When Ateneo de Manila celebrated its sesquicentennial – 150 years – with a year-round calendar of events last year, one of the coolest personalities in their 24-carat collection of celebrity speakers was a non-Atenean.

The mayor of Manila, delivering a punchy speech, lamented the “de Manila” in the university’s name when in fact ADM moved out of Intramuros almost 100 years ago. Not in so many words, Mayor Alfredo Lim said he would consider it an honor if he could persuade the Jesuits to return to the capital, whose residents value a good school with good teachers. Anyway, he added, there’s Manny Pangilinan, a distinguished alumnus, who could facilitate the expansion.

There’s also a Manny Pangilinan in the mayor’s schedule to put up more hospitals, at least one in each of the city’s six districts, including a tertiary medical center beside Ospital ng Maynila. Recently inaugurated was the maternity hospital in district 3, “five stories, airconditioned,” as the mayor wants everyone to know. Opening soon is a trauma hospital in district 6, this one 10 stories tall, also fully airconditioned.

As Mayor Fred is fond of saying, “We don’t require patients to carry a yellow card or a green card. As long as they’re sick, they’re admitted.”