TALISAY City Mayor Johnny V. delos Reyes wants to allot a P1 million “pork barrel” for each of the city’s 12 councilors so they can respond to requests from the people for humanitarian assistance.
The mayor made this announcement in his address during the inaugural session of the City Council where he talked about his priorities.
Delos Reyes said he wants the city’s lawmakers to be able to directly attend to the needs of the people.
He said the “pork” will be sourced from the intelligence fund of the mayor’s office and from budget savings.
He later told reporters that the Mayor’s Office has an estimated intelligence fund of P20 million.
Delos Reyes said he expects the city government to have more savings as his administration will not be funding major infrastructure projects.
“I am not against to development, but we will first prioritize the basic needs of the poor,” he said.
The mayor, in his speech before the City Council, gave a rundown of his other priority projects and programs in the first 100 days of his term.
The roll out of the “Adopt a Talisaynon” program will require businesses in the city to hire 40-50 percent of its staff from among Talisay residents.
He said he wants to build up the health care capacity of the Talisay City District Hospital to match standards of private facilities. Medical services will be made available free of charge to poor residents.
Delos Reyes plans to establish a city pharmacy where poor residents can get free medicine, as well as a city mortuary which will render funeral services to poor and underprivileged residents.
More police cars and garbage trucks will be acquired for the city’s use and the capability of the city’s motorpool will be upgraded so that city-owned vehicles will no longer have to be brought to private garages for repair and maintenance.
The mayor also wants to establish a four-storey market building at the Tabunok Public Market.
Delos Reyes, an inventor, also revealed plans to build a solar power generation system which would enable residents to have access to free electricity.
He said former senator Heherson Alvarez, secretary of Climate Change Commission and presidential adviser on global warming and climate change, broached this idea when he visited the city last Tuesday.
Delos Reyes said the city will be allocating eight hectares of land for the solar power project.
“The money which can be saved from the solar power project will be allocated for senior citizens’ needs,” he said.
“Forget first any personal political ambition. Forget the colors of politics to make Talisay a great city of the south,” JVR said. /Correspondents Christine Emily L. Pantaleon and Gabriel C. Bonjoc