A heel for a hero

A CONVICTED enemy of the state. He fixed the meeting between Jose Ma. Sison and Bernabe Buscayno, aka Kumander Dante, that led to the establishment of the New People’s Army.

A traitor whose machinations led to the loss of Philippine territory – Sabah – with his orchestrated expose on the Senate floor of the fake Jabidah Massacre.

He was never president of this country.

He was not officially declared a national hero.

So, he was killed at the tarmac. Is that enough reason to name the airport after him?

“Dragon slayer” Atty. Larry Gadon was at his loquacious best at the Kapihan sa Don Facundo media forum in the City of San Fernando Wednesday in reiteration of his arguments for the reversion of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to its old name of Manila International Airport.

“Asshole of the century,” the irrepressible Teddyboy Locsin, Phl’s permanent representative to the United Nations, purportedly twitted in tweets the man who opened the Pandora’s box that ultimately led to the ouster of CJ Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

“(T)he Sphincter of the Ages. Without Ninoy, good-looking Filipino women would be sex slaves of Marcos uniformed goons. And the men would be walking targets. Is there an Anus Mirabilis Award out there to confer on this butthole?” So went the diatribes, characteristically Teddyboy’s. His is the hero to Gadon's heel.  

Gadon though had volumes of signatures to prop up his cause which, he said, he had already filed with Malacanang and the House of Representatives.

The certified Ninoy lover Locsin taking on the unapologetic Marcos loyalist Gadon makes yet another spontaneous combustion of the Marcos-Aquino dichotomy. Which, renews to relevance Macoy or Ninoy that formed Part V of an essay on the “The Hero in History” serialized in my column Ingkung Milio in The Voice from late 1983 to early 1984 – well over 30 years ago, wow! Read on:    

THE IDEAL conclusion of revolutions is the liberation of the people. This liberation can come in various forms: from foreign or home-grown oppressors, from want and fear, from repressions of the basic rights of free speech, press, assembly, etcetera,
Now, if we believe that the ideals started by the Revolution of 1898 were continued and bore fruition in 1972;
If we believe that our people’s liberation was effected by Martial Law;
If we believe that President Marcos assumed all the ideals and aspirations of our people in his declaration of Martial Law;
Then, it is logical to conclude that Marcos is the Filipino Hero in History.
But do we believe in any of those basic premises?
For more than a decade we have been led to believe that everything around us is “the true, the good and the beautiful.” Thanks to the controlled media, we were spared the sordid realities of life in these islands where Asia wears a smile. Thanks to the manipulated press, our vision of this country for that period was constricted by high-rise hotels, networks of superhighways, beautiful edifices. The “development” of the City of Man was simply awe-inspiring, so mind-boggling that we were mesmerized to believe all that emanated from the Palace by the Pasig.
On account of these, and more mind-bending bordering already on mass brainwashing, the general mass developed short-sightedness, rather, a myopic mindset – the people refusing to think beyond Marcos, failing to envision any alternative to the Marcosian thought, seeing impossibility to find any leader other than Marcos.
In a way, the ruling elite’s boast of no-alternative-to-Marcos was more hallowed than hollow. For the Opposition behaves like a bunch of Boy Scouts lost in the woods, each one wanting to take the whole troop to his chosen direction.
There was indeed a great need to unite the Opposition and subsequently form a common front against the regime. This by coming out with an alternative to Marcos. The more important thing though was to convince the people of the soundness of their alternative for their acceptance, and ultimately, support.
The call for national reconciliation by itself would have served as a call to arms. Its enhancement by the martyrdom of its firmest believer and foremost proponent adds the dimension of spirituality to it. By the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, national reconciliation transcended political lines.
To say that Ninoy’s martyrdom awakened the people is an understatement. It would be most fitting to state that Ninoy assumed the role of a political Christ whose Calvary did not only open the eyes of the Filipino people to realities but heightened their senses, strengthened their hearts and firmed up their resolve to attain liberation.
Events consequential to August 21 likewise provided an antithesis to the long-held Marxist thesis of class struggles. The current movement towards freedom, democracy and justice transcends status: plebeians and patricians, workers and capitalists – the traditionally warring factions have united in Ninoy.
All the rallies, political discussions and heightened conscientization of the people point to the direction of Ninoy in the process of being the Filipino Hero in History. Inasmuch as the process has no guarantee of successfully meeting its desired end, i.e. total liberation of the Filipino from oppression as catalyzed by Ninoy’s martyrdom, we cannot at this time say that Ninoy is our Hero in History. A hero in the company of Rizal, Bonifacio, Sakay, Abad Santos, he definitely is already.
Some years from now perhaps, history will pass a definitive judgment on Ninoy. As it shall pass the same on Marcos.
But even at that future time, the basic questions shall remain:
Who woke up the people from their deep slumber?
Who freed the people’s minds from imposed fixations?
Who liberated the Filipino from fear, from silence, from despair?
Who led the Filipinos to think, act Filipino?
Who brought back the dignity of the Filipino before the world?
A lot more are to be asked, Countless questions shall crop up begging for answers. But there shall only be one answer, of two choices: Marcos or Aquino.
Take your pick: Ninoy or Macoy?
I already did.

