Monday, April 28, 2008 Rama: Seasoned some more By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
WORKING with guns since he was a teenager, Mario “U-Mars” Abangan is a legend within Cebu’s shooting community.
This very affable and self-effacing man maintains the guns of many gun owners—competitive shooter and law enforcement officer alike.
He is, in fact, the official gunsmith of the Cebu City Government.
Policemen bring dead government-issued revolvers, pistols or rifles to his repair shop along 34-B Buhisan Road in Barangay Punta Princesa and he brings them back to life, cost charged to City Hall’s tab.
His innovative nature was put to good use by a company called FerFrans Specialties when it got awarded the government contract of refurbishing old M16 rifles donated to the Philippine National Police by the Armed Forces.
Some of these old M16s are in Cebu City, being carried by members of elite forces like the Special Weapons and Tactics Team (Swat). They are not as good as new. With the modifications he’s introduced, they are even better than before.
Last I checked, he was tinkering with gas pistons to replace the gas tube system on the standard M16.
Foreign companies have made the concept work but charge an arm and two legs for guns with the modification. If there is anybody who can make it available for the local law enforcement sector, it is going to be him.
U-Mars learned his craft while working in his uncle’s gun repair shop in Mandaue City. This was in the 1950s. He was sending himself through high school with dreams of becoming an auto mechanic.
He ran errands, did simple machining procedures and carved pistol grips for the shop’s gunsmiths, all the while watching them work.
He didn’t realize how much he’d learned from simply watching until he picked up a 1911 frame that other gunsmiths had cast aside.
He then began scrounging the shop for discarded parts and made them fit the frame. Then, buying a slide and barrel assembly for the hefty price of P80, he assembled a gun for himself.
He was 23.
With dreams of becoming a car mechanic now concretely replaced with becoming the best gunsmith in the block, he continued working in his uncle’s gun shop until he earned the moniker “Mario 45.”
It was a name customers gave because he could fix problems in the .45 cal. semi-auto that other gunsmiths couldn’t.
He stopped working with guns in 1972 when the shop closed because of Martial Law.
Married and with a child on the way, he bounced from one job to another until the shop reopened in 1974 after getting a contract from the Ministry of Defense, now the Department of Defense, to manufacture rifle barrels for M1 Garand, M1 carbine and .45 pistols.
When the shop closed again in 1977 because of labor problems, he found himself in Manila where Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco was recruiting workers for a shop the politician-tycoon wanted to open.
U-Mars joined a training facilitated by the legendary Armand Swenson, the father of the “ambidextrous safety” for the nineteen-eleven.
He said he was supposed to go to the US but decided to stay because he didn’t want to miss his wife and children.
U-Mars returned to Cebu and worked in a rattan factory when Douglas Luym, a friend of Cojuangco, called him up to fix something.
Luym was a gun aficionado who appreciated Abangan’s craftsmanship. He had a workshop put up inside his factory for U-Mars’ use.
The businessman ended up helping Abangan put up his own shop. And the rest, as they say, is history.
I missed the grand party owing to a seminar the wifey and I gave to a group of young leaders in Bogo City. Nevertheless, Saturday was a red-letter day for one of Cebu’s best gunsmiths, his family and friends.
Mario “U-Mars” Abangan turned 67 last April 26. He isn’t getting older, he just seasoned some more.
