(Delivered before a LIVE interaction with the local Press recently during the opening of a Media Sportsfest at the CSI The City Mall premises)

IT’S been 118 days since the new administration has been at work at the Capitol. Any ordinary observer should be able to spot changes — from the Capitol grounds to the bustling work that has kept the provincial government a veritable beehive.

The Pangasinan Press has been properly apprised of what we have been doing last Oct. 15 when I delivered my “First 100 Days Report.”

To recap, we have streamlined government operations; put to order operational systems to maximize efficiency and results; kept the finances afloat by trimming down on excess personnel and slowly reducing our debt burden left by the previous administration and seeking additional revenues such as the collection of overdue tax obligations from the two large Pangasinan power plants in Sual and in San Manuel.

We have registered significant results in immediately addressing pressing needs, such as:

-peace and order
-health services
-livelihood, such as securing more jobs for the Pangasinan workforce
-environment – creating a new task force to protect our mineral resources by regulating resource exploitation and doing away with harmful systems and practices; and producing an initial 600,000 tree seedlings to form the nucleus of a province-wide reforestation drive we will soon implement.
-housing – we have added more housing units in existing shelter projects, added 10 hectares for socialized housing and identified an initial 120 hectares as target sites for future housing projects.

I thank all of you who have duly given prominence to the substance of our First 100 Days Report, which contained only the main points that marked the progress we have done.

I say this because most of you have not really witnessed what we have been doing behind the scenes almost on a 24-hour workload—but I am happy to say that much of this achievement has effectively lain the groundwork for the many projects we are now ready to pursue in our collective efforts to address the many problems faced by our province and people.

I am aware that some sectors of the Pangasinan Press have not liked the idea of frequently finding me CLOSETED with my staff and my co-workers, preoccupied with the burdensome task of putting our “house in order” and setting a right course for our government and province.

You were not the only ones who have complained about this. The people who have suffered the most as I poured every effort and focused attention on my responsibilities during the past few months are the immediate members of my family.

To them, I ask for more patience and understanding.

In a similar fashion, I ask the members of the press to bear with me some more. As many of you would attest, persons of the media were and are among my closest friends. If I have been “scarce” as some of you have put it, it was because of the tremendous work I have devoted most of my working hours to.

In fact, as my associates, family members and friends, would confirm, I have never worked this much before.

I only wish that you in the press should have been more discerning to realize that my inability to meet you as frequently as I would have liked during the past few months, was not at all a sign of my personal disregard for you and your functions, but I had to do my homework well, otherwise, if I fail, you will be the first ones to discover and attack me for my failure.

There have been reports and comments which by any measure were “below-the belt.” I found these without any basis, did not at all deal with valid issues, but vicious attacks on my person, which has pained me, my family and close friends a great deal.
But as a public official, I have learned to take this in stride, only hoping that someday those who have assailed me for wrong reasons will finally see the light.

It is in this spirit that I have requested your presence today. I know I have neglected to personally appear before you to tell you the things I have been doing. But this is not because I believed you are not entitled to know. In fact, I have always decided that you from the press will be the first people who should be told about our activities –the problems we have to deal with…and the measures we painstakingly take to solve them.

But, again, I emphasize that after the few weeks in office, I knew I will be saddled by enormous tasks and it would be presumptuous and dishonest for me to meet you earlier and tell you outright and prematurely that I and my co-workers are dong great.

Now, as we meet, I have more substantial things to tell you so I lay myself open to your questions.