(A SHORT two years after this piece saw print, EDSA came. And the rest is history. Ninoy’s. And Cory’s. And in the light and aftermath of their son, the BS Aquino III’s presidency, the fulfilment of yet another Marxist prophecy: History repeats itself: first as tragedy, second as farce.)

By kindness (un)governed

ONLY 30 percent of the Shophouse District at the Capital Town development in the City of San Fernando is still open for sale.

So, press released property titan Megaworld of its mega-project in the old site of the now memorialized azucarera of the Pampanga Sugar Development Company, better known as Pasudeco.

Ground has been broken at the site to start construction.

Cited as Megaworld’s first township development in Central and Northern Luzon, the Capital Town will host residential condominiums, mall and

retail developments, office towers, amphitheater, open parks and gardens, and a museum…

The head spins at the magnitude of the development, magnified further by the compact space where it is sited, flood-prone at that, and with but a two-lane road for access. It does not take a prophet to foresee a traffic apocalypse there.   

So, what has Mayor Edwin “EdSa” Santiago to say – no, we are not as yet even asking what the City of San Fernando local government will do – in view of this impending chaos?

Serious inquiry reduced to a rhetorical question, in all probability. As did one we raised when the initial plans for an SM mall where once stood Essel supermarket in Barangay Telabastagan were first publicized.

As indeed the silence of the LGU – translating to inaction – over the traffic issue was not lost – it played out – in the damning cries of the inconvenienced, aye, exasperated motorists and commuters trapped in the carmaggedon that was last week’s opening of SMTB.

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

That was the most audaciously incredible (ir)rationalization…okay, sweet-lemoning of the traffic disorder attendant to the mall’s debut. What has hizzoner’s kindness got to do with this all-too-real instance of failure in proper public administration?         

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

It just hit me now: that was not the first time I heard such acclamation.

When I first ranted about the proliferation of beggars – primarily natives of southern Philippines – along the stretch of Jose Abad Santos Avenue in the vicinity of SM City Pampanga and Robinsons Starmills, that was what someone ejaculated.

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

Sounding now like some responsorial phrase in a litany of woes pervading the capital city…

Tricycles take to the highway not only in gross violation but in utter contempt of the Department of Interior and Local Government circular strictly prohibiting them from there…

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

Jeepneys stop and go at will in total disregard of traffic signals, load and offload passengers where explicitly forbidden, right in full sight of inutile traffic enforcers…

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

The downtown area descending to street anarchy past 6:30 p.m. daily…

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa. 

The San Fernando River, rivulets, creeks, streams, and canals make open, stinking dumpsites and sewers…

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

A spike in crimes not-so-petty like snatching, bukas-kotse, akyat-bahay, motorcycle theft in the city…

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

Why, even when he comes in two-hours late to an event – as in that recent SM-sponsored farmers’ training program in Barangay Maimpis…

Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

Unarguably, no other local chief executive hereabouts, gets as much reverential reference to kindness as Mayor Edwin Santiago.

Indeed, kindness has become him. And him, kindness.

So, I can rave all I wish of the socio-economic and political ills besetting the city, rant all I want of the inertia endemic in the local government, still – Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa.

