Driven by PURPOSE, Powered by PROGRESS

I SAW THIS AS AN EMBODIMENT OF THEIR TRUST, LIKE TRUST IN A MEMBER OF THEIR OWN FAMILY. THEY RUN TO THEIR ATE TO ASK FOR HELP. THEY COME TO ME NOT ONLY AS A PUBLIC SERVANT, BUT ALSO AS AN ATE WHO IS WILLING TO HELP THEM.

Among the many awards that Plaridel, Bulacan has received in 2024, one that best encapsulates the main thrust of its municipal government is the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) bestowed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government. This is given to local government units (LGUs) with outstanding performance in all ten governance areas ranging from “business-friendliness and competitiveness” to “environmental management.” The SGLG is also granted to LGUs that display excellence in leadership and public service. While attaining the SGLG even once is no small feat, Plaridel has received it eight times.

It is for good reason that Plaridel Mayor Jocell R. Vistan was recognized as the National Outstanding Mayor of the Year at the 2024 Philippines Choice Awards. Vistan and her team have served Plaridel for many years, and have contributed to its steady growth over the past decade. At present, Vistan is on her third term as mayor, and she happily notes that some of Plaridel’s programs have served as the blueprint for those of other LGUs. A closer look at her years of service for the continued progress of Plaridel would reveal clear proof of this. After all, other LGUs may find practices that they can apply to their own settings, and the typical reader would likely be glad to know of the influence and effectiveness of Vistan’s programs.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Vistan wears many hats: wife, mother, daughter, and of course, mayor. Hers is a full day. After a few moments to herself upon rising at 5:30 in the morning, she attends to the many constituents who seek her help and advice. They come to her home, the doors of which have always been open to them, some with appointments and about 30 to 40 others without. “Every day is a challenge,” she notes. She realized she has become different things for different people according to their needs: doctor, lawyer, psychologist, teacher.

It is not for nothing that her constituents call her ate (big sister). Plarideleños began using this affectionate nickname sometime in 2019, during the years Vistan didn’t hold office. Wondering how to address her instead of “Mayor Vistan,” they settled on “Ate Jocell.” Vistan is quite happy with this title. “I saw this as an embodiment of their trust, like trust in a member of their own family. They run to their big sister to ask for help. They come to me not only as a public servant but also as an ate who is willing to help them.”

The rest of Vistan’s day continues after a very late lunch. She goes around some of the municipality’s 19 barangays to check on ongoing projects, to attend wakes, to grab a bite at her favorite food stall, or to simply listen to Plarideleños’ concerns. This allows her to be close to her constituents and hone her listening skills, but it also serves as a way for her to unwind—she calls this her “driving force” and “antidote to tiredness.”

At six in the evening, Vistan is a mom and a wife again. She draws inspiration from her children, who are part of the next generation of Plarideleños for whom she strives to build a better Plaridel. She finds support in her husband, who helps her “debrief” and offers her his perspective and advice. While her day tends to end there, she is Mayor Vistan around the clock. Her team is accustomed to receiving messages from her late at night or early in the morning, the more relaxed hours in which inspiration tends to strike.

FULL TO THE BRIM

Interestingly, Vistan’s programs mirror her typical day— streamlined, compact, and effective. Much like the different roles she plays tend to blur at times, it is difficult to categorize her programs since they cover multiple areas at once. A good example is “One Tree, One KID (Kabataang Iskolar ni Del Pilar): Puno ng Pag-asa.” Along with financial assistance, college students are given the task of planting and tending to a fruitbearing tree: santol, atis, caimito, chico, and the like. From 300 scholars during the first year of the program, One Tree, One KID is supporting 2,800 students for the 2024-2025 school year and stewards a total of 10,000 trees as of this writing. Once the trees bear fruit, scholars share them with students at the daycare centers. This way, both college and daycare students learn about Filipino fruit-bearing trees. Also, the fruits shared by the college students are tended to by the daycare students, who nurture them into the seedlings that will be in the care of future batches of scholars. This single project covers literacy, care for the environment, and love for Philippine flora all at once.

Intertwined with One Tree, One KID is Bote Mo, Edukasyon Ko (Your Bottle, My Education). PET bottles containing clean, empty sachets of toothpaste, shampoo, coffee, etc. are collected from the scholars and turned into eco-bricks with the assistance of Green Antz Builders. These eco-bricks can then be used to build the municipality’s

daycare centers, one example being the Barangay Dampol Day Care Center. Parents can send their children to the daycare centers for free, on the condition that they too participate in the Bote Mo, Edukasyon Ko initiative. With one program, Plaridel can promote waste reduction, education, literacy, and community involvement at the same time.

Scholarships, tree-planting programs, and recycling campaigns are typical projects of an LGU. Through constant innovation, Vistan and her team have added new dimensions to these initiatives and structured them in a sustainable manner. In the mayor's words, each project is “something that will not only have an impact on Plarideleños, but on the next generation.” Such programs are lasting not only because they are sustainable, but also because they cultivate positive attitudes and habits in citizens, involving all Plarideleños in Vistan’s effort to build an ever-better Plaridel.

AN OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE

One may reasonably assume that Vistan inherited her aptitude for public service from her parents, both former mayors of Plaridel. However, Vistan was working toward a career in the corporate world. Becoming a public servant was not within her horizons. A merit scholar at Ateneo de Manila University, she took up Management Engineering and started working for Colgate-Palmolive as a management trainee after graduation.

Her father, the late Jaime J. Vistan, asked her to take over the family transport company because he intended to run for office. At first, she tried to dissuade her father from running, his rather quiet personality leading her to think that he may not be suited to a life in politics. In terms of his habits and dispositions, though, he seemed to be a good fit. “He acted on all the problems of the town and found solutions for them,” she says. In the end, Vistan agreed to oversee the business and her father was elected mayor. “He told me he just wanted to help his countrymen.”

