entrepreneurs that are powering the economy in the countryside, we have launched the Countryside Enterprise and Business Upliftment Project, or the CEBU Project. In partnership with the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce, the program aims to train micro-entrepreneurs in credit, product development, marketing and packaging. It aims to prepare the legendary Cebuano ingenuity, creativity and industry for the world.

In tourism, our successful Suroy-Suroy Sugbo is now on its 4th year, and has run 15 tourism caravans to the South, the North, the Camotes islands, in the Metro Cebu area and the Midwest. The Suroy-Suroy Sugbo has not only become a tremendous hit. It has developed, in our towns and cities, a culture of tourism that has pushed the industry into the era of unprecedented growth that it is now experiencing.

Because of this awareness of our heritage and culture, and how it can sustain a successful tourism program, Cebu has now truly become a festival island, with a total of 47 festivals, which will be showcased in a grand festival of festivals called the “Pasigarbo sa Sugbo” during our anniversary celebrations in August, at the CICC.

The CICC. I cannot end this speech without talking about the CICC. As you all know, the Province of Cebu, although it has the funds to pay the contractor, has prudently decided to wait for the court to decide on the matter.

And yet, the project has been earning revenues for the province in the past one and half years since it opened. And we are not paying for any interests or the principal of any bank loan, because the CICC was funded fully out of the province’s resources. The COA has cleared the province of any wrongdoing, for, indeed, if the intentions were malicious, why not go ahead and pay the contractor, in the absence of a court decision?

This is the exact opposite of, say, a government project for which the contractors have been fully paid, for which the LGU is paying the principal and interests for the loan used to finance it, and is just lying there, empty, save for some migratory birds, and has not earned a single centavo for the people.

In contrast, from January 2007 to June 2008 alone, the CICC has hosted a total of 237 events, including exhibitions, local and international conventions, meetings and seminars, and special events. During that period, close to 200,000 people have used and visited the CICC, and a total sum of P32,250,000 pesos has been added to the province’s coffers.

The benefits do not end there, however. MICE or Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions industry estimates the multiplier effect value of the CICC events at no less than 660 million pesos for the same period, a huge contribution to the economy of Cebu. It is with a sense of fulfillment that we now see several edifices sprouting around the CICC. A shopping mall beside it, a hotel right across it and a boardwalk nearby. Well, at least, this reclamation project is buzzing with welcome economic activity. And the CICC has truly served as the all-important, crucial catalyst for growth not just in the Mandaue Reclamation area and for the City of Mandaue and the Province of Cebu as well.

Tonight cannot be all about figures. Not just because there simply is not enough time to mention everything. But more importantly, because the true state of the province cannot be captured in figures. There are intangibles at play. There is that unquantifiable spirit of a people that, more than anything else, moves them and the province along with them.

More importantly than anything else, tonight I say the state of the province is strong because there is a strong spirit moving the Cebuano people, and I have felt this anywhere I went, in this province, outside of it, in this country and in foreign lands. It is a feeling of pride, of an intense pride that has become a burning passion, about Cebu, about who we were and, who we are and, where we were and, where we are, and about where we are going.

I see this in Cebuanos in every town and city, now competing in writing a definitive history of their place, to discover their unique culture and heritage. Since when have so many people been confident enough of their present to take a long, serious look at their past?

I see this in our CPDRC inmates, who are making a life for themselves in detention, and making a name for themselves and for Cebu in the eyes of the rest of the world.

I see this in our Capitol employees who now truly serve our people with a smile that comes from the heart.

I see this in every town and every city visited by the Suroy-suroy caravan where the entire community, from the local officials to the people, young and old, come together to showcase the best of what they have and the best of what they are.

I saw this in schoolchildren in Barangay Patao, who gave me a puzzled, quizzical look, then smiled when I cried at the sight of the ramshackle tents that they had called, with dignity and without complaint, their classrooms. No big deal, they seemed to be saying, we’re here to get an education.

In the United States of America, Cebuanos from all over came in droves to the consulates in San Francisco, and even on a rainy evening in New York, to buy a book about Cebu, called, quite appropriately, “Pride of Place”. They came to the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C., on a Sunday, to cry, and to laugh, and to cheer, when their governor chose to speak in Cebuano. In the D.C. event, I noticed a woman who was crying all throughout. She approached me after I spoke and said what a lot of people must have wanted to say, but couldn’t quite: “Governor,” she said, “we have never been as proud to be Cebuanos as now.”

I saw this in the northern part of this island, when Medellin, Daanbantayan, Bogo, Bantayan, Madridejos and Sta. Fe were ravaged by Typhoon Frank, in the pride of a people who stood up, and quickly went about rebuilding their lives, without much complaint, with the determination and the indomitable spirit of true Cebuanos.

In Bantayan, the town had barely recovered from Typhoon Frank and so the mayor thought of canceling their festival. But the schoolchildren who had worked so hard to put on a good show insisted that the show must go on. And so it did. And the children danced as if no storm had just swept up their homes and their lives. They danced as the rains came again and splattered through the damaged roof of the sports complex and drenched them.

They danced until the finale came, and as “Mabuhi ka, Sugbuanon” played, I saw -- in determined faces of those children, our children, -- how well-deserved the words of that anthem truly was.

There is a wealth of pride because there is a wellspring of hope. Hope in Cebu. Hope in the Cebuano. It is a hope and a pride that unites us all, beyond time, beyond space, beyond everything else that seeks to divide us.

I have been asked, a number of times, where I see myself two years from now. And I smile. I smile because I know exactly what the question is all about.

And I smile because I do not see myself anywhere else but in Cebu, now, two years from now, five years from now. There is so much to be done here. And the challenges, this sense of hope, our simple pride in being a Cebuano are too strong and irresistible. I cannot find myself leaving Cebu for anything -- not for money, nor fame, nor greatness. Not even for higher office.

My fellow Cebuanos, I am here to stay.

And so on this humid July evening, we meet again, as we measure the strength of the state of our province, and celebrate its real strength that is beyond any measure. It lives inside of us, this hope that has taken us through seemingly insurmountable odds throughout the centuries. This pride that will outlive all those who seek to bring us down, and that will see us through this era of unprecedented growth, progress and development that is only just beginning.

Mga pinalangga kong kaigsoonang Sugbuanon , Mabuhi and hiniusa ug nagkahiusang Sugbo!

source: cebuprovinceonline