The Beauty Queen
Unbeknownst to most people, but Vice Mayor Menchie Abalos made her public debut as the beauty queen, Carmelita Aguilar, representing Cavite at Binibining Pilipinas 1981.
In a July 20, 2021 Facebook post, Vice Mayor Menchie’s husband, then MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos, shared that he first met her at the Binibining Pilipinas event, where she was a semifinalist. Chairman Benhur shared some never before seen photos of the young and stunning Menchie, much to the delight of many Mandaleños.
Such is the defining quality of Vice Mayor Menchie, always humble and gracious in her successes and achievements to the point that we barely get to read or hear anything about her personal life. Scouring through the Internet and social media will yield very little information about the life of this dynamic public servant, perhaps because for most of her life, she has put others — like her family and the public that she serves — first.
A Simple Probinsyana
Vice Mayor Menchie Abalos was born Carmelita Escio Aguilar on July 2, 1962 in Cavite City. She is the third from the brood of 10 children of Mr. and Mrs. Nestor and Zita Aguilar.
Vice Mayor Menchie spent her basic and secondary education at Cavite National High School and went to San Sebastian College Recoletos – Cavite for her bachelor’s degree before being significantly involved in socio-civic and philanthropic works.
A Doting Wife and Mother
Four years after meeting, Vice Mayor Menchie married Chairman Benhur in 1985, with whom she has six children, namely: identical twins Charisse and Ciara Marie, Benjamin III (“Benjie”), Charlene Marie, Maria Corazon (“Corrine”), and Celine Marie. Her children Charisse and Benjie are also public servants, representing the first and second districts of Mandaluyong in the city council, respectively. The family sadly lost Charisse’s twin, Ciara Marie, in 2005 due to a bacterial infection. Corrine, on the other hand, followed her mother’s footsteps as a beauty queen and joined the Miss Universe Philippines 2021 pageant, where she landed in the Top 10.
Nutrition Champion
Vice Mayor Menchie was the First Lady of Mandaluyong when Chairman Benhur was City Mayor from 1998 to 2004 and from 2007 to 2016. Since 1998 as First Lady, Vice Mayor Menchie has taken up nutrition as one of her core advocacies. She was the City Nutrition Action Officer of Mandaluyong from 1998 up until the end of her husband’s term in 2016.
She was elected as the first-ever national president of the Nutrition Action Officers Association of the Philippines (NAOPA, Inc.) in 2010, and was unanimously reelected for a second term in 2012. She also served as the regional president of the Association of Nutrition Action Officers-National Capital Region (ANAO-NCR, Inc.) from 2012 to 2014 and was reelected to another two-year term in 2014.
Through her unwavering support and stewardship of the City Nutrition Committee, the city achieved the coveted Green Banner Award for three straight years from 2010 to 2012 for its outstanding nutrition program management and implementation.
In 2013, under her leadership, the City of Mandaluyong eventually took home the Consistent Regional Outstanding Winner in Nutrition (CROWN) Award given by the National Nutrition Council (NNC). With the sustainable nutrition-related programs for children that she spearheaded, the city also achieved its 1st Year CROWN Maintenance Award in 2014 and the 2nd Year CROWN Maintenance Award the following year (2015). In 2016, Vice Mayor Menchie led the city towards achieving the highest award in nutrition, the Nutrition Honor Award.
“[Promoting nutrition] was the biggest challenge for me before. I wasn’t a mayor yet, but I focused on it already. I reached out to every barangay. Now, even when you go to depressed areas, you won’t see anyone malnourished. For me, that’s a great [accomplishment] — to see the children healthy and active. You see, when children are healthy, they perform better in school,” Vice Mayor Menchie said in an interview with the United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific website, which featured her story of leadership in June 2021.
Empowering Women Through Leadership
Vice Mayor Menchie served as President of the Kababaihan Kakaiba ng Mandaluyong or KKM, the largest women’s organization in Mandaluyong with around 30,000 members from all walks of life, including mother-residents who actively promote women empowerment through sustainable livelihood projects. Through her initiative, KKM institutionalized projects that provide preventive and curative healthcare for expecting women and their unborn.
