MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte is spearheading efforts to renew the city’s sisterhood ties with Davao City.

Belmonte said Councilor Gian Carlo Sotto recently filed a resolution which aims to expand the cooperative agreements of the two highly urbanized cities.

“I believe the re-establishment of our sister city partnership with Davao City will boost our promotion of socio-cultural, trade and economic development,” Belmonte said yesterday after her visit to Davao City.

She said Quezon City would learn a lot from Davao City in terms of governance, disaster management, transportation, tourism, education and technology, among others.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) establishing the two cities’ twinning relationships was signed by former mayor Ismael Mathay and President Duterte when he was mayor of Davao in 1995.

Belmonte said the MOU was signed without ”institutionalization” of the Quezon City Council.

“Mayor Sara Duterte will be in Quezon City next month to sign the new agreement with Mayor HB (Herbert Bautista),” Belmonte said.

Quezon City has signed 21 sister city agreements with various cities in Myanmar, China, the US, Taiwan, Canada and Japan.