A Good Mayor - Pozorrubio

[Thomas]

Guy F posted this link in an other topic in an OTHER point of view, but this mayor seem to be worth an own topic    :thumbsup:    to show not all politicians are crooks...

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/06/30/remittances_built_the_philippines_did_they_also_ruin_it.html

(Jump down in the text to where it starts being about the mayor.)

 

Here is a part of the long text

 

Mayor Artemio Chan says most households have at least one family member working overseas. Since he was first elected 15 years ago, Chan has made regular trips abroad to coax Pozorrubio natives to send money home. In a country where politicians are infamous for influence-peddling and self-dealing, one of the lures of remittances is that the cash goes straight to the recipient; it isn’t siphoned by middlemen.

“Corruption is a big problem in the Philippines, everyone knows this,” Chan said. “I’m not asking anyone to give me money. I’m asking them to come back to their city, see with their own eyes what we are doing, and help their families here directly.”

That message has been well-received by overseas Pozorrubians. In addition to sending cash to their families and friends, they have contributed to civic projects by funding a popularity contest for young women.

The contest, which measures the women’s ability to raise cash rather than their beauty, was first held in 2000, the year after Chan took office. Families and friends compete for several months to raise money for their contestant. The winner — that year’s fiesta queen — gets her name posted in large silver letters on a municipal building.

Donations from abroad have paid for street lights, a public park, a rural health centre that caters to low-income families and the town hall, a modern, glass-fronted two-storey building.

The popularity contest raised $25,000 for a fire truck and $90,000 for a $270,000 civic centre. “Fundraising doesn’t cover the whole cost but it helps,” Chan said.

The impact of the remittance income on the local economy has been similarly massive. It has spurred investments in Internet cafes, car-rental services, video rental shops, 32 daycare centres and at least a dozen irrigation companies.

“This level of development is almost never seen in the rural Philippines,” The Economist Intelligence Unit reported in 2008.

A mayor talking against corruption!   It seem NOT only being talk but ACTION too  :thumbsup:

 

Perhaps I change my mind from Visayas and settle in Pozorrubio instead, because of the mayor   :dance:

[JJReyes]

Mayor Artemio Chan says most households have at least one family member working overseas. Since he was first elected 15 years ago, Chan has made regular trips abroad to coax Pozorrubio natives to send money home.

 

I wonder who paid for Mayor Chan's overseas trips. Was it out-of-pocket, from the municipality or donations by local businessmen? How was he able to locate Pozorrubio natives who are probably scattered all over the world?

[Thomas]

I wonder who paid for Mayor Chan's overseas trips. Was it out-of-pocket, from the municipality or donations by local businessmen? How was he able to locate Pozorrubio natives who are probably scattered all over the world?

Well. (If it wasn't to fancy) it seem to have been a good investment by the boost in development that province have got (according to the article.)

 

If he is a good mayor*, he can  have found the OFWs e g by talking to their families   :)  

And there are several OFW organisations/agencies he can have got information from if they answer.

 

(( *   I met  an extreem good mayor in a SMALL community in Estonia a year or so after the Berlin wall fell.  Although it was a small community, he had managed to make a boarding school to start there! And he made much promotion of their place in media abroad too to try to make companies to start there. He kind of made "guerila marketing" before that expression was invented!  :)   I contacted him, because I planed to start a postal distribution service there to send marketing letters for Swedish companies TO SWEDEN, because even the postal fee was cheaper from Estonia to Sweden than  from Sweden to Sweden!!!  (But then the International postal organisation stoped that just before I were ready to start it.) That mayor did know of EVERY person there, so he could say direct who had capacity and could be interested in becoming the local boss there.

-Here is the phone number. But she isn't there now, will be back around 2 pm.

!!!    That's a mayor, who know his people   :thumbsup:  :dance:

[i am bob]

Are not all OFWs registered when they leave the country as to where they are going - amongst other things?

 

:morning1: