Presidential Management St
aff Secretary Hermogenes C. Esperon Jr. was hailed anew by leaders of various organizations for relentlessly and vigorously pursuing programs and projects that promote people’s welfare and accelerate the development and growth of communities.
With President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Rosales Mayor Revita, Congressman Estrella III, Governor Amado Espino and other VIPs
In recent press interviews, leaders of the groups lauded Esperon for fast-tracking the acquisition of right-of-way for the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) as well as the start of construction of the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam’s irrigation component, the P4.5 Billion Re-Regulating Pond.
Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo inspected the TPLEX construction area last Monday. This development they said, signals the early realization of the people’s dream to have an expressway that would polevault the devevelopment of Northern Philippines.
Leaders of the groups, among them retired police officer Artemio S. Gaitos, president of the AFP/PNP Retirees Association of Pangasinan District 6; Ligaya Villizario, President of the Women Organization for Motherhood Empowerment and Nationalism (WOMEN), and Neil B. Andaya, President of Cooperatives in Umingan said that Esperon has coordinated theconstruction/repair of 12 Farm-to-Market roads and construction of 23 two-classroom schoolbuildings in the district.
They urged Dr. Lorna Esperon, the Secretary’s wife, to ignore detractors and proceed in conducting medical-dental missions badly needed by the people in the district especially the victims of t
ropical 
storm Pepeng.
They cited anew Esperon for making education of the Youth as his top priority program. They said that Esperon has caused the allocation of 2,500 Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) scholars. They added that through Esperon’s efforts the number of scholars for a four-year course has likewise been increased from one scholar to two scholars for every town in the district.
They said that Esperon was also earlier praised highly by multi-sectoral leaders. Rosales mayor Ricardo Revita said then that Esperon “is the leader who knows the road map that leads to progress. Secretary is the man, the leader we all need.”
On the same day in Rosales, school officials at the Rosales South Central School, among them Dr. Alma R. Pontaoe and Daisy F. Velasco, hailed Es
peron f
or being “a man of action and numerous achievements.”
Political obeservers likewise earlier cited Esperon for his efforts in trying to provide for the varied needs of the people in the 6th District for gainful employment, adequate health care, quality education, irrigation, farm-to-market roads, school buildings and others.
“Esperon, it seems is always physically present to attend to the people’s needs, even during times of disaster,” they added. They said then that Sec. Esperon, head of the national relief and evacuation operations, was like superman at the height of Tropical Storm Pepeng, rushing to centers of danger to save and rescue
thousands of kabaleyans trapped 
on top of dwellings by the killer typhoon that virtually turned the province into an ocean. “Esperon braved the high rise of the rampaging waters, bringing with him from Manila to Pangasinan, two helicopters, four rubber boats and speed boats and 
four trucks to get people from harm’s way,” they said.
He also led local officials in the distribution of relief goods in several towns of Pangasian especially those in the 6th District. He and his wife led 150 medical volunteers in a medical-civic mission in Rosales, San Nicolas and Natividad.
Esperon’s pursuit of education for the youth was earlier featured as “Labor of Love” as follows:
Among Pangasinenses in the high councils of government, Sec Hermogenes C Esperon Jr. probably accords the highest value to education as the key to success. In all his meetings with the local news media, he speaks of education as if it were the most potent cure for all the socio-economic ills besetting our country and mostly poverty-stricken countrymen. As Secretary explains it, a nation can have no greater resource than a citizenry well-equipped with knowledge and skills along with moral armor. To him, such a manpower resource can best attain success in the realization of individual, community and/or national objectives.
In so far as personal goals are concerned, Esperon may well be regarded as an exemplary model. For he rose to hi present stature through dint of dogged determination and hard work. In struggling to educate himself, he braved challenges like passing scholarship examinations thereby scarcely posing any financial headaches to his parents.
His graduation from Philippines Military Academy paved the way for his rise to the top of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. And so he labors hard to help bring about conditions under which every family can manage to have their children obtain a college degree.
To help keep the nation’s peace and allow it’s unimpeded development so that people could live, work in peace and provide for the needs of their children including their education, he goes to Mindanao and fights a war which has the potential of escalating towards Metro Manila.
He chaired a committee that monitors the country’s mega projects such as the Subic-Clark Expressway, Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway, the Halshima highway and the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam Re-Regulating Pond. These projects accelerate the full development of the countryside, enhance the business atmosphere, promote tourism and make wide areas attractive sites for investments.
He dialogs with farmers to know their problems and determine how to address the problems. He has caused the intensification of the program building farm-to-market roads so as to boost agriculture that result in increased income for farmers. It seems that there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to help farmers increase their agricultural production.
He engages in activities that help job seekers find employment such as the holding of job fairs.
He gets involved in health care delivery by sponsoring medical missions.
He sponsors sports tournaments and fun runs to help keep people physically fit knowing that physical fitness enhances sound health.
Secretary Esperon stressed during a farmer’s forum that programs for the development of agriculture are just means for the realization of the dream to provide education to the youth. Of course, by education, he meant quality education.
Listening to him, during that occasion, expounding on his desire to gift the youth with education without expecting anything in return, we go the impression that all his labors – programs, projects and initiatives – are directed towards giving the youth the best and the greatest gift of all – education.
