In a speech, President Rodrigo Duterte said that based on intelligence information Naga City is a hotbed of illegal drugs. The statement was made supposedly to justify the President’s aversion to having Vice President Leni Robredo succeed him. The PNP Chief disputed this claim saying that Naga City from where the Vice President hails and her husband, the late Jesse Robredo, served as a mayor, is not a hotbed of illegal drugs. However, in an interesting turn around the PNP chief said that Naga City is high on its crime rating.
As expected, the Vice President and the Naga City council contested this claim. To the PNP Chief’s claim that Naga the 5th highest crime volume among cities in the Philippines, the Vice President dismissed the statement as “totally unacceptable.” And the administration should spare our people and our beloved city from misinformation, she added. Further she explained that in truth in Naga, “Murder is 34th; Homicide 24th-26th; Rape-29th; Robbery-11th; Theft-6th.”
It turned out that the PNP Chief misunderstand the fifth-ranking which referred to Region 5, Bicol, where Naga belongs.
As is now too common in this administration, the President’s penchant at making mindless pronouncements and socially unacceptable remarks with dubious factual basis would force his spokespersons and officials to scrounge for a more acceptable explanation if not into making tortuous attempts at justification of the President’s statements. The “Naga City being a hotbed of illegal drugs” remark is now all too typical.
I strongly suspect that if not for the President’s dislike for the Vice President to be his successor and his preference for Bongbong Marcos, Naga City would never have elicited negative comments from this administration and its people would have been largely left in peace.
Far from being notorious for criminality and illegal drugs, Naga City, under the present dispensation headed by Mayor John Bongat (disclosure: John is a classmate from UP Law ’89 and was a college student in Ateneo de Manila in the 1980s when I was teaching there), is a model city and one of the most livable cities in the country.
Naga has a total land area of 8,448 hectares and a population of 160,000 residents but which number goes up to as high as 230,000 during daytime. As Bongat points out, “To imagine how small Naga really is, its territory and population represents only .48 percent and 2.90 percent, respectively, of the Bicol regional total. Yet, we have the most number of banks, 42 of them, as of last count.”
Since the time of Jesse Robredo, Naga City has been consistently singled out as one of the country’s most improved and business-friendly cities in the country because of its trailblazing programs that work to ensure a livable community.
As recorded in its official website, Naga City has so far received over 150 regional, national and international awards and distinctions since 1988 when it started to build a reputation for being a model local government unit which crafted and implemented innovations in local governance. An international news magazine has singled out Naga as one of the most improved cities in Asia because of its trailblazing programs that work to ensure a livable and forward-looking environment and strengthen other traditional indicators that make life easier for its citizens.
Naga’s culture of transparency has transformed the city into a model of governance excellence. Following the example of former Mayor Jesse Robredo, Naga’s officials have been consistent in practicing and institutionalizing accountability and transparency innovations as integral part of governance. They are proud of their ability to ensure openness in government services and transactions and afford every Nagueño his constitutional right to information.
As Vico Sotto, Pasig City councilor and my student at the Ateneo School of Government, posted about Naga in Facebook: “Talagang hotbed dito! Hotbed of citizen empowerment and participation in governance! What’s amazing is that all of them said that the government doesn’t simply tell them how things will be done; they give input and usually arrive at a consensus. From top to bottom, everyone is a stakeholder!”
Naga is of course not only known for its success in governance. As a Bicolano by affiliation (my wife is a Bonto from Legaspi, Albay), I have only praises for the people, food and the great places to visit in that city and neighboring areas.
Naga is a few hours’ bus ride to Albay Province where Mayon Volcano, the world’s most perfect cone, is located. It is several hours’ drive to the scenic provinces of Sorsogon and the island of Catanduanes. Likewise, Caramoan Island in Camarines Sur is a major tourist destination that offers a myriad of beautiful beaches and sporting activities such as diving, swimming, snorkeling and spelunking.
Once properly developed, the whole of Bicolandia can be a major tourist destination because it is well endowed with natural beauty and the people welcoming and hospitable.
Bicolano cuisine can be as delicious and tasty, if not more so, than dishes found in most regions in the country. Laing or pinangat, kinunot, Bicol express, tilmok, and labong, to name a few, are distinctly Bicolano dishes that all local and foreign tourists alike should try.
Finally, one cannot talk about Naga City without mentioning Nuestra Señora de la Peña de Francia, INA as the Naga and Bicolanao faithful call her. As described by Fr. Rex Andrew C. Alarcon and posted in the CBCP website: “The highlights of the Peñafrancia festivities are a drama which progresses without requiring much words. There are a number of silent rituals involved. People lit candles while quietly uttering a prayer. There are those who silently join the throng of people ushering INA from the Basilica to the Cathedral. A chosen few accompany her in the pagoda on the way home. There are also those who rush towards the image to touch her, or to grab a piece of ornament on the andas or the pagoda. Others take a dip into the river as she passes by. These are but only a few of the varied manifestations of the people’s devotion to her, forming part of the whole ensemble of the celebration. There aren’t much words involved. Wordiness only robs a ritual of its meaning. Thus, the cry of the people: Viva la Virgen! Viva el Divino Rostro!”
People come to the Peñafrancia for different reasons, according to Fr. Alarcon—to fulfill a panata, express gratitude, and seek a blessing. It is “a collective ritual of faith,” “a public expression of confidence, tenderness and gratitude of a people towards the enchanting Mother of beautiful love.”
It is not a coincidence that these attacks by President Duterte against Naga is happening just as the Peñafrancia festivities are about to begin. This is a test of faith for Naga, for its officials and citizens, and for us who love Naga. This city is not called An Maogmang Lugar (The Happy Place) for nothing.
To the malicious attacks unleashed against it the best response is to invoke INA, and sing the hymn composed by Jesuit priest Fruto Ramirez, especially these words: Inang mamomoton ika an buhay, Ako rangahon mo sa kamunduan/ Ina, kung ako man parakasala, Sa Dios hagada man ang pagkaherak/ Kaya daing ibang inaasahan, Kundi ika Inang Mahal! (Loving mother, you are life,Take me out of my sadness/ Mother, if I have sinned, Intervene for me with the Lord/ I have no one else to turn to, But to you loving mother).
With INA on its side and back, how could Naga lose?
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