This year’s twin celebration of the National Women’s Month and International Women’s Day in the city of Manila, both held this month of March, is made extra special by the fact that our mayor herself happens to be a woman, the first ever to hold the highest position in the city.
She is no ordinary woman, though. Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan is such an achiever, a role model and such a source of pride for all of us, having been bestowed with many accolades here and abroad.
With her at the helm of the city administration, it is assured that equal opportunities and rights for men and women and even the members of the LGBTQ+ community will always be upheld.
At the Manila City Hall alone, there are a lot of women holding sensitive positions as heads of various departments, units and offices while more hold ranking positions as deputy or assistant heads.
In my office alone, women play a huge role in my day-to-day functions as City Administrator. They keep my schedules, meetings and papers organized and thus, my workload a lot easier.
As far as the Manila city government is concerned, Mayor Honey always stresses that gender should never be an issue or be the basis of choosing who should handle what.
The basis should always be the capability to perform their functions even way beyond their mandate. Moreso when it comes to promotion.
Over the years, our women workers in Manila City Hall have proven their worth, having exceled in their respective offices and functions.
It is evident how Mayor Honey serves as an inspiration not only for women workers in the city government, but also for all of us.
Her brand of hard work has in fact lander her the recognition of being featured in the cover of Tatler Philippines, the country’s most trusted and enduring high-society and luxury-lifestyle magazine, along with three other lady mayors in the metro.
In it, Mayor Honey was cited as a public service trailblazer leading one of Metro Manila’s most progressive cities. She was in the company of Mayors Joy Belmonte, Abby Binay and Lani Cayetano of Quezon City, Makati and Taguig, respectively.
They were made to share their journey and how they use their influence to amplify their advocacies and address some of the critical issues, especially those involving women and gender equality, affecting society today.
In the article about Lacuna, she was cited as the first female mayor of Manila and how she is rolling out projects that support women, specially the solo parents.
In Manila, over 90 per cent of solo parents are women. These women deserve our backing, and we assist them in various ways.
Prior to this, Mayor Honey also received the distinct recognition as one of the 2022 Most Influential Filipina Woman in the World by Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) during a six-day Filipina Leadership Global Summit held at the Dom Pedro Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal.
The lady mayor was chosen to receive the Policymaker and Visionary Award among the outstanding nominees from ten countries.
The said award recognizes Filipina women who have forward-looking vision towards the development and influence of policies to enrich lives, careers and businesses and honors them for changing the face of leadership in their local communities.
The Filipina Leadership Global Summit convenes a select group of Filipina women global leaders, influencers and public figures from the 34 FWN-member countries to participate in business meetings, educational sessions and learning journeys with corporate and community leaders as well as elected and appointed officials. It brings together the top and most influential Filipina women business owners and professionals to create a networking pipeline thru reciprocal relationships.
For all these recognitions, Mayor Honey has expressed gratitude, stressing that she is a “firm believer that the Mayor of Manila has to be a leader, an advocate and an influencer in order to address the numerous and complicated issues and problems confronting the City of Manila.”
Mayor Honey believes that the city could implement a transformative change through “clear vision, political will and a team of competent trustworthy bureaucracy.”
This, of course, is something which she never made exclusive for men officials and workers in Manila.
