CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Middle class folk in this capital city of about 300,000 population has increased from a mere 19.1 percent to 59.2 percent, a study from the University of the Assumption (UA) here has revealed.
This, even as business tax collection here was reported to be 100 percent efficient while in the education sector, enrollment rate among local youths was also noted to have jacked up significantly from 57.91 percent to 92.67 percent.
These were among the data revealed by Mayor Oscar Rodriguez in his recent state-of-the-city address here amid statistics revealing that the increase in the local middle class started during his successive terms as mayor starting 2004.
Rodriguez attributed these developments to the Performance Governance System (PGS) he had adopted alongside a “balanced scoreboard” patterned after a scheme endorsed by the Harvard Business School in the US.
This, he said, has elevated the city government in October last year to the international Palladium Hall of Fame by the business school.
He said the number of registered business establishments here has risen to 7,524 noting that at least three more malls, including SM San Fernando, S&R, and Jumbo Jenra, are being built in various locations in this city.
Rodriguez also reported that the city’s income for 2010 has reached P836.9 million with “100 percent efficiency rate.”
“Because the support from the business sector is strong, the city government has been able to increase business tax collection by P35 million or 22.5 percent yearly since 2007,” he said.
“As of last June, our total earnings was P635.7 million and this is 58 percent of our projected P1 billion earnings for 2011`,” he added.
Rodriguez also said that from an enrollment rate of only 57.91 percent among local elementary and high school students in 2005, the rate has gone up to 92.67 percent.
He noted that he has built 12 integrated schools in addition to three public high schools in the city.
The city government also has 680 college scholars taking up various courses in the City College, on top of 7,815 other scholars under the Scholarship in Education for Empowerment and Development Program (SEED) providing them vocational skills.
Despite this, Rodriguez lamented the low ranking of local students in the National Achievement Test, saying this should be a challenge to the local government.
Already in his third and last term as mayor, Rodriguez has bared plans to run anew for Congress in the third district of Pampanga.
However, he said he has lined up more projects to be finished during the rest of his mayoral term.
These projects include the construction of more classrooms, the construction of new building for the City College, continuing upgrading of disaster management capabilities, installation of more traffic lights and CCTV cameras at major roads, rehabilitation of the old public market, and completion of his Sagip-Ilog program.
