Monday, March 24, 2008 Mercado: A hero's welcome for Dong By Ram Mercado First Person
REPRESENTATIVE Dong Gonzales (third district) has received a "hero's welcome" by grateful residents of Barangay Cabalantian (Bacolor) during Holy Wednesday's prayer service and rally of the IBACA Foundation led by Mrs. Lolita O. Hizon.
Gonzales was the special guest-honoree of the group, which espouses the rehabilitation of a once progressive community, which the Pinatubo eruption ravaged in fury. Hundreds of lives were lost, along with incalculable property and public infrastructure buried in that calamity.
It was Ibaca's eighth foundation anniversary, coinciding with the barrio's observance of the feast day of St. Joseph (March 19) and its founder's birthday, March 23.
Profuse expressions of gratitude were heaped on Gonzales from whose congressional funds the Cabalantian road reconstruction was undertaken.
The vital road artery linking the barrio to central areas of the municipality and the outside world via former Gapan-Subic-Olongapo now Jose Abad Santos Avenue, was the first of Gonzales-sponsored projects for Bacolor.
Gonzales is also the author of a marshall-type reconstruction program for the former Spanish capital in Pampanga, called Bacolor Rehabilitation Council (BRC).
BRC is a massive rehabilitation program costing P1 billion, which Gonzales planned to be allocated although various National Government agencies concerned, to be included in their national budgetary appropriations.
Gonzales said President Arroyo encouraged him to sponsor the measure, along with the expressed support from senators who are sympathetic to the province.
With the RBC ushering the full-scale development of Bacolor, the dream of restoring the town to its old glory will be nearing reality.
Rebuilding dislocated lives and devastated infrastructures will be the phoenix rising from the ashes. Dong told Bacolor business-civic and professional leaders after his bill has passed House committee hearings.
Gonzales's warm welcome by Bacolor residents was matched only by the admiration of Central Luzon government officials, formal organizations, and the public at large for his other project.
Dong has achieved another flagship initiative with his sponsorship and unstinted devotion for the approval of the Central Luzon Regional Government Center in Barangay Maimpis, City of San Fernando.
This will be known as Diosdado Macapagal Regional Government Center, a one-stop shop dispensing any and all vital government services for public convenience, accessibility, and savings for transport expenses.
With Ashley Manabat's new vehicle as a common carrier, columnists trooped to Mrs. Hizon's Cabalantian estate to witness the welcome rites for Gonzales, and the Golden Girl's Ibaca foundation in a prayer meeting of thanksgiving and fellowship.
From a distance one could hear evangelical songs, standard warm-up spiritual exercise of Mrs. Hizon's enormous flock before her homily.
When we arrived the members, several hundreds of them seated in a roofed open-air auditorium, were singing a devotional hymn, something like those in revival meetings or worship services.
A choir, with organ accompaniment, led the community singing of praise and exaltation of the Lord. Jun Hizon, the Golden Girl's spouse, seems to know the song by memory. Jun fits a model role of Joseph to Mary.
The hymn ceases, and the star of the hour, the Golden Girl stands up and renders her homily. The flock sits attentively, and you can hear a pin drop as the brethren anticipate the opening statements.
Most attentive of all is Eddie "Quesio Quetal" Aguilar, a preacher on the side and a vitriolic columnist in "Punto". He appears to be in shock and awe as the Golden Girl carries a dramatic sweep of the flock with her impassioned oratory and sometimes-tremulous voice. In rapt attention were reporters Marna D. and Albert L, apparently stunned by the preacher's biblical quotations and perorations.
If you really want to know Mrs. Hizon, you should hear her talk in public. She is a surprise revelation as eloquent preacher considering her background as founder and president of Pampanga's Best, the most popular brand name in meat products.
I am listening to Mrs. Hizon's lecture-sermon-harangue combined especially that portion about a priest "who is a bachelor but the father of child" when poet laureate Aspe Dula comes along and insists on showing me his I.D., which in fact is a press card of a local news and radio group.
I can hear snatches of the narrative the homilist is amusing the crowd with, "the child of an unknown father who is now a public figure. It is the worst deception that a man of God can inflict on the faithful," she says, but Aspe Dula hands me his press I.D. for appreciation and I lost a part when the speaker expected eternal damnation for a dastardly misdeed, she says.
When the Golden Girl gets passionate on a topic she is really hot, her voice loud, clear, and foreboding, as she raises her hand heaven-ward and lets a barrage of verbal wrath, subtle at first, then using figurative language, while quoting the Scripture which bamboozles even our Quesio Quetal, the columnist-preacher.
After letting steam on the bachelor priest, she speaks of love, of God, and His eternal mercy. She makes a life testimony on His goodness, grace, and greatness, and the blessings showered on the Hizon's l2 children and about 50 grandchildren.
Soon trucks of gift packages for the participants will be arriving, and packed lunch, too, as Mrs. Hizon said she does not want to speak before a hungry multitude. Cash gifts to the participants are standard fare for this prayer rally.
"Though I speak with tongues of man and of angel, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal," she quotes I Corinthians (13:1) in Pampango.
She says, "I am not organizing a religion but I am leading people develop their spirituality. I assure Apu Ceto (the archbishop) that I do not intend to establish a cult."
Then she says, "And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand the mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing."