The Fernandino just doesn’t care even if his city falls way short of its full potential for development and stagnate. Maganaca ya y Mayor EdSa is all that mattered.

That he ran unopposed in his re-election bid in 2016, and stands to be lone contender for the mayorship in 2019 anew speak as much of the political efficacy of Mayor Santiago’s vaunted kindness as of the Fernandino’s standards for leadership which, sadly, falls a third short of the Capampangan’s classic political profile of Anac yang maluca, mayap, at maganaca.

Mayap – good – awanting, still…So, shall I rant more.        

      

            

Time with our fathers

“SO MANY parishes I ministered to in my active years… and nary a parishioner now comes to visit me here.”

The lamentation of the Rev. Msgr. Tiks Ordonez tugs at the heartstrings. It makes one weep, beholding the sunset years of those who labored most in the vineyard of the Lord.

So, the Book says their just rewards are in the eternal hereafter. So, can’t we, those whom they served, at least make their transition to the Pearly Gates at least happier?

Among Tiks is but one of the residents at the Domus Pastorum, Bale Pari in Capampangan, the house for retired priests at the SACOP compound in the City of San Fernando. He, along with the wheelchair-bound Rev. Fr. Rex Diwa, permanently stays there. Even as the others – monsignors and reverends all: Greg Canlas, Eloy Montoya, Resty Cuevas, Pikes Carlos, -- divide their time between Domus and the homes of immediate families – younger siblings, nieces and nephews, mostly.   

Active priests afflicted with health issues also make Domus their home, like the excellent homilist Rev. Fr. Mar Miranda.

The quiet and serenity at the tree-nestled Domus make the perfect retirement paradise – for the monastic hermit. But for the diocesan who spent an active life interacting with congregations in parish after parish, that same paradise is lost in solitary exile.

Hence, Among Tiks own de profundis.

Some 10 years ago, then-Central Luzon tourism director Ronnie Tiotuico initiated regular nights-out with his ‘60s and ‘70s contemporaries at the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary. Food, drinks and the casual, if commercialized, carousing with “outside” companies were the order of those nights.  

In what could only be a sudden epiphany of sorts – happening in the midst of one bacchanalia – someone blurted to Ronnie: Why do we have to spend so much just to sin? Why can’t we channel our resources, ourselves to something more positively good, befitting our seminary formation? Like looking after our former formators?

So, for over four years now, it has become a ministry of sorts for us MGCS ex-seminarians – the good Archbishop Emeritus Paciano B. Aniceto would rather call us “unordained alumni” – to devote some time, at the least once a month, to be with our former formators and retired pastors at the Domus Pastorum.   

It has become de rigueur for our birthdays to be celebrated at the Domus, the celebrator/s hosting sumptuous lunch, oftentimes with Apu Ceto in attendance. On three occasions, Archbishop Dong Lavarias joined us too.

For the past three years, we have had our Christmas parties at Domus, with the usual gift-giving to our dear fathers.

The homecoming of MGCS ex-seminarians from abroad is never complete without a lunch treat at Domus.

Ah, the fun we’ve had: Among Rex ever the star with his Hukabalahap songs and reciting – with gusto -- his favorite poem “Laura.” 

It is not all “satisfying” grace at Domus, there is a bit of sanctifying for us too. A number of us have rediscovered our way to the Sacrament of Reconciliation there. Boiti Portugal and Nestor “Max” Alvarado have since made Among Tiks their confessor. Boss Tayag is still convincing Fr. Carlos to receive his confession by SMS though.

 Alas, with Fr. Mar Ramos having me as the last penitent to confess to him before his death in December last year, I have yet to find a new confessor brave enough to risk hearing my sins and absolving me from them.

On his wake at the small chapel of Domus, it was not just me that noticed the benign smile on Fr. Mar’s face. All’s well, thank you Father.

Two of our Domus fathers had lain in state in that same chapel since we started our ministry – Fr. Jing Jingco and Fr. Andy Serrano.      

On their wake, the forgetfulness – ingratitude would be a very strong word, as priestly service expects no reward but in heaven – of the parishioners they served was most manifestly painful.

But for what remains of their immediate families, brother priests, the very few who remembered, and us ex-seminarians, no other else came to their wakes and internments.  

