FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


A QUICK TRIP TO CABANATUAN CITY, NUEVA ECIJA


The Bible says “all things work together for good to them that love God…”

Well, I’ll say emphatically I do love God, my Creator. So my losing in the last congressional elections for the second time was good for me. God knows best.

It was good because I found time to take care of the land I inherited from my late father, Gonzalo J. Policarpio, Sr. of Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. As a footnote to my father’s first government job, he was the Civil Registrar of Cabanatuan City when the Japanese invaded the Philippines during the second world war. I was only a few months old. To add color to his shortened stint at that job, he officiated at the emergency wedding of the late Sen. Hermogenes Concepcion, Sr. to his second wife.

For almost a month away back home in the Philippines, I spent my time with my only living brother, Conrado, nephews and nieces from my deceased siblings examining land titles some of which apparently have been mysteriously transferred from my father’s name to that of another person. We also agreed to develop more than a hectare of land in Sumacab and turn it into a Policarpio Manor as a tribute to my late father Gonzalo and late grandfather Julio. We still have to petition the Department of Education to rename the Talipapa Elementary School after my grandfather Julio who donated the land.

I visited the mausoleum of my late brother-in-law, Cecilio T. Marcelo, who was married to my eldest sister Felicisima. My sister passed away long time ago. It was located at the spacious Baliwag Memorial Park in Bulacan that he owned. He also left to his second wife and children an educational legacy - the St. Joseph Academy of Candaba, Pampanga that he founded. He is an example of a Filipino who accumulated lots of assets and wealth through hard work and sound investments and not through corruption.

On Valentine’s Day, I hosted a get-together party held at Aberdeen Court in Makati to assemble most of my nephews and grandnephews and nieces and grandnieces to meet and know each other. I learned that they have never met since their childhood days. I never thought MetroManila is too big for them.

Now they know that one of them owns a fleet of 250 taxicabs called EFE. Now they know that they have an Uncle who ran for the U.S. Congress and lost twice and another Uncle who is retiring from the Court of Appeals this coming May at age 70. His name is Edgardo P. Cruz, said by the media to belong to the group of four Court of Appeals justices who are not corrupt.

In another occasion at Serendra I where my son Jason and his wife Mariliz took over the condo unit they bought, a relative of Mariliz who teaches piano in Quezon City proudly posed with me in a picture taking. She said she will tell her friends that she met the father-in-law of Rowena Arrieta who is married to Jason’s elder brother Jonathan. I never thought that Weenie is still a big star in the Philippines. It’s time to hold another concert in Manila.

End