Dagupan is Disneyland

By Jun Velasco

MAYOR Al Fernandez  is under siege.

For crafting Dagupan City into a veritable  Disneyland — what with  the fiesta  galore,  colorful  buntings on every street , the boom-boom sound, the  lilting music  — from  the poblacion to  the outskirts, the  non-stop activities with  the very popular  Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez directing the extravaganza —  it’s likely natives and visitors of Nandarugapan won’t simply allow  this  downpour  of  gaiety and pleasure  to go without an assurance from the  mayor  of  its  comeback,   in all  splendor,  that is, like say, having it institutionalized as an integral part  of the Dagupan milieu and psyche.

 Many thought, and rightly so, that the big hoopla began with then Mayor Benjie Lim. 

Well, credit him with mind engineering, so to speak, such as the enthronement of bangus as a world celebrity when he rallied the boys and gals to include the bangus in the Guinness Book of Records, and did it. Salute Benjie, the compleat marketing guru, for that.

But in fairness, the whole concept, the day-by-day, blow by blow series of activities, the buntings, the celebration, the grand fiesta in our very eyes, the Disneyland in our midst are all an Al Fernandez creation. We know, we have been his partner for almost half a century now (we aren’t that young, ha, Al?).

You  therefore will unfailingly see every Dagupan native wear  a wide grin, a disarming  smile these days, pushing aside his worldly cares for a while  – rice shortage, political upheaval, grinding poverty, corruption label by anti corruption militants from the world community – and singing a song  in wine and  abandon “Wishing it were you night and day in Dagulandia.”

Welcome to The City that Never Frowns.

*        *           *           *

 In the town nearby uplifted to visual delight by its creative and hardworking Mayor Sammy Rosario, we had a taste of fresh and succulent cuisine recently, courtesy of no less than politician-turned restaurateur former Vice Mayor Jeffrey delos Angeles at his 6-month old Kaluyagan eatery along the highway, a kilometer away from Barangay Lucao of Kapitan Councilor Lino Fernandez.

At the despidida of  high school classmate Alex Sibuma, sometimesknown as Vietnam hero to Cesar Carpio and Lito de Venecia, at Kaluyagan, we met Jeffrey’s beauteous wife Leonor and  their kids  playing cook, manager, waiter  and waitress, and what a team they made!

The couple, Jeffrey and Leonor, showed they are good at culinary art, confirmed by no less than the nutritionist missus (Cathy,) who was delighted no end by the servings.

We were treated to sheer gastronomical delights by Jeffrey’s specialty, a bayawak  adobo, which he insists, has curative powers for asthma and incipient impotency. But the taste, yum yum!

Kaluyagan’s  initial success has tickled Jeffrey’s mind  to expand it  westward, probably around Socony in Bugallon and let his children who have become masters of the culinary art overnight, handle the Binmaley  side.   They love it, we, myself and Leonor, like what we are doing, the former vice mayor said.  Although the job requires personalized work, the joy of seeing people satisfied by our menu and servings is compensation enough, he said. For a while, Jeffrey has pushed aside his political plans, although the stirrings of an unquenchable  thirst  to serve is always there, he said, adding he’d rather  leave part of the decision  to Guv’nor Amado  “Spines” Espino  whose idea of governance and service is quite reliable.

“Iba na kasi ang itsura ng pulitika ngayon e,” he sighed, recalling the days when his late father, former OIC mayor  Urbano of the same town ran on the basis of  principles and track record in public service. 

Meanwhile, Jeffrey deserves a salute for his new pakulo as a “chow-king” not in the Chinese sense but in pure Pinoy isdaan mouth-watering menu. If you haven’t tried his new  food treat, you are, in the words of LNU  Dean Beng Reyes, “missing one half  of your life.”

(Readers may reach columnist at junmv@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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