Online newsletter for the citizens of Sagunto, Sison, Pangasinan, Philippines
Reported by Ophelia “Babot” Pasibe Glasser
The video below is one part of the conversation at her home.
As most of you are aware, Mayor Kimi Cojuangco is currently in California to visit with Sisonians in Southern California. There were rumors and questions galore prior to her visit. Some of which are: Why is she coming? What’s her agenda? What is this about a beauty pageant? She’s here to convince each landowner in Sagunto to give up part of their yard to widen the road for her husband’s NCC trucks to destroy our mountain, right? She’s bringing in her cronies from Makati so they can plunder our beautiful town then leave with the loot. AND what is up with this English only rule in the Town Hall (Municipio)??? So on and so on, you get the idea. I was right up there with most of you. I was ready to believe the worst of the worst rumors and questioned her abilities and motives before I even met her.
The night before the meeting with Mayor Cojuangco I went over my notes on the important questions you have presented to be asked. I wanted to make sure that all pressing questions that made some of you stay up late were answered. When I arrived at the Mayor’s house at the appointed time, no one else was there. I was prompt you see, and everyone else was on Filipino time, hehehe. No, seriously, we live in Los Angeles county, the number one traffic snarled town in the entire country! I expected everyone would be late. I wanted the time alone to present your concerns.
I was led into the Cojuangco home by Mr. Tony Rambaoa, long-time caretaker and employee of the Cojuangcos. I only waited for a few minutes in the kitchen area before I hear a voice coming down the stairs, “Who is here, who is here?” Her casual and cheerful voice took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting that. When she walked in, she shook my hand and introductions all around. To be honest, I was expecting a more matronly woman, ala Imelda Marcos. I thought them to be contemporaries…same age group. So that was my surprise number two! She’s more my contemporary, okay, a few years more senior than I but within the same decade…she’s 48 years young ( I mean it, she’s holding her age at bay!). I wanted to get down to the nitty-gritty. I told her who I was and that I was the same person who wrote those articles about NCC and, what is now referred to as “The Olive Branch Letter”. 
I am here to represent Sagunto Star and we have some questions that have been submitted to the site by your constituents, blah, blah, blah, do you mind if I ask you some questions? She says, “Go ahead, ask me ANYTHING you want.” Well, I say, I don’t really know anything about you. I would really like to know your background but there’s nothing on the internet other than local stories, etc. since you made this trip and I’m here, I’d like to hear your story. (Now, aren’t you glad your lola reporter is always prompt? Hehehe)
Here again is a partial quote from the transcript of her speech delivered to Sisonians on September 22, 2007 in San Diego. She was gracious enough to share this with us. She realized upon reviewing some of our questions that this speech already answers some of our concerns. The section in parenthesis is my comment.
Let me fast forward to my present life. In 2001, my husband, Congressman Mark Cojuangco (whose father, by the way, is from Tarlac and whose mother is from Negros, became the Representative of the 5th district of Pangasinan) asked me to run for Mayor of Sison. As a congressional spouse, I had a choice to work with the other spouses in Manila or spend time in the province. I did some work in Manila but more in the 5th district. I found that working with the people in Pangasinan was more my cup of tea. My husband’s hometown is Sison.
(*NCC was opened around 1968 by Congressman Cojuangco’s dad. According to the Mayor, since the Cojuangco home was built around the same time as the cement plant, The Cojuangcos have always lived in the house in Labayug thereby making Mark Cojuangco as a local and not as an outsider as some have stated in the past)
Ironically, I spent more time in Binalonan, Pozzorrubio, Villasis and Urdaneta City. These towns were booming with activity. Privately and in my heart, however, I felt that the town of Sison needed much more attention. I was frustrated and couldn’t do anything about it. My husband must have felt the same way because in May 2006, he asked me to consider running for Mayor of Sison. It took me a whole year to make my decision as I knew that this would be a tremendous undertaking. So, here I am today in front of you as the new Mayor of Sison, Pangasinan.
