The mayor browsing aerial shots of Mambulao Bay.
By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
“MAY utang ako sa’yo Kuya Fred …(I owe you one)”, Meyor Dong preambled
immediately after we shook hands.
Just minutes ago, as soon as the two security at his
residence in Motherlode saw me at the lobby, they gestured their boss was
having a meeting at the moment but should be done with it in a sec.
As expected, the two early morning callers – kagawad Artem
Andaya and Kapitana Leday Aler – emerged from the door of the good mayor’s
basement lair, prompting one of the security to signal for me to come in.
Kapitana Leday whispered that we should meet during the week
before I returned to Manila.
Artem just smiled, knowing that he had already given me his
story on the Parang beach clean-up.
It was early Maundy Thursday and Meyor Dong opted to
entertain callers at home instead of at his office at the town hall.
In a short while, he was to journey to Daet for an important
meeting with an ally.
The utang that he was referring to was the stalled
completion of a social center in Larap for the baranggay’s Senior Citizens.
“It will be done in three-months’time and construction will
start shortly … I will sign the release of the funds on Monday.(On Easter Monday, he signed it in my presence.)
Our chat was supposed to be brief, but knowing Meyor Dong, I
knew he would slip the time for an opportunity to expound on his favorite
subject: the development of Mambulao under his stewardship.
So we decided to sit it out, while he signed papers that his
staff brought in before office hours could close for the Holy Week.
He anticipated my next subject and did not give me the
chance to raise it.
Instead, he volunteered.
“The Department of Public Works (DPW) will resume the Larap
road project next month (May) … it’s just waiting to have all the equipment on
site.
“The project is being funded by the Department of Tourism
(DOT),” he said, adding that he was able to secure at least P20 million last
year to cover the 2km stretch plus a portion leading to the mothballed airport
in Larap.
The LGU, he said, will build the road to Sta Elena from
Larap under a funding from the Department of Agriculture.
I told him that should he complete the Parang-Larap road
concreting, it would be as if he’d completed the road program he laid down in
2010 when he first assumed the mayor’s job.
“They could say that, but our job is to have more
farm-to-market roads.”
He said that the Nakalaya bridge was done and the one in Sta
Cruz will soon be completed.
The bridged road will cut the travel time to Mambulao
through the shortcut concrete road from the Maharlika Highway in Labo that will
cut through San Jose.
“Instead of passing through Talubatib for a roundabout drive
to Mambulao via Batubalane, the San Jose diversion road will cut travel time to
Mambulao via Larap by an hour.”
On Easter Monday, he was working as usual – attending to the
nitty gritty woes and problems brought by his callers, seeking solution from
the mayor himself.
An elderly from Purok 7 in Parang came next for an audience,
and after listening to her, Meyor Dong called for his assistant – the one in
charge of the municipal assistance program for the less-privileged, who was
stationed at the entranced of his office.
Soon enough, a wheelchair – a brand-one unit – was brought
in by another assistant.
Meyor Dong turned it over to the old lady, who requested it
for her husband.
Her 90-year-old husband has gone paraliyzed after suffering
a bad stroke.
With this as my cue, I began working my camera to record an
important event taking place at the mayor’s office.
More problems came in and solutions were dispensed with.
Now, he called for another assistant and asked him to
arramge a meeting with the purok chairmen in Parang and Plaridel.
These puroks
are actually those that sit along the mangrove river where households were
dumping their trash into the water.
He also asked for the purok chairmen along Parang beach to
be present.
Meyor Dong said: Let’s gather them because I will ask them
what they could do to help push Parang as another tourist spot.
Just before 12 struck, he had finished attending to his
callers.
Time to close the door for a nice lunch brought in by his
favorite caterer – a 40-year-old mother who cooks his daily lunch and brings it
to his office in several Tupperware containers.
Today, it was tinomok, pritong isda, adobong manok, ginisang
sitao, sinigang na baboy.
I went only for the tinomok, a dish that I had last year at
Lolo Umpong’s in Atimonan during our drive to Mambulao from Metro Manila.
Over lunch he told me what was going on in Mambulao, but
reminded me the law and order stuff and another issue were off the record.
No problem. I wanted to hear them.
So he told me.
What was the one on the record, anyway?
Meyor Dong snatched my notebook and ball pen.
“We will not stop until the beach in Parang gets the
treatment it truly deserves.” He said.
“We will build cottages along the beach which would be
looked after by youth who shall be organized.
Whatever income the facility makes from rent, we will split,
he said.
