Vice governorship tougher than mayorship – Calimlim

By Mortz C. Ortigoza LINGAYEN – The vice governor of Pangasinan who used to be a mayor for three terms said his present post is more demanding than being a mayor. Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Zerrudo Calimlim said being the second top head of the humongous province he has to barnstorm 1,333 villages unlike when he was a mayor of Mapandan, a small town. “My routine in going to the boondocks did not change when I was campaigning for the vice governor for one year and a half,” he stressed. He said his style in crisscrossing the villages by feeling the pulse of his constituents is the same as that of Governor Amado T . Espino. “Nothing changed,” he told the governor when they both exchanged notes when they ran for election in 2010. Calimlim said that he gives 20 monoblock chairs, a grass cutter and a megaphone to every barangay and to the entities who request for financial and material assistance. “Later, I and the governor will be giving air conditioner to every barangay hall in the province,” he said. Lately the vice governor joined the delivery of another set of water pumps and grass cutters to four municipalities in June 26 as part of the province’s program on agricultural productivity, conservation of the environment and a form to prevent spread of dengue. Each of the 17 barangays of Mangaldan, 15 barangays of Mapandan and the 73 and 77 barangays of Malasiqui and Bayambang respectively received one unit of water pump and one unit of grass cutter complete with accessories from the province. To date, a total of 710 barangays from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd districts of Pangasinan has already benefitted from the provincial government’s assistance, already more than halfway to cover all the 1, 333 barangays of the province. Calimlim is a graduate of Master in Business Administration from Strayer University in Washington DC in the United States. He went to La Salle -Greenhills for his primary and secondary education while he took his Bachelor of Science in Commerce at De la Salle University.