THE State of the City Report (SoCR) of Mayor Jesse M. Robredo is supposed to be given early this week but the latest word from City Hall has it that the report will be out next week.

        We welcome whatever contents this report has. Anyway what we want to hear about the state of the city is not given any space in the report. We can check next week if the City Mayor will truly report on the issues we have summed up under the acronym SUCKS.

        Services. The services that the administration of Mayor Jesse M. Robredo stands proud of doing for the people of Naga are tax reforms --- increasing the real property valuation in Naga from a low of 200% to a high of 1,000% despite the recommendation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue to have the valuation only at 100%. Will Mayor Robredo take this up in his report?

        Utilities. What utilities does the City of Naga been developing recently? For one, the City of Naga is asking the local government of Magarao to open a site for the disposal of solid waste from the city. For another, the City of Naga has diverted the route of jeepneys and tricycles from the municipality of Camaligan to Felix Plazo Street, thereby forcing commuters from Camaligan to spend more for transportation while not solving the traffic bottleneck at all. Still another, the supply of clean water for the meat and fish sections in the city’s public market to ensure that the meat and fish we buy are really clean is down to zero. These are the utilities the city stands proud of. Will Mayor Robredo include these in his report?

        Criminality. The criminal elements in the city have gone bolder. In Panganiban Avenue there have been continual hold-up incidents. The most recent was that of the couple who were divested of a big amount of money, not to include their jewelries and valuable papers. To think that this incident happened at noontime in that avenue notorious for other criminal activities is truly unthinkable. Policemen used to be very hotly visible in that place days after the criminal activity, but they are nowhere to be seen days later until the criminals take another strike. It is no wonder the Peace and Order Council of the city of which the City Mayor takes pride in did not anymore win the award it applied for this year. Will Mayor Robredo mention this in his report?

        Kultura. The exciting declaration of Mayor Jesse M. Robredo last year about retro-designing the Central Business District I of Naga City into a Spanish city that it was once is nowhere in sight. His administration is halfway through its term and what is visible is a lonely lamppost set up at the periphery of Plaza Quezon, whose design is centuries away from that of Spanish lampposts. The talks and the meeting spent for this purpose have been exercises in futility and the people invited to these meetings fooled around while the remaining cultural structures that should have been cared for chargeable to funds already approved by the City Mayor are left to the mercy of the elements. Will Mayor Robredo explain this in his report?

        Structures. The rise of Shoe Mart Mall in barangay Triangulo is the latest to break the sklyline of the city. At the rate of work it is going on, the opening of the Mall will just be a matter of months and expectedly will give the city revenues that Mayor Robredo has already earmarked to pay the P115 million loan from a government bank. We are just wondering why the Mayor has the guts to appropriate such an amount even before the city collects it. We are equally wondering why he is appropriating this amount without even waiting for the Sanggunian to undertake a hearing for its budget next year. And too think that early this week, an office under the direct orders of Mayor Robredo came out with an estimate that the completion of the Naga City Coliseum (we referred to it as Robredo Coliseum to underscore the Mayor’s unbridled determination to finish it before 2010) would now cost P155 million, which early of May this year was only P115 million. This means that the cost of the constructions that will be undertaken by Mayor Robredo before the 2010 elections may prompt this administration to peg tax reforms on real property valuation to more than 1,000% The costs of Robredo’s constructions in Naga are rising as the 2010 election is nearing. Will Mayor Robredo discuss this in his report?

        If the State of the City Report of Mayor Robredo smacks of doubletalk, we will not be surprised. Even this early we know that it sucks.