EITHER you will love it or hate it if you’re in my place. This coming local election is giving me a headache and at times triggers my vertigo and sidelines me to bed. Here’s the situation. The possible four contenders in the Angeles City mayoral race are all my friends, close friends at that. And in their hearts they believe I will support him. Him is X.
Irineo ‘Bong’ Alvaro who is now in big business and have enough wealth to sustain a decent campaign is one of the aspirants. He was a colleague in the city council for many years. He was reelected in 1998 when he was one of my council bets in the mayoral elections where Mayor Tarzan Lazatin won. And even when he retired from politics and was one of the top honchos of a locator inside Clark Freeport we never failed to get in touch. As a matter of fact, he surprised me one time when he invited me to join him and then Senate President Koko Pimentel in a four day holiday abroad. All expenses underwritten by him.
In the 2013 elections, I was invited by Pareng Tarzan Lazatin to join his party in his quest to retake city hall. We were only four in his ticket. Me, his son Carmelo Jr. aka Pogi, Lawyer Bryan Nepomuceno and the late Nino Enriquez. Pareng Tarzan lost in that elections but the three of us except the late Enriquez won. It’s in that husting where I developed a close relationship with Pogi and Bryan. Daily bonding on the campaign trail. Endless stories during dinners. Even when we were already part of the council, we three had lunch every Tuesday before the session. I was like a doting uncle to the two.
As a matter of fact, both have good reason to call me ‘uncle’. The three of us have kinship relationship. Bryan’s paternal grandmother, the late Congresswoman Juanita Lumanlan Nepomuceno was my mother’s niece. Pogi married into a Lumanlan family by marrying a granddaughter of Eugenia Lumanlan of Porac. Atsing Genia was my second cousin. The slogan that blood is thicker than water can be a good reason for them to solicit my support. On several issues they never failed to consult me. The two always trusted my judgement. Even when I am already out of the city government the two in many occasions still solicit my opinion. I like them both. They are both worthy public servant with big dreams for Angeles City.
Like Bong Alvaro, Alex Caugiran also won a council seat under my wings in the 1998 elections. He is the consummate and ultimate government worker. His passion for work is boundless. And we spend several years when I was a member of the Clark International Airport Corporation board, and him the executive vice president and chief operating officer. I was with him in many air services negotiations abroad and he was skillful. He may be abrasive the way he talks because his voice is more booming than resonant, but very approachable. May pusong mamon.
It’s one trip to Beijing in China after a day of endless meetings with government officials, we decided to make a trip to the Great Wall. Alex made a slip on the hardened ice and if he fell he could have banged his head on those pointed slabs of stones. A knee jerk reaction on my part with that adrenaline rush, I was able to save him from a possible accident. I told him, ‘pasalamat ka asapu daka nung ali baka mepatad ka’, I remember telling him in jest. There’s a Chinese saying, that ‘if you save one man’s life, you’ll take charge of that life forever’.
Anyone of the four will make a good mayor.