Meeting the Main Man of Albay: Gov. Joey Salceda

Candid Gov. Joey Salceda

This DavaoEye had the chance to visit, for the first time, Legazpi City in the Province of Albay.

I was there together with my workmates to undergo training and experiential exposure for climate change adaptation. Albay is said to be the only province in the country which has instituted climate change adaptation even establishing the Climate Change Academy (CCA).

Apart from the excitement of seeing Mt. Mayon for the first time ("live and in person") in all her glory, I was also hoping to meet the main man of the province, Gov. Joey Salceda.

Like Mayon, I have only seen Gov. Salceda (real name: Jose Celmente) on TV interviews and in newspapers when he became Congressman and especially during his stint as one of the cabinet members (or was it economic adviser) of the Arroyo Administration.  I admire his wealth of experience and knowledge in politics and economics. I think that his brainchild economic policies are still in effect in the present administration. 

While our itinerary included courtesy call in his office, I felt it was really impossible to meet the man because at that time, it was the first day of office of the newly elected local officials. I was pretty sure his schedule was loaded. 

But call it a warm welcome of Albay, at around 2:30 in the afternoon, in the middle of our thunderstorm topic in CCA, there was a sudden commotion outside, then the two-panel door entrance to the lecture room opened and revealed the tall, dark and umm... all-business boss of the province in a yellow with gray-striped Tommy Hilfiger polo shirt. Smiling and said some sort of greetings.

With no formal introductions and so much formalities, he welcomed us and dived to his presentation discussing economic directions of Albay and how he was able to overturn the kind of budget prioritization Albay had in the previous administration. 

Evident intelligence in his every utterance of words, the governor talks with so much ardor but not boasting.

I could not tell how we were mesmerized at him while he was talking. But when I looked around, I saw many, if not all the participants of the training were just listening with mouths opened  as if they saw an apparation of the Black Nazarene!

Bless me father! DavaoEye and the Man

 He talks candidly about politics, economics, RH bill, crisscrossing between religious and political doctrines and dogmas, business, theology then back to climate change. He killed the boredom of that unholy afternoon. 

He was right when he said, "not to serve food while I am talking because I am food enough" to which we all agreed.

More than just being enough food, he was a goldmine of fresh ideas and better economic perspective. I may fail to elucidate further the kind of the atmosphere he created during his two-hour intelligent discourse, but it was so much fun and insightful. 

I was lucky to have met one the people I looked up to. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me. 

My Albay adventure was complete. Seeing Mt. Mayon and meeting the main man of Albay. 

Salamat warm Albay. Salamat Gob!

Mt. Mayon and the marker in Brgy. Padang to commemorate the thousands of bodies, yet to be found, during the Super typhoon Reming in 2006.