Friends and more friends
If you’re looking for me, I can easily be found. Almost every morning, I have three groups of friends I join for coffee. In the afternoon, you can find me SM Telebastagan where my ‘gang’, the SMT(Samahan ng mga Tigasin) meets. It’s one of my bragging rights. If I will gather all my friends I made over the years, it can fill one coliseum. I am an extrovert. I love going out. I love to talk and listen to people. I love breaking bread and drinking with people who share the same passion. Since I was still in my shorts and was a precocious grade school pupil in Porac Elementary School I remember having the most friends among schoolmates. ( Mayaman ako sa kaibigan). And as the years passed and as a teenager starting to grow soft hair on the upper lips I formed a gang called the Archangels and members were mostly coming from our barrio and nearby. So it is so difficult for to be a alone.
Earlier and already in my senior years, I frequent hotel lobby’s, cafes like Starbucks where I leisurely drink my brewed with different friends and acquaintances. Places like Cafe Mesa where I used to hang around with ‘mga playboys na walang girl friends’ and watching those long legged waitresses. In some some days I go to the casinos in Clark and sip coffee with my friend Van Pineda, the guy who has the biggest eggs in all of Minalin. Businessman Joey Son, entrepreneur Raul Aquino aka Steven Seagal and with them I share in many occasions a table at Midori Hotel and two hours of story telling is not even enough. Serious talks when meeting colleagues from Pampanga Press Club and other media persons from other media outlets.
In all my adult years I have several businessmen friends from fellowship groups now known as Wednesday Club and Monday Club. The two groups meet regularly as their days suggest. In Monday Club, members are numbering to more than fifty. Mostly prominent businessmen and professionals. The Monday Club saw its birth in 1992. In the Wednesday Club, which was organized in 2002, these gentlemen will answer the roll call: Jess Nicdao, of Pampanga Chamber of Commerce, Renato ‘Atoy’ De La Cruz, a furniture exporter and infrastructure contractor, lawyer Ernie De Vota, a retired Bureau of Internal Revenue director and former member of the board of Clark Development Corporation, Ferdie Beltran, a successful contractor and owner of several business concerns, retired police General Guillor Eleazar of the PNP, Jaypee Bautista, Bong Tanate, all businessmen from Urdaneta, Pangasinan, Joseph Policarpio, executive of R.D. Policarpio construction firm, former Bacolor mayor and currently provincial Board Member Jun Canlas, ladies man and businessman Martin Vitug, Engineer Rico Guilas,former Capas Mayor TJ Rodrigues, Magalang Mayor Romy Pecson, businessman Eriko Limjoco, retired BIR official Rey Manalili and retired PNP Colonel Pete Retirado.
The list of members in Monday Club is too long because close to one hundred became members and they became my friends. Few are gone now and others are abroad but those who stayed behind we still meet. The likes of senior members the late Fil Del Rosario and Atty Willie Untalan were always the early birds. Before the pandemic, Lupo Apilado, Atty Manolo Feliciano, Angelo Baltazar, Ray Dizon never absented themselves. A roll call today will include Col. Marvin Bolabola, Ariel Jersey, Jimmy Santos, Marlon Marquez, Alvin Alfonso, Orling Magic, Tony De Jesus, Dan Mercado, Ding Tuazon, Ric Balatbat and Rene Tayag and Renato Lingat.
Aside from swapping jokes, drinking our choice of drinks and savoring delightful cuisine, we are once in a while are drawn to serious topics such as politics, economy, geographical issues, etc etc. we disagree and agree later. Try to be friendly. Aside from our families, it is our friends that makes our lives worthwhile.