Sangil: Cris Garbo’s one year at city hall

OFFICIALS of local government units, particularly the mayors, are battling face-to-face on a daily basis the coronavirus threat in their areas of jurisdiction. I sought one morning lawyer Manny Ignacio, an adviser to Mabalacat Mayor Cris Garbo, and queried him how the former is doing. How the city government is responding to the pandemic. There are numerous steps taken by Mayor Garbo according to Ignacio. I had it validated through workers if indeed Mayor Garbo reports to the office before seven in the morning and leave at seven in the evening. It showed he even works on Saturdays and Sundays. It came out so true. And people appreciate it, according to my source. There were other things I discovered. Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for visiting the sick. Those elderly battling debilitating illnesses are priorities. Before the pandemic, he used to meet visitors numbering from 100 and there were times up to 300. It is only now that the number of visitors was limited due to health protocols. Distribution of Ayuda (social amelioration package) never stopped, particularly in the first three months of the pandemic. Some P60 million were already expended as the city government’s response. (The Lord loves a cheerful giver.)

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I remember when I met Mayor Cris, as usual in our favorite coffee shop in the Freeport, Cafe Mesa. ( That was pre-coronavirus days). Normally, we only exchange banters for a short while but in that meeting, I spent more than an hour with him on the Cafe Mesa’s terrazza and I was impressed with his deep knowledge of the Bible. Muntik pang dinaig yung pastor ng Dating Daan. He told me he became a Born Again Christian in 2015 and spend long hours now at CEMI prayer hall, a building in Villa Dolores, a secluded subdivision in Angeles City. From his dissertation, I was fully convinced that the man is indeed a changed person. From the rolly polly type guy to a religious and spiritual person. To tell you the truth, I am one person who because of being a media person for several decades, I already developed like and many other media practitioners being discerning and cynical at the same time. And I don’t want to be viewed by my contemporaries that I am naive to believe that Cris Cunanan Garbo is indeed a changed man. But believe it or not, there is a great change in this man. (The Lord works in mysterious ways.)

As they commonly say, reaching your dreams is not that easy. Of course, it will have its twist and turns. There are challenges every step of the gauntlet. Who could imagine therefore that Garbo placing a far second to Morales in one mayoral contest And winning as mayor vs a young popular politician in the person of former Vice Mayor Christian Halili. But it happened. Garbo told me it was his strong prayers which did it.

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Meantime, Mabalacat City is on its way to becoming one of the more prosperous communities north of Metro Manila. Since 1993, when Republic Act 7227, the law that created all base lands formerly occupied by the Americans was passed, the former Clark Air Force Base morphed into a vibrant Aerotropolis led economic zone. That particular law mandates, henceforth, all investors are exempt from paying any taxes except 5 percent remittances of their Gross Income Earned (GIE)to be distributed to the five off-zone communities. And Mabalacat, like Porac, Angeles, Bamban and Capas, are the happy recipients.

Mabalacat gets a big slice of the 5 percent GIE. if that money were well spent, according to Garbo, more benefits should have been enjoyed by the constituency. He said under his watch, the resources of the city reached more than P2 billion. Not even the pandemic can restrain the growth of Mabalacat, Garbo said.