Mayor Abby Binay eyes Makati as ‘digital city’

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 10:42 a.m., Jan. 11) — Makati will soon be a “digital city,” Mayor Abby Binay said yesterday in her second State of the City Address as she cited the city’s performance and accomplishments in 2017.

Speaking before members of the Rotary Club of Makati at The Peninsula Hotel, Binay said the city performed well in terms of providing education, health care and other services and taking care of the business industry.

“It is now ‘all systems go’ for the city government of Makati in the pursuit of a veritable ‘digital city’ of the 21st century – a city where citizens and all stakeholders experience the optimum benefits of modern technology,” she added.

For 2018, Binay said she will prioritize the ordinance designating smoking areas in the city and the procurement of properties to build three schools and other government establishments in the city.

Binay said over 90,000 public school students from kinder to senior high school, including special education students, enjoyed the city’s free education program, which includes free school supplies, school uniforms and rubber shoes.

The city government has also installed state-of-the-art facilities such as tech-voc laboratories for 12 senior high schools and its first biotech laboratory at the Makati Science High School as part of its mission to develop globally competitive residents.

She said the city government also provided financial assistance to students who brought pride to Makati in 2017 and gave equal opportunities to students with special needs and to the city’s senior citizens who finished their studies.

Binay said they opened an eye center at the Ospital ng Makati, which can accommodate over 100 patients every day; intensified their vaccination drive against Japanese encephalitis and launched the first ever “pet micro-chipping” program in the city and in Asia.

Binay said the pet micro-chipping program aims to promote animal identification, pet recovery and rabies prevention. She said they have provided microchips to 27,365 pets in 33 barangays in the city.

Binay said they launched in 2017 the “Makatizen Card” that serves as a unified, multi-purpose government-issued identification card that consolidates all health and social benefits for more than 500,000 residents and city employees in partnership with Globe Telecom.

“It’s the convenience of having reliable card. It empowers all Makatizens to transact in the cashless ecosystem,” Binay said.

In the business sector, Binay said they closed down 94 establishments in the city for not having business permits. She also said that a total of 4,515 business establishments opened last year with combined capital investments of P21.5 billion.

Despite the closure of some business establishments, Binay said the city’s actual revenue collections from January to December 2017 reached P16,976,933,286.86, representing a 12 percent increase compared to the total collections in 2016.

Binay said Makati also provided services that include the installation of free public WiFi, boosting mobile signals on lampposts, direct service delivery and citizen engagement and initiatives for resilience and public safety.

Editor's Note: Latest update of this story reflects corrected telecom partner of the Makati City government for the "Makatizen Card."