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Monday, August 21, 2006
Mercado: Paul 'Concon' Laus
By Ram Mercado
YOU cannot really judge a book by its cover as appearances are misleading.
Take this new and aspiring public servant, son of a high profile couple, a leading name in business, entrepreneurship, and community leadership in the province.
On the surface Paul Laus, 34, exudes the personality of shy, introvert-type and distant fellow. In no time at all as "Concon" warms up to the people and engages in discourse, the young man unwraps from a cocoon and shows the real Paul Laus - articulate, engaging, and genuinely outgoing.
Soon one discovers an insight into his person, his manners, and beliefs. In the past elections, he said, he alone in the family went out openly for his friend then board member now Pampanga Governor Mark Lapid whom many Pampangueños thought would not win over his rivals for the governorship.
The young Laus went all the way to support and campaign for Mark Lapid when his friend was the political underdog fighting two highly qualified veterans. Mark saw the quality of Paul's friendship, his principle, and personal conviction.
Thus started their association and alliance, which today is shaping into a political partnership. Paul Laus has yet to make a declaration of intent. By the looks of it, with Concon perpetually in the company of the country's youngest governor, if not acting as his alter ego in formal functions, there is talk of a Mark Lapid-Paul Laus tandem in 2007.
Having mastered political campaigning, Mark takes Paul along in the governor's public appearances and official functions where Concon was given maximum exposure. The business executive, eldest son of Levy and Tess is now getting used to trudge the farmland trails, shake hands with peasants, and endure the heat with his sorties in Mark's company.
Paul is now protégé of the Lapid senator-governor duo, teaching him the ropes, and acting as the wind beneath Concon's wings. "How Paul soars above and explore the heights depends on his determination, his passion and his resources," according to his political officer, Ms. Jessica de Jesus Pangan, former municipal councilor of Apalit, now restaurateur.
Jessica owns the latest food fad in Balibago, the well-patronized "Crave N Chill," a combined ice cream parlor and food house. It was here that Paul treated his friends in media with dinner where the fastidious members wowed with Jessica's roast beef, "carbonara," and "menudo". It is located at the former space of the Rib-Eye Restaurant.
I understand, the place will be the watering hole of friends and associates of the future vice governor of Pampanga.
"Paul's name has been catching public attention in our town," said Mabalacat Water Systems chairman Deng Pangilinan. "If he runs for the position, he would not find it hard winning there."
Chris Navarro, whose omnipresence in community events is the envy of photojournalists, affirmed that "Concon is being received favorably wherever he goes with Gov. Mark."
Jessica is impressed with Paul's adoptability to pressure situations. I learned that he was only 15 when he started working for the family gasoline service station. He was later promoted to warehouseman where he was in charge of stock inventory, supply procurement, and material movement. There he learned the basics of quality control and actual personnel management.
Later he was moved to the position of salesman for an automobile group, developing public relations, promotions, and sales strategies. In 1997, convinced that he had the adequate and tested skills and experience, he was appointed president of one of the leading car dealerships in the region.
Paul admitted a certain restlessness of youthful spirit. After his high school course at the Don Bosco Pampanga, he studied at the San Juan de Letran, Ateneo and PSBA. He found his love of discipline and marketing, then studied the field and finished it at the New Hampshire College in the US in 1994. Not losing sight of a future plan, he is now graduating at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Master in Entrepreneurship.
Will destiny will it? Paul may not be a politician but he has the tools and skills to be one. If Vice Governor Yeng Guiao had made it with his experience in managing a basketball team of not more than 16 players, and in presiding (not too successfully) the Provincial Board comprising 12 (?) members including Louie Rivera, Concon Laus had undergone difficult apprenticeship, manual jobs, and passing the tests as only a disciplinarian father in Levy can subject him - handling various people, directing resources in multimillion-peso campaigns, and selling a car brand in a wide field of stiff competition, successfully at that.
As I said, appearances are misleading. But not to Gov. Mark Lapid who would know a "real" person from a phony. That explains the photos you see of Mark and Paul together in most functions.
(August 21, 2006 issue)
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