Med-dental mission highlights Dia de Ma'am Caling

23 April 2008

THE CITY GOVERNMENT HAS LINED UP SERIES OF ACTIVITIES in line with the commemoration of the 87th birth anniversary of the late Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat dubbed as Dia de Ma'am Caling on Saturday, April 26.

Mayor Celso Lobregat cheers a dental patient during the medical dental outreach activity organized by the City Health Office in line with the Dia de Ma'am Caling April 26 at the Jardin Maria Clara in Pasonanca.

    The late Mayor Lobregat, mother of incumbent Mayor Celso Lobregat, was the fist and only woman chief executive that Zamboanga City ever had.  She passed aways due to diabetics complications on January 2, 2004, barely four months away into the end of her second term in office.

    A medical-dental mission that will involve the city's doctors and private practitioners will be held from 8 a.m. to 12 noon at the Jardin de Maria Clara in Pasonanca on Saturday.

    Simultaneous with the outreach mission will be the Operation "Tuli" to be held at the City Health Office conference room in Pettit Barracks.

    City Health Officer Rodel Agbulos said some 200 young boys will benefit from the operation tuli.

    The City Veterinarian Office will also hold a vaccination activity dubbed "Aso ay Alagaan at Pabakunahan" in line with the Rabies Awareness Month celebration.  This will be held at the Jardin de Maria Clara in Pasonanca from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on April 26.

    The Dia de Ma'am Caling, which is observed by virtue of Ordinance 278 authored by Councilor Rudy Lim last 2004.

    The observance on Saturday will kick off with a commemorative mass at the St. Joseph Church in Nuñez Street at 8 a.m. followed by a program at the Jardin de Maria Clara in Pasonanca.  A wreath laying ceremony will precede the program.

    The late Mayor Lobregat has endeared many people in the city and around the country as well as other parts of the world because of her dedication to public service, benevolence, devotion to La Virgen del Pilar and most of all her motherly ways.

    In honor of the late mayor, President Gloria Arroyo in 2004 signed Republic Act 9270 naming the national road from the section Gov. Camins to Veterans Avenue to Licomo as Maria Clara L. Lobregat Highway.

    The City Council also approved three ordinances at that time aimed to perpetuate the memory of the late Mayor Lobregat.  These were Ordinance 278 declaring April 26 of every year as Dia de Ma'am Caling; Ordinance 263 renaming the Divisoria National High School into the Maria Clara Lobregat National High School and Ordinance 264 which  names the butterfly garden as Jardin de Maria Clara. (City Hall PIO)