2018 has been declared as the Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons and we are urged to pray for our pastors, to be with them in their lifelong ministry.

Let this be a good time as any to remember and renew our bonds with our retired fathers as well.

“You just can’t imagine how much happiness you give us whenever you come here.” So, Among Tiks always says before he imparts his blessings to us as we end our day at the Domus.

You just can’t imagine the bliss in our hearts at this parting. With the anticipation of yet another joyous returning.

Suffering our own EDSA

TRAFFIC – THE logjam – as dreaded, did strike the May 18 opening of SM Telabastagan, the Sy conglomerate’s 70^th mall in the country, the fourth in Pampanga, the third in the City of San Fernando -- after SM Downtown, and SM Pampanga which the capital shares with Mexico town.

Nowhere near though was Friday’s jampacked traffic along MacArthur Highway at the San Fernando-Angeles boundary to the ultimate carmaggedon occasioned by the opening of the first real mall north of Manila -- SM City Pampanga in November 2000. That was the day that traffic literally stood still – to as far as the reaches of Lubao town to the west and Arayat to the east at the Olongapo-Gapan Road, the San Simon exit to the south and the San Rafael overpass to the north at the North Luzon Expressway, vortexed on the then single square block mall.

No SM mall opening anywhere else has ever broken that record… of traffic chaos.          

Two days before the opening of SMTB, the City of San Fernando press released and uploaded on its webpage some traffic scheme – purportedly crafted with the assistance of the UP National Center for Transportation Studies – with the purported purpose of avoiding jams and smoothening traffic flow along the area. In the scheme of things that unfolded, it was an epic failure.

For one, they could have provided at the least a pedestrian overpass so both the shoppers and the simply curious on-foot did not have to crisscross every which way mall-ward further stalling the already stalled vehicles.  

So, how many months did it take to build SMTB? So, surely a pedestrian overpass, whether concrete or steel, could have been built and completed well ahead of the mall. No, I am not saying that such overpass makes the total solution to the traffic mess. But it could have helped tremendously.

It just goes to show the absence of foresight not simply afflicting, but actually endemic in, the local government. Everybody knows the come-hither seduction of malls – an SM one, specially – on the people, the Capampangans particularly.

And all the LGU could proffer is its sorry excuse for a traffic scheme confined within a minus-one-kilometer radius of the mall, enough to contain 800 to 1000 assorted vehicles on the four-lane MacArthur Highway.

That’s one heck of a problem even if only the vehicles were passing through. The left-right turns to the circumferential road, to the Essel Park main gate, and ingress-egress to the mall itself – to its parking lot, jeepney and tricycle terminals – further complexed the already complicated traffic reality on the ground.    

ACTDOn’t

And where was the much-publicized Angeles City Traffic Development Office with the road anarchy spreading beyond the San Fernando boundary, abutting to Mount Carmel and the Land Transportation Office?

Rather stupid of me to still ask: They can’t enforce No U-Turn through the stretch of MacArthur Highway – violations happening right under the enforcers’ stubby noses – how expect them to untangle an EDSA-like traffic knot.

“Opening blues,” some wag dismissed it, just like the start of classes. So, talagang magulo.

Meniglo, mebana, ginagad la ring cabalen, quipped another, rather condescendingly, cocksure that in a week or so at most, the road would be back to “normal,” that is moderate-to-heavy-traffic-only-at-rush-hours, principally rising from the daily coming-and-going of some 4,000 workers at nearby Angeles City Industrial Park in Calibutbut, Bacolor.

Yes, the workers are an accepted given; the Capampangan though as hick or hillbilly begs total rejection. Maybe with the first SM mall in the province then, as that most horrendous of traffic displayed. Now, what is there in one more mall to get us mesmerized?

Count now all the malls here. In San Fernando: three SMs, Robinsons Starmills, Walter Mart, Vista Mall, Jumbo Jenra, Jenra-Sindalan, S&R. Throw away Puregold.

God help the Fernandinos once Megaworld’s The Capital Town residential-commercial township gets established where but a two-lane road now exists.   

Angeles City has SM Clark, Newpoint, Nepo Mall, Robinsons, Jenra, and Marquee Mall. Soon to rise: The Infinity central business district.

