Baste made this assurance amid the rising food prices felt globally.
He said his administration will continue the efforts and governance style of Vice President-elect Sara Duterte and aims to surpass the latter’s achievements.
Baste told the City Information Office (CIO) that he believes the city will continue to grow once the basic needs of the people are met.
“I think everything else will follow if we address the basic needs of the people. If we deliver these to everyone, especially those who are most in need of them, then I think we’ll be happy and we can move on to bigger things,” Duterte said.
Baste said he will make sure that the very basic needs of the people, especially the poor, will be taken cared of.
Baste reiterated that his leadership style will not be so different from his father, President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s and to her sister’s approach to governance.
Baste cited Mayor Sara’s ten-point priority agenda’ that has been proven effective in structuralizing the city’s most urgent areas of concern, and therefore merits continuity.
He said, “It would be better to continue because we have seen its efficacy.
He added that he will boost the outgoing administration’s efforts to decentralize government services and operations in a bid to promote ease of access to citizens in far-flung areas.
“Due to our extensive land area, we really need—for an inclusive governance—to decentralize. We need to put up satellite offices. We’ve been doing this ever since. We just have to improve on this aspect,” he said.
Meanwhile, Duterte also said he is determined to fully modernize the operations of city offices by integrating digital tools and putting up online platforms which all Dabawenyos can transact and avail of the local government’s services in promoting ease of doing business with the city government.
“I really want to modernize the offices. Online transactions, those kind of things. Use technology to make things easier for everybody; not only the people working in government but also for the people who have transactions with the government."
Baste also vowed to push for the ongoing big-ticket projects of the city such as the high priority bus system (HPBS) and the Waste-to-Energy (WTE) project.
Duterte is set to take oath as mayor of the city on June 27.