Noel: Of Births and Hope in Local Governance

Friday, 27 January 2012 04:53

Written by Louie C. Montemar

The new lunar year has just begun and I am filled with hope as I go back to contributing to The Lobbyist. Our leaders and legislators are busy de-crowning someone in the Senate through a grand TV pelenovela — a political-electoral-economic novela (which is, at least, turning out to be most educational and entertaining for all). And I, too, am busy, but with research and writing on a theme close to my political heart: local governance. Let me share with you one entry from my most recent field notes...

Sometime last December, I met someone whose persona exuded Christmas. His name was most apt. Noel. The encyclopedia tells us that “Noel” is an alternative word for Christmas having first entered the English language in the 14th century originating from the Latin phrase nātālis (diēs), “(day) of birth.”

This Noel, to my political mind, signifies birth and hope — a certain Noel Nacar of Dasol, Pangasinan. This Noel is a Mayor, the local chief executive, of hope-filled third class Municipality with a development-oriented incumbent at the helm.

Municipal Mayor Noel A. Nacar once worked as a janitor in Sauid Arabia in 1986. His rise to being a local chief executive is an interesting study in what I would call positive political entrepreneurship.

He is mainly a product of the public school system having earned his elementary school diploma from the Hermosa Community School (now the Don Juan Bernal, Sr. Elemementary School) in Dasol, Pangasinan, and his Business Management degree from the PUP in Bataan. Second to the eldest among a brood of ten, Noel Nacar notes his humble roots beaming as he recalls that his father was a security guard and his mother was a Public elementary school teacher. After high school, he could only, initially, take a vocational course on electronics and was later able to work as a technician for a radio station

For a time, he lived with an Aunt’s family in Olongapo and later became a production technician in an export processing zone in Mariveles, as he took up his college studies at the PUP. When he graduated from college as a working student, the company he joined in Bataan also closed down and this eventually lead him back to Pangasinan in 1986.

From 1985 to 1987, however, Noel noted that the insurgency in Dasol was at its peak and, for him, there was no work to be found which could make use of his skills. He also considered that then he was being “courted” by his friends from progressive groups to join the rebellion and, on the other hand, he also had friends who were soldiers. He felt unduly pressed between clashing local political interests. Hence, he looked for work abroad to try to flee from the local political scene.

Noel grabbed the first opportunity for migrant work that he could take hold of, whatever it was — and it was to be a janitor in a firm in Saudi Arabia. “Talagang tiis, nag-Janitor ako ng anim na buwan” [I really had to endure the work, I was a janitor for six months]. An opening in the Housekeeping Department for a Property Custodian gave him a better opportunity for work.

After some years of working abroad, he decided to come back home to Pangasinan in 1993 as he wanted to marry a fellow Pangasinense. By that time, he realized that he was too senior by age to start looking for new employment locally. He decided to start a business. He bought a truck and travelled as far as the Visayas trading in onions and garlic until around 2001. In 2000, he went back to Dasol to set up a poultry business. It was then, he recalls, that he really began to try to help his fellow Pangasinense.

People were approaching him for various forms of assistance even though he was not a politician. He thus thought of considering entering the local political arena. He notes that he got his wife’s affirmation on the matter.

And so things came to pass. He first became a councilor and after just a term, ran for a won the mayoralty of his municipality. From this, he realized that the small projects and assistance that he offered to people created for him a network of supporters. He shares that there was no mystery to it. He did not have so much money. What he did most was to approach various agencies. “I went to different people and offices, ako naglalakad ng mga request [I worked on papers and did follow up on requests for others], to extend help.” He also had regular medical missions and other “minor” projects even when he was just a municipal councilor.

Now that he is Mayor, he makes it a point to allocate specific funds for “financial assistance” for such special projects. His medical missions have been a “real hit” with the people. He used to only hold them once a year, now they are done twice a month. He continues to ask for support from various public and private agencies. “I make sure the things that I solicit really reaches the people and this is why they [his funders or grantors] keep on supporting me.”

Now a second termer, Mayor Noel has also assumed office since August 2011 as cluster President of the League of Mayors of the Philippines (LMP), Pangasinan Chapter. The politically astute Mayor who clearly has the support of other Pangasinan local executives, says that even before he was in office as Municipal Councilor, he showed that he “although not a mayor, could execute projects and that he could solicit support for [various] projects.”

Before he ran for office, people were wondering why he did what he was doing—launching and holding various local projects. Now his views have only been affirmed. He expresses what could be seen as a clear statement regarding the significance of political capital and development-oriented local political leadership: “If you were in position, you could ask more support from National Government and could mobilize other such support for the implementation of development projects. Otherwise, you can only do so much for the people.”

Your name is most apt indeed.

I have had the occasion to interview personnel of various local governments for many researches I have done. One thing which has caught my attention in Dasol is the way people in the Municipal government speak positively, and sincerely, of their local chief executive. These people from Dasol reminded me of what the character Prince Edward in the movie A Knight’s Tale quipped: “Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough.”

But I also know your name. And your name is Noel.

In Philippine politics, Noel has been associated with electoral failures — with “no elections”, NO-EL. But having heard this Noel’s story, studied his local administration’s programs, and heard how his officers are inspired by him, his name only bears me hope.

I think we should hear more of and be inspired by exemplars such as this. We must realize that, out there, so many other Noels are helping create a more solid brand of democracy in and for this country despite all the nastiness, hollowness, and shallowness of the political cretins here in our national political center.

Let’s start the year — both the Western and Lunar one — with hope, with one birth, with one Noel.

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