CityNet Secretariat met with Makati City Mayor Abby Binay exploring further to enhance the city’s international urban cooperation program. The meeting was held on March 1, 2023 at the Mayor’s Office, Makati City Hall.
Makati City currently holds the position of Second Vice President City. It also hosts the CityNet National Chapter Philippines office. It is also the lead city for the CityNet Disaster Clusters.
Mayor Binay has been active in global advocacy work and in sharing good practices in climate action and resilience. During the meeting, she provided insights to the CityNet Secretariat as to how it can support members strengthen local climate actions.
She also expressed support to Iloilo City’s hosting of CityNet’s ExCom meeting. She also looks forward to meeting CityNet Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeong-Kee Kim for his visit in Makati tentatively set in May.
Furthermore, CityNet Secretariat visited the NC Philippine Office. Ms. Merlina Panganiban, Makati City’s chief planner and CityNet’s contact person, expressed NC Philippines support to Iloilo City’s hosting of the 44th ExCom. Drawing from Makati City’s experience as ExCom host city in 2016, she can provide insights to Iloilo City on the hosting. She also committed to inviting Philippine CityNet members to come to Iloilo City.
After the meeting with NC Philippines, the CityNet team met with officers of Makati City Disaster Cluster to explore potential collaboration for CityNet’s participation at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction on October 14-17, 2024 in Manila. Makati and CityNet will showcase their disaster programs and initiatives to the wider region.
Paulie Mora is a Deputy-Director of Programs at CityNet, primarily responsible for capacity building and cluster activities. Prior to working in CityNet, Paulie spent ten years working in a national local government association based in Manila, Philippines. He has held various supervisory positions in both regular and foreign-assisted programs and projects that focused on urban development. He graduated with a journalism degree at the University of Santo Tomas. Paulie has a professional background in development communications, public advocacy, local governance, and urban sociology.
