Tinnex Jaraula, Mayor of Cagayan de Oro City
Tinnex Jaraula, a member of The Rotary Club of Cagayan de Oro, granted club members an audience and interview with him on Tuesday, September 18, 2007, and I was proud to attend.
Tinnex has cleaned up the city quite a bit since taking office, clearing out the unlicensed street vendors from Cogon, Carmen and other areas where they clogged the streets and impeded traffic flow. You can now actually find place to partk at the Cogon Market.
One of his other stated missions is to corral the street kids. This is a more formidable task. There are street kids all over The Philippines, surviving on their own. Many of them use Rugby, which is the brand name of a contact cement manufacturer here. When I first came to CdO I was mobbed a couple of times by street kids. I don’t mean I was harmed, I mean I gave a kid five pesos and was immediately surrounded by many other kids all begging for a hand-out. Marissa has a degree in social work, and shoe worked with many of the street kids in CdO during her internship, and they call her “Tia” (Auntie). Marissa absolutely forbids me from giving money to these street kids, but sometimes I will buy them food. One time I counted the number of kids surrounding me and told my escort to Jolibee and told him to buy 28 burgers, with fries and drinks. I had counted 26 kids.
A lot of the street kids try to be productive and earn their money. Many will wait at traffic congested areas with a a pail of soapy water and a pail of clean water and soap your windows and mirrors, while you are stuck in traffic. This is okay, once, but it gets old after the 5th kid has soaped your already clean windows and expects to be paid.
I was able to record most of the interview with Tinnex Jaraula. It is about 18 MB and is just over 47 minutes.
February 23rd, 2008 at 13:16
[...] …and on just about everything else. More than a year ago Cagayan de Oro Mayor Tinnex Jaraula, then a congressman, sought and got approval for a refurbishment/resurfacing of Velez Street, which is the main North-South Street going through town. The Street actually belongs to the national government so repairs to this street cannot be authorized by the local city government. The street is a terrible hodgepodge of patches and potholes and has been for years. [...]