The Courtesy Call
Mary Ann BregiasBy: Arch. Grace Ann T. Ronquillo, uap
Being the newly elected set of officers for the Fiscal Year of 2011-2012, we made our first courtesy call to Hon. Mayor Del R. De Guzman of Marikina City on August 23, 2011 at the Mayor’s Office, Marikina City Hall, Sta. Elena Marikina City. The meeting started a little late due to certain unforeseen delays but it was worth the wait. In fact, our business meeting lasted over an hour. We gathered lots of information regarding the latest developments in the City.
Our newly elected Chapter President Arch. Jose Marie Luciano “Joel” T. Bautista presented our chapter’s latest accomplishments like the Medical Mission and Construction Seminar held in Pintong Bokaue, San Mateo last July 31, 2011. Then he presented our future programs like the Adopt a Park, Adopt a School Library, Adopt a Day Care Center in Marikina City, Construction Seminars, Outreach and Feeding Programs for our less fortunate brothers and sisters.
The Mayor in turn gave us an over view of what his City would be doing eventually in the near future. He discussed the proposed design for the new City Hall. Wherein all record offices, computer rooms and other important areas would be put on the upper floors in case of another terrible flood like the Ondoy crises would occur. Arch. Armando “Armin” DG. Pamintuan is the commissioned architect to undertake this project.
Secondly, Mayor Del R. De Guzman was hoping that we might be able to help in the rehabilitation of the Teatro Marikina. He told us about certain design constraints that could possibly be solved so that the theater could be put to more use and be a good source of revenue for his city.
We then talked about the National Bookstore’s Book Donation program and how we could help facilitate the donation of books to the Marikina Public Library. Mayor Del welcomed this very much and in fact mentioned that there is an ongoing publication of a book about the Marikina City.
Regarding our Adopt a Park Project, we will be coordinating with Mr. Domeng Aquino who is the current head of Park development. We were informed that the City would like to construct a Grand Marker to serve as an entrance gateway to Marikina. This is another project that our Chapter could help design for the city.
Lastly, we discussed about the new design for the Marikina Sports Complex. The Mayor just discussed the general ideas of how to improve the design of the complex like more seating capacity, more function rooms, safer structural design features and other functional areas to be considered.
The meeting was very informative for both parties and to me was a worthy accomplishment for the group. Now I guess it’s up to us to follow through with our plans soon.
Reader Comments (1)
too excited about the new sports complex.
I hope these projects get underway soon.