Mayor Erick Cañosa

Gingoog City’s mayor, Erick G. Cañosa, is faced with the formidable task that had not been poised upon his predecessors – of shielding his city from the possible incursion of the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed lives and quarantined populations all over the world. And to think he has been in office for only 10 months.

He is 38, a medical technologist by profession. He was elected by a landslide in 2019, upsetting a family that held power for 15 years.

He had known far ahead of others, of something invisible and a dreadful catastrophe known as coronavirus enveloping the globe. As early as December last year, he read and listened to reports of an influenza-like virus said to emanate from China. “As a medical technologist, I read up on the subject. It seemed indefinite, though. In January it was referred to as the Novel Corona. In late January, it became COVID-2019.”

Still, on Jan. 30 he flew to Taipei with ABC president Robert J. de Lara, to look at strawberry and flower farms and an orchidarium in Tai Ching. The plan was to develop The Grove, a 76-hectare property in Civoleg, into a flower farm as a revenue source and tourism attraction for the city. At the end of their visit, they decided to create an orchidarium.

The mayor noticed that on their flight from Lagindingan airport in CDO to the Ninoy Aquino International airport, and from Manila to Taipei, and back to the NAIA, passengers were wearing facial masks. So he and Robert did the same. When they arrived in Gingoog, the mayor was dead set about preventing the virus from entering the city and infecting its 135,476 residents.

“As a medical technologist, I saw the need to fight an enemy that we could not see.” Forthwith, the city vice mayor Peter Unabia, the regional and local Department of Interior and Local Government and the city’s department heads, prepared programs of action against the invisible enemy.

“I always believe that prevention is not just better, but it is the best than cure,” he said. Thus the programs called for three P’s: they must be preemptive, preventive, and proactive in undertaking precautionary measures. The three P’s are conducted following President Rodrigo Duterte’s instructions to wrench the enemy which has already infected a number of people in Luzon prompting him to order a lockdown.

One of Erick’s first programs, held in cooperation with the city agriculture department, was to distribute seeds of eggplant, okra, pechay and saluyot. The barangay captains (including my barangay 22 captain Macaumbao Barotoc) told the residents of the city’s 79 barangays to plant the seeds in their yards or in pots and empty cans. No one should go hungry, is the public mantra.

The self-sustainability program would be followed by the handing out of relief goods to all the 42,188 families, consisting of rice and canned sardines.

Priority executive orders involved the imposition of quarantine, temporary closure of some business establishments and of all schools, curfew hours for adults and minors, passes enabling customers to enter the public market, wearing of masks, hand-washing and social distancing, and not allowing the holding of fiestas and social gatherings and church services and masses, and banning of public buses from picking up and unloading passengers at the city bus terminal.

There are checkpoints to flag down private vehicles to check for coronary symptoms among the passengers.

So far, monitoring by the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team has yielded zero suspected case; zero confirmed positive case, and the 2,000 persons under monitoring have now gone down to less than 50. Recently three Gingoog residents who had attended the Davao City derby have been confirmed negative for corona infection after 14 days of monitoring.

Another forward step for the city administration is its putting up of an isolation unit in Barangay Pangasihan for suspected cases; this is well-equipped, with beds, a nurse station, air conditioning and toilet and bathroom facilities and a pantry. This facility is accredited by the DOH. So far no case has been brought to the unit.

A second isolation unit is the conversion of the Badjangon training center for the use of ‘’frontliners,’’ and a third, to be constructed in sitio San Isidro by the Department of Public Works is through the initiative of Congressman Christian Unabia.

Erick talked about the many firsts accomplished under his administration: first to have its own Rapid Diagnostic Test for COVID-19. The first beneficiaries of this test were the arrival of Gingoognon seafarers in ports near Gingoog – all of them declared negative for COVID-19 infection.

All the city’s accomplishments, says Erick, are due to the cooperation of and support of the barangay heads, whom he calls “frontliners”.

Among the persons actively promoting a positive image for the city is the mayor’s close friend, Jose Bollozos, who is chair of the city’s tourism council. Jojo tells me the Tiklas Falls and Badjangon Water Park are already being developed. Jojo, a chemical engineering student at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, worked as the OFW legal secretary for the American firm Norton Rose Fulbright in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for 20 years.

An admirable quality of the new mayor is his opening the door to his office located on the first floor to constituents, be they rich or poor. He is at the office at eight o’clock, then leaves after the last caller has left. The chief executive, tanned, healthy-looking, says most of the complaints are for medical assistance (medicines for diabetes, hypertension, and pulmonary diseases), and he refers them to concerned offices, with his personal note that they are attended to.

Erick’s being a very accommodating mayor is traced to his late father’s being “a man of the masses.” His father, Avelino, was a peddler of goods (garments, footwear and the like), from Sta. Teresita, Batangas. Fate brought him to Gingoog, where he earned a degree in education at the local Christ the King College. He taught at the Sacred Heart Academy in barangay Anakan, then resigned to work as a clerk with the Insular Life Company of which he later became the branch manager. In 1985, he and his brother Ernesto opened the A and E Bakery.

An amiable person, he won the hearts of Gingoognons who voted him No. 1 city councilor in 1992. He was afterwards elected vice-mayor but died in 2004. It was at his bedside that Erick, his second of two sons, put to heart an important lesson. “I always adhere to what my late father said before he died – ‘I live not for power but for service, as a selfless public servant.’”

Erick finished the grades and high school at Christ the King College, then the medical technology course in 2003 at the Cebu Doctors Hospital, where he practiced for three years after graduation. He didn’t lose touch with Gingoognons; in 2007, he was elected No. 1 councilor, then in 2010, as vice-mayor, was reelected in 2013, then ran for mayor in 2016, but lost, then won as mayor in the 2019 local election.

Erick’s drive for the good is also derived from his mother, the former Evelyn Generales, a retired English instructor, holder of a doctorate in education, former administrator of the Bukidnon State University in Gingoog, and in 1992, was awarded Most Outstanding Teacher of the Philippines by Metrobank Foundation. In 2019, Evelyn ran for the city council, and to her surprise, was voted No. 1 councilor.

COVID-19 may have slowed down the attainment of the city’s flagship projects (Eco Park, health services and tourism development), but there’s no stopping Erick from moving forward. “The dream of all Gingoognons,” he said, “is ideal governance, a government that has sympathy, focus, transparency and accountability.” Accomplishing these, he said, is how he would like his administration to be remembered for.

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