Day 1 in office exciting for Mikey

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — "Exciting and rewarding" was how presidential son Mikey Arroyo described his first day as Pampanga vice governor last Monday.

President Arroyo’s eldest son was among the first to arrive to attend a flag ceremony in front of the provincial capitol here at about 7:30 a.m. and the last to leave work at 6 p.m. last Monday.

His predecessor, former Vice Gov. Clayton Olalia is reportedly set to be rewarded for abandoning his plans for reelection to give way to Mikey as the official bet of the Lakas-NUCD in the last elections. Olalia is waiting for his appointment as consul general in Xiamen, China.

"I hope the people who asked help from me were satisfied. For me, listening to them and meeting them were quite an experience. It was both exciting and rewarding," Mikey said.

"I tried my best to address their problems," he added.

Mikey brought with him 14 new personnel to work at his office. All of them except his secretary Josephine Canonizado, are Capampangan. Canonizado is from Manila.

Among his first callers were defeated mayoral candidate Jerry Pelayo of Candaba, Romey Ronquillo of Sto. Tomas, and Santiago Yabut of Minalin. Scores of his constituents flocked to his temporary office at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan hall to seek various help, ranging from medicine to barangay roads.

Mikey is set to move to the Office of the Vice Governor fronting the office of Gov. Lito Lapid as soon as its renovation is finished on Thursday on the second floor of the capitol building.

Olalia’s former staff members were absorbed by other offices under the provincial government. Four of them are reportedly set to join Olalia in Xiamen.

"Vice Gov. Arroyo seems to be a hard worker," observed provincial board member Crisostomo Garbo.

He said that "What (Mikey) does would also reflect on us (Capampangan). His failure would also be our failure. If he maintains the working attitude he showed on his first day, the provincial board would not have any recess for the next three years." Traditionally, the vice governor is the presiding officer of the provincial board which is the legislative counterpart of Congress in local governments.

Both Lapid and Mikey have vowed to support projects to minimize worsening annual floods in Pampanga and fully operate the Clark international airport. — Ding Cervantes