Commercial break from the Interview with the Mayor series. The children’s league has also begun! As mentioned before, the SK council added the children’s, juniors, and girls division to the ongoing basketball tournament. They had a parade through the bario and their own opening ceremonies complete with guest speaker and entertainment. Look at their shining and happy faces below.
Reported by Ophelia “Babot” Pasibe Glasser
The video below is part two of the conversation at her home.
I had a really nice one-on-one conversation with the Mayor. She was warm, friendly and genuinely eager to help Sisonians. Her idealism is, I must admit, contagious. She was a definite pleasant surprise. I have a real good instinct about people and their character. I’m willing to bet that she is serious in her quest to make Sison a better place. Like her husband says, her heart is in the right place.
She wanted to get to know me better and rather than sit down for more question and answer session, she just handed me a copy of her speech that she was to deliver at another group meeting in San Diego the following day. She just casually said, “here, this will answer all your questions”. I think she did answer our questions and then some. We have been sharing parts of that speech, in quotations, on these posts. Here are some of the questions we posed to her. I think I’ll have that glass of wine now Mayor Cojuangco. Continue Reading »
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.
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
Children always love tournaments! The SK Sponsored Basketball Tournament started last weekend, and children, of course, are the number one fans; but they are fans who also want to get in on the action. So the Sangunian Kabataan council decided to create a division just for them. Continue Reading »
