Led and inspired by President Bongbong Marcos, who personifies the subject of the iconic proverb, “Like father, like son,” the children of former mayors in the National Capital Region (NCR) are also blazing trails in local public administration.

Foremost is the lady whom you always see faithfully bidding goodbye to Bongbong every time he leaves for a foreign trip and welcomes him back when he returns — the very responsible mayor of Pasay City, Emi Calixto-Rubiano, whose reclamation projects are seen to generate over one million jobs and generate P1.3 trillion in revenue for the national and local governments.

She was chosen the most effective leader among the city chief executive officers of the National Capital Region by Taktika Management Firm for the period reviewed by its young experts in various areas of management.

She was also accorded the honor of being one of the top mayors in the NCR in the “Boses ng Bayan” survey conducted by the RP-Mission and Development Foundation Inc (RPMD) based on effective management and delivery of public services, most especially in times of disaster.

Her brother, Antonino G. Calixto, now the congressman representing the lone district of Pasay City, is an authentic model of a truly homegrown leader whose skills and ability to win friends and lead them to accomplish tasks were learned purely at home.

Former Mayor Tony has never been to Harvard or to any foreign schools to learn the techniques of credible and effective governance but look at what he has accomplished in Pasay City in less than half a decade of his capacity as mayor with the help of his sister, Emi, when he was holding her present post.

How were Mayor Emi and Congressman Tony drawn to the idea of serving the people?

When they were growing up, she and her siblings were closely observing their father, former Pasay City OIC Mayor Eduardo “Duay” Calixto. They witnessed the warmness of his dealings with the people, and his passion to help. To the Calixto siblings who were at the age of imbibing the values, the daily sight of their father doing official functions with sincerity and honesty nurtured them into what and how they are now.

“I saw how genuine our father was in serving the people. He even reprimanded us whenever we refused to wake him up when someone came to the house to ask for help,” recalls Mayor Emi.

Also number one, this time a son, is Mayor Eric Olivarez of Parañaque City. At a child’s birth, it is usually the father who gives the name when it’s a boy. Dr. Pablo Olivarez named his son Eric, perhaps because he wanted him to be a leader always when he grew up. Dr. Olivarez was right.

In the Nordic countries, “Eric” means “ruler forever.” Mayor Eric is turning out to seemingly be so. Warm and strong with the people, independent-minded and revolutionary in his moves, when he assumed the mayorship, he reorganized through a “rigodon” the heads of city offices and departments and named his men to the top posts.

Eric is first and foremost an educator. He is a doctor of education, in fact, and would have made another excellent choice for the top post at the Department of Education. His family owns and operates Olivarez College where he is Vice President for Academics and Services.

Eric’s service slogan is “Nurse na, teacher pa,” a byword that best fits the nutrition and education of the learners in basic education.

This coming Thursday, we shall continue on Mayor Eric and his Kuya Edwin, whose name is already in the realm of immortality, and go back to Mayor Emi and Congressman Tony Calixto for their other colorful successes in public service, then proceed to the City of Las Piñas whose mayor was also named among the best in the NCR.

(To be continued)