She is the driving force behind the active involvement of Mandaluyong City Girl Scouts Chapter, now led by her daughter Councilor Charisse. Nationally, Vice Mayor Menchie serves as the 2nd Vice President for International Participation of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines.
She is also one of the founding pillars of the Samahan Ng Mga Inang Ulila Sa Anak.
An Exemplary Local Chief Executive
In 2016, Vice Mayor Menchie was elected the first female chief executive of the City of Mandaluyong, succeeding her husband with a landslide victory of more than 80% if the popular vote. Now at the very forefront of leading the entire Mandaluyong local government, she brings her own brand of exceptional and nurturing leadership to the table, adding a touch of motherly care to her style of governance.
As mother and boss to thousands of local government employees, she makes sure that their welfare is protected and their peace of mind taken care of. For example, in 2019, after winning her second term as mayor, she signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) implementing the GSIS Financial Assistance Loan (GFAL) program for the 2,371 employees of the city government who are GSIS members.
Vice Mayor Menchie supported the GSIS’ advocacy of protecting local government employees from 5-6 loan sharks and other high-interest money lending schemes that take advantage of cash-strapped government workers and leave them falling deeper into debts. The GFAL made life easier for Mandaluyong employees because of its low interest and longer repayment period that will increase their take-home pay and protect their future retirement benefit
As mayor, she helped Mandaluyong achieve an unprecedented five consecutive Seals of Good Local Governance given by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). Vice Mayor Menchie also garnered the PLDT Bossing Award and Philippines’ Wealth Center Award for two consecutive years. She is als a multi-awarded champion of the Selyo ng Kahusayan sa Serbisyo Publiko Level 4 awarded by the Komisyon Ng Wikang Filipino.
In the middle of the pandemic, Mandaluyong under her watch was recognized as the Regional Winner for the Bayanihan Service Award by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the 2020 National Choice of the Press Resilient Award for its efforts in helping displaced workers during the onslaught of the global health crisis. In 2021 she was conferred with the National Exemplar – People Program of the Year (PPY) Award by the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP).
A Gender Equality Advocate
Aside from nutrition, children’s welfare, and women empowerment, Vice Mayor Menchie has added the promotion of gender equality to her core advocacies, creating priority programs on gender and development in Mandaluyong utilizing the city’s Gender and Development (GAD) fund.
One notable example of putting the GAD fund to good use is by supporting Project TEACH (Therapy, Education, and Assimilation of Children with Handicap), a community-based program of the city intended to assist disabled children and youth coming from indigent families to avail services such as assessment, physical and speech rehabilitation, and special education, among others.
Other programs which are also greatly benefiting from the support received from the GAD fund is the construction of a gender-neutral restroom within the city hall compound in the city’s efforts to promote gender equality, free HIV testing, construction and improvement of barangay day care centers, purchase of related equipment and salaries of additional day care center teachers, and education and continuous capacity development programs for the city’s registered social workers and day care center teachers.
Mandaluyong City’s GAD office also provides capacity development activities to city employees and barangays such as gender sensitivity trainings, seminar on violence against women and children (VAWC) provided to both men and women community members, and trainings for members of LGBTQIA in partnership with OutReach International.
An Outstanding Mandaleña, An Outsanding Filipina
In her own quiet way and without much fanfare, the humble and unassuming Vice Mayor Menchie has uplifted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Mandaleños through her own brand of excellent, exceptional, and exemplary leadership. What distinguishes her best from many local chief executives is her nurturing and motherly nature that is instinctively attuned to the needs of her constituents. With endless endurance and perseverance, she has strived hard to achieve her goals for the city, making sure that Mandaleños get the best care and support that they deserve and bagging awards and recognition as she does it. Mayora Menchie is truly an outstanding Mandaleña and an outstanding Filipina.