The mayors of the cities of Valenzuela and Ormoc, Leyte have signed a sisterhood agreement that solidifies their alliance and expresses mutual desire to support each other in learning and implementing practices that will help improve their respective cities.
Valenzuela City Mayor Weslie “Wes” Gatchalian and Ormoc City Mayor Lucy Torres-Gomez inked the sisterhood agreement at the Valenzuela City Hall on Thursday, Sept. 8.
“Tuwang-tuwa ako dahil hindi ito and unang beses na kayo ay bumisita dito sa Valenzuela City, this is the second time and this doesn’t happen often, pinapakita lang nito kung gaano kaseryoso ang Ormoc City para matuto sa ating mga best practices dito sa Valenzuela (I am very happy because this is not the first time that Ormoc City visited us here in Valenzuela, this is the second time and this doesn’t happen often, this just shows how serious Ormoc City is in learning from our best practices here in Valenzuela),” Gatchalian said .
“Valenzuela is not perfect, it’s just that nagtutulungan kami dito kasama ang mga opisyales at department heads (we, together with our officials and department head, are helping each other), all our projects here are 20 years in the making and we are just blessed with more than 15,000 factories that give us local revenues. It’s vision and political will that matters and I hope that we learn and adapt from each other’s practices, again, we are very honored to be your sister city,” he added
The Valenzuela City government said that both city councils earlier approved resolutions that express their interest in entering a sisterhood agreement.
It added that Resolution No. 2566, Series of 2022 signifies the mutual interest of both cities to create a fruitful sisterhood relationship with each other, especially in establishing areas of collaboration for mutual benefit on matters relating to culture, commerce, environmental, tourism, and education industry.
“We are very delighted to become a sister city of Valenzuela because this is the place which sparked our goal of creating a beautiful community college in Ormoc,” Gomez shared.
On June 3, 2022, Mayor Gomez and other Ormoc City officials made a governance tour in Valenzuela City, where they visited the City Hall Museum, the Valenzuela School of Mathematics and Science (ValMaSci), Valenzuela Special Education Center (ValSPED), and the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela (PLV).
“The problem with benchmarking is that we can’t copy these projects from apple to apple because we don’t have the same budget, pero hindi kami takot mangarap (but we are not afraid to dream), when we plant seeds, it grows and it turns into a beautiful reality. I am very happy that a simple benchmarking turned into a community college and now turns into a sisterhood agreement,” she said.
Gomez, Ormoc City Fourth District Rep. Richard Gomez, and other officials and department heads visited the Valenzuela Polytechnic College and the PLV’s main and annex campuses. They also had a dialogue with the college officials for benchmarking (evaluating or checking of practices) purposes.
Present during the event were Vice-mayor Lorie Natividad-Borja, Councilors Ramon Encarnacion, Chiqui Carreon, Niña Lopez, Mickey Pineda, Louie Nolasco, Marlon Alejandrino, Gerald Galang, Ricarr Enriquez, and Sel Sabino-Sy, Liga ng mga Barangay President Councilor Jonjon Bartolome, SK Federation President Councilor Goyong Serrano, barangay officials, and department heads from both cities.
The local government said that through the sisterhood agreement, Ormoc City officially became Valenzuela’s 75th sister city.