Witnessing her parents’ terms as mayor, however, had quite an unexpected effect on Vistan. “I told myself, this is not for me,” she recalls. She had other dreams, like starting a family, pursuing further studies, and taking up law. Initially, she was sure that the responsibilities of a mayor and the demands of the people were beyond her. Her mother’s words, however, made her reconsider. Former Mayor Anastacia R. Vistan, known to Plarideleños as Mayor Tessie, asked her daughter: “There is an opportunity for you to serve. Would you like to serve?”

A career in public service was far from a matter of course for Vistan. She knew it would require a lot of sacrifice, and there would often be more to lose than to gain in such a position. As she pondered the matter, she realized that this was a chance for her to make all her ideas come to life. She could not only see changes but to be the changes she had always envisioned. “I realized that not everybody is given an opportunity to serve… I thought that if I serve others, there’s so much that I can do for the town,” she reveals.

VISTAN’S PROGRAMS ARE LASTING NOT ONLY BECAUSE THEY ARE SUSTAINABLE, BUT ALSO BECAUSE THEY CULTIVATE POSITIVE ATTITUDES AND HABITS IN CITIZENS, INVOLVING ALL PLARIDELEÑOS IN HER EFFORT TO BUILD AN EVERBETTER PLARIDEL.

SIPAG, SINOP, SUWERTE

Vistan grew up hearing this constant refrain from her parents: sipag, sinop, suwerte (hard work, frugality, luck). They taught these values to their children in the context of business, but Vistan would recall this reminder and embody it during her years as mayor of Plaridel.

Firstly, sipag: “Hard work, persistence. Be an early riser. Do everything in time and at the right time,” the mayor stresses. One of Vistan’s first goals as mayor was to improve services through information technology, by computerizing and updating systems. This facilitated the work and extended the reach of the different offices of the LGU and ensured that the demands of constituents could be met efficiently. Vistan fostered this same spirit of hard work among Plarideleños as well. Previously mentioned projects like One Tree, One KID and Bote Mo, Edukasyon Ko have supported countless students throughout their education. In the area of entrepreneurship, Plarideleños are guaranteed much support as well. Budding business owners can take out small loans to help them start, and such aid is also accompanied by livelihood training by the Public Employment Services Office.

Thanks to practices such as the above, Plaridel was recognized by the Department of Trade and Industry as one of the most competitive and most improved LGUs in 2019. That year, Plaridel also ranked first in the area of Economic Dynamism, one of the five pillars of competitiveness measured in the Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index. Second, sinop: “You shouldn’t just earn a lot of money, but you should spend it wisely, too,” Vistan emphasizes. Investing in land is not an easy task for a municipal government, but Vistan took on this challenge in order to make Plaridel’s infrastructure projects possible. After noticing that some students of Plaridel needed to cross a bridge and go to another town to go to high school, it became one of the mayor’s goals to put up a school. From 160 students in 10 classrooms borrowed from an elementary school, Banga High School now has 2,000 students and the most classrooms in Plaridel.

Also worth noting is Plaridel’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Response (DRRER) program. Plaridel is one of the first municipalities in its area to have an evacuation center, which was even used as an isolation facility during the pandemic. Most of the procurement for the barangays is directed to both hard and soft projects for disaster preparedness, like acquiring rescue vehicles, improving the emergency warning system, and the regular training and assessment of DRRER teams.

Third, suwerte: “If there’s an opportunity, you grab it, and you make the most of it,” the mayor underscores. Plaridel is about a half-hour’s drive away from Metro Manila via the North Luzon Expressway. This, along with more space, less traffic, and lower tax brackets, has made the town appealing to investors. There is a growing presence of logistics, manufacturing, and warehousing companies, whose sales teams and operations centers are in Plaridel. Recognizing Bulacan’s, and especially Plaridel’s, potential as “the gateway to the north,” Ayala Land, Inc. announced the Crossroads project in 2022. It will be a commercial and lifestyle district, the first of its kind in Bulacan, and Vistan is excited about the opportunities it will open up. It will definitely be a reason for many Plarideleños to return to their town, incidentally the theme of the free concert held in December 2024: “Coming Home.” Rooted in the traditional Salubong Festival on December 29, Vistan invited Orange and Lemons, Leona, and other local artists to this year-end celebration. She hoped to inspire the youth to pursue music (as some members of the bands are from Plaridel as well), draw attention to the Salubong Festival, and encourage Plarideleños to come home to Plaridel.

BUILDING THE PLARIDEL OF THE FUTURE

Something Vistan learned from her father is to always look to the future: “You do not stop

at Point A when you have reached Point A. You look forward to Point B,” she says. The local chief executive is always thinking about, working for, and looking forward to “what’s next.” This is clearly seen in her projects and programs, each one clearly designed to last, leaving behind a legacy that will outlast her term as mayor. Speaking of legacy, Vistan hopes she will be remembered for her efforts to bring people together and build community. She knows that all her dreams for Plaridel are possible, as long as all Plarideleños love their town and work as hard for it as she does. “Sama-sama po tayo: ako, ikaw, tayong lahat, para sa isang Plaridel na diretso sa progreso. (Let’s work together: me, you, all of us, for a Plaridel headed straight towards progress.) Be with me and come home to Plaridel,” she says.

I REALIZED THAT NOT EVERYBODY IS GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE… I THOUGHT THAT IF I SERVE OTHERS, THERE’S SO MUCH THAT I CAN DO FOR THE TOWN.