Ramon Naval Guico
Encyclopedia
Ramon Naval Guico, Jr. is the President of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines
League of Municipalities of the Philippines
The League of Municipalities of the Philippines - or more simply the League of Municipalities or LMP - is a formal organization of all the municipalities in the Philippines...

 (LMP) and the current Mayor of the Binalonan. He recently launched the Ginhawa Mo, Gets (Gamot, Edukasyon, Trabaho, Serbisyo) Ko Agad Campaign which aims to strengthen the local government and provide faster and improved services to the people. He ran for Senator in the 2010 elections
Philippine general election, 2010
Elections for all positions in the Philippines above the barangay were held on Monday, May 10, 2010. The elected president will become the 15th President of the Philippines, succeeding President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is barred from seeking re-election due to term restrictions...

 but lost.

He is the third child of Ramon and Vicenta, of Pangasinan and Isabela. A born entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

, Ramon at age 5 and all throughout his elementary and high school was already helping her mother, “Aling Quita” in their store. He was a known student leader and was the President of his high school student council.

Ramon went to Baguio City
Baguio City
The City of Baguio is a highly urbanized city in northern Luzon in the Philippines. Baguio City was established by Americans in 1900 at the site of an Ibaloi village known as Kafagway...

 for college and took up engineering at the University of Baguio
University of Baguio
The University of Baguio is a private, multidisciplinary university located in Baguio City, Philippines. The school was founded by Dr. Fernando Gonzaga Bautista and Rosa Castillo Bautista on August 8, 1948 as the Baguio Technical and Commercial Institute with 80 students...

. He met his future wife, Arlyn, a pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...

, in the nearby town of Santo Tomas
Santo Tomas, Pangasinan
Santo Tomas is a 5th class and smallest municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 13,802 people in 2,716 households...

.

Business career

In the early 1970s and while newly married, Guico began poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...

 and hog-raising business. He then dived his business into gravel and sand by buying junk Pantranco buses to be used for transport of sand and moon. This earned him the moniker, "Magbubulok" or Junk Man by his relatives and friends. Guico then ventured into the construction business where he built dams and farm-to-market roads. In 1985, he then entered the business of health care and education, which by then was the largest business venture he had undertaken.

Political career

In 1987, Guico was appointed by President Cory Aquino as mayor of Binalonan, Pangasinan
Binalonan, Pangasinan
Binalonan is a municipality geographically located in the province of Pangasinan in the Philippines. At present it is becoming one of the province’s top producers of rice grains and mangoes. The town is known for its rich history rooted in oral traditions of folklore...

. Binalonan was a 5th class municipality
Municipalities of the Philippines
A municipality is a local government unit in the Philippines. Municipalities are also called towns . They are distinct from cities, which are a different category of local government unit...

 when Guico took office. While in office, Guico worked hand in hand with the local people, bringing the municipality to a first class municipality, with its own university contributing to affordable college education not only within the city but also to surrounding cities.

Guico also served as President of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines. Early on, he worked to change the image of the LMP long marred by wrong impression that it was nothing but a bastion of traditional local politicians into to become a research-based, result-oriented and primary champions to the interests and development agenda of its member-municipalities and their constituencies.
To correct the image of LMP as nothing but a forum for mayors to socialize, Ramon used the LMP as an effective platform for innovative mayors to share their exemplary practices. During his first term as LMP National President, he launched the Ang Galing mo Mayor (You are the Best Mayor) Project as LMP’s serious efforts to promote innovation and excellence in local governance. This project aimed to bring out the best in Philippine municipalities in order to re-engineer and raise the quality of local governance in the country. The LMP made history in urging performing mayors to mentor their fellow mayors how to better perform through peer-to-peer method. Through the LMP, mayors took the lead in disseminating the various exemplary practices in municipal governance for widest replication.

The Ang Galing Mo Mayor Project made the LMP visible not only to its members but also to national government agencies, non-government organizations, the private sectors and international donor agencies. So successful has this project been that other Leagues have adopted the peer-to-peer method.

During Ramon’s second term, the LMP founded the Mayor’s Development Center (MDC), a first in Philippine local government organization, and even the first in Asia. The MDC now serves as the development and training arm of the LMP for improving municipal governance and leadership with the vision of establishing a community of municipal innovators and educators in the Philippines from among the most outstanding and exemplary municipal mayors. In fact, the United Cities and Local Governments
United Cities and Local Governments
United Cities and Local Governments is an umbrella organisation for cities, local governments and municipal associations throughout the world...

 (UCLG), the successor of the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA) has recognized MDC as an exemplary project of the LMP. The MDC offered learning events and capability building for local government officials and employees on strategic planning and management, coastal resource management, solid waste management, orientation for the newly elected Mayors (ONE-M), sustainable upland development and local economic development.

The LMP also implemented the Lakbayin ang Magandang Pilipinas Project, a weekly TV show which proudly showcases LMP’s advocacies and innovative and effective good practices of our member municipalities in promoting good local governance for replication.

The Ang Galing Mo Mayor, the MDC and the Lakbayin ang Magandang Pilipinas were initiatives to highlight and celebrate municipalities’ innovations and excellence that are often not captured or noticed by our national decision and policy makers and even the national media.

External links

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