Short of declaring its “independence” from Panglao Island, the municipality of Dauis is poised to assert its role in local governance, away from the shadows of its “bigger and richer counterpart”. It may be a tall order for Mayor Jimmy Jimenez but he is determined to carve a niche of his own as he presides over the mayoralty saddle in his first term of the growing municipality of Dauis. Mayor Jimenez lamented, that for so long, Dauis was playing second fiddle to its bigger neighbour, the municipality of Panglao, in terms of tourism identity. The current buzz in tourism circle, is that Dauis is part of Panglao and this is where the new mayor is angling to stay away from, if only to prove that the municipality can stand on its own resources and capability. With Dauis feeling the boom of tourism just like neighbouring Panglao, Mayor Jimenez said it's about time that it has to carve its own place in the sun.

For starters, the Dauis mayor lobbied before the Sangguniang headed by his party mate V-Mayor Allan Coloma to enact an ordinance creating the position of tourism assistant under the office of the municipal mayor. More specifically, the position calls for an applicant who can handle the position of tourism officer of the municipality. As such, the new hire will have to undertake the task of plotting the tourism agenda of Dauis in conformity with the provisions of the newly-enacted Tourism Act of the Phils. Noting the increase in tourist traffic particularly in the island of Panglao, the SB ordinance said it will be the duty of the tourism officer to provide the necessary information about the town, its people, its tourism establishments, its culture and arts, among others. At the same time, with the tourism officer, it was expected that he or she will prepare a database on Dauis to be posted in a web page, Twitter, Facebook or other social networking sites.

OTHER CONCERNS

With the new mayor barely warming his seat, other than tourism development, he was also thinking of other concerns in areas of health, education, steady water supply and peace and order. On health, Mayor Jimenez said, his plan was to expand the coverage of Philhealth. He said at present, with the increasing population of the town, the initial beneficiaries of 1,600 will be increased by at least 30% to cover more Dauis families. As for the availability of medicines to the poorest of the poor of Dauis, Mayor Jimenez is asking the SB to increase its budget for medicines. Mayor Jimenez said this is important because, part of his health agenda is to bring the services of doctors to the barangays. He said the rural health officer was under instruction to make barangay visitations as frequent as possible.

On peace and order, Mayor Jimenez is calling for the activation of more barangay tanods to beef up the town's security concerns. He said at this time that petty crimes like thefts are on the rise, what he needs is more policemen and barangay tanods. One of the mayor's plan was to set up checkpoints in the two entrances to the municipality. The checkpoints are to be located at the Causeway, entry to Dauis through Totolan and the Dauis junction, the nearest entry point to the town center.