Saturday, September 29, 2007 Roperos: Balamban’s growth By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
WHEN I was a university student in Diliman, Quezon City more than half a century ago, one of the first things I learned from my instructor in Sociology 11, visiting American professor John de Young, was about villages and communities, and the people who live in them.
He said that towns can only be as progressive as the vision and dynamism of their government officials. Or its inhabitants can only be as cooperative and inspired as the love and respect they hold for their leaders.
Such notion, I realized, was never as true today as it was then. For in most of the towns, growth and development have always been dependent upon the leaders the people have chosen, and upon the manner and means in which they are led.
Don’t look now but I think this is the way our town is being led at the moment.
Decades ago my town was no better than most of the 48 municipalities in the island. But through the years, by “trial and error” of its municipal officials, the town developed physically and the quality of life of its people slowly improved.
But the reason I write about Balamban now is because I was told it is on the threshold of becoming a city.
Note that it takes a bit of material affluence and social maturity in order to come to terms with the realities of “city-hood” and the social and economic responsibilities that go with it. And I think Balamban has just attained that level.
Our town celebrates this year its 150th year as a parish. With Mayor Alex Binghay and parish priest Msgr. Isidro Ullamot at the helm of a progressive joint leadership, Balamban has changed in appearance.
There are now, for example, a number of imposing lampposts that only cost P20,000 each. The town’s annual income is around P140 million, according to Mayor Binghay, although he expects the figure to rise as soon as a shipbuilding firm’s expansion becomes operational. A 100-hectare reclamation area will be the site of the construction of 200,000 deadweight ton bulk carrier—the biggest in the world.
Truth is, almost everyone in our town is beaming with pride. We will be 150 years old next week during our town fiesta, and deeply happy.
(The earning of the Bureau of Immigration in Central Visayas five years ago was around P50 million, not P5 million as printed in yesterday’s column.—Editor)
