The moneyman is X-Factor

By Al S. Mendoza

I WAS HAVING a drink at Rockwell in Makati one time and then, suddenly, a commotion occurred. The waiters serving us had left in a huff. 

“What’s happening?” I asked the cashier.

“MJ is here,” she said.

“MJ who?”

“Mark Jimenez,” she said.

“Mark Jimenez who?”

“The moneyman,” she said. “Haven’t you heard? Almost each time MJ is around, he doles out money to almost everyone. But, of course, he starts with the poor, particularly the waiters and waitresses, the janitors, and helpers.”

Just when I was about to fire the next question, our waiter arrived.

“Yippeee! I got a thousand bucks!” he said, waiving the violet bill.

Of course, I know MJ. 

He was the former Manila congressman. 

He was the friend of Erap.

And yes, MJ served a sentence in a U.S. jail for unauthorized campaign contributions to the re-election bid of President Clinton.

I’ve met him twice, talked to him twice.

The first was, yes, at Rockwell.

“I know you,” he said, glancing at me while I was tousling my hair in the washroom.  “You are the columnist.”

I didn’t recognize him at first. 

He was wearing a white T-shirt and white pajamas and, with his clown-like looks, he could be easily mistaken for a wacko.

“Oh, hi!” I said, not knowing who he is.

Through the years, I’m used to shaking hands with total strangers for the reason that many of them recognize me through my picture in my column.

“See you later,” he said and stepped out of the washroom ahead of me.

But in a few minutes, ”we’d be seated side by side at Tatiana, my favorite joint at Rockwell.

That’s when I learned from him that when he was in jail, he got himself thrown into a dark dungeon not just once but twice for giving money to the warden and his fellow prisoners. 

“It’s not a good virtue to give money in prison,” he said. 

I saw him again at Shangri-La Makati, where he gave P1 million to our bowling team to the Asian Games, last December. 

On that day, MJ met by chance Anthony Villanueva, our boxing silver medalist in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.  Wheelchair-bound, Villanueva received the shock of his life when he received P100,000 from MJ!  No questions asked.

“My aide told me Anthony was an Olympian,” MJ told me.

***

Nice to read in the PUNCH that MJ was in Dagupan recently and, while there, did another familiar stunt of his: Stun his audience. 

Why, his speech at the “Biskeg na Pangasinan” meeting at the swanky Inn Asia Hotel definitely caught many by surprise when he endorsed Bebot Villar for governor of Pangasinan, my buloy Al Fernandez for Dagupan mayor and Rachel Arenas for congressman of the province’s third district.

I’d say MJ, whose mother (Adelaida Acosta) is from Dagupan, has taste because Bebot (the undisputed kingpin of Sto.Tomas) and my Buloy Al are tested leaders noted for their no-nonsense style of governance.  And then of course Rachel, although a greenhorn, is both beauty and brains – assets that should augur well for her if and when she finally enters the halls of Congress.

***

With his billions, MJ might be the X-Factor and could hack it out for whoever he wishes to support in the coming May elections. 

If you still don’t know it, MJ’s businesses that are mainly based in Latin America reportedly earn for him $2,500 a minute!  That’s roughly P100,000 per 60 seconds!

If you are a politician and you have MJ on your side, the first letter you need to win the battle is virtually done away with. That letter is “M” – as in “Money” or “Mark” if you will.

The second letter of course is “O” – as in “Organization.”

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/)

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