DENNIS Pineda aka Delta is facing the most difficult challenge in his political career. As governor, he presides over the fate of his provincemates in the battle against the pandemic. He is a tenacious, hardworking and disciplined young leader whose purpose is to prove that his administration can be compared to his mother, his predecessor, and that he can match it or even surpass it. His focus is the safety of every cabalen from the outbreak. He isn’t much of speaker like those street level politicians but he is so driven who carefully weigh his actions and decisions.
Pampanga is a premier province, yet there are still certain sectors which are gripped of poverty. We call them the vulnerable sector. All the relief the province can afford cascaded to the qualified beneficiaries. No one should be left behind, according to Pineda, to the point digging on his personal funds.
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Column articles are of course known to be opinionated. That’s why they are placed on op-ed pages. In short what you read on many articles written by opinion writers like me, are our own opinion. As it is said, everyone is entitled to his own opinion. You either believe them or not. Or you can form your own opinion and send them to this paper, either to agree or dispute our observations. If sent to me I will be glad to print it.
Like the first two paragraphs of this article which maybe disputed by some and agreeable to many. It can be said and written that under the incumbency of then Governor Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda there was no forgotten poor in the province. No sick person who ascended into the capitol stairs and ushered inside the governor’s office who was not attended. And that in several occasions it’s her personal money that she handed. Local officials in every town of Pampanga made their own referrals in those past nine years that Nanay Baby presided over the capitol affairs. And, it is that brand of service that is expected of her son Dennis now that he is at the helm.
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I remember I wrote in a 2019 column and asked what’s next for Governor Pineda after capitol? Is she running for vice governor? Is she returning to her hometown of Lubao, or take a garden leave and just be a doting grandma to her apos? Early on whenever we met then I kept asking her, what is next? She was not telling. And later on she decided to run in tandem with her son Dennis. The intention of mother and son is so obvious.
Service, and nothing else. Both of them could have retired from public life and live comfortably. Dennis is one successful businessman. He is in construction supply business. Vice Governor Nanay Baby Pineda and husband Rodolfo are in tourism and recreation business. The Pradera Complex in Lubao and the Royce Hotel and Casino in Clark Freeport are two successful business endeavors. The biggest challenge now facing mother and son is to overcome the complex problems brought about by the pandemic.