By MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City — Bacolod slipped to No. 20 in 2013 from No. 5 in 2012 in the National Competitiveness Council’s (NCC) Most Competitive Cities ranking, with a meager overall score of 38.58.
The Puentevella administration has turned defensive, saying this does not necessarily reflect solely its performance.
Atty. Lyzander Dilag, spokesperson for Mayor Monico Puentevella, confirmed reports that Bacolod failed to make it in the Top 10 Most Competitive Cities in the country.
But the Puentevella administration cannot be solely held responsible for this, for it only started July last year, Dilag said.
The evaluation for the ranking was conducted during the entire 2013, and Puentevella was not yet the mayor from January to June, he stressed.
Dilag said NCC director Marina Saldaña acknowledged that incompleteness of data led to Bacolod’s slip in the rankings.
The Puentevella administration can only provide so much data upon assuming office last July, the spokesperson said.
NCC’s rating was based on a city or municipality’s economic dynamism index, which is measured via business registration figures, employment and financial institutions, and infrastructure developments.
For its government efficiency, a local government is judged in terms of transparency and accountability, public finance, performance recognition, business responsiveness, and basic government services.
Dilag said some data showed Bacolod was “advanced” in various areas, including traffic situation, management of vendors, garbage collection, and health programs.
He assured that “the best is yet to come” for Bacolod in the next six months.
Its current ranking is a “timely eye-opener” to allow the city to “break new ground” in terms of bureaucratic efficiency and economic dynamism, he said.
Anyway, “if you come to think of it, becoming a competitive city is nothing like a race,” Dilag stressed./PN
