Daisy Sayangda, the Mayor of Santol, Philippines, and Robert Opena, law enforcement officer, visited EmpowerLA on Thursday to learn more about how our department works and to bring back ideas to Santol. Sayangda is trying to set up a Community Engagement Department in her municipality. She was particularly interested in how EmpowerLA trains our Neighborhood Council members to work with the government, and how we train citizens to run for Council positions. “Neighborhood Councils are a great bottom-up service to the community [and] great training grounds for future politicians,” Sayanda said.