Mayor Sheena Tan of Santiago City: For Betterment of Life of Local People

Mayor Alyssa Sheena Pua Tan of Santiago City, Philippines, or Mayor Sheena, is one of the female city leaders in the country who focuses her work on the improvement of the livelihood of local people. This concern is well reflected in her working programmes, particularly in her first 100 working days becoming the chief of the city.

One of the highlights of her works was the launch of Santiago City Action Centre. The place channels support from local government to local people for emergency situations, such as medical, financial, and burial (below P10,000/USD170). There is also a Kaisaka programme from the local government to ensure continuous provision of medical, financial, and burial support for poor, marginalised, vulnerable, and disadvantaged individuals.

Mayor Sheena Tan has also continuously promoted Santiago to become the newest business hub for investors. Under her proposal 4K “Kabuhayan, Kalusugan, Kahusayan at Kaayusan” (meaning livelihood, health, education, and peace and order), the city government has initiated the “Kaisa Kabuhayan” cooperative which grants interest-free loans to 178 market vendors to contribute to the financial growth of Santiago City. “We have to have a pleasant market. The signs of a pleasant market are 3P meaning “People, Produce, and Physical infrastructure.” These aim to bring in new infrastructure. It’s like hanging a sign that Santiago is now open for bigger business. We need a new, modern business hub that speaks of progress to come. What we will build is a civic-data modern market hub to match our equity,” she said.

Other initiatives to encourage the efforts include construction of the modern slaughterhouse that generated P12.3 million in annual revenues and deploy of farm machinery for land preparations of 218 hectares of rice land tilled by 1,500 farmers. The local government also delivered livelihood assistance to recover the losses of 346 farmers due to floods brought by Typhoon Paeng, and some farmers also received scholarships for their children. To combat poverty, Mayor Sheena revived The Santiago Commercial Business District. In 2022, there was also fresh investment, such as a Business Process Outsourcing Company that employs young people as call centre agents.

The spirit to thrive is really in her. The record shows that awards have always become part of Mayor Sheena’s journey. From a student up to becoming the city leader, Mayor Sheena collected: the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Academic Excellence Award, Senate President Official Seal for Outstanding Students, Youth Excellence in Science Award from the Department of Science and Technology, De La Salle University (DLSU) Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis, PricewaterhouseCoopers Academic Excellence Award, 2007 World Robotics Olympiad Champion-Open/Creative Category, Best Speaker, Best Memorial, and Overall winner in the 2014 Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban- Liberty and Prosperity Public International Law Moot Court Competition, and Honorary Congresswoman of the Year (2021) – Nation Builders & Mosliv Awards. We believe Santiago is now in good hands moving forward to becoming a better city.   

Sources:

  • https://cityofsantiago.gov.ph/landmarks/
  • https://cityofsantiago.gov.ph/about-the-mayor/
  • https://manilastandard.net/?p=314310999
  • https://cityofsantiago.gov.ph/about-the-mayor/
  • https://northluzon.politiko.com.ph/2023/03/06/newly-elected-mayor-aims-to-make-santiago-city-cagayan-valleys-business-hub/daily-feed/
  • https://cityofsantiago.gov.ph/unang-100-araw-ng-serbisyo/