He first made it to the public’s consciousness by being the energetic traffic reporter of a popular morning show, which he eventually hosted.  Little did everyone know that this amiable on-cam personality will be the one to subsequently have to manage one of the most traffic laden areas around the Metro and even lead it to a path of sustainable growth and progress.
  
Ramon “Mon” Ilagan started his illustrious broadcasting career as a Producer/Announcer of Radio Veritas in 1979.  Shifting to television in the early 1990s as a reporter for IBC13, he managed to rise from the ranks until he moved to ABS-CBN News in 1992 as a senior correspondent and anchor.  His transfer to the recognized industry leader at that time both opened new doors of opportunities and proved to be a challenge to the young broadcaster who then focused on carving a credible and respectable name in the television industry.  He succeeded in doing so, for he ultimately was assigned to cover the biggest international events of his time, bringing him to such foreign locations as Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan and the United States.  Over and above that, he established his credibility further by bagging prestigious awards such as REPORTER OF THE YEAR (1997); and the STAR AWARDS – BEST MORNING SHOW HOST twice (2001 and 2003), for “Alas Singko Y Media” and “Magandang Umaga Bayan,” respectively.   Mon Ilagan was also once a part of the academe, as professor for News Casting at the ABS-CBN Center for Communication Arts, Inc.  After 25 years in the broadcasting industry, he decided it was time to move on and concretize further the public service he has been extending to his audiences.  In 2004, he decided to run for public office and put an end to a 58-year dynasty in Cainta, where he convincingly won the mayoralty race in his first attempt!  Since assuming his post and up until now—after winning his second term, Mon Ilagan (or simply MI to his constituents) has been advocating public service accessibility by launching countless of campaigns that directly benefited residents of Cainta.  More than the usual infrastructures that other public servants before him were able to build, he was the first and only municipal leader of Cainta who was able to launch a service caravan that has reached most of the area’s poorest of the poor.  Proof to his unquestionable management prowess, Mayor Ilagan was also able to transform Cainta into the most prosperous municipality in the entire Rizal province and also among the country’s richest, based on the Commission on Audit’s latest report.  From reporting on traffic to actually managing it to transforming lives, Mon Ilagan has really gone a long way.  And from the looks of it, he sure seems bound to go higher up.

Mon Ilagan is a AB Communication Arts graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, where he also took up his MA in Advertising.  He was a recipient of the Rotary Club International Foundation’s Group Study Exchange Program, which afforded him a scholarship to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London.
He is also the Secretary General of the Rizal Mayors League. And he is the newest member of the Rotary Club of Suburban East Rizal…