CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- A teary-eyed former mayor and 3rd District Representative Oscar “Oca” Rodriguez said that Pampanga has lost “a treasure” in the person of the late businessman Levy P. Laus, stressing that the leadership vacuum left by the visionary leader in the business industry would be hard to fill in.
“He was one of a kind. There is no person in the business industry that could claim to have such a wide influence and can command such great respect. We lost a treasure,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said that he could still not believe that Laus is now gone. For him, it was all so surreal.
Rodriguez had first met Laus during an event in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral when the former was still a human rights lawyer.
“He was an example of how a person from the business sector can be an active member in governance,” Rodriguez said, stressing the late businessman’s participation in the first ever multi-sectoral governance council which Rodriguez started when he was mayor of the City of San Fernando.
Rodriguez said that he called for the governance council to address local problems in education. He added that Laus was the first to heed the call to become part of the governance council.
“That propelled the strong participation of the private sector in governance,” Rodriguez said, adding that people were inspired that people in the business sector were spending time to help the local government.
The former lawmaker added that Laus was also a leading light in the difficult struggle to save Pampanga from lahar devastation in the aftermath of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991.
Laus spearheaded the Save San Fernando Movement, a group of local businessmen and political leaders determined to save this city and the province from lahar inundation. The group's pivotal role in the struggle is celebrated in a coffee table book written collaboratively by local journalists in 2008 titled “Pinatubo: Triumph of the Kapampangan Spirit.”
“He was very active in asking national leaders to help build the dike. It was then when we coined the marching call ‘to dike or to die’ just to impress our desire to really save Pampanga,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez added that many people in Pampanga owe Laus a part of the development that the province enjoys today.
The former lawmaker added that Laus was very active in the issues of the city. He added that Laus had a deep love for the City of San Fernando.
Laus had been instrumental in suggesting the developments in the city like the widening of roads, building of the bridge along Jose Abad Santos Avenue, widening along the North Luzon Expressway sections, among others.
“The name Levy Laus connotes in many consciousness an example of a so-called practitioner of a successful business with a strong corporate social responsibility,” Rodriguez said.