Dan Lim

Early life

His father is Segundo Soriano Lim, a direct descendant of one of the first three Chinese nationals whose business prospered in Bohol even before the Second World War. Mr. Segundo Lim is still an active member of the city’s business circle. Dan’s mother is Gloria Basa Neri, from Ozamis City. At one time, she took the cudgels as vice mayor of Tagbilaran City and presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

Dan Lim was born on February 11, 1952, and is married to the former Dr. Sharleen Mathay Corral of Makati City. They have three children.

Lim studied at the East Visayan Academy in Cebu City and finished his secondary education at Rafael Palma College (now University of Bohol) in 1968. He enrolled at the Philippine Union College in Caloocan City for his bachelor's degree in political science, which he finished in 1972. He went to Dumaguete City and enrolled at Silliman University for his Bachelor of Laws. He graduated in 1977 and passed the bar that same year.

Lim joined the faculty of Philippine Union College the following year, where he taught Philippine Constitution, political science, and negotiable instrument as a part-timer. Simultaneously he accepted the offer of Assemblyman Liliano Basa Neri of Region 10 as his chief of staff. Then he joined Goco, Neri, Bucero, Primisias Law Office, where later he became a partner replacing Atty. Neri. Atty. Lim is a member of Law Asia, an association of lawyers all over the Asian countries. He was also the chief of staff of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines before Atty. Liliano Neri became an assemblyman.

Political career

In 1980 he came back to Tagbilaran and became a councilor for six years. In 1986, when Corazon Aquino became president after the EDSA People Power Revolution, he was appointed OIC Mayor of Tagbilaran City. From 1988 to 1992, when Jose Ma. Rocha became Mayor he was the City Administrator. It was during this time that Tagbilaran was given national acceptance in a privilege speech by Senator Juan Flavier, making the Tagbilaran City Cooperative Hospital a model in the country.

Lim has his share of political defeats, losing in his congressional bid and then losing to Jose V. Torralba twice for mayor, the last time in 2001. His time came in 2004 when he defeated Betty Torralba, the wife of last-termer Mayor Jose V. Torralba, for mayor of Tagbilaran. Lim won together with only one councilor in his lineup.

In his first term, Mayor Lim prioritized social services by introducing the Blue Card System, a free hospitalization program for indigents; Free School Supplies and Uniforms Project for Public School Students; Botika sa Katawhan, a free medicine program for all residents; promotion of sports like boxing, student welfare, livelihood, among others. Lim reached out to the masses by interacting with them through the top-rated weekly Mayor's Report over a local radio station.

In the local elections of 2007, Mayor Lim won again by defeating the returning Jose V. Torralba for mayor by a wide margin, and this time also winning the majority of councilors in his lineup. In his second term, he continued all his projects adding other projects like senior citizens' privileges, police visibility, among others.

Mayor Lim tossed his hat in for reelection for a third and final term in 2010 together with former Vice Mayor Nuevas Tirol-Montes as his running mate along with a complete 10-man councilor slate under the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) Party. He won his third term and left office in 2013.