Florencio "Jun" Bernabe Jr., mayor of Parañaque, realizes that a sizeable segment of Metro Manila’s middle class population live in at least 25 villages or subdivisions in Parañaque. They work elsewhere in the metro, but at the end of the day, they drive home to Parañaque  from Merville, to Moonwalk, to BF Homes.
Thus, Parañaque is the sanctuary of many Metro Manila residents, the city where they kick back, relax and recharge.
That’s why Bernabe, who lives in a village called "Tahanan" strives to keep home for the hundreds of thousands who have built their havens in Parañaque.
"I was born and bred in Parañaque," says Bernabe, son and namesake of the late former mayor.
The first Parañaque-born mayor in 12 years, Bernabe’s first order of battle upon assuming his post in 2004 was some housecleaning. The government sent dumptrucks to scoop rotting garbage from the sidewalks and provided each of the 16 barangays with its own truck so it did not have to wait for city dump trucks to come along.
I had not met Bernabe till last week for this interview, but I took note of the fact that since he became mayor, the garbage dump along Sucat road, about a kilometer away from the Lopez Gate of BF, which I use everyday, had been reduced from a mountain to a molehill. That’s when he won my vote.
Bernabe’s strategy was simple. He told the barangays that were dumping their garbage there to make sure they only unloaded their trash once a truck was on standby. He gave them a time (after 8 p.m. nightly) to unload their trash and made sure a truck was waiting with open arms.
"That way, the garbage doesn’t touch the ground. Do you know that garbage, with all its acid, destroys concrete and asphalt?" Bernabe points out.
He also lit up the city by installing 3,000 streetlights in one year alone and settling the city’s "enormous" debt with Meralco.
He claims the city has a 90 percent crime solution rate and that there has only been one unfortunate bank robbery since he took office in 2004.
He attributes this peace and order to "increased police mobility, new communications equipment, motorcycle patrols."
He has also relieved a lot of motorists of the burden of paying sticker dues in the main roads of BF Parañaque  which to me is a sticky issue which had its pluses and minuses.
As a BF resident, I told him I was worried that since anyone could just pass through the sprawling subdivision, thugs could easily join the flow.
This was his reassurance: "Yung nakita mong mga security na nasa gate na naka-barong, those are City Hall employees. When you see motorcycle boys going around na may blinker, those are City Hall employees. Meaning, nagroronda yan. Ilan ang nahuli namin dyang holdaper, carnapper."
Bernabe said that in the past, security personnel from City Hall did not do their rounds in BF.
"Hindi, kasi sarado. Eh since nakabukas na siya, nandiyan kami, nagroronda kami. Tsaka yung pulis, meron diyang pulis. Eto, mga civilian employees pinaroronda ko mga civil security units. Yung mga pulis nagroronda din yan, intermittently, saka yung barangay, nag-iikot din yan. So nakahuli kami nun ng mga carjacked na motorsiklo, may hinoldap na tao, nahuli namin yung sasakyan, narecover namin."
Bernabe, who went to Ateneo for high school and La Salle for college, says there has been a 14.91 percent increase in the city’s revenues. He reduced the city’s debt from P1 billion when he assumed office to P480 million a year after.
He proudly shares that he also abolished the city’s Department of Corridors  referring to employees who do nothing but loiter in the corridors. To get rid of ghost employees, he installed a Biometrics hand punch system in lieu of Bundy clocks, making Parañaque the first city government in Metro Manila to do so.
"That Parañaque posted a big hike in tax collection is proof that my administration has gained the trust, respect and confidence of citizen and corporate taxpayers," he says.
Okay, okay, Parañaque may be liquid, but its pipes are dry. A lot of residents pay an arm and a leg for water to be delivered to them.
What is Bernabe doing about this?
He says proudly that water from Balara (through concessionaire Maynilad) will soon flow through some of Parañaque’s dry pipes.
"Pero hindi pa yun ganun kabilis. Hanggang dito lang muna yun sa may Sucat hanggang dun sa may Tropical Hut supermarket. Yung commercial area, yun lang ang bibigyan ng tubig saka yung other subdivisions outside BF."
That means I have to wait (the compound where I live in has its own deep well, and we have a an average monthly water bill of P1,000 for a household of five) a few more years for Maynilad water. At least, Bernabe can boast the water started coming in during his term.
Describing himself as "shy," Bernabe was initially not interested in politics. Before he threw his hat into the political ring as vice mayor to Joey Marquez, Bernabe run an 11-story mall in Baclaran.
But since he was his father’s namesake, people looked to him to carry on his tradition. Hesitant at first because the family was away from politics for more than a decade, Jun decided to give it a try because he thought he could make a difference.
"Nakikita ko yung Parañaque, magulo, madumi, madilim, mabaho tapos yung munisipyo ang gulo-gulo. I decided to run for mayor in due time, but start out as vice mayor. It was the second term of Joey, so I thought, six years more and I could try for mayor. In the mean time, if I become vice mayor, I could study how things are run, parang understudy ako. Siyempre kasi iba yung panahon ng father ko as mayor, although I worked in the City Hall, nakatulong din yun. Pero iba na yung ako mismo."
The boyish-looking Bernabe, who turned 59 last Feb. 5, ran on the platform of HELPS. H stands for Health, E for Education and Environment, L for Livelihood, P for Peace and Order and S for Social Services.
His battlecry was "Bangon Parañaque."
Was Parañaque able to rise under Bernabe’s leadership?
The people will let him know this May.