ILOILO City – The City of Love’s war against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been hailed by both public and private organizations, citing the campaign’s collective efforts.
Mayor Jerry P. Treñas’ forward-thinking and visionary leadership put in place responses and pooled resources as preventive measures in managing cases to safeguard the Ilonggos from the pandemic.
The city government has been closely collaborating with multi-sectoral stakeholders, partner agencies, and donors in fighting COVID-19 since Day 1, making Iloilo City a buzz word when it comes to preparedness and response.
Even industry leader Leechiu Property Consultants (LPC) recently cited Treñas’ brand of leadership amidst the pandemic, with Iloilo City leading over Cebu and Clark in Pampanga in terms of office space sales.
Investors are drawn in by Ilonggo manpower that are highly literate, trainable and skilled; favorable peace and order situation; and business-friendly environment.
LPC also attributed the real property boom here to the ease of doing business, including the Philippine Economic Zone Authority’s support, efficient processes, local government and private sector partnership, academe, and improved infrastructure.
The metropolis has made waves on social media with netizens getting noticed of the Ilonggos moving as one. From an array of accounts, two unique stories stood out, became viral and trended.
An online report “How this mayor turned Iloilo into a model city with its ‘all action’ approach to fight COVID-19” won “First Place COVID-19 Story of the Year” for Rhick Lars Vladimer Albay in the 2020 Globe Media Excellence Award.
“Ilonggos have remained fairly optimistic about how the health crisis will play out in their city. Thanks in large part to its mayor, Jerry Treñas, who seems to be doing everything in his capacity to keep the tide of COVID-19 at bay,” Albay wrote at the height of the pandemic.
“To name a few of the initiatives the mayor has taken, there’s the establishment of community kitchens around the city to feed the constituents of each barangay, plus his plea for mass testing backed with financial support from affluent local businessmen,” he stated.
The Uswag Community Kitchens (UCK) was also featured on “Istorya”, a collection of Lingkod Bayani Stories of valiant and hardworking men and women in the government services, of the Civil Service Commission Regional Office 6.
Anticipating the problem of many people going hungry as a result of the enhanced community quarantine, UCK was born as an embodiment of Ilonggo resilience and compassion. It was meant to bring together everyone willing to extend anything that would help others.
Barangay officials, daycare teachers and volunteers prepared and delivered house-to-house a total of over a million meals during the operations of 204 UCK in 180 villages.
“For every mouth fed thru the UCK, we appease not only the recipient’s hunger, but also our souls. We are nourished by the awareness that our small acts of kindness, lovingly extended, are never wasted,” the Istorya affirmed.
Another noteworthy winning piece was an extraordinary bread story baked with love for the Ilonggos amid lockdowns.
“City of Love’s Ilonggo Pandesal” by Leonard Pineda I of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Regional Office 6 bagged the Best Feature Story during PIA Praise Awards 2020.
“Pandesal may just be a common bread. But for the Ilonggos, it is a symbol of generosity and unity in times of crisis in the City of Love,” Pineda wrote.
A total of 648,000 pieces pandesal were produced and distributed to residents of Iloilo City for 15 days.
Each day, about 43,200 pieces of pandesal, or 5,400 packs of the bread, were produced, according to Treñas.
This means residents, particularly the indigent populace, would not experience hunger for a certain time of a day, for at least two weeks.
It was then extended to a month and a week that a total of 201,594 packs or eight-piece per pack, were given from April 7-May 15.
Producing the Ilonggo Pandesal was a collaboration of the city government and milling firms La Filipina Uygongco, Great Harvest Commodities, Carlos Uy Corp., General Milling Corp., BTJ Marketing, San Miguel Corp., and 89-S Distribution Inc. that supplied the ingredients, and bakeries Angelina Bakeshop, Carlo’s Bakeshop, JD Bakeshop, Theresa’s Bakeshop, Tibiao Bakery, and Wewin’s Bakeshop.
The mayor expressed his gratitude to the overwhelming support of the private sector during these challenging times.
“Through a strong public-private partnership, the city government is able to make life a little better for everyone. If we will work together, wala gid Ilonggo nga magutman (no Ilonggo will experience hunger),” said Treñas.
For Albay, an accomplished writer from Central Echo to Panay News, and Rappler MovePH to ANCX of ABS-CBN, Iloilo is a city rich with stories just waiting to be told, thus, his other winning entries also included:
* Second Place for Breaking News of the Year for Digital for “Gov’t ‘red tape’ frustrates Iloilo City mayor amid coronavirus response”
* Third Place for Community Development Story of the Year for “Artists raise more than P1 million to produce free face masks for all in Iloilo City”
* Finalist for Breaking News of the Year for Digital for “5,000 coronavirus test kits arrive in Iloilo City”; and
* Finalist for Community Development Story of the Year for “Artivism gives face to Iloilo’s vulnerable public markets”; and “Iloilo’s 12 new large-scale public art pieces are a dozen more reasons to visit the City of Love”
“With the shadow of uncertainty and difficulty looming over the country for the past few months, I think Iloilo City’s story of solidarity resonated with a lot of people because it was a beam of hope – that working together under a decisive leader, a community can overcome and rise above the challenges of this unprecedented time in the history of our city and country,” Albay stressed. (Iloilo City PIO/PN)
