By JUN ILAGAN
DALY CITY – With barely two weeks left for candidacy filing for the November elections, a motley group of business and community leaders has increasingly amplified its urging for Mario Cendaña Panoringan to make a run for one of three seats up for grabs in the Daly City Council.
“I believe he should run because he has outstanding chances of winning,” Georgette Sarles, president and chief executive officer of the Daly City Colma Chamber of Commerce (DCCCC) said to FilAm Star. “He has what it takes to serve Daly City as councilmember: intelligence, leadership, charisma, diplomacy.”
“Thing is, this is not up to us …. it’s up to Mario. Does he want to do it?” she wondered.
That question has actually nagged Sarles and her colleagues in DCCCC since word about Mario’s possible candidacy made the buzz a few months ago in the city’s socio-civic and business circles, where the Lingayen (Pangasinan) native has long been a mainstay. And his assurances of announcing his decision “at the right time” only fuels speculation and debate.
“This early, I want to express my heartwarming thanks to the many who have already expressed their readiness to support me should I decide to throw my hat into the council race. But right now, I am still weighing all possibilities,” Mario told FAS, deftly skirting our insistence on being given the date and time of his filing so FAS may cover.
‘Super’ Mario
Judging from the strong opinion of people who know him and who vouch for the words, ‘running’ and ‘campaigning,’ as top verbs in his business and socio-civic lexicon, it does seem that Mario lacks an excuse not to join the contest.
Jim Comstock, director for business development of Seton Medical Center, describes him thus: “Mario is everywhere and into everything. But more than that, he is a consensus maker. He can come up with a proposition and gets everyone to buy into it.”
There have been times when Mario was even called a visionary, a ‘Super Mario’ who, according to Comstock, “can look at an empty lot and see a shopping mall.”
“Or,” he adds, “he can walk into a classroom of high school seniors and see jobs and productivity down the road.”
Mario’s omnipresence and involvement in various organizations arm him with a full working knowledge of Daly City issues and concerns.
If only for that reason, insurance executive Manny Reburiano would not have it any other way but for Mario to run and make good what he perceives as his “excellent chances of winning a seat.”
“Mario’s leadership skill is exemplary,” Reburiano pointed out. “Having been president of the Chamber of Commerce and of the insurance association in the Peninsula, as well as his exposure to the workings of Daly City itself …. what else would he need to make a good city councilmember?”
‘Citizen of the Year’
Active not only in the business community, Mario served as chairman of the Daly City Planning Commission, which oversaw the approval of the $170 million Pacific Plaza Project along Junipero Serra Boulevard.
In 1999, Mario became president of the DCCCC and chaired the first-ever Trade and Tourism Mission to the Philippines that same year. He also was past president of the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco, and was two-term chair of the Citizens Advisory Council for SAMTRANS (San Mateo County Transit District), serving the required nine-year term on the council. He also served as commissioner for the San Mateo County Park and Recreation Commission.
Mario was named “Daly City Citizen of the Year” in 1998 and, on the same year, he also received the prestigious “Professional of the Year Award” from the Peninsula Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, which he served as president in 1994-95. In that capacity, Mario became the first and only Filipino to date to assume the association’s presidency.
He is also founding president of the Daly City – Quezon City Sister City Committee, as well as of the Filipino American Coalition.
Honorary consul
When he turned 50 in 1999, Mario retired from his 25-year profession as owner and operator of an agency engaged in the insurance and financial services business. But at that age, and with a workhorse’s mindset, he felt there was still room to hone his business acumen and further broaden his perspective.
So in 2002, Mario started a business consulting firm, which counts Outback Steakhouse, Fuddruckers Restaurant, Century Park Hotel, Philippine Airlines, Cold Stone Ice Cream, Lucky Group of Companies, and Goldilocks-South San Francisco in his select list of clientele.
He is founding member of the Presidents’ Council of Skyline College, and has served as director in the board of the Peninsula Community Foundation, Peninsula Colleges Foundation, American Heart Association, United Way of San Mateo County and Seton Medical Center Services Foundation.
As an Honorary Consul Designee by former president of the Philippines, Fidel V. Ramos, Mario continues to serve as conduit between the Filipino community of the Bay Area and the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco as well as the Philippine government as a whole.
But even without the honorary consul designation, Sarles believes Mario would just as effectively discharge his self-imposed role as orchestrator of events that bring people together as one community.
“It is to Mario’s credit that Daly City and Colma have had the honor many times over of hosting the visit of then Philippine Ambassador to the United States Alberto del Rosario and former President Fidel Ramos,” Sarles said.
Get votes out
A Daly City businessman of Pakistani descent, Mohamad Yosuf, even thinks Mario is the burst of energy that the city’s Filipino community needs to finally achieve political empowerment.
“Besides his financial acumen that the city stands to benefit from, Mario has the capability to unite the big Filipino community of Daly City,” Yosuf opined. “Filipinos will be better off with him serving them as city official.”
To that, Comstock added that Mario could swing the vote of seniors – Filipino and other ethnicities – to his favor, being current director and immediate past president of the Daly City Supporters of Doelger Senior Center, Inc., as well as member of the Donor Engagement and Giving Committee of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Nevertheless, as his long-time friend, Daly City treasurer Tony Ziddich, suggests, Mario will have to address the challenge of getting the Filipino votes out.
“Mario is everything that he could possibly be, but the critical thing is to get his community to actually go out and vote,” he emphasized to FilAm Star, insinuating that voter turnout helps determine any campaign’s outcome. “It’s an open race out there, and every candidate hopes for a large turnout at the polls to increase their chances of winning.”
Yet for William Choutka, general manager of a major apartment complex in the city, Mario’s gifts of character strength and steely determination should prove useful in his bid to attract voters and, ultimately, their votes.
“Mario is the make-it-happen kind of guy,” he stressed. “He is always determined to finish a job and puts his heart into everything he does.”
Choutka even hopes his optimism rubs off on Mario, to push him to file his candidacy now. “For me, it looks like the stars are all aligned for him, and, therefore, he should run. He’ll make it,” he said.
Mario, a Jaycees International Senator and a United States Jaycees Ambassador, is married to the former Norma Camarao, a retired registered nurse. They have a son, Mario, Jr., and a daughter, Anne Marie, and are proud grandparents of Ryan Jared and Katrina Nicole. He is the son of the late Martin and Nicetas Cendaña Panoringan of Lingayen, Pangasinan.
share: del.icio.us.
Reddit 
Digg 
Yahoo 
Wink 
Windows 
Google 
Newsvine 
Comment
Commenting is closed for this article.
Full story