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WORKING ON ‘THE BEST TAYTAY’ Back for an unprecedented fourth term, Mayor Joric Gacula talks about leaving a legacy for this booming town just outside Metro Manila. By Jimbo Gulle
ing Taytay’s yearly HAMAKA Festival, the acronym standing for “Hamba” or door jambs – the town also has a thriving woodworking industry – “Makina” for the sewing and woodwork machines the residents use, and “Kabuhayan” for the livelihood these industries provide. “We have no more rice fields here. We have become a highly industrialized commercial municipality, so every third week of February we celebrate this in our Araw ng Pasasalamat sa HAMAKA,” the mayor said. “We showcase the garment industry that’s booming in the country. Part of our festival is the ‘Road to HAMAKA,’ where we go full blast in letting buyers find in Taytay cheap, quality clothes and furniture, and we will not let it rest, as we will boost our advertising of the festival.”
I
T’S never easy to start from scratch. Fortunately, that’s not a problem for Taytay Mayor George Ricardo “Joric” Gacula II, who’s back at his old post after a three-year break. Unfortunately, things aren’t the same as how the mayor left it in 2013, when he stepped down after three straight three-year terms, the limit imposed by law. Six months into his fresh mandate as the chief executive of this booming first-class municipality of Rizal province, there’s a lot of room for improvement, and he discusses those points with The Standard in an exclusive interview.
Wish list
Better education
Mayor Joric is happy that in his first few months, he’s seen “a big improvement” to the town. “Thanks to the experience in my first three terms, it’s been easy to cope. I have a good team with me, good department heads that are with me to serve Taytay,” he said. This term, the mayor wants to focus on two things: education and health. “We want to beef up our educational system, particularly the K-to-12 program. Our town doesn’t have enough school buildings to host students in the new grade levels, so instead of graduating (from high school), some have stopped schooling, as they cannot afford the heavy tuition in private K-to-12 schools. We want our publicschool system to offer the same courses as they do.” Admittedly, Taytay does not have a lot of tourist areas, “and we have no natural resources to earn from, so our treasure is our manpower. Our people are our treasure,” Gacula said. The mayor is proud of Taytay’s high literacy rate, and so he would like to maintain and improve it. “It’s very evident that we have good level of education, and Taytay natives work all over Metro Manila,” he said. As an example, “the Canadian call center that opened in our town, Bell Canada, their investors told me they didn’t have any problems in recruitment here. It was an efficient recruitment, our people have high English proficiency, and their job quota was almost filled up by our residents alone. That’s why we’re geared toward improving our education, and maintaining our standards.”
Photo by Aldrine Leonardo
Better health services
The mayor admits he left out some things in his last term, so now he is geared toward improving Taytay’s health services. “How can kids study if they’re not healthy? They won’t be productive if they’re ill. That’s why they are my two priorities: health and education,” he said. Since he reassumed office in July, Gacula says they have fixed the health services at Taytay’s emergency hospitals, and improved their field health services such as vaccinations. “We are trying to improve our hospital facilities,” he said. “We have just purchased new equipment for our hospital and we are continuing to develop it. We have a new dialysis center and a new digital x-ray machine that we will use to cater to our constituents who cannot afford private hospitals.” Taytay is also purchasing an ultrasound machine, a digital electrocardiogram, and new laboratory and diagnostic equipment. “We see that a lot of our citizens, especially the poor, they get sick and die just because they didn’t get the chance to have a simple diagnostic check-up,” Gacula said. Unlike his last term, the mayor is happy he doesn’t have to spend as
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much time battling the drug menace. “We’re happy that with President Duterte focused on the big headache that’s illegal drugs, it’s a big relief for us, it’s allowed us to pursue our own problems,” he said. “(Duterte) knows our problems because he was a former mayor, and the police are ordered to perform, so we have left the burden of dealing with drugs to them, it’s less work to do on that end,” Gacula added. “Maybe police used to work with 50 percent effort, but now it’s at 110 percent because of the President’s prodding. You know that a town or city with drugs is not productive, so we’ve seen a big improvement since the pushers have been caught.”
