SDG Graffiti Wall on Maharlika Hi-Way, Cauayan City.
Photo Courtesy of Cauayan City National High School Main Media Arts students
by Micah Seiri Maur
As Cauayan City continues to become a smarter city of the country amid the pandemic, Mayor Bernard Faustino Dy highlighted projects of the Local Government Units and other organizations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
To address the common complaints of the people on relief distributions, he said that they developed the Relief Assistance Monitoring System or RAMS, which provided the city government database of profile and number of residents of the city.
“The system is also integrated with the Sumbungan ng Bayan, which is a feedback mechanism where people can raise their questions and complaints online,” he said.
Moreover, the mayor added that Local Government Units continued conducting programs that assure the welfare of the most vulnerable sectors of the community.
“Since vulnerable sectors were ordered to stay at home, our mobile kitchen was the one that visited the barangays to continue to provide hot meals for the people and promote good nutrition,” he said.
He said this project was enhanced when they launched Padyak Para sa Kalusugan at Nutrisyon Program, an initiative by the city officials where bikers from the community joined in feeding programs in different barangays.
“This activity has promoted health and wellness by encouraging people to exercise and made use of biking to promote zero hunger in the city,” he added.
The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals to address the global challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice.
Furthermore, Dy said they highly utilized the mobile kitchen or food bank on wheels to distribute meals for our front liners during the implementation of the ECQ.
Meanwhile, to cater to the necessities of the people, he said that they initiated the grocery on wheels and use the investment website also to help small businesses sell products for additional income since store operations were also limited.
In addition, the mayor also mentioned the ongoing construction of the Isabela Convention Center (ICON) located in Barangay San Fermin that can accommodate 2,500 people.
He said it would serve as a new attraction for significant events; however, they will use it as a vaccination center due to the pandemic.
“All these projects have proven that all these Cauayenos are adaptable to change and innovation,” Dy said.
He said that the capability as a smarter city is a head start not only in using online platforms but also in the development of new technologies as they address the challenges caused by this global crisis.
“With all these technologies, we take pride that a small, poor city in a highly agricultural setting can evolve as the country’s premiere smarter city,” Dy said.