White picket fences will be erected as perimeter line
separating the beach area from the rows of shanties and houses. And in between
these picket fences about 10 meters long would rise posts with globe-bulbs to
illuminate the place at night.
Evening beach strollers would love this, he said.
The standard beach facilities would be erected and these included
public shower, toilets and rubbish bins.
Beach watchers would be posted with back up from selected
residents along the shoreline.
Beach volleyball would be promoted as one activity that
beach goers could busy themselves with aside from carving shapes on the beach
sand.
A floating morning coffee cottage would also feature, and
this one could be rented out to interested entrepreneur.
“I’m sure many would love to have a nice cup on the floating
cottage while enjoying the morning breeze,” Meyor Dong said.
A boulevard traversing along the beach was first brought up
to MWBuzz by a municipal engineer in 2012.
Now it looks like this will push through.
Meyor Dong said as he sketched something on my notepad:
“These three shanties at the tip of the squatter line
touching Larap road will be the first to go.
The opening will pave the way for the boulevard that will
run along the beach up to the poblacion.
It will be dotted with globe-bulbs that will light up the
entire stretched at night. It is envisioned as an evening walk way for
strollers wanting to enjoy the breeze from the bay.
Right now, the sand from the lower side of the beach = that
portion touching the water but dry at low tide would be shovelled and hauled
off to the upper side of the beach to dry.
Later, it would be sifted for debris such as broken glasses
and others, and put back to where they were taken.
Meanwhile, many kids have volunteered to sift the sand for
harmful objects, which could take long considering the beach area.
But anyway, the beach sand is being sanitized and the white
powdery grains are coming back.
On social programs, Meyor Dong will intensify the LGU’s
livelihood projects under the GPBP, or the Grassroots Participatory Budget
Process where funding have been secured or in the process of getting approved.
At the moment, there are five projects with a total funding
of P500,000, namely:
1) Crab
fattening in cages to be set up Larap-Calambayungan. A three-year project, it
received a P100,000 funding and will benefit qualified residents in Larap and
Calambayungan.
2) Solar
salt project in Salvacion and Dalahican. These two barangays have been chosen
for their crystal-clear seawaters.
3) Tilapia
fish cages at the man-made lagoon at the open pit in Larap. A backyard tilapia
project will launch in San Pedro with the recipients being identified by the
Department of Agriculture (CamNorte).
4) Pushcart
livelihood project. This will be revived and will initially benefit 10
households.
5) Tinapa-making
in Baranggay Osmena, with a P100,000 funding to be carried out in eight months’
time.
6) Pinyahan
farms in San Pedro, Luklukan and San Jose which would require a total of 30,000
suckers. The San Pedro project is underway and has attracted a group of
investors who will put up a local plant to dehydrate ripe Formosa pineapple for
export.
7) Handicraft
project (1. Garment making – T-shirts, sports, office and school uniforms; 2.
Bags making using recyclable materials. The project will rise in San Pedro, San
Martin, Sta Cruz and San Jose.
Meyor Dong said the LGU will modernize the primary hospital
and the Rural Health Unit (RHU) will soon receive lying patients and birthing.
He is working to have the local RHU accredited with
PhilHealth.
He said he will expand the libreng gamut program alongside
free ambulance service.
One major focus will be the continued eradication of
malnutrition among the poor children, more push for hygiene and sanitation and
an intensified drive to reduce TB incidence.
The libreng gamut program will help in this drive.
Meyor Dong said: All these efforts are aimed at fleshing out
a goal that I launched when I assumed my second term which is summed up by our
battle cry “Bridging gap, changing lives”.
“We’re getting there,” he said.
He showed me a laptop video of Mabulao Bay and the mangrove area at the backyard of Parang.
"There will be a major transformation in this area," and he explained why it was so.
The mangrove river will undergo a much needed rehab, he said, which would affect many houses on its banks.
This is the only way to prevent another flooding in Parang and in Plaridel.
But in any case, the river banks would transform into another concrete pathways, similar the ones we did on creeks in Plalridel.
On the law and order problem, the mayor described their
recent efforts to deal with the issue, but requested not to report it, so as
not to jeopardize the initiative.
“We’ve noticed that what we have been doing these past few
weeks has been a big deterrent to lawlessness and we will sustain it,” Meyor
Dong said.
"The community can rest assured that the safety and welfare of the citizens will remain the LGU’s major concern and we are working hard to achieve this.
“I’ll see to it that all that we have laid down are done by
end of 2019.”
Then he winked at me.
For feedback, email: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com
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