Louis Vuitton bag makes luxurious distraction to the mayor’s presentation of her programs in first meeting with city department heads.
NO OTHER city chief executive
here in recent, if fading, memory has received as many courtesy callers in less
than a week in office than Mayor Vilma B. Caluag. As duly recorded in the
city’s CIO FB page
Only into her third full
working day on July 6, Caluag had already welcomed to her office heads of
regional government agencies and a professional group.
At surface level, this
“interest to call” can be, as indeed it has been, ascribed to her novelty: As much
to her being the first-ever lady mayor of the city as to her signature duds,
shoes, and bags. It’s not every day to see just any hizzoner or lady official
hereabouts holding office dressed to the nines in Gucci and Valentino, shod in Balenciaga,
a Louis Vuitton in hand or, as one photo shows, serving as centerpiece – of
attention – of a meeting’s presidential table. All this topped by the blinding
brilliance of the diamonds studding her ears and lacing her neck, and on her
wrist…is that a Patek Philippe?
Aye, only Vilma, mayor or wife
to the devoted Melchor.
Past the seeming
ostentatious display of luxury, there is the essential Ate Vi, plain public
servant wanting so much to achieve much more for her constituency, from the
barangay to the city.
No simple sosyal visits,
it is not all hi, hello, pose, shoot, thank you, and have a nice day, there is
to it at the mayor’s office of late. There obtains that higher call for social
responsibility, for service to society.
JBLMGH. With the department heads of the Jose B. Lingad
Memorial General Hospital led by their chief Dr. Monserrat S. Chichioco, the
mayor presented her health programs such as the free dialysis treatments and
the assurance that all Fernandinos will get the medical service they need at an
affordable price, if not gratis. To which Chichioco committed to help, in
equipment for medical procedures or facilities, even as she noted that nearly
90% of the regional hospital’s Kapampangan patients are from the City of San
Fernando.
V at the heart of JBL
hospital officials.
DPWH. At the call of the DPWH-3 Pampanga team led by Engr.
Juana Faye Magpayo, Caluag was enthused about the road widening works along
Jose Abad Santos Avenue. This, even as she appealed to the agency give priority
to the rehabilitation of damaged roads and declogging of drainages to relieve
road flooding.
"Sopan yu ku pu, nung
nanu ing kailangan bang aumpisan at mabilis tamung agawa rening proyektu uling
pangaku tamu kareng Fernandino a bayu pa man ing first 100 days tamu panamdaman
dana ing pamag bayu," she said.
DPWH engineers show the mayor scope of road widening.
DILG. At their turn, DILG-3 director Karl Caesar R. Rimando,
assistant RD Jay E. Timbreza, and DILG- Pampanga director Myra Moral-Soriano
received a briefing on what tangibles Caluag has set to accomplish within her
first 100 days, as well as the priority programs, including the centralized ID
Card Database system that will categorize and identify the medical or financial
needs of every Fernandino, with special emphasis on indigents, senior citizens,
PWDs, and solo parents.
DSWD. The city’s marginalized sectors were the very focus of
discussion during the call of the DSWD Pampanga Provincial Extension Office.
Caluag asked the DSWD to prioritize and raise the budget for the city social
welfare and development office specifically for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino
Program (4Ps): “Buri ku pu sana balang indigent o mangailangan saup kening
syudad San Fernando adinan tamu.”
It was noted that as of
May 30,2022, there were 3,405 active Fernandino beneficiaries of 4Ps.
PICPA. The Philippine Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (PICPA) Pampanga Chapter pledged its support to the city
administration’s programs, notably the continuation of the free seminars and
trainings covering basic accounting, taxation, and costing for Fernandino small
and micro enterprises.
While thanking the
organization for the support, Caluag urged the members to help in the city’s
efforts to convince local businesses and individuals to pay taxes correctly and
on-time.
Accountants unfurl
banner for the mayor.
BIR. Taxes, naturally, comprised the main topic in the call
of the officers of BIR-4A.
"Reng Fernandinu
dapat akit da ing puntalan da reng taxes at budget tamu," exhorted Caluag
as she asked the agency’s help to study and asses the city's current tax
collection which will be the foundation of her administration's programs.
She also broached the idea
of a third-party system whereby past and future tax assessments are reviewed to
ensure above-board transactions.
The BIR-4A pledged support
to help the city in terms of raising the revenue collection while assuring ease
of services and address any red tape concerns.
Tax men pledge help to
city’s many a time top individual taxpayer.
With a keen eye to an
absolute end to that bureaucratic bane that foments anomalies and corruption,
Caluag has taken the initiative to establish in her administration an anti-red
tape committee.
Here, an enabling measure
is required from the city council.
And Caluag, in her
experience as chair of the city’s premier barangay and ex-officio member of the
city council, knows only too well the partnership required of the executive and
the legislative bodies for the city to move even but an inch. Right on Day One,
the mayor made an impassioned call at the SP hall for “unity and harmonious
relationship” for the sake of the Fernandino.
After the dust
of the May 9 elections settled, an appeal in the local papers was sounded by
former three-term city mayor Rey B. Aquino to give the then-just proclaimed
Caluag time and opportunity to prove herself.
“People may have doubts on whether the new city
mayor, the first woman at that, will be up to the challenge of the position,
but she deserves the chance to prove her worth at the very least,” Aquino said.
The turn of events at city hall, this early,
shows Doc Rey has the least to worry.
We keep our fingers crossed. That Louis Vuitton though haunts me so.
(All photos from CSFP-CIO FB page)
