A TRUE-BLUE public servant, an icon of Cebu City’s Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), and an intelligent boss who treats his employees with utmost respect are among the accolades given by colleagues and barangay employees to Punta Barangay Captain Jose Navarro, who passed on yesterday.
Navarro, 73, succumbed yesterday to complications brought about by liver cancer, which had been ailing him for quite some time.
Navarro was also described as the father of Barangay Punta Princesa since he had served the barangay as a barangay councilor or a barangay captain since 1962.
Cebu City Councilor Jose Daluz III and his other Team Rama allies said that Navarro was a “true blue” public servant, citing his 54 years as a public servant to the barangay.
To his family, however, Navarro was a loving father to his wife, Clemencia, and five children, who are now professionals.
The present ABC president, Tisa Barangay Captain Philip Zafra, said the ABC was saddened by Navarro’s passing.
“Ang tibuok ABC ug mga kapitan masulob-on sa pagtaliwan ni Kap Jose kay mahulog man siya nga icon sa mga kapitan. Supportive kaayo ug maayo mogiya especially sa mga bag-o nga barangay officials (The whole ABC and barangay captains are grieving because he was an icon of the barangay captains. He was very supportive and provided good guidance especially to new barangay officials),” Zafra said.
Navarro was a Bank of Philippine Islands manager when he heeded the call of public service by becoming a barangay councilor in 1962 and a barangay captain of Punta Princesa in 1972. He had since then served as a barangay councilor and a barangay captain.
For, Ambrosia Yanong, Navarro’s barangay secretary since 1994, Navarro his barangay constituents called as Kap Joe was the boss in her life.
“I only had two bosses in my life because I always choose a boss who is intelligent and treats his employees with utmost respect, and that was who Kap Joe was,” Yanong said in Cebuano.
Yanong said that despite the cancer, Navarro still performed his job well — both mentally and physically.
She said that he served even at the last moment that he could and, in fact, he even scheduled a special session for the barangay council yesterday if he had not passed on.
One the legacies that Navarro left the barangay, Yanong said, was the monetization of leave credits to the barangay workers.
This was later adopted by other barangays.
“Thank you, Kap Joe, sa imong mga serbisyo sa mga Sugbuanon (Thank you, Kap Joe, for the services you have rendered for Cebuanos),” Daluz said.
Navarro’s remains lie at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes./USJ-R Intern Dafne N. Wenceslao
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