Shanghai's Meng, media patron

SHOCKED TO learn today May 3 – World Press Freedom Day, at that – that a patron of Pampanga media for the longest time has passed, last Saturday yet and, per his wishes, immediately cremated, with no public viewing of even the urn that contained his ashes.

William Gonzales Kwong, known to all as Meng, was the owner of Shanghai De Luxe Restaurant, unarguably the best in Chinese cuisine in Angeles City if not everywhere north of Binondo.

It was out of Meng’s genuine friendship with the local media that Shanghai became an integral part of the history of Pampanga journalism. In remembrance of Meng, here is but a footnote of that history in Chapter 2 of my book Of the Press (1999) under the sub-head News Factory. 

OF ALL the workplaces the Pampanga Press Club had, none can compare to Shanghai De Luxe Restaurant in Balibago, Angeles City.

The PPC sequestered for the exclusive use of its members the roundtable nearest the counter, the telephone, and the toilets. This, of course, with the concurrence of owner William “Meng” Kwong who also provided free coffee for the group and made the boys the “official food tasters” for new recipes his chefs whipped up.

With Shanghai mayordoma Pards’ Cris Villanueva, the boys never got hungry even when penniless which was more often than not. The usual “employees’ meal” of spare ribs sinigang and fired chicken necks and wings made truly filling free lunch and dinner. Then, for little cash, there was a “newsman’s meal” of Shanghai fried chicken, kangkong and squid in Chinese bagoong and steamed rice.  

An added bonus from Shanghai for the red-blooded macho newsmen were its beautiful food servers and singers. Lest I incriminate my peers, not to mention myself, I shall keep my quiet here. Pero sino nga ba ang nagka-girlfriend ng dalawang singers? Sino yung nakakuha doon sa Miss Angeles City runner-up? Sino ang nagkaribal doon kay Tess, a Sunshine Cruz look-alike? Sino ang nagwala nung nakitang naka-baht chain nanggaling sa Tsinoy yung kanyang nililigawan? Sino ang nahuli ng asawa doon sa Lovers’ Lane?

Open 24 hours, Shanghai made the ideal newsman’s watering hole. Developing stories especially at the time of the American killings in October 1987 found their way in the wee hours at Shanghai. Overnight vigils during those anti-US demonstrations at Clark were made pleasant with congee and hot-and-sour soups at the PPC roundtable. And no corkage was ever charged for the wine and liquor friends of the PPC regularly brought for the boys.

Manila-based newsmen, notably Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Ramon Tulfo and PTV-4’s Cesar Carpio, television news crews and even foreign correspondents wanting to do stories or documentaries on the city and the region also called on the boys at Shanghai for briefings and assistance. Susan Kreifels of the Pacific Stars & Stripes set her homebase at Shanghai.

The eeriest story out of the PPC’s Shanghai years came from the restaurant’s jukebox. There was this plaintive dirge-sounding song which title we could not anymore remember. Every time the song was played, a killing in Angeles took place. It was Jack “The Horse” Tongol, Meng Kwong’s general utility man, that made the frightening discovery. He had the jukebox play the song before us once for three consecutive days. Three killings were recorded in those three days. The record was promptly taken out of the jukebox to never play again after more than 40 died in the May-June 1988 “festival of killings” in the city. Needless to say, that song was played out daily throughout that stretch.

The earliest discussions on the alternative uses for the Clark Air Base – from airport to industrial zone to food basket for the region – germinated from the media roundtable at Shanghai with Rep. Tarzan Lazatin (1^st District-Pampanga) intently listening and exchanging ideas with the boys, the most vocal of whom was Sonny Lopez. It was this standpoint of Sonny on an American-abandoned-Clark scenario at the height of Uncle Sam’s affair with the city that really buried him in the local elections of 1988.

Soon after, the bases conversion discussions on the national legislative-executive levels gained ground with Gov. Bren Z. Guiao, Mang Tarzan, the local government units and private sectors of Angeles, Porac and Mabalacat, Ody Fabian and, of course, Sonny taking active part. From here came the birthing of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority and the Clark Development Corp.    

Spending more time with their peers than with their respective families daily – routinely from 10 AM to past 12 midnight – engendered greater solidarity among the members of the PPC.

It was from Shanghai that emanated the PPC condemnations against threats to press freedom in any part of the country, the PPC persona non grata resolutions against a number of individuals deemed unfit to be in Pampanga, the PPC denunciations of the “White Trash from Down Under” for abusing Filipinas.

So closely identified was the PPC with Shanghai that it suffered its own death throes when the restaurant burned down during the Mount Pinatubo eruptions of June 15, 1991.

Alternative “Shanghais” were sought out in Mar’s, City Lunch, and Peking House. But after a meeting or two, none was found anywhere near Shanghai…

…The PPC found itself adrift for some four years and never fully recovered to its Shanghai-era closeness even after the restaurant reopened in 1995. The Shanghai phase of the PPC story was simply too good to last. But it was best while it lasted.