Lest we forget Mabalacat City with City Mall, S&R, Jenra, Puregold, and Hypermart.     

Arguably, Pampanga has the most number of malls – 20 by our count – of all provinces in the country.  

Rather than enthralled, the hordes that trooped to SMTB’s opening were curious to compare it with the other malls, to “case” it, so to speak. And maybe find where best to hang out and relax.  

Incidentally, early afternoon of that Friday opening, I got caught in traffic exiting NLEx-Angeles – with the start of a week-end sale at Marquee Mall. At SM Clark, I found parking space only at the farthest westward end near Park Inn by Radisson Clark. Going home later, I braved traffic at Dau to get to NLEx and got stuck again exiting San Fernando, the bulk of vehicles at Jose Abad Santos Avenue going to and from SM Pampanga and Robinsons Starmills.

Yeah, the malls are packed, as usual. The day no matter. Traffic about them no more moderate or heavy but snail-paced or standstill.   

Which brings us to wonder now if the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry still cries out as loud to decongest Metro Manila and bring the spoils to Pampanga.

Like we need the concomitant social costs of metropolization – in the Manila context – most manifest in the EDSA traffic as a shot in the head!

Ay, our own EDSA is already much too much a sufferance. This, referencing to the traffic situation in our cities, as much as to our hizzoner.   

 

   

For the record

IN SPORTS, one championship title does not a great team make. In politics – a kind of sports too in more things than one – goes the same way.

Hence, Angeles City’s Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin – four-term congressman, three-term city mayor, newly elected barangay chairman.

Varied as the elective posts Tarzan may have won, he is by no means the only tri-titlist in Pampanga’s political firmament. As a matter of fact there are a few with four.

Tarzan’s own old man, Don Rafael Lazatin was governor, city mayor, and assemblyman in the Marcosian parliamentary experiment that was the Batasang Pambansa. Apung Feleng might even had had a fourth post – councilor when Angeles was still a town, or provincial board member? That was a time though too remote from my birthing for me to be sure. Maybe our seniors in the media, my compare, the erudite Max Sangil or the writer Ram Mercado can clarify us on this.

In vain, shall be taken the name of Don Rafael absent a mention of his bitter – not necessarily better – political rival that was Don Francisco G. Nepomuceno, himself having served as governor, congressman, and city mayor. Max/Ram can likewise enlighten me if Apung Kitong also started his political career as councilor/board member.

His definitely better-half, Juanita L. Nepomuceno, shared equal power as congresswoman, governor, and Batasang Pambansa member.

Their son Francis aka Blueboy was city vice mayor, three-term congressman and city mayor.               

There is much to be proved yet in both families’ third generation dynasts: Bryan Matthew Nepomuceno started as city councilor and is now vice mayor; Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin Jr. is re-elected city councilor; Carmelo “Jonjon” Lazatin II was single-term city councilor but made a spectacular comeback in being elected congressman.

Outside the old lords of the Pampanga political domain, there was Joseller “Yeng” Guiao who served as board member, vice governor and congressman.

And how can we ever forget Manuel “Lito” Lapid – vice governor, governor, senator of the Republic.

Which makes us remember too the bida ng masa’s long-time sidekick, Clayton Olalia – Kabataang Barangay stalwart, councilor, board member, vice governor.

Then, there was Rey B. Aquino of San Fernando – vice mayor, mayor, and congressman. 

Edwin Santiago was unbeatable San Fernando councilor proved himself as unbeatable as vice mayor and ultimately mayor.

Ananias L. Canlas Jr. of Bacolor was variously elected as barangay chairman, vice mayor, mayor, and currently sits as board member.

Teddy C. Tumang of Mexico was barangay chairman, mayor, board member, and has since returned to the mayorship.

Crisostomo C. Garbo of Mabalacat City was councilor, board member, vice mayor, board member again, and now mayor.

Why, Pampanga’s own mother of perpetual assistance, Lilia G. Pineda was Lubao mayor, board member, and governor. If memory serves right, she once served as municipal councilor too.

Ultimately, there is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo – senator, vice president, president, currently congresswoman, and, if talks – both loose and tight—be believed, prime minister in-waiting.

GMA took after her father Diosdado P. Macapagal – congressman, vice president, and president. Not to mention president of the 1971 Constitutional Convention.

Sobra sa bigat, sobra sa timbang. It is readily concluded of the multi-titlist elective officials hereabouts. Like thoroughbreds truly worth their worth in gold – purely idiomatically now, lest some malice be imputed here.

What a waste – to the people – then if they get to serve only in a single post. So, they get elected no matter the loftiness or the lowliness of the position they aspire for.

Like Tarzan, yes. And age never matters in this case.   

 

Vending the vote

FIVE PESOS for every voter is all that is allowed by Comelec rules for candidates to spend in the barangay elections.

What can five measly pesos still buy these days of TRAIN Law and its consequent surge in the prices of just about everything, in the spike in inflation rate?

Yay, even that street urchin knocking on car windows at the intersection of MacArthur Highway and Magalang Ave. in Angeles City would take a five peso coin as an insult to his begging.

Sheer self-delusion of the Comelec to believe its five-peso-per-voter limitation is ever followed. Candidates spend, even only in barangay polls, b y the hundreds of thousands, even millions of pesos. As much for the campaign paraphernalia, as for the direct purchase of votes.        

The vote hereabouts has been so commodified as to be less governed by the law of suffrage as by the law of supply and demand. No need to engage here in the chicken-or-egg causality dilemma: which came first, vote-buying or vote-vending?   

Whichever, vote buy-and-sell is here to stay. And I can only write about it, all judgments, personal and moral, suspended. Thus:

An honest voter, to paraphrase one 19^th century American politician, “is one who, when bought, will stay bought.”

A caveat emptor though is necessary here: What is the warranty given the buyer that whom he/she bought stayed “honest” all the way to the poll precinct?

This becomes all too problematic given the exhortations of pastors: Kunin ang pera, sundin ang konsiyensiya! and Kunin ang pera, iboto ang kursunada! Some scam there, were it not for its moral mooring.

To get their money’s worth, what politicians and their strategists did in the business of vote-buying in manual elections past was to provide carbon paper – along with half of the pay – to the payee which he/she was required to sandwich between the ballot and a piece of paper. That paper was to be presented to the “coordinator” of the payer for the other half of the agreed-upon price for the vote.   

Technology upgraded voting with the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines. So was the carbon paper upgraded to the cell phone. The payee now required to take a photo of his accomplished ballot with his mobile to prove that he/she did his/her part of the bargain.

Pre-election buying of votes has even less guarantees of “honest” returns. If a voter can sell his/her vote to one candidate, what prevents him/her to sell it to the rival candidate? As there are double deals in government contracts for so-called SOPs, so there are double sales of votes.

Indeed, long and loud are the lamentations of losing candidates over the waste of so much money on voters who just (re)sold out to the higher bidder. 

Wise to the ways of “dishonest” voters, a local candidate in the 2010 elections was reported to have corralled the voters that were purchased 30 hours before the elections, providing them with food and accommodations as well as bags of goodies, thereby preventing them from being bought back by the rival.

Before the precincts opened, the quartered voters were herded like sheep to their respected polling places.

Thus, the dictum: Secure, hide what you have purchased, lest they be stolen from you.

In the 2013 campaign, vote-buying was said to have taken a different turn. Voters were asked, in exchange for cash, not anymore to vote for a certain candidate but not to vote at all.

Through honest surveys, a candidate knows the bailiwicks of his/her opponent. It is there that money is widely spent on the rival’s supporters for them not to bother voting anymore. Just to be sure that their money is spent wisely and the bought voter stayed “honest,” indelible ink shall be put on his/her forefinger on election day.

In one town, it was said that the going rate for the no-voter was P1,500. That’s quite a sum compared to the paltry P300 per vote bandied about in one city. Which reminds me of the now lamented, dearly departed Tirso G. Lacanilao, three-term mayor of Apalit.

Campaigning for his second and last re-election, Pogi Lacanilao lambasted – on stage – voters who commodified their ballots, thus: Mababa ko pa uri kesa karing babi. King P300 pisali yu pati kaladuwa yu. Ing babi halaga ne man libu-libo. (You have lesser value than pigs. For P300 you sold your very souls. The pig costs thousands of pesos at least).”

Shame before swine. Awfully shameless.

A consolation for those who don’t buy, who can’t buy, who won’t buy votes: One can only buy so much.

In a tight contest though, that so much can be more than enough to make the difference. Yeah, there’s a bargain sale of votes out there. Voting receipts, or not.

Uncovering CDC honchos

IT WAS a triumvirate of Antonios that ruled and reigned over the then-rising-from-volcanic-ashes former US airbase at the inception of the Clark Development Corp.

Antonio Henson was president of CDC. Antonio Fernando was executive director of the Mount Pinatubo Commission. Jose Antonio Gonzales was lord of Mimosa Leisure Estate – promised to be the single entity that could propel the just declared special economic zone to the very ozone layer of prosperity.

That was 25 years ago. And every CDC honcho since had not, has not escaped scrutiny from media, particularly from this corner – the notable ones, that is. Top-of-mind recall now --

Henson, it was that brought in those duty-free shops (DFS) instantly seen as an anomaly absent an operating airport at Clark. But as quickly becoming the top income-generators at the fledgling ecozone, drawing hordes of shoppers from as far as Metro Manila and Southern Tagalog, Central and Northern Luzon.

At Mimosa, no less that 300 mature hardwood trees, from acacia to narra and apitong were felled to give way to the world-class golf course that hosted for a day then Number 1 Tiger Woods.         

The DFS issue and Mimosa’s “wholesale massacre of trees” sparked the biggest protest demonstrations at the Clark main gate since the time of the Americans, spearheaded by the multi-sectoral Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement.  

To Henson’s credit – moreso to Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor and Director Ronnie Tiotuico, South Korean balloonist Sung Kee Paik, British Airways GM John Emery, and German Max Motschmann – the hot air balloon festival soared from Clark in 1994.

Retired Gen. Romeo S. David initiated the edifice complex at Clark – Mitchell Highway expanded to six lanes, Expo Filipino constructed, being the biggest projects.

Why, even the then-derided “bridge to nowhere” RSD had built connecting Clark’s main zone to its sub-zone in Sacobia is now an all-too-important infra asset to Clark. It was actually in preparation for the development of the sub-zone as a Las Vegas-type entertainment mecca. 

Worthy of his air force wings, RSD presided over the first commercial flight out of the Clark airport – to Hong Kong in 1997.

Capampangan Pamu

The controversy arising from the award of a bus franchise inside the ecozone to a Tagalog firm, to the loss of a local consortium, raised the cry “Capampangan Pamu” – that the locals who suffered most from the Pinatubo eruptions and the US withdrawal from the base be given priority in Clark.

So, RSD heard the cry. So, the Metro Clark Advisory Council comprising the local executives of the contiguous communities to Clark was birthed. Modesty be damned, I did the concept paper of that one.

The fund manager Rufo Colayco’s CDC watch was even shorter than his patron’s – President Joseph Estrada – stay at Malacanang. Bedeviled as he was by a sexual harassment complaint, he nonetheless brought in foreign investments to Clark. Why, he was in one mission in Hong Kong when he was unceremoniously booted out of Clark by Erap.

The high point of Don Rufo’s accomplishment was his eviction of the non-paying Jose Antonio Gonzales from the Mimosa Leisure Estate and CDC taking over its operations. Aye, the mestizo met more than his match in the chinito.

One project most identified with Don Rufo is the Metro Clark Waste Management Sanitary Landfill in Kalangitan, Capas, Tarlac.

Sergio Naguiat’s CDC presidency was essential “endo,” lasting less than six months, if fading memory still serves right. Its high mark – actually abysmal – was the first, and so far, only protest rally ever staged by local media before the CDC corporate offices over coverage restrictions and the badmouthing by a CDC board member.

The first project Atty. Emanuel Y. Angeles announced to media upon his assumption of the CDC presidency was a “giant sundial that can be seen from aerospace.”

Asked by the now lamented Ody Fabian how the sundial could be seen, much less show the hour, at nighttime, EYA nonchalantly responded: “We will surround it with giant lamps.” Ody brought his incredulous laughter to the grave.

