A wonderful way to celebrate a birthday

It has always been a custom to celebrate a birthday partying and receiving well-wishers with gifts. It is a special day for the celebrator that even the government has made it so by giving workers the privilege to have birthday leave every year. It is to give time for those celebrating their birthdays to have the day specially theirs to spend. Last Friday, the City Mayor spent a working Birthday with the people of Tacloban. He opened three health centers in three densely populated villages in the city. He also opened a Police Sub-station at the Abucay New Bus Terminal and the Senior Citizens Center in a sprawling area at the Balyuan building. All in all, he spent the whole morning and afternoon with the constituents who sang him the Birthday song the moment he arrived in each of the places mentioned above. The whole scenario was a moving one, so much so that at the Abucay PNP station, his Congressman cousin, FM Romualdez joined him and the crowd in wishing him the best.

It is a selfless act and decision to spend the day with his people when he could have spent it privately with family and friends. In his inspirational message, Representative FM Romualdez called him a selfless and dedicated public servant who has shown his love and commitment in bringing development and to the City of Tacloban . His resolve to make Tacloban a highly urbanized city despite opposition from his nemesis has proven this. He is really a true son of Tacloban, not only by virtue of his being a son of a Taclobanon but through his actions and sacrifices to make Tacloban what it is now – highly competitive with other similar cities, progressive and truly a gateway to the north and south.

His vision for Tacloban is slowly unfolding. He has successfully made the city government independent from LMWD in terms of providing water to the various installations and offices through the small water impounding facilities he made for the Tacloban City Jail; Women’s Center; City Hall; City Hospital and other offices around the city. He is expanding the project to the rest of the villages especially the northern part of the city. This is amid the controversy involving the inefficient management of the water district by the LMWD that has turned deaf ears to the clamor of Tacloban to have enough water for domestic use.

The Mayor has also shown that behind the negative outlook of his opponents, he has shown that Taclobanons are his number one concern. He was able to politically push the construction of three health centers to provide the health and birthing needs of the people in the San Jose – Marasbaras areas; the Sagcahan District and in the Diit – Tigbao and inner villages in the North. He promised to add another health center in Suhi to address the needs of the Northern villages. These centers are complete with birthing facilities to decrease or even eradicate neo-natal mortalities. His vision is so astute to include surveillance and monitoring capacities within the health centers that will alert the City Health Office with the occurrence of new diseases before it gets to become outbreaks. He made it a point to provide these centers with the right medical personnel complement including doctors, nurses and midwives. The good partnership with the Regional Health Office made it possible to have the centers equipped with facilities.

He may not be a talking Mayor as most of his critics do by invading the various media with personal appearances or interviews, in his own words, he said: “I may not be talking to the media all the time discussing my accomplishments or plans, I would rather work for the people to ease their problems and do something with their complaints”. He is indeed a doer than a talker. His presence in the streets is seldom known as he likes to go around the city monitoring and doing inspections using unmarked vehicles or doing them when no one is looking even in the wee hours of the night or dawn. This is the Chief Executive in which Tacloban needs – more of an action man, a doer.

On his 49th birthday, he definitely manifested his love for people and for his constituents by celebrating it with them. To Mayor Alfred S. Romuladez continue to reap the blessings and graces from above. Your earlier actions and decisions have proven that you only have the best intentions for Tacloban. Kudos to you!

By: Dee A. Cairo

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