Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte is one of the personalities included in Tatler’s “Asia’s Most Influential” list this year.
Tatler Asia magazine released on Nov. 1 its flagship list that recognizes 500 leaders, cultural icons, industry titans, visionaries, and changemakers from the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. These personalities contributed to the advancements in different sectors such as public service, governance, technology, finance, arts, and education.
The media entity said Belmonte, the daughter of the former Quezon City Mayor Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr., proved that she has the capability to carve her own path being elected twice as the city mayor on a platform focused on women’s empowerment, children’s welfare, and provision of care services for abandoned senior citizens.
“The younger Belmonte made good on that promise of working to alleviate the lives of the underprivileged,” it said.
Tatler Asia said Belmonte led Quezon City to become the Philippines’ richest city.
Earlier in October, Quezon City was named by the Commission on Audit (COA) as the country’s wealthiest city for the second straight year after it recorded around P451.007 billion total assets for the year 2021.
In 2020, the city was also cited by COA as the richest city with P452 billion total assets.
Belmonte was also lauded by the media entity for the city government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“During the pandemic, the mayor worked tirelessly to help residents of Quezon City, which had one of the highest number of Covid-19 cases. She opened centres offering free Covid-19 testing for residents and healthcare workers employed within city limits, while immediately dedicating the city’s primary molecular laboratory to processing test results. Her local government also provided aid to those working in high-risk areas and care kits for medical facilities that were hardest hit by Covid-19,” it said.
“Along with her exemplary handling of the pandemic, Belmonte also launched initiatives in support of local businesses big and small, to sustain its lead as the country’s richest city,” it noted.
The local government on Oct. 7, hosted its first investors summit where it was able to discuss key areas on investments, public-privates partnerships, and opportunities for growth and expansion with more than 200 business leaders and associations, investors, chambers of commerce and foreign dignitaries. The event is in line with the city government’s goal to make QC a top business destination.
It also recently launched the StartUp QC program that aims to establish business hubs to encourage the citizens to create business models that can help provide solutions to various social issues.
Belmonte was also on Tatler Asia’s “Women of Impact 2022 List : Filipinas Who Have Made Their Mark” last April, which recognized 32 women in the country who made an impact in changing the cultural spectrum in various sectors including business, arts, finance, sports, and public service.
The media entity cited some of her projects for the security of women, children, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+).
Aside from Belmonte, the Metro Manila mayors who also made it to the ”Asia’s Most Influential” list for 2022 are Makati City Mayor Abby Binay and Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto.