by Batangas PIO April 17, 2021 Batangas City former Mayor Eduardo Dimacuha. (Photo...
April 17, 2021
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| Batangas City former Mayor Eduardo Dimacuha. (Photo from Batangas PIO) |
BATANGAS CITY - on April 4, grief fell in Batangas City when it was learned that former Mayor Eduardo Dimacuha passed away due to an illness. The beloved Mayor was 78.
He certainly left a void and a big sense of loss because he was such a great part of the lives of the people of Batangas City. He was history within the history of the city.
He left behind immeasurable achievements that mirrored his big dreams for the city and his aspirations for the people especially the poor and the marginalized.
“The sense and substance of his achievements reveal the hard work, dedication and the firmness of his resolve to do only what is best for Batangas City and its people,” said his deceased Secretary to the Mayor Luz Amparo.
Looking back, Mayor Eddie, a lawyer by profession and a former Batangas provincial special counsel was in private practice before he entered public service.
When he first ran in 1988 as Mayor, he won with a margin of 50,000 votes, the combined votes of his three political opponents. He also ran unopposed in his re-election bid in 1992 and three years after, he was given another mandate in 1998. He again ran and won in 2001 and served another three terms until 2010. He got re-elected in 2013 and ended his term in 2016.
One might ask, what could be the reasons why people kept putting him in office for that long?
Fiscal Management
Mayor Eddie was dubbed as the “architect of progress of Batangas City”. When he took the reins of leadership, the city's budget was only P 44 million. To increase revenues, the city formulated a financial plan to collect delinquent taxes from business and real properties through the issuance of notices of delinquencies and the subsequent issuance of warrants and levy, a show of his political will. Six years thereafter, the budget rose to P 223 million or about 1000 percent budget growth. In 2008 the Commission on Audit reported the city as one of the top revenue earning cities in Southern Luzon with revenues amounting to P1.3 billion.
Eto Batangueno Disiplinado
One of the most notable projects he instituted was the Eto Batangueno Disiplinado coined from his initial, EBD. The mayor believed that if people were disciplined particularly in cleanliness and orderliness this would become a way of life and all the other programs of government would be easier to implement. Hence, the carabao- led garbage carts were replaced by dump trucks to collect garbage from every household.
The city’s efforts paid off when the World Bank recognized the city as one of the three cleanest cities in the country along with Olongapo and Baguio in 1990.
In 1995, the mayor launched the “Isang Puno, Isang Patpat, Ating Buhay ang Katapat” designed to plant 500,000 trees in 105 barangays of the city to conserve the watershed.
His commitment to protect the environment and promote green living made it possible for the city to be granted the international award for the Most Liveable Communities.
The implementation of RA 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000) was vigorously carried out during his term by launching the Pagandahan sa Barangay at Sitio with the Barangay/Sitio Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) as one of the criteria of the contest.
Barangay Action Program
He also spearheaded the Barangay Action aimed at “bringing the government closer to the people and the people closer to the government”, where the heads and key personnel of the health, social welfare, treasury, civil registry, waterworks and agriculture offices, rendered basic services to the people who must have had a hard time travelling to the city. This could be one factor why people loved him so dearly and regarded him as one with them.
Waterworks System
Another flagship project was the waterworks system where people who used to travel far to get water from the well, people now have just to turn their faucets in the comforts of their homes to bring the much needed resource. The barrio folks were also empowered by managing their waterworks. To date there are 58 waterworks projects in 50 barangays with a total cost of P 100.7 million.
Education and Scholarship Grants
In the area of education, the public school buildings had a new design that have been the envy of private schools because of its unique architectural built. Likewise, the construction of the first city government- run Colegio ng Lungsod ng Batangas (CLB) that provides free college education to poor but deserving students was also one of the hallmarks of his administration. To date, the CLB has 2,887 graduates from various courses, namely, Bachelor of Elementary Education; Bachelor of Business Administration; Bachelor of Science in Commerce, Information and Communications Technology; Computer Programming and Computer Technician.
EBD scholarship program included the P 5000 financial assistance for tuition fees and P 3000 allowance subsidy per semester for college students while highschool students were granted annual allowance subsidy of P 3000.
This is in addition to the scholarship cash grants amounting to about P5,000.00 given to elementary students who graduated Valedictorian and Salutatorian in both public and private schools.
EBD Health Card
The EBD Health Card had widened the access of the marginalized sector to health care. To date, about 35,680 beneficiaries were given free hospitalization at the Jesus of Nazareth Hospital, Golden Gate Hospital and the Batangas Regional Hospital.
Yellow Corn Sufficiency Program (YCSP)
In the area of agriculture, the Yellow Corn Sufficiency Program (YCSP) augmented the income of the farmers. Yellow corn is one of the main ingredients of animal feeds, a lot of hog growers benefitted from this project.
Livelihood Projects
Mayor Eddie believed in the saying that it is better to teach man how to fish instead of giving him fish all the time. So he initiated various livelihood projects. Most notable was the cattle fattening project where a beneficiary is given a cattle and after sometime, the latter repays the city with one offspring to be given to another beneficiary. From 1988 to 2016, the city expended P 27.7M to 2,100 beneficiaries in the different barangays of the city.
Infrastructure
On the other hand, Mayor Eddie prioritized the construction of farm- to- market roads. Records show that barangay roads rose from 4.13 kilometers to 236 kilometers of barangay concreted roads.
Other notable project was the construction of Batangas City Sports complex which was the first of its kind in the region during that time. Built out of city funds it has a 70-meter diameter dome coliseum with a 4,000 seating capacity and an Olympic size swimming pool. Also he transformed a dilapidated abattoir to a modern Batangas City Type AA Slaughterhouse, ensuring a heathy and safe meat for the consuming public. To guarantee an environment-friendly park amidst the busy streets of the city, he commissioned the world-renowned urban planner, Palafox and Associates to rehabilitate Plaza Mabini.
The new City Engineer’s Office (CEO) building, Third Market and the Third Bridge or the EBD Bridge of Progress were also his dream projects that were fulfilled under Mayor Beverley Dimacuha’s administration.
Cultural Programs
In the area of culture, the establishment of the Museo Puntong Batangan that houses a multi-media presentation of the history and culture of the Batanguenos has continued to attract local and foreign tourists. The revival of the Subli, a traditional Batangueno worship-dance in honor of the Holy Cross and the Sto. Nino was also instituted.
On a lighter note, Mayor Eddie used to sing a tune or two after a day’s work as a form of relaxation. Being a singer himself, he founded the Dangal ng Lungsod Batangan Chorale (DLBC) in 2004. The DLBC, consisting of about 20 government employees from the different offices of the city has earned the reputation of being the Ambassadors of Goodwill as they were invited to sing by national agencies.
“Mayor Eddie is a man who is not given to grandstanding, he worked without fanfare, wisely picked competent people to do the job and got things going and done by the sheer force of his leadership and example. He went about his tasks with no-nonsense, dogged determination…And always with a smile, he spreads cheers all around,” said his deceased Secretary to the Mayor.
He may not be around to cheer up the lonely and the sick especially during this pandemic, but his memories will linger in the hearts of those whose lives he touched. (PIO Batangas City)
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