Online newsletter for the citizens of Sagunto, Sison, Pangasinan, Philippines
As mentioned previously, the newly elected mayor of Sison, Mrs. Kimi Cojuangco visited some of her constituents living in California. Our own “Babot” (Ophelia Pasibe Glasser) had an opportunity to converse with the mayor and get to know her a little better. Before we learn about the various initiatives that she is working on as mayor, we thought it may be a good idea to get to know her a little better first.
According to Babot, this is what she learned about the mayor during their meeting on Sept. 20 at the mayor’s home in Long Beach, CA.
Her Lolo (on her mother’s side)was the owner of the old Pantranco buslines. He was originally from the Ilocos Norte region but settled in Dagupan city. The mayor’s mother married Mr. Schultz ( an expat-German living in the Philippines) thus her maiden name. The mayor was born and raised in the Philippines. Her father must have liked the weather in our country for they never lived anywhere else but the Philippines. The mayor speaks Tagalog and understands Ilocano, her grandparents were, after all, Ilocano. She implemented the English only rule in the Municipio (Town Hall) to show delegates from the different governmental departments (that are invited by her to tour Sison for future grants and loans) that even though Sison is an agricultural town, it is home to highly intelligent individuals that are multi-lingual and can be utilized for jobs such as the call-centers that cater to international companies that outsource such services to the Philippines. She wants a piece of THAT action for the people in Sison. She doesn’t want the current trend of young, intelligent people moving away from Sison to look for jobs in cities or abroad. She wants to slow down the current hemorrhage or brain-drain of young professionals. She said she’s doing it to make the people more competitive in the global market. The Mayor’s focus during her tenure is Agriculture, Education and Health. ~ Babot
We’ll let her introduce herself to you with this excerpt from her speech delivered to the Sisonians in San Diego on Sept. 21.
Citizens of the World, I know that you have invited me here for many reasons. I do have a feeling though that you are a little bit homesick and are always happy to hear little bits of news and stories coming from the Philippines. I was more than happy and honored to accept your invitation so that I could share my stories and feelings with you about our part of the world.
Filipinos today are a major work force in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. We are truly citizens of the world. One thing I have noticed is that there isn’t a single Filipino living abroad that will ever forget their roots. After all, how could we forget the beautiful country we all grew up in or the country where your parents were born. Yes, the islands do that to us. The pearl of the orient will forever captivate us. Let me tell you how those islands have captivated me.
Born with a silver spoon in my mouth never stopped me from mingling and befriending our household help. My best friend was Adriano, our gardener. I was amused by his stories about the beautiful town he grew up in…He was from the Batanes islands. I loved using my hands to scoop up rice and tuyo into my mouth while dining with Elvira, our cook from Leyte and Espi, my yaya from Samar. Eating with my hands and savoring tuyo with rice, red egg and kamatis was a treat.
Summer vacations were spent in Dagupan city. Visiting my lolo who, by the way, was born in Ilocos Norte, was always so exciting. My cousins and I spent the mornings swimming in Blue beach which is off the Lingayen gulf. Afternoons were spent outdoors playing under the huge acacia trees in the garden of our ancestral home in the Tabacalera. Nightfall meant time to go hunting…I had a bottle full of salagubangs and kuriats. Even bedtime was fun. I slept with my cousins on the floor. All the kutchons were laid out on the floor of my grandfather’s room. Each morning we woke up to the smell of longaniza, champurado and chocolate. My childhood was a magical time. I know most of you here had similar experiences and memories of your youth.
Time flies by and we are all forced to grow up. Growing up, I remember being deeply affected as I began to notice that there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. For as far back as I can remember, I could not understand why this was the world I lived in.
~ Excerpt from speech on Sept. 21, 2007 by Mayor Kimi Conjuangco.
Sisonians met with the mayor at her home in Long Beach, CA.
More insights, photos, and videos to follow. Stay tuned.
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Appreciation and gratitude is being extended to our very own Ophelia as we fondly called babot for all the effort she has done in meeting our local chief executive the Hon. Kimi Cojuanco I know the sacrifices being done she left her kids to her baby sitter but her trip was a successful one just to have something to share in the Sagunto Star for all the Sisonians all over the globe to meet the mayor who was so beautiful and charming in the picture so with the Sisonians who met her in L.A.
So Sis GOd Bless you more I know you were there for a noble mission!
I really appreciate the basic program of the mayor during her term of office HEALTH, EDUCATION AND AGRICULTURE those are really the basic necessity in our town but I am appealing that the Municipal council should include the GREEN ENVIRONMENT program as the fourth one since this is a long range program and should start now for we don’t want our tiny town to be victim of landslides and other disasters due to the negligence of the people and government we have lots of tragedies in our country already we should act on it now we will do our best to protect our nature and God will do the rest.
I love the move that Mayor told during the interview of our correspondent from Sagunto Star that they are beginning to plant more trees now and she was aware that our mountain most part of it is bare so we need to cloth it now while its not yet late we still have the hope if not for us its for the coming generation.
I agree with all of the above evs mentioned. These works are really commendable. We are lucky to have Ophelia represent Sagunto Star and do the interviewing. That’s true sacrifice and we can never thank her enough. The Mayor has truly started with her good plans so let’s cooperate to achieve those goals. Hoping there’d be more on Environment.
babot konggrats.ay apo mayat met gayam ti bisyon ni apo mayora iti sison
sapay koma ngarud ta agdor-as ti ili tayo.maymayat pay koma no ti bwis ti ncc ket maipisok iti kaban ti ili nga sison.apay konayo,wen a ta dita sison ti mismo a pagminasan iti siminto,saan nga idiay makati.