EdPam rocks, Angeles City rolls

BEFORE YOU on the same date and venue last year, I have (sic) boldly declared that we shall surpass our record for the previous year and assured you that “the best is yet to come.”

For those of you who may recall, I closed my 2011 State of the City address with the following words:

“Totoo po na may bagwis, may pakpak ang Angeleno.  Kaya nating lumipad.  Handa na tayong lumipad!”

Today, as I begin my 2012 state of the city address, I dare declare that – indeed, my friends – we have taken off.

Naka-angat na po tayo!

Yes, we have taken off.  And I would like to thank all of you – our people, most especially – for your faith; for believing in me.  For helping my administration each step of the way.  For inspiring me and my team to go for the extra mile.  For giving me the strength.

Whenceforth Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan embarked on a journey of achievements and challenges that made up the year just past for his administration, for his city.

Basking was Pamintuan in the glory that is the City College of Angeles that he founded. Most rightfully so, given that Angeles has been a city since 1963 and only this year did it come to have its own public college, sited in its own campus, with an initial roll of 369 students, 82 of whom are academic scholars and 28, indigent scholars. Correspondingly, the city’s tertiary scholarship fund increased from P5 million to P6.5 million.

Health served as another centerpiece achievement of the Pamintuan administration, with the Ospital ning Angeles – what, no mention of it being the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center in all of Pamintuan’s SOCA? – as focal point.

From its tragi-comedic drubbing in the past as a “Mona Lisa hospital,” – the lines of the song “they just lie there, and they die there” appended to its patients – the ONA has earned the confidence of the people for their healing, for their well-being, well proven in the 185,072 patients it served from July 2010 to April 2012.

No thanks to its transformation into a medical center that gives private hospitals a run – not for their money – but for their usually excellent services.

For this, Pamintuan gave ample credit to the Michigan-based World Medical Relief Inc., headed by cabalen George Samson who has consistently and constantly provided ONA the much needed medical equipment and supplies.  A P50-million new facility is set to be constructed at the ONA to further improve its services.

A source of pride for the Pamintuan administration and relief, if not joy, for the Angeleno is the establishment of the ONA Renal Care Center with its 19 dialysis machines beating those of the National Kidney Institute and the Philippine General Hospital combined. The facility has recorded no less than 6,000 dialysis treatments – and still counting – since its establishment last year.

Just last July 13, ONA expanded its services with the establishment of the MediKalinga center at the Boy Scouts compound in Barangay Sto. Domingo where minor surgeries are undertaken on week-ends, thereby effectively decongesting ONA.

Pamintuan scored high too in environmental protection with his every-first-Saturday clean-up of the Sapang Balen, the 1-Million Trees program – all people-powered, and the dramatic reduction in the city’s garbage – the bane of the previous Nepomuceno administration which along with the over P60-million debt with the Kalangitan landfill, Pamintuan inherited.

Sound fiscal management – another failure in the Nepo maladministration – proved a shining virtue of Pamintuan’s with no less than the Department of the Interior and Local Government awarding the city its 2011 Seal of Good Housekeeping with the corresponding reward higher than any LGU so named.

Having achieved all these – with his Contract with the Angelenos as his road map, with the people by his side – Pamintuan is imbued with the moral ascendancy to face any challenge to his city, moreso to his leadership of the city.

Thus, his call, aye, his dare:              

I also want to thank even my fiercest critics. My very few former friends and comrades who turned away when we were already, ironically, at the threshold of forging a successful and productive relationship in the service of our people.  Your criticisms are always welcome.  You make me grounded.  Your challenge inspires me to do better.

I repeat: Your challenge inspires me to do better!.  Dahil sa inyong hamon, lalo ko pang pagbubutihin ang paglilingkod sa mamamayan at syudad ng Angeles!

Pauli na ning kekayung hamon, mas lalu kung samasan ing kanakung pamagsilbi para minawa la ring balang metung at sumulong ya ing kekatamung Syudad ning Angeles!

Thus his article of faith:

Ang tanong ay: Bakit tayo nakaangat?

Nakaangat tayo, mga kaibigan, dahil ang pinairal natin ay “bagong pulitika.”  Ang pulitika ng pagpapanday, hindi pagwawasak.  Ang pulitika ng pagkakaisa, hindi pagkawatak-watak.  Ang pulitika ng pagkakasundo, hindi pagbabangayan.  Ang pulitika ng kongkretong gawa, hindi ng nga-wa.

Ang masang Angeleno ngayon ay gising na at lumalaban sa sinumang humaharang sa pagsulong at pag-unlad ng ating syudad!

At pagkat tayo ay nakaangat na, hindi na po natin papansinin ang mga bagay na makakasagabal at makakahila sa atin pababa.  Gaya ng maagang pamumulitika at maagang pambabato ng putik.

Malaki po ang tiwala ko sa inyo.  Walang sinuman kundi kayo ang higit na mapagpasya.  At naniniwala po ako na pagdating ng mapagpasyang panahon, ang bibigyan ninyo ng higit na halaga ay mga bagay na kongkretong nagsusulong sa kagalingan ng mga Angeleno – hindi ang interes ng kung sinumang nais maghari sa inyo.  Ang dapat mamayani ay ang kagustuhan ng mga Angeleno, hindi ng mga pulitiko, na ang iniisip lamang ay kung papaano hindi mawala sa kanilang mga kamay ang kapangyarihan.

The ultimate power rests on the people.  It can never be appropriated nor expropriated by any politician, or even by a government, however good the intentions are.  Only you can wield it.  And when you do, I know you will wield it to uphold the common good and interest. Not mine. Not anybody else’s.

I again would like to admonish my colleagues and co-workers at City Hall.  Let us not be distracted by early politicking. Let us focus on our jobs.  We are doing a good job, in fact.  For me, that is good politics.

I have said ealier that my contract with you is 84 percent done.  It means I still have to work on the remaining 16 percent.  I believe I can do it.  I believe, with your support, I can surpass it.

Mabuhay po ang syudad ng Angeles!  Mabuhay ang mga Angeleno!  Mabuhay ang sambayanang Pilipino!  Pagpalain tayo nawa ng Panginoong Diyos!  Abe-abe, saup-saup!  Agyu tamu! Agyu tala! 

Agyu Tala! We can beat them. The people roared, the reverberation felt all across the city.