JOY BELMONTE
MAYOR, QUEZON CITY
When Mayor Joy Belmonte entered public service, she ran on a platform centred on gender equality. It is no surprise that many of the programmes she focuses on today are geared towards women, children and the LGBTQ+ community. Her beliefs stem from the idea that everyone should have a fair chance from the moment they are born—yet this is far from reality. “We cannot choose the circumstances we are born into, but those born into poverty are already at a major disadvantage. They lack adequate nutrition, have less access to healthcare, have poorer quality education, run a higher risk of dropping out of school, and live in less safe communities,” she says.
With inclusivity as one of the pillars of her administration, Quezon City became one of the first cities to pass a SOGIE Equality Ordinance, the QC Gender Fair Ordinance. This ensures that the members of the LGBTQ+ community are afforded equal footing in terms of education, health, housing and employment. One of the most popular activities since the law passed is the yearly commitment ceremony for LGBTQ+ couples every Valentine’s Day to celebrate the universality of love.
The mayor was also closely involved in the setting up Bahay Kanlungan, one of the first LGU-run shelters for abused women, children and members of the LGBTQ+ community, and a one-stop-shop crisis centre for those who are facing violence and abuse. The city also has a programme that provides livelihood in the form of work at sari-sari stores to qualified beneficiaries such as homebound mothers, solo parents, women with disabilities, survivors of gender-based violence and abuse, and wives of drug dependents who are in rehab.
Besides advocating for inclusivity, Belmonte is also an environmentalist champion of good governance. The Quezon City government allocates 11 to13 per cent of its budget towards climate action and sustainability projects such as bike lanes, urban farms, public parks, solar panels and air-quality monitoring sensors. “We are also among the first cities to ban single-use plastics and phase out singleuse packaging materials to limit waste,” says Belmonte, who was also started theTrash to Cashback, which encourages residents to exchange recyclables for points that can be used to buy groceries and pay for utility bills. Her team also ensures that transactions within the city government are convenient and seamless, implementing innovative digitised programmes like the QC Biz Easy, QC Build Easy and QC Pay Easy. These initiatives have made Quezon City a leader in the Ease of Doing Business Index.
Her role is not without its challenges. “My job as mayor does not end when I go home. I am always on call, my phone can never be silent, and I must be on top of everything,” she says. But Belmonte’s husband, Ray Alimurung is a hands-on father—”He is very active in my son’s life. It’s him that Gael’s teachers and other co-parents see and talk to more,”—and she leads by the examples set by her late mother, the legendary Filipino journalist and newspaper publisher Betty Go-Belmonte. “Work took up so much of my mother’s time, having founded two of the country’s major broadsheets and their related publications. She would sometimes bring me to work, so I always thought a working mum was the norm,” Belmonte says. “She showed me that women can make just as much of a difference in the world as any man and that we shouldn’t feel bad if we give up some of our time with our kids to serve God and our country for as long as our kids understand the value of what we do. I am raising my son the same way she raised me.”
She may lead one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the Philippines, but she doesn’t let much faze her and is keen to encourage other women to follow her lead. “Whenever someone tells you that you can’t do it,” she says, “don’t listen to them. Instead, tell yourself, ‘I am brave, I am strong, I am fearless, and I will succeed’.”