Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas is now a fellow and a part of the elite roster of local chief executives from Asia and the Pacific who have completed the almost 6-month Mayors Academy of the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) and UN-Habitat.
“As a public servant, I am always open to new learning opportunities to give the very best programs and services to the Ilonggos. For the past months, I had been actively participating in the sessions so I can implement innovations towards achieving my vision of bringing Iloilo City to the next level,” Treñas said.
He considers it a privilege to be one of the mayors of eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region aiming to develop and implement sustainable urban solutions in their respective communities.
He presented to the Academy the Iloilo City Hospital as a medical facility development initiative to address the gap in social and healthcare infrastructure during the time of the pandemic.
“Our vision for the establishment of the 200-bed Iloilo City Hospital was the result of our situation during the height of the pandemic when hospital beds in private and public hospitals here were full of COVID and non-COVID-19 infected patients,” he said.
“As Iloilo City is the regional center of Western Visayas, we need to decongest the private hospitals and add to the number of hospital beds in the region. Total bed requirement for the region is 14,205 beds but available hospital beds in the area account only for 5,929 beds,” Treñas added.
Groundbreaking for the Iloilo City Hospital, located in Brgy. San Pedro, Molo district is set on Sept. 9, 2022.
The Asia-Pacific Mayors Academy was in partnership with the UN University-Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies. (Iloilo City PIO)
Congrats, Mayor!