There is so much work to be done but I am loving every minute of it. My first month was very challenging. I had to hold office under the trees in the compound of the town hall. Our personal engineers declared certain portions of the municipal building condemned. The second floor was being held up by 3 coconut lumber poles. Some work is currently being done to reinforce the building. In the meantime, I have moved the different departments around to safer portions of the second floor. I am now holding office in the museum that was being used as a “bodega” or storage room. So that’s working out fine.
There are days when my office looks like a scene from the tv series E.R. Just last week, a frantic mother was weeping and desperate for help as the baby she held in her arms was burning with fever and had a terrible skin disorder. I took one look at her baby and hurriedly put them in our ambulance. My heart skipped a beat as I prayed for the ambulance to start. The baby was rushed to a hospital in Urdaneta City. Today the baby is well and healthy. She was diagnosed to have a form of fungus that was quickly eating up her skin! Thank God her ailment was curable.
We have no hospital in Sison. We have 1 doctor, 10 midwives and one Rural Health Unit tasked to service our 28 barangays. The midwives are solely responsible for all the births of the babies in the far flung barangays. I took one look at their equipment and almost fainted. They were using rusty scissors and blades to cut umbilical cords…To cut a long story short, they are now better equipped as I have distributed P300,000 worth of equipment consisting of birthing kits, blood pressure monitors, medicines, etc. I am still not contented as I know there are more medical equipment and services that we still need.
As I said earlier, there is a lot of work to be done. I could probably go on all night telling you all kinds of stories of what my first two and a half months have been like.
My vision for Sison includes improving health care, education and making Sison a town that can subsist on its own. We are purely agricultural so I will concentrate on that. I consider that our strength as anything grows in Sison. Most of the vegetables you find in Baguio are grown in Sison. I am currently trying to get the farmers together to form associations as I believe there is strength in numbers. If they unite, I can eliminate the middlemen thus, we sell directly to buyers and giving our farmers a bigger profit for their produce.
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Our Mayor shared us about the statistic of health workers in the town and its really so upsetting about the ratio and so with the medical instruments that everyhome should have I mean the primary ones for first aid and so why not consider to hire more midwives since we lots of midwifery graduates in Sison I even remember that one of the health worker in Sison is from Agoo, La Union five years back if I was not mistaken…Lucky enough that the better half of our Mayor is our Congressman and for sure the way she tells us about this situation they can be a team for the dream of our town
. Way to go madam!
Yeah, sis Evz. Who would have believed that I would be saying this (prior to meeting Mayora, I would rather have gagged myself before I give her kudos), but I do think we have the Dream Team in the Cojuangcos to help Sison. Indeed, way to go Madam Mayor!
By the way, we will be featuring another story about health care in our town soon….keep coming back to our abong for more
It is indeed a very interesting sight to see for the first time that a Sison Mayor visit her cosntituent in a foreign land, purposely to hear their ideas,grievances if there be and to have an up close and personal conversation with the Sagunto folks as well as other residents from sison, bringing along with her the master plan in redefinning and remodelling the old face of our very own town. A very conversant mayor equipt with logical interpretation of what Sison would be in the near future leaving behind the old image of our town shifting, from non-compititive town to a more progressive one. Her one program is to generate employment, but the a question lies on how she wil do that, one positive advantage she hold is her background and connection with people from economic as well as political influence, then she can do a gradual transformation of Sison. What im afraid of is that politician are better known for making promises, more talk less action but this time, i might leave that notion and give our mayor a chance, whom i believe is keen on her dedication to improve our town..For you Mayor CHEERS!
ay wen aya kaanakan Babot minlaing ka
nga nagsakripisyo piman nga nagdrive dayta
kotsem kaduam pay ni insan Jean
nga napan met nakitabuno ti naiyawis
nga saritaan dita balay da apo mayora
mingagasat kayo ta nakauna kay pay
ketdi nga nakapatang nan ngem siak
nga adda ditoy abong pasaray ken mapan iloko
sagpaminsan nga umiliw.