Anti-bullying campaign
Part of ensuring the development of Taytay’s youth is keeping them from social ills such as bullying. The Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 already mandates schools to ensure it doesn’t happen, but Mayor Joric hopes to take it a step further.
“All of us have experienced going to school and getting picked on. It influences us psychologically when you go through this, so with the help of the Department of Education and private schools here, our LGU has programs that encourage schools to stop bullying at the classroom level,” he said. “Our campaign has seminars and exposure trips for students to see it’s not healthy to bully.” Taytay is also coordinating with the general parent-teacher associations to bring more advice to children, and to emphasize that guidance should come from the parents. “Kids should see it’s not good to bully fellow kids,” the mayor said. “Back in the day, we’d reason ‘away bata ‘yan’ and not care about it, but now it’s the responsibility of parents, teachers, the DepEd, and the LGU to bring the message across to these kids. “You know kids, once you explain things to them, and they see they’d be shamed, kids these days are smart. If
you ‘beat them up’ with information, ‘beat them up’ with encouragement and advice to stop these acts, things will get better,” Mayor Joric said.
Business-friendly town
As for business, Gacula’s administration is squarely behind President Duterte’s call to simplify transactions with local governments. “The President’s SONA (State of the Nation Address) said that within three days LGUs should release permits. For us, within 30 minutes we give it out,” the mayor said. “Our LGU protects businessmen, local and foreign. Investors that come to us get incentives, they see that we are serious with helping prime industry of our town, which is the garments sector,” Mayor Joric added. “Garments provides 60 to 70 percent of our economy, so all our efforts are focused on helping businessmen and traders here (in that industry).” The focus on business is evident dur-
Mayor George Ricardo "Joric" Gacula II is the first mayor in Taytay's long history to be reelected to office after serving an initial three straight terms, and he plans to leave a lasting legacy for the Rizal town dubbed "The Garments Capital of the Philippines." His administration is focusing on education, health, and the rebuilding of Taytay's public market, while processing business permits in as fast as 30 minutes at the new Municipal Hall inside the Club Manila East compound.
With about 30 months left in his fourth term, Gacula hopes for one thing the most: to have Taytay’s Public Market rebuilt from the fire that gutted it six years ago in his third term. The present market is a makeshift structure that’s held in a parking lot, and the local government still subsidizes its operation. “A market is an economic enterprise, supposedly an income-generating enterprise, but now it’s not OK, it’s messy, tight and narrow. It’s not our ‘real’ public market, and our LGU is subsidizing their expenses, which is wrong. A market should be an earning, income-generating sector that can help government with its other projects,” Mayor Joric said. Why hasn’t it been rebuilt? “Politics sometimes rears its ugly head,” the mayor said. “I don’t have control over the municipal council, only a few councilors are with me (from the same political party). It would be a big help for our town to unite behind this cause. Still, I’m sad that because of politics some people can stand this situation of not having a proper market, when the townsfolk suffer.” The support of the town council is crucial because only it can give the green light to the Rizal provincial board, which would then craft a resolution for rebuilding the public market through a loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines, Gacula explained. “The provincial board is making sure that everybody is amenable to this, so we are asking the Taytay council to stand as one to give the go-signal to provincial board that we want this project finished -- no conditions, no finger pointing or grandstanding, no politics,” the mayor said. Second on the wish list is putting up a lot more classrooms for Taytay’s public schools. “I don’t want our kids to have their classes under a tree,” he said. The town also wants to improve its teacher-to-student ratio “down to the standard of private schools, which is 1 to 45. It’s sad that in our public schools sometimes it’s 1 to 70, 1 to 80. Kids won’t learn that way.” Third, Mayor Joric hopes Taytay’s textile and garment industry won’t lose momentum. “In fact, it’s gaining momentum, it’s at such a good pace that I hope it won’t stop,” he said. Fourth, the mayor hopes Taytay would have its own general hospital. “We really need it. We need new diagnostic equipment, a CT scan machine, and good accommodations for our sick indigent patients, so we can deliver basic services in terms of health.”
