Cayetanos in San Carlos reunite with Sen. Alan
SAN CARLOS CITY—About 200 Pangasinenses whose surname or maiden name is Cayetano gathered together at Aleman’s Resort here on Jan. 3 to be reunited with their relative, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
Children danced and sang, their parents delighted in raffle draw prizes and everyone dined together in a grand reunion that materialized after 10 years.
The Cayetanos are from various barangays here and in nearby Basista and Bayambang towns.
Mr. Cayetano, a vice presidential candidate, however did not speak about politics in his speech.
He told his “relatives” that his late father, Sen. Rene Cayetano, traced his roots to Pangasinan.
He said that through the reunion, “we will be able to know our lines of ancestry”.
He said that then President Fidel Ramos, a Pangasinense, introduced his dad who was then his presidential legal adviser, to then Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano whose father was from Urdaneta City in his visit to the Philippines in 1997.
Mr. Ramos had been telling his dad to look for his relatives in the North.
The senator said he has been meeting more of his Pangasinense relatives since 2012.
He said it gives a different kind of feeling to have a province where one can go to and his family has been grateful to the Cayetanos in Pangasinan for consistently helping them land as among the top in senatorial elections in Pangasinan.
Aside from him, his dad was a senator and his sister Pia is also an incumbent senator on her last term.
Meanwhile, the senator clarified to local media the planned ban on firecrackers enunciated by his running mate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
He said there can be a healthy balance between the total firecrackers ban amid the continuing rise in the number of firecracker-related injuries during the Christmas and New year revelry across the country.
“I see a compromise there like banning the individual use but there would be areas like plazas and others for aerial fireworks display and nothing on the ground would be exploded and definitely no guns,” Cayetano told local reporters here on Jan. 3 when he attended the Cayetano reunion.
“So I do not see the conflict between discipline and people enjoying tradition but always there must be balance,” Mr. Cayetano said.
Cayetano recalled that when he was a child, the firecrackers ban then was not followed. He said prices increased and many asked for bribe.
When the ban was removed, he said there was no regulation regardless of how loud or noisy the firecrackers like explosives and even children can buy and explode them.
“So what happened was extremes,” he said.
He suggested that each town or city would ban individual use but designate common areas for fireworks display so that “we can keep the tradition to welcome the New Year (with a bang) in a different way.” (Tita Roces)
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
