EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE

CANDON CITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

I. INTRODUCTION

The Candon City Development Strategy Report is presented as a case study on how the City of Candon proposes to implement changes on five fronts of administrative management, namely: 1) poverty-reduction, 2) local economic development, 3) good urban governance, 4) bankability or competitiveness, and 5) environmental resource management. As any case study will show, we start with familiarizing ourselves about the city, its history as well as its role in the surrounding region or district. This is followed by the City Profile, which discusses further Candon City’s capabilities and shortcomings. Finally winding down to development issues on the aforementioned five fronts of administrative management, as well as the output proposed strategies to address the identified issues and concerns.

In summary, the City of Candon is an ideal test case for good urban management since it is strategically located in the 2^nd district of Ilocos Sur as the center for commerce and industries, while also benefiting with a solid agricultural-based economy complete with mountains, hills, plains and shoreline. Its historic rise as the “bagsakan center” for at least 15 other towns in the provinces of Ilocos Sur, La Union and Abra ensures a continuous and sustainable pace of economic growth. Thus the new City banks on the vision of being a sub-regional growth center in its area, supplying and leading its neighbors towards more progress and development with a mission of sustained linkages among stakeholders and promote the general welfare of its people, especially the marginalized.

Further evaluation of the city’s characteristic profile, Candon City enjoys a variety of natural resources, some of which are still left untapped like the coral reefs in Barangay Tamurong, or the tourism potential of a 16-kilometer stretch of beaches in the coastal barangays. Infrastructure is well placed in developing the LGU’s economic enterprises such as the City Public Market, the City Malls and the Civic Centers and Libraries. A road and drainage network is now being planned as a priority development project. The social environment is also good with a healthy 10,621 population having a 93.32% literacy rate. The economic and financial profiles have much to be desired yet, especially if the City would strongly push for large-scale and sweeping reforms. It has to develop a better tax collection system and institute a local economic council to grasp economic opportunities better. The LGU institution is doing its best in adopting the seven norms of good governance that focus on transparency, efficiency and public participation among others. It has in fact re-organized to accommodate new demands on basic services and had implemented its computerization program to be more efficient and professional.

Developing or building a new city from the ground up is a hard thing to do, especially in the case of Candon City with the transition carrying with it old problems and limitations. But what the CDS process teaches is one of internal evaluation and strategic interventions towards development goals and objectives. The CDS even made it a bit easier by identifying five development issues and seven norms of good governance as basis or framework, which when taken as a whole, would enable concrete social and institutional reforms purposefully designed for urban development.

We would also like to present in this executive summary the CDS2 process what Candon City underwent thus far. Beginning with the rationale that a new city needs to realize the effects of urbanization and how to manage it well, we explain the findings from the internal evaluation of the Urban Karte, the CDS2 consultation meetings on the GUG campaign and knowledge-sharing, and finally the proposed strategies.

I. URBANIZATION OF CITIES

Cities are expected to become urban centers to fulfill its role as the venue for growth and development within its immediate locality. These expectations come with advantages and disadvantages and as such, cities should assess and prepare themselves for the challenge in coping with growth trends and patterns of human development characterized by the following:

PROS AND CONS

(P) Increased Financial Allotment from National Government that translates to

development and infrastructure projects

(P) In-migration of capital investments and consumers that contribute to an

increased economic productivity

(P) More products and services are offered that improve the standard of living,

although not necessarily the quality of life

standards of living that would account to further impoverishment and reclusion

land as needs for housing and commercial activity causes rampant land c onversion

more infrastructure and development projects does not readily include the rural poor or the informal sector

PROFILING/ASSESSMENTS (URBAN KARTE)

The City of Candon underwent the Minimum Basic Needs (MBN) Survey and various city-wide consultations to determine what is the city’s present state. It was found out that the city is presently described based on five categories stated as follows:

LIVABILITY – Candon City is livable with all the basic services and still some room for urban expansion. However, access to employment, education, health services are getting hard to come by, while amenities such as piped water, electricity, telephones, internet connections are still underdeveloped.

COMPETITIVENESS – This city has a highly educated citizenry; able-bodied and motivated to try new industries as farming becomes a losing enterprise with the low agri product pricing by exploitive traders. As a result, the agriculture sector and education is also underdeveloped since the citizens would rather work as blue-collar laborers than become farmers. Modern technologies in education such as the sciences and arts are also neglected or are not patronized.

GOVERNANCE – has a low level of efficiency since the LGU is passive with the demands of the city particularly in engaging private participation or civic engagements that could be used to form a cohesive management agenda in matters of administration and policy.

BANKABILITY – It can be said that this city is bankable because of its increase in local revenues, presence of educated, healthy and skilled manpower, untapped and varied natural resources, generally peaceful environment, and absence of any outstanding loans or deficits. However, the city ceases to attract investments with its high-valued lands and absence of investment codes and policies that will give investment incentives.

TRENDS AND PATTERNS

The emerging trends for city and human development for Candon can be characterized by its participation to the CDS2 exercise. The City Administration intends to improve human living conditions through local economic development and better urban governance. Since the City has no outstanding loans, this LGU will secure loans and build from the ground up with large-scale projects to catalyze socio-economic reforms.

II. CDS2 MANAGEMENT TRAINING

The CDS2 emphasizes that its focus is basically on poverty reduction, which is a departure from the CDS1 exercise where economic development was given more priority. CDS2 stresses that it is incumbent upon the cities to improve the lives of its people above and over any other concerns.

FOCUS ON POVERTY

The focus on poverty reduction comes from an international phenomenon wherein it is observed that cities are more prone to urban decay where slums and poverty thrive over a handful of progressive communities. And to combat Urban Poverty or Decay, the CDS2 has identified five (5) issues including poverty reduction. They are:

POVERTY REDUCTION

LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

GOOD URBAN GOVERNANCE

BANKABILITY/COMPETITIVENESS

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT & SHARING

In the course of the CDS2 meetings, a virtual organization, the CDSEA, was created to capitalize on the Internet in linking all participating CDS2 cities in a virtual knowledge and information exchange. But since some cities are still unconnected to the Internet, most experiences, ideas and comments are discussed lengthily in very frequent cluster workshops and meeting held almost monthly. From these meetings, even recognized experts were tapped to become consultants as far as the cities’ planned strategy outputs are scrutinized and validated.

Candon is connected to the Internet and maintains constant correspondence with the CDSEA regarding the proposed Candon CDS Strategies as well as discussions on other topics such as Solid Waste Management practices of other cities. Candon has also implemented the government operations computerization program as a tool for transparent governance.

CAMPAIGN FOR GOOD URBAN GOVERNANCE

Another innovation of the CDS2 is perhaps the active advocacy for Good Urban Governance (GUG). The Philippine cities played hosts and test cases for GUG-related activities and innovations in Asia and the world. All eyes are trained on the Philippines and its cities following a progressively crafted Local Government Code in 1992 that grants corporate autonomy to local government units. There are successes and failures, but it is the process and manner of government management that sets us apart from cities abroad.

III.GOOD URBAN GOVERNANCE

SEVEN NORMS

The GUG campaign had identified seven norms that when practiced by any local government unit, will be automatically accredited as well-managed and among the world’s so-called “Inclusive Cities” in the likes of Singapore, New York, etc. These seven norms are: