FOR SURE the Dys do have something to show for their long reign in Isabela. Much of the infrastructure in the province is credited to the different Dys who have held power here. At least four hospitals were built by the Dys, as well as roads and schools. When Padaca assumed the governorship, however, she discovered that previous administrations owed more than P700 million to local banks, contractors, suppliers, and local government units for financing unfinished infrastructure projects such as roads and classrooms. Even the four hospitals constructed under the Dy administrations were reportedly all still incomplete.

	PADACA sets aside each Wednesday of the week to hold an Ugnayang Bayan where she listens to her constituents, and receives their requests. [photo by Isa Lorenzo]

During the first year of her term, Padaca saved money to pay the provincial government's creditors. Fourteen percent of the province's internal revenue allotment, or P130 million, was automatically deducted to pay off the bank loans. In her SOPA, she said that the provincial government had managed to pay over 60 percent of its debt.

Former Ilagan mayor Mercedes Uy says that Padaca is careful about disbursing money. "When it comes to fiscal matters, the money is safe (with her)."

Padaca may be close to paying off the province's debt, but she says that she is most proud of the fact that during her term, she was able to focus on Isabela's farmers, who constitute 60 percent of the overall population.

The governor invited traders from other provinces to look at Isabela's produce. She also used provincial funds in order to subsidize the buying program of the National Food Administration, in order to increase the selling prices of rice and corn by P1 per kilo. In addition, the provincial government has undertaken ventures such as small water-impounding projects, farm-to-market roads, and multipurpose pavements that can be used to dry crops.

But while all that has pleased Isabela's farmers, other Padaca initiatives have not been as welcome. For instance, instead of continuing her predecessor's health program, which promised free medicine and full coverage in the event of sickness, Padaca replaced it with a PhilHealth program that subsidized the hospital expenses of cardholders and their family members.

Some residents, especially senior citizens, are unhappy that they no longer receive free medicine, but others point out that the medicine remains affordable. Padaca herself says that the previous administration's health program was not sustainable.

She also says that when she became governor, she encountered a "culture among the people in the capitol of not being good stewards of government property, and also of making every transaction a way to benefit themselves first before the people."

Moreover, she found herself up against Dy loyalists who proved uncooperative. At least that's how she tells it; soon after she was elected into office, Padaca put eight division chiefs on floating status, because she said these were loyal to the Dys, and prevented her administration from implementing its programs. The Civil Service Commission, however, ordered that seven of the eight employees be reinstated. The eighth resigned.

Local chief executives also apparently began working against her. Says Father Ancheta: "I think most of the mayors are still loyalists of the past administration."

Of the mayoral candidates who supported Padaca in the 2001 elections, only three were elected. None of the incumbent mayors supported her. Padaca says that their support during her campaign was irrelevant, as far as she was concerned. Still, says Father Ancheta, Padaca could have done a better job in winning over the mayors of Isabela's 35 towns and one city. But instead of forging partnerships at the municipal level, Padaca has gone directly to the barangays. Provincial board member Jesus Cruz Jr. also complains that Padaca does not implement any of the resolutions that the provincial board has passed.

	Padaca is proud of the fact that during her term, she was able to focus on Isabela's farmers, who constitute 60 percent of the province's total population. [photo by Isa Lorenzo]

GAMU MAYOR Fernando Cumigad was one of the mayoral candidates who supported Padaca back in 2001. Now he says their personal relationship has soured. "But this is purely on issues of priorities and probably on concerns on how to handle things, which is her prerogative," he says. "It did not jibe with my way of running my municipal government."

Cumigad believes that in order to govern, "you have to get or solicit the respect or support of your constituents, particularly your lieutenants, the people below you. Because you cannot be an effective agent of change alone, because Isabela is a very big province."

Padaca says that winning over the mayors simply wasn't her priority. "I cannot focus all my efforts or pour all my energy into trying to unite, or reconcile with people who may take years in order to soften up," she argues. "And what good will it do anyway? It's not the best way for me to be able to serve people."

In previous administrations, the mayors and barangay officials had gotten used to accosting the governor and having their requests and resolution immediately approved, Padaca adds. Even ex-mayor Uy says Padaca's main rival this May, Benjamin Dy, who was governor from 1992 to 2001, was too accommodating. "You could call him up, disturb him even if he is sleeping, you can drag him if necessary," she recalls. "There was no such thing as 'schedules' with him. In fairness, he accomplished a lot of projects. That's why he's still quite popular with the people here."

Alicia Mayor Napoleon Dy says that Padaca has not "accepted" the mayors, noting that none of them can speak to her without an appointment.

The continued friction between Padaca and some of her mayors has hindered Isabela's growth. Some of the mayors, for example, have not remitted their real property taxes or RPT, saying that the provincial government does not return the funds to them. In 2005, the non-remittance of real property and special education taxes reached more than P26 million. Dy says that he uses the RPT to fund the salaries of provincial school board teachers that Padaca has left unpaid.

Padaca counters that the mayors have no right to dictate how the funds should be used, and that the provincial government continued to pay for the teachers' salaries. She has thought about suing the mayors who refused to pay their taxes, but she says that she has been too busy to do so. Some mayors began to remit their RPT after the provincial government signed a commitment with the municipal treasurers that stated the real property taxes that they had collected from each town. But holdouts like Dy and Cumigad remain.

A few mayors "have this mistaken notion that if they come to me, they cannot get anything," says Padaca. "But they're not trying." She adds that she has given projects to some Dy allies, and even to the Dy brothers.

Cumigad himself says that even though he does not have a good personal relationship with the governor, Padaca has not tried to stop national agencies from assisting his town. Former governors would block projects if the mayor did not belong to their party, he adds.

Under Padaca's term, "we were able to prove that there is democracy in Isabela," says Cumigad. He points out that everyone — from media to other politicians — are free to say what they want about the governor, without fear of retribution.