NEWS: “Monkayo, you’re in good hands!”- MB

aug 31

For once he wiped his sweating forehead in the middle of his 4th State of the Municipality Address last Thursday, and broke a dialect for a pause in his speech.

But the tens of thousands of the townfolks of mostly young crowd of secondary students and teachers obviously took it for a game to a kind of mayor, evidently beloved by the Monkayo people now, for bringing in solid and tangible gains and accomplishments for the town and the laurels of his workforce after a turbulent period stigmatized by Diwalwal.

“Under the Brillantes administration, Monkayo, you are in good hands!” thundered Mayor Manuel “Junjun” Brillantes Jr. in like a coup de grace finish of his Thursday’s SOMA, his 4th in his two consecutive terms until at present.

A roaring applause of the young was heard inside the jampacked newly improved municipal gymnasium, Brillantes another infrastructure landmark after bringing in a new municipal hall and two market public market buildings in his first term.

The town at present is celebrating its 54th Araw ng Monkayo and the 13th Kariyawan Festival which will culminate this coming Thursday, Sept. 4.

For almost an hour, the mayor reported his administration’s gains and accomplishments such as the town’s No. 1 rating achieved in 2007 throughout the Compostela Valley Province in the Department of Interior and Local Government’s Local Government Performance Management System. For this he said your “taxes is moving”.

After completing the new municipal hall and the two public market buildings, “now we are ready to hold big events because of the completion of the newly renovated municipal gymnasium, big enough to accommodate 5,000 people. Pwera buyag, ang atong gym mao ang pinakanindot sa tibuok probinsya, di ba? Makita na usab nato nga mas napanindot na ang plaza. Malipayon na kaayo kita nga naa nay masuroyan labi na ang atong mga kabataan uban sa ilang mga pamilya. Nakita nato ang tennis court nga na bag-o na ug isunod na pod nato ang freedom stage. Sa pagkakaron, gisugdan na ang construction sa 17 stalls nga fruit stands diha sa taboan area., “ he said.

Beginning this year he said that a P2 million budget would be allocated each year in his current term which will result to the concreting of all the streets and roads in the poblacion. For this, he thanked his local sanggunian for the support through their Municipal Ordinance No.06-2007.

Brillantes also reported his significant gains in the areas of infrastructure, potable water systems in the barangays, social services like the strengthening of 27 DOH standard health programs, municipal-wide medical and dental outreach program, housing assistance, provision of Red Cross Insurance for the market vendors, operators, drivers and conductors, jewelry making training for the persons with disabilities, women and students, and the intervention through the Task Force Bugas during the rice crisis.

The Brillantes administration for the last year’s feat has garnered awards such as the Sandugo national award for surpassing the blood sufficiency program of the Department of Health, and through Mrs. Danielle de Leon for winning the Most Outstanding MSWDO throughout Region XI; through Mr. Panfilo Alcala for winning in the National Gawad Saka Awards 2007 (Rice Farmer Category) of the Department of Agriculture, and for the six other Provincial Gawad Saka Awards, two of which became regional awardees; and the regional award from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the good solid waste management program of the mayor.

Brillantes also pledged to sustain his Municipal Scholarship Program which at present has 198 scholars enrolled in various technical-vocational schools in the province. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News) http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com

Filed under: mayor brillantes, monkayo, comval sex scandal, mayor manuel brillantes jr, monkayo

The paradox of being no-good politicos

Blogista

By Cha Monforte

Good-natured, honest observations are being heaped now on the leadership of Monkayo Mayor Manuel “Junjun” Brillantes Jr. and Maragusan Mayor Cesar Colina Sr. Friends in political circles just commented that although the two mayors are not college graduates yet they are excelling in managing the affairs of and modernizing their respective municipalities. They’re accomplishing and moving things unexpected of them. They’re both businessmen. They’re even seen as bullies and no-good politicos.

They’re unlike the traditional politicians who want to please and waive their hands to everybody, even to the carabaos in the ricefields, so that their friendly pogi image would be maintained and kept their political career ever shining in public. This type is sticky in our politics.

We have seen a plenty of them who belong to this trapo mold among incumbent mayors in Comval and Davao del Norte, and on how they reached their consecutive three terms. One of whom is Nabunturan Mayor Macario Humol, who in his last term, at this late – surprise?- wants to modernize his town via an exorbitant P90-million bond flotation for the construction of a new market building right at the heart of his town. The mayor is a do-gooder, compromise- and nod-adept centrist. He got his agricultural college degree far up from Central Mindanao University in Bukidnon.

They say he keeps rolling up his sleeves since he tasted his first term and has accomplished a lot. But aged true-blue Nabunturanons now are now questioning what he has got to accomplish in his three terms when they still see the same face of their hometown since they were still boys and girls who came running naked on the cemented Arabejo street during rainy days.

Which brings us to the great facelift of Monkayo under the two terms of current Mayor Brillantes. This mayor engaged in bank loans to construct a modern munisipyo and public market, well-paved municipal road, launch a good solid waste management program and refurbish well the old gymnasium at the town center.

He is now reportedly busy attacking the problem of not having potable water and the inadequacy of water systems in the barangays. He placed these gargantuan projects out from a bank borrowing that has fix and smaller interest rates and not from the so-called bond flotation that many don’t understand, and in Nabunturan case, puts the local government in grossly disadvantageous position, which is violative to the anti-graft law.

We heard the PNB is moving on to Mayor Brillantes to pay the balance of his old loan by letting him borrow a bigger amount reportedly to the tune of P150 million so he could further modernize his town.

As to Maragusan Mayor Colina, a first termer, he already has street-smart sounding governance battlecy, “Atsop Maragusan!” This colloquial vernacular word is a greeting of like being enthralled to something. It’s about appreciation, attraction, beauty. It expresses Colina’s personality of being like a street-smart while being a cola magnate as he has been. Colina is it! Besides constructing a new 96-stall public market which replaced the one that was gutted by a fire two years ago at a cost of only P3.4 million from his own municipal coffers (look ma, no bank borrowing, no bond float), he is reportedly now busy in paving all the streets in the poblacion. Atsop gyud bay! Somebody commented who just went down from the town which is touted as the Baguio of Davao Region.

Here lies a paradox of being no-good politicos: non- trapo mayors are modernizing their towns at cost-effective and efficient manner and blazing new, innovative trails in governance against the usual barriers of resources, while the trapo ones are sustaining if not stagnating the spatial makeup of their towns and are always drawn into the whirlpool of traditional, non-trendsetting governance.

It really counts a lot when you introduce and complete a facelift in places long known to be old and stagnant. What a wonder it brings and ushers to an expectant populace. Such breezes through our imagination and captures a snapshot of the leader’s vision. Maybe it’s because Brillantes and Colina are both businessmen? But no, Carmen Mayor Marcelino Perandos in Davao del Norte isn’t. He is only once a municipal registrar. He’s too a no-good politico. But look what a facelift he made for his flood-prone town only during the first year of his first term. He got his munisipyo, lawn and bus terminal sparkling and noticeable. Kodus to them. (For online edition, visit my blog at: http://cha4t.wordpress.com)

Filed under: brillantes, colina, maragusan, monkayo, brillantes, colina, maragusan, monkayo