WE MARKED our 81st anniversary as a chartered city on Saturday (Aug. 25) with a parade and street dancing led by no less than Iloilo City mayor Jose Espinosa III.
For almost a month leading to the Charter Day celebration, we already had various activities like the 4Ps Family Day, Search for Miss LGBT Ambassadress of Iloilo City 2018, Lin-ay sang Siudad 2018 search, Zumba Fitness 2018, mass wedding, Senior Citizen’s Day etc., then capped by a cultural program and fellowship with guests from Iloilo’s sister cities who came to join us on anniversary day.
The mayor thanked all sectors in our community, including members of the media, for helping promote a good image and reputation for Iloilo City in the Philippines and all over the world.
Our work for Iloilo’s successful development and growth was started by our leaders some years ago. We remember a business forum held way back on March 12, 2014 at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati with then Senate President Franklin Drilon as principal speaker. He expressed the view before leaders of business and industry in attendance that our expansion and growth could be attributed to a united and results-oriented political leadership that we have embraced in our city and province.
For the first time in many years Ilonggo political leaders were united and worked as a team to achieve then our objective to reach “Premier City Status for Iloilo by 2015.” We did achieve the goal and we can see that we still continue in our success path.
On Tuesday last week, we had a dinner out with a nephew who works in Manila. He came with his wife to spend a weekend at a beach resort in Guimaras across the Iloilo Strait. We dined at a new restaurant on the second level of SM City Iloilo’s extended building complex, and we were impressed by the full-house crowd, mostly families, that we saw enjoying the buffet dinner of the evening. Then when we brought them to their hotel at Megaworld where they stayed, which was also overflowing with guests.
Now we are convinced: Iloilo has become a “booming metro” as one research firm puts it, and with no less than Megaworld also saying last week that they are experiencing at present a “demand boom” for residential units in their township. They are building their seventh residential tower to meet the unprecedented demand.
Because of an election for our public officials that is coming next year, some of our leaders in Iloilo appear to be no longer united.
If we have achieved this much in the development and growth of our city, we believe we owe it to a united and results-oriented leadership that we have embraced for Iloilo, as Senator Drilon puts it during his speech in a business forum in Makati.
We challenge our local leaders in government to unite like before. Our city’s growth must be sustained to meet the expectations of our people, including the many new investors that came to believe in the new Iloilo we have today.
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Historical Quote of the Week
“The first Filipino soldier in the American Army to win medals for heroism and courage from the joint forces of the US, Belgium and France during World War II – Sergeant Ramon Subejano of New Lucena, Iloilo.” (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com/PN)
