Asian Dragon feature also includes Mayor Emma in its May-June magazine issue!

Written by Marge C. Enriquez

Thursday, 07 May 2009 04:37

Mayora Emma and Husband Art Her Husband was a strict mayor who transformed his town, Now following in his political footsteps, Emma Zosima Chan is finishing the job with a leadership style that’s both Sweetand Strong
   The Mayor of Pozorrubio, a small town in Pangasinan, is known for her big smile. Emma Zosima Chan’s broad grin is a signature that not only attracted her husband, former Mayor Artemio “Art” Chan, but also won the hearts of her constituents and investors.
   During Art’s three terms, Pozorrubio, which is Pangasinan’s border town with La Union to the north, grew from a fourth-class municipality with an annual income of P26 million and practically nothing in the coffers, to a prosperous second-class agricultural town grossing P70 million yearly. He built roads and the elegant municipal buildings without any loan.
   When Emma took over, Pozorrubio had become a first-class municipality. Last year, the town was awarded “Best LGU-LGPMS (Local Government Unit-Local Government Performance Management System).”

   Emma says in jest that she’s more effective leader than her husband because of her feminine qualities of nurturing and motherliness, which are the tools of her leadership strategy. Emma’s father, Tong Chui Lim, hailed from Xiamen, China. He married Lourdes Cabarloc and settled in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, working in tobacco trading. During summer, when the Chan siblings were on vacation from school at Uno in Manila, they worked on the family business. No time for socializing. Emma’s husband Art comes from a pure Chinese family, also from Xiamen, who migrated to Pozorrubio and also engaged in tobacco trading. Emma met Art in her future sister-in-law’s house. “I immediately saw her innate goodness, and her ability to adjust and harmonize with others,” recalls Art. After a whirlwind courtship of one month, they were engaged and married, just after Emma earned her commerce degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
   Emma says she played the role of the dutiful Chinese wife, obedient to her husband and her in-laws, and yet she impressed Art with her business savvy and integrity in running their businesses. Aside from tobacco trading, the Chans also ventured into construction, cable service in the province, and beverage leadership.
   One day, then Congressman Amadeo Perez, mayor of another Pangasinan town, Urdaneta, met Art, and was struck by his passion, discipline, and honesty. He broached the idea of Art, a naturalized citizen, running for public office.
“We were one of the biggest taxpayers because of tobacco,” Art recalls. “Yet, despite our hefty payments, nothing happened. I saw how other towns progressed while we were left behind.” So Art took up the challenge and ran for public office. In his three terms, he applied the Chinese no-frills approach to finance management. “I ran it like a businessman, keeping an eye on income and savings,” he says. He cut down unnecessary expenses, making sure that the funds went to projects that benefited the community.
   Over the years, Emma stayed in the background and just looked after the business. She discouraged Art from continuing in politics. However, the Chans were surprised when, at the end of his term, the town’s coffers had P40 million. They felt that the only way they could ensure that the money would be spent on worthy projects was for them to continue holding the purse strings.
   Art urged Emma to continue serving the community. In the last two years of her term, Art has served as administrative consultant, although he says she can run the show by herself, For one, Art’s style intimidated people, while Emma’s sunny personality made her very accessible, and people could easily open up to her.
It’s her fortitude that has enabled Emma to make Pozorrubio a progressive town. “An accountant will attribute that to sound management. We don’t have big factories like the other towns, but we are at par with even the bigger ones,” she says.
   Emma got the Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce to donate 21 public schools classrooms. Her husband provided the remaining balance from his own pocket, just to ensure that education remains a priority. The University of Luzon in Dagupan plans to build an extension. Emma has even wooed an investor to open a big grocery.
   Meanwhile, their eldest Kelvin, 34, is two-term councilor in Pozorrubio. Jansen, 32, handles the Chan’s family beverage trading business. Off hours, the 57 year-old mayor is a doting grandmother to six grandchildren.
   Asked if there has ever been a difficult time for them, Emma stops smiling, and reveals that she went through much grief when her youngest child and only daughter, Kathleen, died of aneurysm in 2005 at the age of 26. She joined Gina de Venecia’s Ina Foundation, a support group for mothers who lost their children.
   With help from grief counselors and her peers, Emma realized that sorrow is a choice. “It’s not the end of the world. And nobody can help you but yourself. That’s when I discovered I had this inner strength.”