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By Elton Jhong Piquero-Roa Valois
Team OKKA

COGON Market is one of the areas under the City Economic Enterprises Department of which Councilor and Majority Floor Leader Ian Mark Q. Nacaya has oversight power being the chairperson of the committee in the City Council.

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Also with the blessings and imprimatur of Mayor Oscar Moreno, Councilor Nacaya oversees the affairs of the department.

CEED has a big role in the city government’s bureaucracy. Public enterprises contribute to sustainable development and quality service goals of the local government. Public enterprises are supposed to receive less subsidy from government but generates income.

Problems were inherited from 15 years of miserable management.

Nacaya said he signed up for public service because he wanted to help the people, and opting the chairmanship of the economic enterprise is politically suicidal but be that as it may, he will get through it.

“CEED has never faced a test as it does today. People are watching it and with this challenge comes and opportunity. People are thirsty for quality government service especially in public markets. They waited for leaders like us to stand up and make our government stand out,” Nacaya stressed.

“With that I am also pleased to see how motivated our CEED team in serving the people because I see potentials in them that were taken for granted over the years,” Nacaya continued.

CEED has been long mismanaged by the cults of patronage politics. Corruption ruined our public markets. One for example is the original plan for drainage system was not followed. Instead of constructing a system which will hold and cater voluminous waste water, small canals were made. Worst of all is vendors inside the market before do not pay business permits and licenses because “tao sila sa usa aka dako nga politiko”.

These are just few to mention.

Corruption is the cancer that even the previous officers of vendors in the markets are infected. They kill their co-vendors. “Corruption destroyed the organization, holds back organizational growth and consequently jeopardized the revenue generation of CEED,” Nacaya lamented.

The approach seen by Councilor Nacaya is accountability and citizen engagement.

These are essential. With the democratic institutions support and empowered citizens, they help shape the society. People can help ensure that leaders are helping people and not themselves.

As a doctorate degree student of public administration, Nacaya believes that good decision-making and solid policy-making processes require the values, experience, views and knowledge from the public.

He firmly believes that this innovative way, which the previous administration remised to do, leads to stronger citizen engagement and increased government corporate accountability.

(The author is a staff member in the office of Councilor Ian Mark Nacaya.)

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