mabainak koma nga mangikur-it
ta medyo nakapsutak ti english
ngem kuna met ni kaanakan Jeri
nga maawatan kano ni apo mayora
ti kunkunak isu a nga intutured ko
met la ngaruden ya tapno
diak ket nakamulengleng nga agmalmalem
nga agpanpanunot no kasanok
nga makitaming ti kunkunayo
maipapan isasarungkar ni mayora ti Amerika.
mingasat ti Sagunto star
ta ne salakan naglalasbang kayo
pay la nga taga sagunto
kasta ni mayora nagsaway unay
gayam ti lasbang na
nga awan umasping
ket no kasta nga kapintas na
napintas met ti adda kaunggan na
kas intay nangngegan ti kunkunana
nga innak pay la ingguyod
ni apok peddi nga mangilawlawag
ti kunkunana ket nagmayat sikayo.
kasano ket english ti kaaduan na diyem
ngem mayat naawatak met diay dadduma
nabiit pay nga nagtugaw ket nakitanan
dagiti rumbeng nga inna iprograma
salun-at, panagtalonan ken edukasyon
aye minmayat ket nabasak met nga
ipapainayon da ti green ken environment kano
nga mayatak nga in ipangruna met ti conseho
ta nakita tayon ti adu nga panagbaliw
ti panawen ti clima gapu ta nadadael aglawlaw.
wen mayatak anon ta paliiw ken kunkunam
ta ania ngay ket napadasan tayo dagitan
ngem ita ikararagan tayo ketdi
ni Apo mayora ken ti consehos na
ta inkari na ikabil na ti kabaelan na
nga tumulong ti pangadur-as
ti minbassit nag ili tayo nga Sison
ngem adu-adu ti parparikot na
Ti panagdur-as ket isu ti panagmaymaysa
tayo amin nga umili ken nasayaat a pannakaidaulo.
Ala apo mayora ken kailian
dispinsarenyo toy numo toy biang
ngem kayat ko met ti makikayyamet
ti kunkunayo ket innak met inbuksilan
ti adda nga rikriknak
ket nasayaat nga pangabiyahe
nga agsubli toy ili
ket intayo kitaen manen
ti rumbeng nga maaramid
ket no la ketdi napudno ti panagservi
a ket adu met ti malpas ken
adu ti parabur nga sumangbay.
Hi, I’m from Labayug living in toronto, Ontario, Canada. It’s amazing to see all the pictures, and news posted. Actually Kuya Jaime ” the employee of the month is my bro-in-law. Some of the names are even familiar. You have done a great job in putting Sison in the internet, finally Sison can be viewed from all over the world. Congratulations for a marvelous effort.
The new mayor semmed to be doing a real reformation of Sison and for the good of the people. Even my mom who is a councilman in Labayug says so.
To Mayor Cojuanco, You are doing a great job making Sison that Sisonians can be proud of for once.Thanks a lot.
Elizabeth Alamay Crouse
Hi Elizabeth!
Thanks for dropping by. It’s so nice to have fellow Sisonians come and visit this virtual abong. It is our goal to connect our kailians from all over the globe…I’m glad you found us
Please make yourself at home and come back again soon. Best regards.
P.S. We’ll be featuring Manong Jaime on a future post…
Hi Babot, pardon my curiousity, but I know Mina Malqued was called Babot , is that you or a different one? I will pass this site to other fellow Sisonians. It’s just so nice to see and read local Sison news. It makes it feel closer to home.By the way, some of the pictures posted were in Antong falls of Pinalpal, a mountainous village north of Labayug.
If you have any e-contact to the Municipio, pls. send my pakumusta to Nancy (DSWD), and Danilo (municipal Engr.)-classmate ko isuna diay NLA in high school, no adda da pay idiay. Salamat .
Bot ni minalaine Torres formerly asawa ni Amir mom da amelynn ken amerson Malqued ti kunkunana ni Beth ken ni Nanacy Haban of Agat Asawa daydi Brgy. Capt. Danny.
Aya goodnews to antong papintasen da kano dayta as a tourist spot of Sison O di ba Loejan informed mi about it cryltal clear ti water na idi ammok pay tattan wait and see!