Playing with Fire
Tata Condring, take a bow
By Gonzalo Duque
TATA Condring Estrella brought the house down several times when he spoke before Pangasinan veterans at the Lingayen Gulf landing last January 9.
He was full of youth and at his age of 93. The former Pangasinan governor and Agrarian Reform Minister is a miracle man.
One time, he intimated to this columnist that his formula for his vitality is that he never holds any rancor against any person. He related that when his son, the late former Congressman Bobby Estrella succumbed to a cardiac arrest due to a wrong medical diagnosis, he just cried to God and accepted his death serenely. He said he could not restore his life and it would have been worse if he filed a case against the erring doctors.
He felt liberated, he said, from any feeling of vengeance and hate and interpreted his extended longevity for the absence of anything negative in his heart.
His other secret, he said, and which he told his veterans audience and those who attended the necrological service for the newly departed former Governor Nancy Q. Sison, was a biblical verse, which says, “Think and serve only yourself and you will lose your life; think and serve God and others and you will find your life.”
Many of you probably know that Lacay or Tata Condring and our father, the late Paco Duque, fought bitterly during their younger days for the governorship. But he said that was part of the ephemeral life of politics; adding he has outgrown it and has become more understanding and loving of all. We felt his loving attitude, no wonder, people continue to love and respect him.
How many of us can even approximate his sense of gratitude, thinking always of what he could do for his fellowmen and God. You’re great, Mabuhay kayo!
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We heard that some local politicians are reportedly mad at us because we’ve been critical of their position against a proposed SM Dagupan. You know who they are. We wish to remind them that there’s nothing personal in our columns. It’s just part of our job.
We also wish to tell them that outside of this boil (criticism) we remain their sincere and caring friend. Had we not done what we did, we’d have failed to warn them about what the public really feels about public servants in private business. Our people are not talking… yet, but they say, “ye shall know them by their actions and behavior vis-à-vis public issues.”
The fact of the matter is they instead should be thankful that we are protecting them from public censure. As public officials, they should learn how to separate personal and public interests. Failing thus, their public covenant suffers.
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