Cityhood plans
Another wish, which can be put off for the meantime, is turning Taytay into a city. “It would be a dream to become a city, but right now we are weighing the pros and cons,” Gacula said. “As a municipality, we are getting so much investments because our taxes are lower and salaries here are at provincial rates, which is eye candy for investors.” Turn to D2
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WHAT MAKES TAYTAY TOWN A “NEXT WAVE CITY”?
By Honor Blanco Cabie
T
AYTAY, the densely-populated town some 28 kms east of Manila, has become a nerve center for garments in the metropolis and the surrounding towns overlooking Laguna de Bay, the country’s largest inland lake.
It is considered one of the “Next Wave Cities” for Outsourcing Firms and Call Centers, 10th place out of 10 cities and the only municipality. The National Competitiveness Council has named Taytay as the 2nd Most Competitive Municipality in the first and second class category this year, from being 10th place in 2014 and third place last year. But old hands say the town’s “Tiangge” has made the municipality known—with almost 320,000 population—not only in the whole of Rizal but across the country, which has a population of 105 million people. Officials said the “Tiangge” —also known as street bargain market among tourists and nearby residents—is strategically located beside the New Taytay Public Market, at the entrance arc of Club Manila East Road. Local and foreign tourists find along the road a succession of different stores selling different kinds of fabrics, different varieties of ready-to-wear or RTW clothes, curtains and others hawked at affordable prices with their high quality. Some sources have said most of the retail shops in Divisoria in Manila, the Tiendesitas in Pasig and Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan City continue to patronize and buy products at the “Tiangge.” At the same time, Taytay lives up to its moniker as the “woodworks and garments capital” of the Philippines with its high-quality manufacturers of wooden architecture products. These include doors, windows, jambs, stair components, lattices, moldings and other made-to-order wooden products. Officials said Taytay is one of the major suppliers of wood products like furniture for
WORKING... From E1 Becoming a city would also require Taytay “to be on our own,” he added. “To be self-sufficient, we’d need to increase taxes, that might not be good for our business sector, unlike now that
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home, sala set and wood carvings both sold for local clients and those residing overseas. Rising to its commitment of being a business-friendly community, the local government has encouraged the establishment of new partnership for progress with investors. The town also offers a memorable dining experience, with native and local cuisines in home-grown restaurants—with tourists savoring the taste of the Taytay-brand lauya, talibubu, barutak, biñabasan, budbod, and hibok-hibok. Those on a spiritual pilgrimage can take a tour at the Spanish-inspired facade of St. John the Baptist Church, founded in 1579 and completed in 1630. Franciscan missionaries first arrived to establish a parish in Taytay in 1579 and built a chapel made of light materials near the shores of Laguna de Bay named “Visita de Sta. Ana de Sapa,” dedicated to its patron saint. Jesuit missionaries took over the administration of the parish in 1591, with Fr. Pedro Chirino becoming the parish priest, under whose administration the parish was relocated from the flood-prone shores of Laguna de Bay to a hill called San Juan del Monte. Residents tell tourists to experience the warm ambiance and serenity of what they call the “Church in the sky” while enjoying the sight of the Tungtong River, first classified as a “creek” in the government records of the municipality of Taytay. This river runs around around the area of the Beverly Hills Subdivision in This town, stretching for 15 kms and is connected to the Pasig River by means of the Manggahan floodway.
we are really reaping the benefits of being a town very close to three cities. We’re catching all their fallout; investors who have tried Pasig, Taguig, and Antipolo are going to us. “Blessings are falling on us, and not every municipality has this advantage. Ours is proximity; we are within distance of all cities (in Metro Manila) but
Taytay is a bustling first-class municipality that's home to over 7,000 businesses and establishments, big—like the SM mall and several other commercial centers—and small alike. Apart from being the home of thousands of garment manufacturers, Taytay is also known for its woodworking and furniture industry, with some of its products show above.
we have a low cost of living here,” the mayor added. In the meantime, Mayor Joric asks for his constituents’ patience and understanding as he builds the “Best Taytay” for them. “I can’t do everything, I don’t have the council majority with me. The mayor may be the chief executive, but we can’t move without the council’s
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support,” he said. “Not all councilors agree with my programs, we have our differences,” the mayor added.”But I want our citizens to know that I’m not looking for anything except leaving a legacy, something that someday our residents can say that these things happened under Mayor Joric, that I did some-
thing good for them.” “I got nothing left to prove, but I thank them for bringing me back and trusting me again,” Gacula added. “It’s the first time in Taytay that an ex-mayor has returned to the post; usually incumbents don’t get back. I’ll ask them for more councilors in 2019, so I can do more for our town.”
