VOICE FROM THE SOUTH By FR. EMETERIO BARCELON, SJ Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ Cagayan de Oro is fortunate in having a mayor who is interested in the common good. This will be his last term.  During his first tem he had a City Council that blocked most of his initiatives because they were loyal to the former mayor.  What saved him were two laws that did not have to pass the City Council -- the law that provided for education funds and the portion of the real estate tax that had to be spent in health programs. He had an eight-point program from the start but could not implement it because the City Council was not cooperative. His program had the acronym: PRIMEHAT which he still follows. P was for peace and order and poverty alleviation. R was for resettlement since there were many informal settlers in the city. I was for infrastructure and M was for metropolitanization of the small villages to make a metropolitan area. H was for hospital services; A for agricultural services. It was for traffic and tourism. This is a comprehensive target.  But he was only able to build 400 classrooms in his first term, another 600 in his second term, but he still needs another 400 classrooms for this third term. But then he can move on to other targets since he now has a compliant City Council. He expects to continue the road and bridge building that he has been able to do in his last term and to assist the House of Hope, the center for the mentally handicapped in conjunction with the Archdiocese..  He was able also to transfer the dump site which he considered a good accomplishment. He expects to work on flood control in conjunction with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.  He hopes to improve the JRBorja hospital and his two new hospitals. They will have the German dialysis machines for kidney patients. In the property donated by the Rosales family, he will transfer the boys town. He will develop the area of Dansolihon and Tignapoloan with new paved roads. He has three more years to carry out his targets. I asked him if he had national ambitions after this term but he said he was not ambitioning national positions. I interjected that if Pres. Duterte came from mayor of Davao to President of the country, he could move from mayor of Cagayan de Oro. But he said he did not aspire to that. He was also hopeful that the national government will help him with his targets. In the recent senatorial elections, the loss of the opposition “otso diretso” was a surprise. I suppose the people are happy with the present dispensation.  The peaceful election was real good news for the country. We could not avoid some violence but for the most part it was peaceful. Vote buying was rampant especially in some sections of Mindanao like Surigao. Many of the politicians there have come across some cash with helping Chinese miners haul nickel ore. These mines in Mindanao need to be developed. Congratulations too to Pres. Duterte and his parties. [email protected]