SM Clark

EYA proffered the first “aerotropolis” masterplan for Clark, and opened the gates of the ecozone to SM. The latter drawing yet another protest action from PGKM, insisting an “equal playing field” whereby the giant mall be restricted from duty-free import privileges of Clark locators and be subjected to all taxes just like any business venture in the city.

The SM mall by the Clark main gate has since prospered – with even Bayanihan Park thrown into the deal – paying all local taxes and duties. Who was it who said the AUF Professional Building simultaneously rose with SM Clark? 

EYA himself was not spared from scandals – of the sexual but not predatory kind, and some Lamborghini affair – scooped by Fabian’s The Voice which copies routinely disappeared from newsstands soon as they were delivered.

It was also under EYA that the exclusivity of Mimosa Golf to its members was lifted, with the hordes upon hordes of Korean golfers turning the very name of the course to Kimosa.

The shrill cry of Capampangan Pamu reverberated anew at the coming of Cebuano Antonio Ng to the CDC. Quickly dissipated by his vigorous investment missions that snagged Texas Instruments and Daesik Han of the now titanic Widus Hotel and Casino complex that include the soon to open Marriott Hotel, Tower Four, among billion-peso developments.

Ng’s initiatives came to fruition with Levy P. Laus as CDC head. Two unforgettable distinctions, if ever they be called that, impacted LPL’s presidency.

One. The slogan he crafted – “The future of Clark is so bright that you have to wear sunglasses” memorialized in a photograph of the whole CDC Board, vice presidents and managers wearing dark glasses inside the cavernous OTS briefing room.     

Two. The masterplan he advocated: Central Business District (CBD) – a Makati-type development of skycrapers abutting on the Clark aviation complex.

The first laughed at for its “blinded effect” on the CDC management. The second ridiculed with a new meaning for CBD – Car Bonanza Display, playing on LPL’s main line of business that is car dealership; and also denounced for “killing all potentials for the Clark airport.” So, what airline – in its right mind – would ever hub in an airport surrounded by skycrapers?

“GMA thumbs down Clark CBD plan.” So, screamed a Pampanga News headline. So, the paper was unceremoniously closed down, its editor Ashley Manabat forgetting it was owned by LPL himself.

Unequal JMA

A legacy of controversy LPL left at the Clark Freeport is the joint management agreement (JMA) cobbled with Aeta leaders on the use of their ancestral land within the freeport.

The sharing of the spoils, so to speak, at 80-20 in favor of CDC was quickly denounced, notably by then 1^st District Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin who famously asked: “Where in the world would you see the landowner getting the crumbs while the administrator gets the lion’s share of the fruits of the land?”              

To this day, the JMA stands as a bone of contention between the indigenous folk and the CDC.

Much expectations were raised when long-time CDC director Benny Ricafort had his turn at the state-run firm’s presidency.  For all that he may have accomplished, what can be remembered were his “New Frontier” naming of the Clark sub-zone, and the moving of the main gate farther inside the freeport.

Ah yes, that birdbrained proposal – actually started – by the Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority under Mark Lapid of a wakeboarding facility up the mountains of Sacobia, well within the ancestral domain. A disaster in-the-making of the Ormoc landslide proportions verily it was. And was shut down.

Capampangan Pamu yet again sounded at the turn of Felipe Antonio “Ping” Remollo at the CDC helm. Yet again dissipated too when Ping started getting in the investors coming. His impact signature at Clark though was turning the freeport into a sports destination.

Ping endeared himself to the Capampangan with his warm embrace of local culture – he delights in adobong camaru, exhibited the giant lanterns at Clark, befriended the local executives, and recited – with the perfect mekeni diction – the dedication to the Virgen de los Remedios at the time the annual canonical coronation was held in Clark.

To this day, Ping, who has won back his mayoral chair in Dumaguete City, has remained close to the local media.

And then there was Arthur P. Tugade.

His very first day as CDC president was a showcase of curses, publicly shaming employees, and arrogance – all in what he could have considered a mission to shape up the CDC into the image of his “performing, accomplishing, profiting” logistics company.

On hindsight now, Tugade at CDC was a precursor of things to come to the whole country – with his frat brod Rody Duterte.

Irony of ironies, while no other CDC president was ever criticized and lambasted as much as our Tatalonian Toughie, only Tugade was awarded Punto Man of the Year honors!