MAYOR KRING – Cristina Gonzalez Romualdez has joined the ranks of showbiz personalities who are in public service, mayor in particular. The likes of Joseph Ejercito Estrada (Manila), Herbert Bautista (Quezon City), Richard Gomez (Ormoc), Dan Fernandez (Santa Rosa), Lani Mercado (Bacoor), Guia Gomez (San Juan), Maita Sanchez (Pagsanjan).
Kring, as Cristina’s fondly called, is the new mayor of Tacloban (Leyte), taking over her husband, Alfred Romualdez, who served for three terms (total of nine years). But then City Hall isn’t really new to Kring as she was No. 1 councilor for three terms, all along beside her husband in making Tacloban a peaceful and progressive city.
Then came three years ago supertyphoon Yolanda, reducing Tacloban to a wasteland.
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‘NEVER SAY DIE’ – The good news is Tacloban is recovering by leaps and bounds, thanks to Taclobanons led by Alfred and other city officials whose battlecry is “Never say die.”
Kring says business is booming. New hotels, restaurants, banks, stores are being built, there are more airplane flights. Houses and livelihood programs are being provided typhoon victims.
Of course, there are still traces of Yolanda’s fury, damaged homes and buildings, roads, villages, stranded ship. Slowly but surely they are being attended to.
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UNIFYING MAYOR – A close friend, Aster A. Amoyo, describes Kring as a unifying mayor. “Walang kaaway, lahat kaibigan, tumutulong sa lahat.”
In serving constituents, Aster adds, “Di tumitingin si Kring kung anong partido ka. Basta nangangailangan tumutulong si Kring.”
But then Kring has always been like that even as Tacloban councilor, who concentrated on livelihood and cultural programs. That’s Aster still speaking, “Pero ngayon bilang mayor mas malawak ang trabaho niya.”
As singer-actress years back, Kring never thought she’d be a politician. But then one can’t fight destiny. What really matters to Kring is she embraced public service wholeheartedly.
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MOTHER – Of course, Kring is also a mother… two teenage girls, Sofia and Diana. And she allows and supports them to follow their dreams.
Sofia wants to be a singer, gifted with a voice a la Adele. She just signed up a recording contract with Viva. Aster A is her manager.
She wants to take up sound engineering in college, preferably in the US. Kring said Sofia knows all about the latest musical sound and equipment. Guess Sofia took up after her maternal grandfather, former actor and Congressman Jose Mari Gonzalez, an engineer who used to own Cinema Audio, a recording studio.