"A KITE will not rise high if not raced against a strong wind." I love this quote from Sir Winston Churchill, former prime minister of England. In my Tuesday article about the gentleman from Porac, Senator Manuel "Lito" Lapid, I traced his humble beginnings and hardships in his early life. He never had a college schooling, yet became governor and senator. Orphaned at age two, he dug ditches on low budgeted municipal projects, sold pandesal at the crack of dawn, was a truck helper and built his muscles and character on humbling jobs.
His biggest break was when he starred in a lead role in The Jess Lapid Story. It was a movie depicting the life story of his uncle Jess Lapid who was killed in a night club In Quezon City. It wasn't not easy for Lito the years before the Jess Lapid Story. He tagged along with his elder brother Rey who was a cinematographer for Premiere Productions and other independent film outfits. He was faceless as a crowd extra in some movies where his Kuya Rey was the cameraman. To hone his skills as a stuntman like his late father, he joined the practice of Totoy Torrente's SOS daredevil group. He started having a good body and developed six pack abs and that became of good use in the movies. All the time he was dreaming to be a big star someday.
And that dream came true when in one movie he was cast in a starring role by Jessie Chua a film producer of an independent studio. Chua was smitten by the good looks of the young Lapid. The gossip columns of tabloids were suggesting that they were an item. The succeeding years Lapid appeared in many memorable movies like Leon Guerrero, Pedro Tunasan, Julio Valiente and Ben Tumbling. All of these were box office hits. In show business it is so common that an actor with stature will be linked with his leading ladies, and Lapid was no exception. The tabloids feasted on his relationship with actress model Melanie Marquez and beauty queen Azenith Briones.
The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo In 1991 was another turning point in Lapid's success. Pampanga was blanketed with ash and destructive lahar was cascading and destroying everything in its path. People were sheltered on evacuation centers. Lapid opened his poultry farm in Porac and gave chicken and eggs to hungry families. He braved onrushing lahar flows and picked stranded people and crossed river channels to save them. These events were caught on cameras and were shown on television nightly news. Expectedly people wanted him to run for public office. He did so in 1992 and got elected as vice governor.
There was no stopping in his political success. He breezed through in defeating incumbent Governor Bren Z. Guiao in the local elections of 1995. He served three terms. And in 2004 he was elected senator of the republic. To recall, during the impeachment trial of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, Lapid when he explained his vote he was the only senator who spoke without a script. He spoke in Filipino which the national audience understood. He didn't spend much minutes and admitted he would not quoting any republic act "because if I will, people won't believe me." He only finished high school in 1972. By the way, his vote in that trial got the highest tweet on social media.
Fast forward, thanks to Coco Martin he was cast in the long running TV series "Ang Probinsiyano" and he emerged again in the limelight. That series sent him back to the upper chamber. It was a long way from Porac to the august chamber of the Philippine Senate, but Lapid galloped his way through. It was almost like a fairytale.