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com
TAYTAY’S MUNICIPAL TIANGGE: THE NEW HAVEN FOR SHOPPERS
By Jovy Medina-Leonardo
S
OME of the most famous flea markets or “tiangge” in Metro Manila can be found in Baclaran, Divisoria and Pasig. But one tiangge just outside the metropolis is making a name as the new haven for shoppers looking for the best bargains on quality-made clothes and accessories. That would be the municipal tiangge of Taytay, Rizal, which is supplied by the town’s robust garments industry and has propelled progress in this suburb to the east of Manila. One of the 14 towns of the province of Rizal, Taytay used to be known for its carpenters, whose wives would set
up their small garment shops at the “silong” or ground level of their houses to augment the family income. Over time, these families prospered and soon saw their goods going to Baclaran, Divisoria and Pasig, which is closest to Taytay, but they would have to endure the distance of crossing from
one side of Metro Manila to the other and the persistent traffic of the big city. In 2010, the administration of Taytay Mayor Joric Gacula saw the need and the potential hosting these garment vendors in their own local tiangge in town. Hence, the Municipal Council amended the Taytay Local Tax Ordinance No. 10, establishing the tiangge in Kalayaan Park to encourage small retailers to register their businesses and sell their goods in their own town. The Kalayaan Tiangge was an instant success, and garnered an initial 400 registered retailers. After three years, the local government decided to authorize a council resolution approving a lease contract with
Club Manila East Compound, offering a larger space for the tiangge that could accommodate even more micro, small and medium garments makers. The flea market thus assumed its present name, the Taytay Municipal Tiangge, and the new location brought a total of 1,516 vendors during its opening. With the tiangge firmly in place, many informal enterprises were enticed to integrate into the mainstream formal economy, helping Taytay reap a tenfold increase in small business registrants and giving the town the 2015 Galing Pook Award for its Local Garments Industry Institutionalization program. At present, the local government aims to elevate the standards and quality of the lo-
cal products through planning and preparing the vendors for upcoming innovations. For instance, Gacula is proposing a mall-like structure to house the Municipal Tiangge, offering more accessible store spaces, clean and sanitized comfort rooms, and comfortable air-conditioned lounges for both vendors and customers. The local government is also looking at Taytay’s garments trade as the frontliner of its tourism industry, not just for the Philippines but for visitors from abroad. Special thanks to Taytay Public Information Office: Angel Gondra (researcher), Descartes Yerro (graphics) and Bhizel Torres
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THE PARENT’S ROLE AGAINST BULLYING
Taytay Public Information Office head Jovy Medina-Leonardo explains why fathers and mothers should advise their kids against being harassed and intimidate in school and online As told to Jimbo Gulle
“A
NTI-BULLYING is one of my primary advocacies aside from good governance and ethical leadership. We have a lot of kids in Taytay, and research shows that they pull out of schools, won’t go to school, or worse commit suicide because of bullying.
