Roxas City Mayor Ronnie Dadivas and fellow officers of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) met with Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday evening at Malacañang.
Dadivas was elected Regional Representative for Region VI of LCP during its 69th General Assembly on July 21.
Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama was elected National President, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte as Executive Vice President, and Bacolod City Mayor Albee Benitez as National Chairman.
The President urged the mayors to lead the way in transforming the country from the bottom up and contribute to the post-pandemic recovery.
“I have always said that some of the best talent in government is in the LGUs (local government units), is in the cities, is in the governors, is in the mayors. Let’s keep that truism in our minds and show people that is exactly what is going to happen – that LGUs can lead the way when it comes to changing our country from the bottom up. And that’s what we’re going to have to do because we’re doing nothing less now than transforming our economy into a post-pandemic,” Marcos Jr. said.
Marcos Jr. also called on local government units to be open to public-private partnership (PPP) as a mode of financing for projects.
He emphasized that digitalization would play a big part in the PPP, especially in pushing for economic recovery and digital transformation.
“I think this is the way forward, and I encourage all our local government units to be open to the possibilities of PPPs and to have private-public partnerships, especially in your areas. Digitalization is a going to be a very natural fit for something like PPPs.”
