Upping the VM bar

IT HAS ceased to be a joke. Nobody’s laughing anymore. Au contraire, everybody’s taking very serious note of the purported run of Councilor Jesus “Jay” Sangil for the Angeles City vice mayorship in 2013.

No laughing matter, indeed, is Sangil’s distribution of trike patrols to the barangays – 22 so far, 11 more to go. Why, only the governor of Pampanga, everyone’s Beloved Nanay, has upped Sangil in this regard, 505 trikes for each of the province’s barangays.

And like her, Sangil did not spend a cent from the public coffers for this activity.

Again, like her too, Sangil’s distribution did not distinguish any shade of partisanship: “Dapat tuluy-tuloy at walang barikada ang pagseserbisyo sa ating mga kababayan. No political color, mapa yellow, green, red, orange o blue, wala tayong pinipili.”

Yes, can any city barangay chair bluer than Cutcut’s Cecille Nepomuceno, sister-in-law of former Mayor Blueboy, loser to and prospective 2013 rival of Mayor Ed Pamintuan who is Sangil’s political patron?

Ah, how Madame Cecille beamed for the cameras on board the trike with Sangil at the driver’s seat!

Yes, it mattered little to Sangil too that Balibago chair Tony Mamac is VM 2013 pretender. Sangil himself delivered the trike to Mamac, smiling at the latter’s offer for him to be Assistant Vice Mayor. Now, that’s a most laughable joke.  

The impact of Sangil’s “Trike para sa Payapa at Tahimik na Barangay” is easily quantifiable in terms of the happy reception it got from the beneficiaries –  “Tamang-tama ang tricycle sa aming mga pangangailangan. Maliliit kasi ang mga daan sa mga barangay kaya makakapasok ang mga patrol units na ito sa mga eskinita. Malaking tipid din ito sa konsumo sa gasolina.”

On the political Richter scale, that registers an immeasurable magnitude.

On one hand, Sangil has given the barangays one means to address emergencies and peace and order concerns.

On the other, Sangil raised the humble tricycle, and by extension, the lowly tricycle boy, to a catalyst of community development. Pride of profession, no matter how low in social status, dignity of labor all emblazoned there.

How right is that Punto! editorial some weeks back:

“Unintentionally or not, Sangil may have found in the lowly tricycle the right vehicle to take him to that elevated chair at the city council.

Yeah, so how many tricycles are there in Angeles City, and how many passengers do they ferry 24/7?

Go TODA. Go Sangil.”

And that’s but one facet of Sangil’s masa-centered advocacy.

Sangil’s own humble beginnings have inured in him the sensitivity, the malasakit to the least, the last and the lost – to use the good Apu Ceto’s mantra – of his constituents.        

More than sheer lip service – as is the wont of the seasoned politicians, vice mayors here and there not excluded – Sangil walks his talk.

Last Labor Day itself, Sangil paid honor to the workingman with his successful arbitration of a dispute between Jumbo Jenra and its 34 dismissed workers in what could be one of the speediest resolution of a labor dispute ever recorded – 42 hours.

“Huwag kalimutan yung pinagsamahan, respeto sa bawat isa. Kung may nangyari man na hindi maganda somewhere along the way, the most important thing is at the end of the day, maayos ang lahat.” So Sangil reminded the contending parties and effected a “win-win solution that was not disadvantageous to the workers and at the same time did not push the employers to the wall.”

For the record: Jumbo Jenra signed an agreement to grant the workers’ compensation -- separation, 13^th month, holiday, overtime, last pay; issue clearance forms and certificates of employment; and open other Jenra branches for their re-hiring.  

On record too: Sangil played key role in the resolution of a labor dispute between Golbon factory at EPZA Pulung Cacutud and its 700 workers, with the factory settling its obligations of some P42 million. 

Sangil has proven himself well as a mediator, an arbitrator, indeed, a bridge of understanding between labor and capital. 

His beloved masa never far from his mind, ever lodged in his heart, Sangil’s needed family vacations are yet an opportunity to serve.

From his last sojourn to the United States in March, Sangil  brought home a box of dialyzers and needles for use at the renal care unit at the Rafael Lazatin Medical Center (RLMC).

Sangil’s source, the Da Vita Clinic, Elk Grove and other dialysis clinics have promised to send the city hospital 24 dialysis chairs, more dialyzers and other medical equipment.

Inviting his colleagues to do more for the health of the Angelenos, Sangil said: “There are still a lot of hospitals and clinics in the US and other countries more than willing to send in medical supplies and equipment, we just have to find them.”

And finding them, is one talent Sangil has over other pretenders to the city vice mayorship. So have you heard of any vice mayor having done anything near Sangil’s doing?

Why, just this week past, Sangil disclosed yet another pro-poor project at the RLMC – a computerized axial tomography (CT) scan center. This, he developed from a visit to CT scan center at the Clark Freeport from where he crafted a city council resolution beneficial to indigent patients and residents which was approved last Tuesday by the city council.

Never one to arrogate any credit unto himself, Sangil was more than content to take his work as no more than complementary to the good job of hizzoner: “With Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan at the helm, all the equipment needed by the hospital are being brought in and set up one after the other. I go out of my way to make other projects in support of the pro-poor programs of the mayor.”

Spoken like the true vice mayor he can very well be, happily conceding the limelight to his mayor.

Simply by upping the 2013 VM bar, Sangil has already topped the race.

And nobody is any mood to laugh.