Paso’s new health center gives birth to baby Celso
Call it providential, a young woman gave birth to a bouncing baby boy at the newly constructed barangay health center in Pasonanca shortly after the building was blessed and inaugurated Friday morning.
Mayor Celso Lobregat together with other city and barangay officials of Pasonanca were earlier making the rounds of the six projects, unveiling them one after the other, in different locations when Almira Balan of Lantawan, of said barangay, was laboring for her fifth child at the health center, located at the ground floor of the P4.6 million Barangay Hall.
Just after the barangay hall was unveiled at about 10 am, Balan, in the presence of her husband Virgilio and with the assistance of Annabel Leyran, Midwife-3 of the City Health Office, gave birth to a seven-pound boy later named Celso Efigenio (Balan) after the mayor and the barangay chairman, (Efigenio “Jun”) Julian.
Excited, Mayor Lobregat had to carry the baby in his arms while speaking outside the barangay hall, to the delight of the crowd, mostly mothers from the different barangays who participated in the synchronized breast feeding program.
The inauguration and blessing of the 5 projects in Pasonanca was coincided with the synchronized breast feeding, participated by some 200 mothers from different barangays, in line with the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) program being implemented by the city government through the CHO.
Also inaugurated were the three drainage systems totaling P2.9 million, namely; Summer Hill Drive with 143 linear meters long at P909,446.32 undertaken by RRMEC Construction; Toriven Drive with 120 ln.m. at P458,578.63 by D8 Construction and Lantawan, Upper Pasonanca with 87 ln.m. at P499,162.30 for a total of P2.9 million.
Present were the barangay officials of Pasonanca headed by Chairman Julian, Councilors Nonong Guingona, Rudy Lim, Gerky Valesco, Charlie Mariano, Noning Biel, Cesar Iturralde, Mel Sadain, City Engineer Luis Despalo, Zamcelco GM Rey Ramos, Asst. City Health Officer Dr. Carol Carabaña and Pasonanca parish priest Rev. Fr. Rey Francisco. The chairmen of other barangays also attended the occasion.
Meanwhile, the city government’s infrastructure investment in Barangay Pasonanca alone is pegged at over P6 million over the last two years since Mayor Lobregat assumed his second term of office in 2007.
In 2007, Pasonanca got P22.9 million worth of projects, mostly drainage systems, farm-to-market roads, bridges and development of parks and gardens; P10.8 million worth of projects were implemented in 2008, and; P19.4 million more were completed this year. Ongoing projects total to P3.095 million while the concreting of Lantawan Road for P943,000 was bidded out last Sept. 24. Up for bidding are P1.2 million worth of different projects.
As this developed, Julian and his kagawad assured Lobregat of their full support in next year’s elections, stressing that only under Lobregat’s leadership the barangay of Pasonanca has received such a tremendous amount of projects, to the envy of some barangays. But Lobregat quipped, “For as long as I am the mayor, all barangays will get more projects as the rest already did.” (Vic Larato)