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ON RECORD
Eleanor Funda-Sardual
Municipal Administrator
“Starting with a Legacy”
William Butler Yeats, a writer no
respectable English Literature student would forget, once
penned these moving lines:
“In my END, is my
BEGINNING…”
To a certain degree, that is how I am
feeling now. My stint as a Sangguniang Bayan member of Ipil
ended in June 2004. My appointment as Municipal Administrator
by Mayor Rey Olegario in July marked a new and different
beginning for me in government service.
It is to my good fortune that the spirit
of public service began in my heart many years ago. I may not
have been conscious of its peculiarity then, yet the principle
of good governance and government was somehow indelibly etched
into my subconscious by a man who exemplified, for me,
leadership in a most excellent way.
My father, Joaquin German Funda was
elected Mayor of Ipil when her coverage stretched as far as
Tungawan and Titay. This was in the late ‘50s, when the
renegade AMBAHANG hacked and pillaged his way to notoriety,
wrecking havoc on the poor and frightened barrio people. My
father’s determined task was to bring him to justice. He did
just that, by relentless pursuit of the outlaw until Ambahang
surrendered to authorities. This allowed Ipil space for
peaceful growth and development as a municipality.
Joaquin G. Funda was a man of vision and
courage. He always believed that Ipil had potentials for
greatness. Strategically positioned, having access to the
three major cities of Zamboanga, Dipolog and Pagadian, Ipil,
even then had a bright future.
Unfortunately, the no-nonsense style of
leadership Mayor Funda lived out and his western-like
forthright manner, was not, apparently, for his generation.
At any rate, I can say at this point of
my professional life, I am a product of my father’s vision of
Ipil.
Any municipality can prosper and
develop. In fact, it should develop. However, a municipality
MUST develop rightly and righteously, so it builds on strong
foundation. Otherwise, that municipality becomes just another
name on the map, lusterless and without significance.
Surely, Ipil is more than just that CNN
news item of the infamous 1995 Abu Sayyaf massacre. Surely,
Ipil can rise above the murky memories of that awful year. In
fact, Ipil has indeed risen from the ashes, and like the
legendary Phoenix bird, has been able to take on wings.
How Ipil charts out her flight is a
challenge for the LGU. Thus, how this office can help towards
setting up the right roadmap for its direction is both
daunting and exciting.
Ipil today is a capital town with such
great possibilities. Eve now, you see how she has grown from
that pitiful stricken community back in 1995. In less than
ten years, her demographic dimensions have been altered and
the LGU has been able to manage these changes.
How do we maximize Ipil’s agricultural
contributions to the betterment of its people? How do we
motivate each office to rise to a level of dynamic
productivity not only of its required basic services, but also
in terms of ideas and creativity? How do we raise the sense
of teamwork amongst the employees? How do we get the LGU
working effectively and efficiently so that all workers are
able to travel the same journey with the same desire to
achieve a goal and reach out and up towards a vision of Ipil?
Ipil must be a safe place for the next
generation. It has to be shaped by a vision of a Municipality
with character and purpose. Without these, Ipil will just be
one of the hundred LGUs across the country, easily forgotten
and, maybe, remembered only as “that” victim of violence!
How does one provide the opportunity for
LGU workers to see that VISION? How can one encourage the
workers to have a unified sense of PURPOSE? How does one
teach them with a dream of Ipil as a Municipality which cares
for its people? A caring which involves providing better
services, better opportunities for development, better socal
environment; in short, a better life for all, if possible.
This is the purpose which has taken hold of my heart. To
contribute all that which God has given me to help put
together that right road map uniquely fashioned for Ipil.
Harnessing all the wonderful resources from within and
without, is one specific step, using dialogues, conferences,
and consensus building
Ipil has potentials for greatness. My
prayer is that, in the time frame given me, I may be able to
help draw out these potentials with the specific outputs from
each office, working together with the department heads.
Together, in an atmosphere of mutual respect, the LGU family
members can begin to flesh out this dream. Ipil is the place
where dreams can become reality, by the grace of God.
An END simply turns out to be a wonderful
BEGINNING…but one has to begin with the Heart.
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