Pedro V. Balingit

(This article was published in the July 22, 1956 issue of Sunday PUNCH. We are reprinting it here to honor Don Pedro Balingit who marks his 100th birthday this week. “People of Consequence” was the title of the column feature and while no author was named in the article, we suspect it was written by PUNCH founder Ermin E. Garcia – Editor)

The tall and gangly Pedro Balingit y de Vera is a man of parts. A be-degreed chemist-physicist, he is also a businessman, sportsman, one-time professor and coach of a crack basketball team all compounded into one.

Last Monday he celebrated his 47th birthday anniversary, always a joint affair with one of his daughters who was also born on July 16. The double observance this year was in Baguio, where the Balingit girl is a boarder student at the exclusive St. Theresa’s College. It was simply a case of Mohammed going to the mountains.

“Bal”, as he is known to his fellow Rotarians and divot-digging cronies, earned his AB and BSE degrees at the NU and the UP. He did post-graduate work at the UST where he obtained his Master of Science in Physics, with minor in Chemistry and Mathematics.

He started teaching in his senior year in Education as assistant instructor of Physics at NU. After graduation he taught at Letran College, College of Liberal Arts. Later he went south to Calbayog Samar to join the faculty of the Colegio de San Vicente de Paul. There he was at the same time basketball mentor of the varsity team, which managed to fight its way to the top in the major Visayan leagues.

In 1940, he did a stint in the army as a 1st lieutenant, Infantry reserve. Luckily he was mustered out before Bataan.

During the enemy occupation, he engaged in the gainful occupation then – the buy-and-sell. He started with general merchandise; later, because of his college training and the fact that his wife is a pharmacist, he specialized on medicines. His base of operations then was Mrs. Balingit’s hometown, Polo, Bulacan.

One day, he was waiting for a train at the Meycauayan railroad station, three grisly Japanese Kempeitais grabbed him. He was brought to the freight room and after the Japs had shut all the windows and doors, they started growling, barking and gesticulating as only Kempeitais could. The surprised and scared native of Santol, Pampanga, did not know what it was all about – until one of the Japs fished out a picture from his pocket and showed him a photo of a wanted guerrilla and his wife.

Bal noticed he resembled the fellow in the photo, so he realized that the Japs had mistaken him for a deadly guerrilla. After he found his tongue, he blurted to his captors: “Hi ham not the pellow you are looking for. Please come to hour aouse in Folo and you will see my wipe is different hand she will tell you who hi am.”

The Japs readily understood him and consented to be brought to the august presence of Mrs. Balingit. Once in Polo, the Japs recognized they had made a rather embarrassing mistake and apologized by offering him a job as clerk or something. Bal gritted his teeth, spat on the shoes of the three uniformed gorillas and said “Nuts!”

“Oke, oke,” said the Japs and beat an awkward retreat before Bal could really get heated up and real mad. Hiro hito’s bastards were simply lucky that day.

Bal used to make trips to Dagupan where there was a brisk buy-and-sell trade. After some ten trips here, he bundled off his family and opened a drug store at the Catubig Building at the foot of the Quintos (Pantal) Bridge. He selected a spot because he wanted it seen that he had the Japs working for him on sentry duty.

Once settled in Dagupan, he taught at the Blessed Imelda’s Academy, the first male to join the faculty of that girls’ school. He taught at the BIA for two years-for God, for country and for free!

On the first days of liberation, he dusted off his 13 Chevrolet and went on the road distributing whisky to various GI camps. He also set up a distillery in Manaoag with Dr. Fajardo as partner. The joint was operating when the Japs surrendered.

Bal went back to his drug business with greater dedication than ever. He, however, failed to take “proper” advantage of Base M, which was the gold mine for several drug merchants.

For Mrs. Balingit, the drug business is natural. She is a third-generation apothecary in a long line of pharmacists. Her grandfather was among the pioneer pharmacists of the country.

She is the former Otilia Constantino, of prominent Polo, Bulacan family and a UST Pharmacy graduate.

Although both Bal and Tilia are from Luzon, they had to go to Samar in order to meet each other. While Bal was teaching at the St. Vincent’s sometime in 1938, Otilia went to Calbayog for a vacation with relatives residing in that Visayan capital. After over a year of frenzied woes and wooing, Bal won himself a bride. He said in his campaign he had an assist from fifth column. Tilia’s brother was his classmate at the UST.

Today the Baligit drug empire has extended to the northern tips of Luzon. His trucks cover the territory intensively and extensively.

On M. H. Del Pilar Street, almost opposite the Pantranco, stands the 4-storey concrete house that Balingit, Balimento and Curazem built. It is a towering tribute to the intelligence and headwork of the Balingits.

Soft-spoken and always smiling, Bal is a popular guy in all his clubs; the Dagupan Rotary, where he was last year’s treasurer, the Dagupan Golf Club, where he is a “perennial” treasurer, the Knights of Columbus, where he is also a treasurer, and the Dagupan Chamber of Commerce, where he is a board director.

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