CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- All 35 barangay captains in this city unanimously said Saturday that they will back up the bid of “flood czar” Engineer Marni Castro for a seat in the City Council in May.
The village chiefs in a meeting at Villa Antonina Resort in this city approved and endorsed the candidacy of Castro, who is known to be in the forefront of solving floods and other infrastructure even as a private citizen.
The local barangay heads had even raised the hands of Castro, who hails from Barangay Calulut here, in a manifestation of support.
“Minuna na ing serbisyu na keng San Fernando (He already served San Fernando),” Nestor Lingat, chairman of Barangay San Isidro, told Sun.Star Pampanga.
He said Castro, who served as a consultant of Mayor Oscar Rodriguez on flooding and traffic, helped lay-out projects that mitigated flooding in the capital city.
Lingat’s statements were echoed by Del Pilar village Chief Bernardo Policarpio who said: “Had it not for Castro’s anti-flooding interventions, many of the constituents would have died when Typhoon Ondoy battered the country.”
He said Castro’s personal supervision of flood-mitigating projects have endeared him to the barangay officials, adding that “even at the wee hours of the morning, we could call Engineer Marni for help and he will respond.”
Benerito Aldana of Sta. Lucia and Bong Santos of Saguin, among the senior members of the Liga ng mga Barangay Chairmen (LBC) present in the meeting, said they too were impressed with the performance of Castro in the city.
“Even using his personal resources, Engineer Castro is a big boost to us chairmen who are saddled with limited resources,” said the two officials.
They said Castro’s work in flood-mitigation also involves solving the city’s problem on garbage.
Castro told Sun.Star Pampanga that aside from the silt in water channels, flooding in the city is also caused by indiscriminate dumping of garbage.
Meanwhile, LBC Secretary and Maimpis barangay captain Romeo Dizon said all the chairmen in the city have signified their support to Castro’s candidacy as they expect him to be their representative in the city council. (Jovi T. De Leon)