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PIA: Quezon City made its biggest leap forward in 2010 – in political, social and economic pursuits.
In politics, QC gave the nation four big names: President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista and Congressman Jorge “Bolet” Banal, Jr.
Their remarkable election victories practically crippled the ruling party of outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after the May 10, 2010 elections.

At the Batasan, former QC Mayor Belmonte, who won as representative of QC’s district 4, defeated Lakas-Kampi-CMD Party’s bet for the House leadership with a wide margin. Other lower house members from QC were third-term Congressman Vincent “Bingbong” Crisologo of District 1, and neophyte Representatives Winston “Winnie” Castelo of District 2, Bolet Banal of District 3 and Bernadette “BH” Herrera-Dy of the Bagong Henerasyon party-list. .

In the local elections, Bistek trounced his closest rival Mike Defensor who was then widely known as a Gloria loyalist. The new Mayor’s running mate, Joy Belmonte, also won.
In District 3, Defensor’s father, another Gloria loyalist, also lost; Bolet Banal clinched the district’s congressional post.

The 2010 elections also placed the Quezon Memorial Circle (QMC) on the Philippines’ map. Suddenly, QMC became a big name like Manila’s Rizal Park because of Noynoy’s miting de avance and then his victory “street party” in the Circle. Both events had resulted in drawing more and more visitors to the park.
Still on the political front, Quezon City continued heaping praises on its governance achievements, but this did not make the new QC mayor too complacent about success. With the benchmarks and expectations now much higher and the challenges and problems growing in scale, Mayor Bautista still saw it imperative to pursue tangible and worthy programs that will promote not only QC’s social and economic development, but, political stability, as well.

“Propelling the city to progress is a shared leadership and I am willing to share this principle adopted by my predecessor in leading QC at its best competitive form, not only regionally, but globally, as well,” Mayor Bautista said.

The new Mayor acknowledged that the problem of poverty and informal settlements would be the most daunting challenge for his administration. But, from his first day in office, the Mayor had shown determination to pursue and adopt strategies to save the city’s 1.17 million informal settlers from the threshold of extreme poverty.

“Working to save the poor is not a popularity contest… We have to do even the most politically unpopular strategies --- if it is these strategies that will best save the most lives,” the youthful mayor said.

To date, plans are underway for the acquisition of 6.2 hectare property at Zabarte Road in Barangay Kaligayahan for development as site for a socialized housing project for the city’s poor. Mayor Bautista underscored the importance of creating more socialized housing communities for the city’s informal settlers to give them the capacity to become more valuable participants and contributors to development. The Mayor has created the Task Force on Socialized Housing, headed by secretary to the mayor Tadeo Palma, to facilitate the acquisition of properties that need to be developed into decent housing communities for informal settlers.

The Bautista housing program is a reminder that Quezon City has to be a city for the working man, as the Father of the City – President Manuel Luis Quezon – had envisioned. President Quezon wanted his dream city to be “a working man’s paradise” – a place where laborers and employees, the helpless, homeless and poor citizens could have a house and lot of their own, according to historian Prof. Bernardita Reyes Churchill.

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