“The thing that we are trying to do at Facebook, is just help people connect and communicate more efficiently.” —Mark Zuckerberg

WHOEVER is maintaining the “Jerry Treñas” Facebook or Meta account is doing both Iloilo City Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas and his Ilonggo constituents a big service.

Iloilo City in general is actually the runaway winner.

Before the social media and LGU governance became partners in public service, the Ilonggos didn’t have a quick access to vital information and tangible idea on what’s really going on in the government.

Information has become the paramount tool to address and defeat ignorance and pessimism.

In the past, there’s no hologram of the steps taken to solve certain social, traffic, among other problems; how many projects and new business ventures have been respectively implemented and inaugurated.

Many Ilonggos in Iloilo and abroad were strangers in their own city as they had no inkling the City of Love has become the fortress of investment opportunities and citadel of tourism.

The emotional quotient and perception or mental maturity of many Ilonggos who maintain social media accounts have leveled up especially that they could now monitor and “share” the salient realms and spheres of the Iloilo City Government’s full potentialities in real time through the “Jerry Treñas” Facebook or Meta account.

-o0o-

In the past administrations, aside from the press releases from the ever-reliable public information office and City Hall-sponsored radio “blocktime” slots, the public didn’t have other vantage point or clear-cut viewpoint from which to peruse the performances of public officials and monitor the day-to-day activities and programs being spearheaded by the city government.

Because of the “Jerry Treñas” Facebook or Meta account, it’s now easy and quicker for any resident to read the City Hall’s official statements—and even rebuttals—on important events and controversies, and the crucial announcements during calamities and emergencies.

Judging from his lung-busting workloads, including a recent foreign trip as chronicled in the “Jerry Treñas” Facebook or Meta account, it’s not hard to understand how and why Treñas was recently hospitalized upon the advice of his doctors for over fatigue.

Accompanied by a photo of the city mayor posted on the social media account where he was shown signing documents while sitting on a hospital bed wearing a patient’s outfit, there’s no room for his critics to belittle his service and the sacrifices he has made, so far, for his fellow Ilonggos.    

-o0o-

I received another e-mail from New York Governor Kathy Hochul October 4, which she also sent to other New Yorkers.

Alex, Microchips might be tiny, but they have a huge impact on our world today. Everything from our cell phones to national security depends on them, and it’s essential that we build them in America.

“Why not build them in New York?”

That’s what I said a year ago today, when I announced Micron’s $100 billion commitment to Central New York and with it, the largest manufacturing project in state history.

As the first Governor from Upstate New York in nearly a century, this is personal to me. I know how so many communities felt left out and left behind when manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas — and I know how this investment will make a transformative impact to change the course of this region’s history.

When we brought Micron to New York, I wanted to make sure they didn’t just commit to bring a world-class manufacturing campus in Onondaga County — but that they committed to supporting our people. That’s exactly what they’ve done:

— Centering the Central New York community with a $500 million Community Investment Fund;

—Partnering with local schools and universities to prepare students for 50,000 new family-supporting jobs;

—Increasing access to child care for working parents across the region

Prioritizing disadvantaged communities, veterans, and MWBE contractors; and

—Supporting New York’s sustainability goals under our nation-leading Green CHIPS Act

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: New York isn’t just going to be Chips Corridor — it’s going to be Chips Country.

It’s been an incredible year since we welcomed Micron to Central New York. I am confident that the Empire State’s future is bright.

Ever Upward, Gov. Kathy Hochul

-o0o-

A cultured man will know a little concerning Dante and Shakespeare and Goethe, concerning St. Francis of Assisi and Fra Anglico, concerning Frederick the Great and Napoleon I: why he should not be expected also to know something of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, Descartes and Spinoza, Kant and Hegel?

It would be absurd to suggest that we should inform ourselves concerning the great conquerors and destroyers, but remain ignorant of the great creators, those who have really contributed to our European culture.

But it is not only the great painters and sculptors who have left us an abiding legacies and treasures: it is also the great thinkers, men like Plato and Aristotle, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, who have enriched Europe and her culture.

It belongs, therefore, to a cultured education to know something at least of the course of the European philosophy, for it is our thinkers, as well as our artists and generals, who have helped to make our time, whether for good or ill.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)