Edward S. Hagedorn - Leadership Initiatives

Leadership Initiatives

• Oplan Linis Program (Clean and Green Campaign) - Launched on August 1, 1992, the program aims to sustain cleanliness, beautification, and sanitation in the city through active and continuing partnership among government agencies, non-government organizations, the private sectors, and citizens. The program has earned for Puerto Princesa the coveted label of being the cleanest and greenest city in the Philippines.

• Bantay Puerto Program (Puerto Princesa Watch) - Protect + Rehabilitate + Plan - These are the program’s key management thrusts. Protect what is there, rehabilitate what has been destroyed, and plan for the intelligent utilization of the city’s terrestrial and marine resources. This is the life cycle that the program envisions for the community to achieve sustainable development.

• Comprehensive Housing Program - Puerto Princesa’s vast land area and its rich terrestrial and marine resources have become like magnets that attracted a lot of in-migration from all over the country. They came in droves and squatted in public and private lands whose owners either did not care or know. Majority of them, being fishermen, chose the coastal areas for being closest to their source of income.

• Agriculture Program - Puerto Princesa City is primarily an agricultural economy. It is almost self-sufficient in food, except for a few varieties of vegetables. Metro Manila’s ten million population get their fish and other marine supplies from the city in particular and Palawan in general. To improve the farmer’s quality of life, however, there exists the urgent need to introduce productivity enhancement programs.

• Education Program - To highlight the importance that the city government attaches to education as playing a pivotal role in the city’s future development, Mayor Edward S. Hagedorn launched the City Education Enhancement Program. The project intends to improve the standard of education within the service area of the city government by identifying and prioritizing the establishment of schools, and organizing a continuous training scheme for schoolteachers in the city.

• Health Program – When illness strikes and there is no one to turn to for help, people are tempted to resort to illegal means for remedy. For farmers and fishermen, for example, the seas and the forests become attractive sources of fast buck. To dispel the temptation, the City Government has undertaken effective and efficient health services.

• Infrastructure Program – Under the leadership of Mayor Edward S. Hagedorn, Puerto Princesa witnessed a boom in both horizontal and vertical constructions, implemented with the ultimate goal of boosting the economic development of the city, at the least possible cost.

• Livelihood Program – “Kaunlaran” (Development) or economic development is the last of the three K’s (the first two being “Kalinisan” or cleanliness and “Kapayapaan” or peace and order) that Mayor Hagedorn has promised the people of Puerto Princesa. This is the most difficult and challenging task that the mayor has put before himself but has achieved a degree of relative peace in the city, making it one of the safest destinations in the Philippines.

• Tourism Program - Puerto Princesa City was a place no one really bothered to know, except of course the Puerto Princesans. What little that people knew about Puerto Princesa were mostly conjured images of a not-so-wholesome place like being the abode of prisoners, and where malaria abounds, but Hagedorn has built an image for the city as a place to go for eco tourism, seeing a developing city yet maintains a balance with nature, a city in the forest.

• E-tricycle - On January 19, 2007, Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward S. Hagedorn unveiled the environment-friendly and economical electric-powered “Trikebayan” (which does not emit any noise or carbon monoxide) at the Kapihan sa Sulo forum, Sulo Hotel, Quezon City. The Trikebayan costs only P 48 or $ 1.20 per day to operate, while a gasoline-powered tricycle operation would cost P 200. Rolly Concepcion, who conceptualized the Trikebayan, said that converting a tricycle engine to electric costs P 68,000. The 36-watt rechargeable battery under the passenger seat can run for 12 hours.