Makati Mayor Abigail Binay on Thursday appealed to businessmen to help her government rebuild and restore good governance in the city.
The mayor was invited to induct the Rotary Club of Manila’s new board of directors and officers led by president Teodoro Ocampo.
In her speech at the New World Hotel, Binay said there was a need to rectify what she called the damage caused by the previous administration.
“We need to rebuild our city. We need to rebuild governance in Makati. We need to undo one year’s worth of inefficiency, neglect and misuse of government resources,” she claimed.
Binay said she was dismayed to find the city-run hospital lacking in the most basic needs such as hospital gloves and reagents, while its patients have suffered for months due to the breakdown in airconditioning. “For so many years, the Ospital ng Makati never experienced shortages in supplies and medicine. Hospital facilities were well-maintained. The hospital even garnered recognition from the International Standards Organization or ISO,” she said. She said she has directed the concerned offices to rectify the situation.
Binay said that after only two weeks in office, her administration has uncovered irregularities and violations of the law in the promotion and hiring of government employees.
“These were promotions not based on merit, but based on political connections. There were hirings made not based on competence, but by blood and political relations to the appointing authority and his operators. Hundreds were included in the government payroll, but their exact functions, assignments and whereabouts were not clear, if they reported for work at all,” Binay said.
“The Rotary Club of Manila, for almost a century now, has been relentless in its mission to uplift the lives of poor and disadvantaged Filipinos. Your organization has helped rebuild the lives of countless victims of calamities in various parts of the country. You have also successfully supported core programs of Rotary International, including its noble goal to eradicate polio. Indeed, you have done yourselves proud,” Binay said.
“For close to three decades, the Binays of Makati have reposed value on the dignity of every constituent. We realized from the start that sustained access to adequate and quality health care, education and social services, and other essential needs, is indispensable to human development. We thus made sure that Makati’s prosperity would be felt concretely by our residents, most of all the underprivileged,” she concluded.