“Kids are not aware they’re bullying already. Research says these bullies, at one point in their lives, were also bullied, so they’re doing it to others. We need to make them stop, put a stop to this. We don’t want to add to the children who died, who didn’t go to school, who bring (the trauma of bullying) with them until they grow older. “To tell you honestly, a lot of kids who get bullied don’t speak up or talk about it. That’s what I’m worried about. That’s where I want to strengthen my advocacy, to make it into an international campaign, not just a national one, not just here in Taytay. If they don’t express their sentiments and unload their emotional burden, this triggers a different expression in the form of suicides, because their sentiments are suppressed. “Sometimes kids don’t have anyone to talk about it with. Why? When they are angered at school or elsewhere, they feel they can’t say it to their parents. Sometimes it’s the same way in schools. There are some instructions to teachers that say they shouldn’t feel pressured when parents come to them. A lot of things can trigger these kids to decide on something that really brings grief, especially to parents. “Why do I want to talk about this in December? It’s when people become highly emotional. During December, a lot of people see others buying stuff and getting bonuses. Not everyone gets that opportunity to have a lot of money by then. Why
are crime rates high during December? Police records show that, and there’s another study that shows kids’ emotional burden increasing during this month, because they don’t feel complete because of that financial or material lack. “It may be that during this month they lack even more attention from their parents, because they’re busy, so they don’t have anyone to tell their problems to. So they don’t know how to fight life’s battles this way, because parents don’t or can’t explain to them how to be emotionally stable. Usually some parents would say ‘don’t worry about it, that’s kid stuff’ but it’s not explained to them that these ‘fights’ are already a form of bullying. “Bullying isn’t just physical. There’s an anti-cyber bullying movement going around. Kids also aren’t aware that cyber-bullying is a way that can hurt people. Even on their Facebook accounts, their shout-outs are also bullying others, but they’re not aware of it. “We made something called ‘Loser: A Short Film’ (filmed by her husband, Aldrine Leonardo -- Editor). It’s reached over 11 million hits now on YouTube. It’s already being used by WAALM (World Academy of Arts, Literature and Media), and it’s searchable on Google. WAALM got my permission to use the film, I didn’t ask for copyright or any royalties because it’s an advocacy. I’m happy foreign artists have used this in their campaigns. This is a big accomplishment, for any
Parents and extended family are a great help for children getting bullied. Jovy Medina thanks her husband Aldrine and her parents—here pictured during their golden wedding anniversary—for their support of their three precious kids, Acee, AJ and JM.
Jovy Medina-Leonardo wasn't particularly bullied as a child, but gained a fresh appreciation of the issue after her daughter was bullied and called names at a prestigious private school.
person to get 11 million hits on YouTube. “I did the script, I directed the shoot for ‘Loser.’ It started with a program of Siena College organized by parents like me, and we showed the effects of bullying on children. With the help of a lot of people -- it’s a very short film, about five minutes – you can see the message, and its essence is obvious. This plays on karma; the gist of the story is that a girl in high school, an older sister, bullies someone, but doesn’t know that her sister in elementary school is also being bullied. “At the end of the story -- it’s a very heartwarming story -- you can see that there’s a twist, where people can see that even if the older sister was bullying someone, that girl being bullied was the one who helped her younger sister at the end of the story. There’s a redeeming factor to it. We hope to spread this film because I really hope no one else kills themselves because they’re being bullied and get depressed because of this problem. “Why am I so involved with this? I’ve been thinking about it, and all I can think of is people kept calling me ‘short’ when I was younger, the usual things kids would annoy each other with. But I kept thinking about it and said to myself, does this affect the way I feel about the issue? Maybe yes, but
it also made me a better person, because I used it and ‘twisted’ it to my advantage. Some people can’t do that because we each have our own emotional strength. Some can fight it, some can’t. Some get depressed about it, some turn it into a positive, and make themselves better over it. “In my case, fortunately I’m a goal-oriented person, when there’s a problem I always think ‘I can handle this, there are a lot of solutions for this.’ I’d ask myself, ‘What are the possible solutions? What are the next steps? What else can we do?’ I wouldn’t settle or stagnate at a certain point. Somehow that gets me through my problems. “I really didn’t have problems with bullying growing up, but I love to read, and I really get affected by stories of people getting bullied. I can identify with them. Then it happened to my daughter, who I transferred to another school. I talked to her because she was being called names like ‘monkey.’ I told the bully, ‘Do you know what a monkey looks like? Would you be happy if someone called you a monkey?’ I put her through the process, of making her understand it. That probably triggered (this advocacy) for me, because I thought ‘What if there were no mothers who could talk to their children about that, to process it for them?’ Because the kid didn’t know she was bullying my daughter, she wasn’t aware of it. To think kids at that school, these were ‘elite’ kids, whose parents were politicians, tycoons, you name it. “I’m just bringing attention to the problem, because people aren’t aware of it, even the parents don’t know they’re bullying their own kids. Bit by bit, it dawned on me, I was convicted of it. I should spread the word about it.”