Remembering Mayor Borja

A. Paulita Roa

OCTOBER 3, 2017 marked the 53rd death anniversary of Mayor Justiniano R. Borja, the first elected City Mayor of Cagayan de Oro. He was so well-loved by his constituents that his was the biggest funeral that the city ever witnessed even to this day. A bronze statue of the Mayor sculpted by National Artist Napoleon Abueva now stands in the middle of Plaza Divisoria as a memorial in honor of what Kagay-anons still consider as the best Mayor Cagayan de Oro ever had. Today, he is remembered by a major street that bears his name –the JR Borja St. that should be renamed the JR Borja Avenue for it is now a long thoroughfare that now is further extended to the fairly new JR Borja Bridge. The bridge connects District II to Barangay Carmen where the JR Borja Memorial Hospital is located — all these formed part of the city’s public memory of the Mayor. On his death anniversary, let us take the time to remember who he was and the great things that he has done for our city.

Justiniano Romulo Borja was born to  Judge Candelario Borja and his wife, the former Consuelo Dancel. He finished his secondary education at the Misamis Oriental High School and took up law at the University of the Philippines, passing the bar with high marks. He married Dulce Roa Valdehuesa at the onset of World War II. During the war, he was appointed by Col. Wilson as Justice of the Peace or the Juez de Paz under the guerrilla government of Mindanao with the authority to solemnize marriages. After the war, he was a practicing attorney in Cagayan and taught at the College of Law in Ateneo de Cagayan where his father-in-law, Judge Jose Valdehuesa was the dean. In 1954, President Ramon Magsaysay appointed him as Mayor of the newly chartered City of Cagayan de Oro. A few months later, he ran and won the mayoral elections and has the distinction of being the first elected City Mayor.

In 1957, Mayor Borja accepted on behalf of the City Government, a donation from the Chaves family of a big tract of land that was part of their coconut farm in an area known as “Cogon.” It was just in the outskirts of the city. Because he was a visionary and thought outside of the box, the Mayor saw the donated land as the perfect area to move the old public market and the bus station that were located in Divisoria. He constructed a sprawling concrete public market complex in what his critics called the “cogon land.” The new public market was inaugurated by President Carlos P. Garcia in 1958. In less than three years, this area grew and became the major commercial district of the city even to this day.

Mayor Borja then focused on the central section of the city known to all as Divisoria where the old public market and the bus station were located. He converted the middle portion to six mini-parks complete with greenery and fountains. Starting with the old fish and meat section along Burgos St., he built the Community Amphitheater whose design was patterned after the famous Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. Most of the funds for the construction came from the money generated from the Miss Cagayan de Oro contests and from the local citizenry. For decades, the “Amphi” as it was popularly known, became the center of all major political and cultural events of the city.

He gave the poblacion of the city a major facelift and the transformation of the Divisoria area that was once a dreary and shabby landscape, gave the Kagay-anons a sense of pride of place. For Gaston Park, the old plaza of the city during the Spanish colonial era, the mayor changed the contour of the park to a circular form and placed the jet fountains in the middle. He did this so that the fountain can be viewed in all angles and Palawan cherry trees were planted in the periphery. A big part of the funds came from the people and it was the last beautification project of the Mayor for the city.

In 1962, President Diosdado Macapagal appointed Mayor Borja as head of the newly created Mindanao Development Authority. Thereupon, he was invited by the State Department to go on a six-month study and observation tour in several cities in the United States. He came home raring to implement many things that he learned while in America and it is to his credit that today, Cagayan de Oro is one of the best cities in Mindanao terms of urban planning, zoning and development.

In 1963, Mrs. Carmen Roa Villarin and her sister, Consuelo Roa Almario donated to the city a big piece of land in Carmen and this was where Mayor Borja constructed the City Hospital that was named in his honor after his death. He had long envisioned it to provide adequate medical services to the poor. On that same year, Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan conferred him an Honorary Doctorate in Public Administration, referring to his style of governance as “…the germination and flowering within the citizenry of a genuine spirit of democratic judgment. His honor, the Mayor, has given luminous testimony that he governs best who knows the party, acknowledges the crowd, understands the issue and decides for the person.”

Former City Mayor Reuben R. Canoy who worked closely with the Mayor described him as a “no-nonsense man of action and dynamism who could not seem to stand still as long as something needed to be done for the city. Working 18 hours a day, he learned the mechanics of local government and the intricacies of grassroots politics, eliminated graft and patronage of ward politicians at City Hall, overhauled the police department, weeding out misfits and crooks from its ranks, waged an all-out war against criminality and vandalism, hauling even the spoiled teenaged sons and scions of prominent families and high officials — all these on the first few months of his administration. In his 10-year tenure as Mayor, his pace never slackened. He was not your typical backslapping, glad-handling politician. Glum faced and reticent, with a mien that was often described as ‘Viernes Santo,’ he projected a tough exterior. He was a caustic wit and his speeches and remarks were littered with tongue-in-cheek comments that were often irreverent.”

Mayor Justiniano R. Borja died on Oct. 3, 1964 while on an official trip in Manila. He was then 52 years of age and was in the middle of his third consecutive term as City Mayor. Canoy paid tribute to his predecessor as “one of those improbable figures in government — a dedicated public servant.” And borrowing a line from the citation given to him by Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, Mayor Borja was “a palpable portrait of sterling public administration, a ready frame of reference by which to measure the dimensions of public petitioners for public office.” The foundation of good governance, integrity and selfless dedication that the Mayor laid through his decade-long service to the city has made Cagayan de Oro one of the leading cities in this country. Rest in peace, Mayor Borja — Kagay-anons will forever be grateful for what you have done to our beloved city for many generations to come!