NOT ONLY head, but even heels, over his peers is Mexico Mayor Teddy Tumang.
While other local government units agonize over the disposal of garbage and wastes, faced as they are with the prospect of legal entanglement arising from continued use of uncontrolled and open dumpsites, Tumang has marshaled enough resources within his municipality and gathered the necessary know-how to put up his own materials recovery facility (MRF).
“We adhere to the environmentalist view that even sanitary landfills have adverse effect in the long run, with the ever-present danger of leeching, hence Mexico went the MRF way,” Tumang enthused over his initiative to clean up his town.
Not your usual partitioned shed where deposited and sorted recyclables, Mexico’s MRF sits on a 9,000-square-meter lot in Barangay Balas, amid a sugarcane field. Enough to address the garbage problem of the whole town – Tumang assures.
It has two large conveyor belts where the waste is sorted by hand, the recyclable and reusable is separated from the biodegradables that proceed to shredders and “ovens” to be heated before taken to a composting area.
The MRF has its own greenhouse and nursery that will make use of the organic fertilizer from the composted wastes.
Scavengers that once thrived in the town’s dumpsite will be tapped to do the sorting.
“There will be a continuity to their livelihood, with the recyclable given to them to be sold to the junk dealers and recycling companies. Plus, we intend to give them some transportation allowances,” Tumang said.
So impressed was Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda of Mexico’s MRF that she has enjoined all Pampanga mayors to set it as a model for their own MRFs.
It did not escape the governor’s notice too that Tumang has already established his own MRF without any call for assistance from the provincial government while the other mayors are already crying for their Nanay’s support even when they have yet to conceptualize their MRFs.
Doing things on his own, never waiting for outside help. That is Tumang’s signature administrative style.
Tumang’s empty braggadocio – so the naysayers labeled the mayor’s promise a year or so ago that he would put up a community hospital using locally-sourced funds.
Indeed, a tall order if not a seeming impossibility there, given that no local municipality in the province, not even the resource-rich, financially able City of San Fernando has done it.
Today, the Mexico Community Hospital stands tall and ready in Barangay San Carlos, shaming not only Tumang’s critics but even Pampanga’s own patched-up provincial and dilapidated district hospitals.
With three operating rooms, a separate delivery room, nursery and neo-natal intensive care unit, three emergency rooms, a dialysis center with 10 machines, x-ray room, laboratory and diagnostics center, and a garden square at its foyer, the Mexico Community Hospital takes its place alongside the best private medical centers in the province.
The hospital is worth every cent of its cost of P45 million for its main building and another P12 million for its doctors’ and diagnostics’ wing. Medical equipment and supplies, including medicines, Tumang sourced from various non-governmental organizations and foundations, notably the Michigan-based World Medical Relief Mission of compatriot George Samson.
The structure finished, the equipment and facilities being set in place – so far solely borne by the Mexico local government – it is now time for Tumang to call “Nanay!” For the hospital’s water pump and storage tank.
Friday last week, visibly impressed by Tumang’s initiative in the field that is closest to her heart – health – Nanay may well be obliged to grant Tumang’s wish.
Now, were the other mayors as pro-active, as visionary, as concerned for their constituency as Tumang…
In a league all his own, a grade of E for Excellence – VG for Very Good at the least – in local administration, Tumang is truly deserving of another VG – Vice Governor – in partnership with the incumbent governor in the next elections.
May my Kuyang Jerry Pelayo forgive me.
While other local government units agonize over the disposal of garbage and wastes, faced as they are with the prospect of legal entanglement arising from continued use of uncontrolled and open dumpsites, Tumang has marshaled enough resources within his municipality and gathered the necessary know-how to put up his own materials recovery facility (MRF).
“We adhere to the environmentalist view that even sanitary landfills have adverse effect in the long run, with the ever-present danger of leeching, hence Mexico went the MRF way,” Tumang enthused over his initiative to clean up his town.
Not your usual partitioned shed where deposited and sorted recyclables, Mexico’s MRF sits on a 9,000-square-meter lot in Barangay Balas, amid a sugarcane field. Enough to address the garbage problem of the whole town – Tumang assures.
It has two large conveyor belts where the waste is sorted by hand, the recyclable and reusable is separated from the biodegradables that proceed to shredders and “ovens” to be heated before taken to a composting area.
The MRF has its own greenhouse and nursery that will make use of the organic fertilizer from the composted wastes.
Scavengers that once thrived in the town’s dumpsite will be tapped to do the sorting.
“There will be a continuity to their livelihood, with the recyclable given to them to be sold to the junk dealers and recycling companies. Plus, we intend to give them some transportation allowances,” Tumang said.
So impressed was Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda of Mexico’s MRF that she has enjoined all Pampanga mayors to set it as a model for their own MRFs.
It did not escape the governor’s notice too that Tumang has already established his own MRF without any call for assistance from the provincial government while the other mayors are already crying for their Nanay’s support even when they have yet to conceptualize their MRFs.
Doing things on his own, never waiting for outside help. That is Tumang’s signature administrative style.
Tumang’s empty braggadocio – so the naysayers labeled the mayor’s promise a year or so ago that he would put up a community hospital using locally-sourced funds.
Indeed, a tall order if not a seeming impossibility there, given that no local municipality in the province, not even the resource-rich, financially able City of San Fernando has done it.
Today, the Mexico Community Hospital stands tall and ready in Barangay San Carlos, shaming not only Tumang’s critics but even Pampanga’s own patched-up provincial and dilapidated district hospitals.
With three operating rooms, a separate delivery room, nursery and neo-natal intensive care unit, three emergency rooms, a dialysis center with 10 machines, x-ray room, laboratory and diagnostics center, and a garden square at its foyer, the Mexico Community Hospital takes its place alongside the best private medical centers in the province.
The hospital is worth every cent of its cost of P45 million for its main building and another P12 million for its doctors’ and diagnostics’ wing. Medical equipment and supplies, including medicines, Tumang sourced from various non-governmental organizations and foundations, notably the Michigan-based World Medical Relief Mission of compatriot George Samson.
The structure finished, the equipment and facilities being set in place – so far solely borne by the Mexico local government – it is now time for Tumang to call “Nanay!” For the hospital’s water pump and storage tank.
Friday last week, visibly impressed by Tumang’s initiative in the field that is closest to her heart – health – Nanay may well be obliged to grant Tumang’s wish.
Now, were the other mayors as pro-active, as visionary, as concerned for their constituency as Tumang…
In a league all his own, a grade of E for Excellence – VG for Very Good at the least – in local administration, Tumang is truly deserving of another VG – Vice Governor – in partnership with the incumbent governor in the next elections.
May my Kuyang Jerry Pelayo forgive me.
