BARELY 15 months before the 2019 local elections, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte on Thursday said she would focus more on improving the plight of the city’s three million residents.
Despite the city’s rising income over the past few years, Belmonte said it “does not trickle down to the people who deserve it more.”
“I think there are many other areas wherein we have to pour in our money,” the vice mayor said, continuing to lay down her platform for her run for the mayoralty next year.
“We just have to go down to the communities to see what our constituents badly need,” she added.
With a population of 2.94 million as of the 2015 census, Quezon City has the highest population in the National Capital Region, and 23 percent of Metro Manila’s total population.
The city’s being the biggest in land area and its huge population have been major factors affecting the delivery of basic services to its 142 barangays, Belmonte said.
“For me as an administrator here inside, I think the quality of life for the people is more important,” she said
While it cannot be denied that Quezon City “has made great economic strides over the years,” the vice mayor said the city “is not the richest local government per capita.”
“In terms of per capita, we are not yet [that rich]. We still have so many poor residents in the city. I’d like to be realistic about it,” she said.