Gov. Petilla named RDC-8 chair

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Malacañang has appointed Leyte Governor Dominic Petilla chairman of the Regional Development Council of Eastern Visayas.

Petilla told The Freeman this week that he learned of his appointment last week yet but kept mum about it because he only had faxed copies of the appointment papers.

"I did not apply for it, but I accept the appointment," Petilla said as he was thankful for the trust and confidence shown to him by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

Asked what his first order of business was for the RDC-Region 8, the governor said he would improve the region's economic status. "We are now No. 2 of the poorest regions … second to the ARMM," he said, adding that he planned to embark on a massive livelihood program to make Eastern Visayas a productive one.

Petilla said he would spur economic development in the Yolanda-stricken region, and pounce on the new opportunities opened by the typhoon. While admittedly Eastern Visayas remained a largely agricultural region, he said avenues of producing cash crops and other products have been opened, while farmers wait for newly planted coconut trees to grow.

Petilla's appointment as RDC-8 chair came after Calbayog City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino was named chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council-Region 8.

Mayor Aquino took his oath as RPOC-8 chair at Malacañang last September 2. Both Petilla and Aquino are Liberal Party-mates of the president.

Petilla is the younger brother of Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, who was also a three-term governor.  Their mother, former Leyte representative Remedios "Matin"

Petilla, who is now mayor of Palo town in Leyte, preceded them as governor for three terms also.

Meanwhile, Petilla, Vice Governor Carlo Loreto and Tacloban City Vice Mayor Gerry "Sambo" Yaokasin led officials in the reopening rites of the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant in the city last Wednesday.

The Coca-Cola Bottling Plant has been operating in the city for the past 70 years, until Yolanda devastated it last year. However, it also became the icon of recovery during the early days after Yolanda, when sidewalk vendors suddenly sprouted around the city, selling Coke at P100 each, like a cheerful patch of brightness against the desolate streets.

Yaokasin said: "While everybody was leaving, you (Coca-Cola) made the hard decision of staying behind and rebuild. This is something we Taclobanons will never forget … you were a part of our past, a part of our present and will stay forever a part of our future."

Yaokasin said that, on November 9, a day after Yolanda pummeled Tacloban and the region, he walked past the plant on his way to the City Hall and saw how the company's people tried to help co-survivors. "You were giving water to long lines of people. At the back, people were taking your goods," he told Coca-Cola chief executive officer Juan Ramon Felix and other company executives.

Bernardita Valenzuela, representative of Mayor Alfred Romualdez, said the mayor who was in Washington DC at the time, conveyed his gratitude to Coca-Cola for rebuilding its plant for the benefit of the city and the region. The company was the city's 2nd largest taxpayer, shadowed only by its sister company, San Miguel Brewery, said Valenzuela.  (FREEMAN)