Following the footsteps of his father who was elected as the fourth mayor of Marikina, Bayani Fernando was elected its ninth mayor in 1992 and is credited with having transformed what was formerly a fourth-class municipality into one of the best-managed cities in the metropolis. He carried on with being an advocate for transformation when he served as chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority from 2002 to 2009. When he passed away at the age of 77 last week, he was hailed as a role model in good governance.
After obtaining a mechanical engineering degree, he founded his own construction company, BF Corporation, that built many notable landmark structures, and participated, too, in major government infrastructure projects. He brought to local governance the disciplines of project management in infrastructure construction.
It was during his stint as MMDA chairman that he gained national prominence. He launched the Metro Gwapo campaign to clean up the metropolis, focusing on the need to protect and beautify public spaces. He waged a determined campaign to clear and clean sidewalks, using pink as a theme color representing the goal of creating a healthy environment.
To address the perennial traffic problems along major thoroughfares, he introduced U-turn slots and rapid bus lanes; increased the number of pedestrian overpasses, called footbridges, at intersections; conducted sidewalk clearing operations that were covered by radio-TV broadcast crews; and augmented the mobile facilities of the MMDA. His former associates described him as “a workaholic and disciplinarian.” In fine, his governance imprint became the template for those who succeeded him in a position that has been conferred Cabinet rank.
He returned to private life after an unsuccessful run for vice president in the 2010 national elections, then resumed public service as representative of Marikina City’s first district for two terms, from 2016 to 2022. Interviewed before the 2022 elections in which he made an unsuccessful attempt to regain City Hall, he emphasized the need for mounting a major flood control project that would protect Marikina and the rest of the metropolis from massive flooding.
He has been honored with The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award for Government Service by the Philippine Jaycees, and honorary doctorate degrees in public administration and humanities by the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Cagayan, and Central Colleges of the Philippines.
He has been commended for living up to his name Bayani as a “worthy people’s leader, with ambition and vision for the country.” He was admired principally for being a purposive, out-of-the-box problem solver, and for his wit and humor. His gritty and strict governance style polarized public reaction — but even his critics conceded that he got the job done.
His widow, the former Marides Carlos, who succeeded him as Marikina city mayor, extolled him as “a man of vision, political will and action…and as a family man, he will be greatly missed as a loving husband, father and grandfather.”