Sunday, November 09, 2008
MANILA'S LEGENDARY MAYOR: ARSENIO H. LACSON
Coming home to Manila after a long absence, I felt like one of those old-time Manileños who resented finding Plaza Goiti gone. I also began to dislike the man whose name replaced it -- Arsenio H. Lacson.But then, only a couple of years later, after immersing myself in Manila's colorful and multi-faceted culture, the loathing turned into profound admiration, especially after learning about the man's fearless, trenchant, and no-nonesense style of city governance.
Nicknamed the "Arsenic" because of the poison pen that he brandished, his accomplishments -- including being the first in Manila to be reelected to a third term as mayor -- made me reconsider; that perhaps, Lacson himself, would have not approved the idea of renaming Plaza Goiti after him, as well as having that imposing statue erected in his honor.
A flamboyant and feisty Visayan, Lacson was a militant journalist and radio program host turned politico. His initial entry into public service was in 1949, when as a member of the Nacionalista Party, he ran for and won a seat in the House of Representatives; thus, becoming Congressman of the 2nd District of Manila. Two years later, for his excellence as a fiscalizer and lawmaker, he was cited as one of the "Ten Most Useful Congressmen" by the media group assigned to cover Congress.
His journey towards a phenomenal true leadership came to a crossroad in 1951, a time when Manila held its first mayoralty elections. Lacson chose to run the path against the Palace candidate Manuel de la Fuente (whose name later replaced Trabajo Street in Sampaloc).
Lacson's ensuing landslide victory was primarily attributed to the voters' aversion to then President Elpidio Quirino, which spilled to de la Fuente; not to mention that old-time Manileños' were known to harbor a penchant for anything opposition; thus, they voted all-out Nacionalista, sweeping in Lacson and almost the entire opposition ticket. Only one Liberal managed to win a council seat: Salvador Mariño.
Lacson's popularity continued to surge while in office, for he personified an exhilarating gust of wind in an otherwise stifling political arena. With his trademark aviator sunglasses, gaudy shirts and stunning loud barks with equally debilitating bites, Lacson exuded an air of toughness, forcefulness and vigor; qualities that bode well with the post-war Manileños. Indeed, Lacson was not one of those statesmen from the elite class of privileged gentility -- like Quezon, who seemed vaguely jaded, though elegant and eloquent in every measure.
Born in Talisay, Negros Occidental on December 26, 1911, Arsenio H. Lacson obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree at the Ateneo de Manila University. While an undergraduate, he pursued his love for boxing; becoming an adept amateur with a broken nose to show for it, which became a prominent feature of his profile.
At the University of Santo Tomas, he studied law, and passed the bar in 1937. After which he joined the law office of future Senator Vicente Francisco. He subsequently worked at the Department of Justice as an assistant attorney.
Before the outbreak of World War II, Lacson worked as a sportswriter. And when the Japanese forces occupied the country, he joined the Free Philippines underground movement; acting as a lead scout during the Battle for Manila. He also fought in the battle to liberate Baguio City in 1945. For his gallant wartime services, Lacson received citations from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Sixth United States Army. Years later, when asked by the visiting Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi if he had learned Japanese during the war, Lacson responded, "I was too busy shooting the Japanese to learn any."
Lacson showed no respect for partisan politics; neither was he inhibited when expressing his sentiments against the Americans who, in turn, likened his brashness with that of Fiorello La Guardia. And like the rambunctious Italian-American New York City mayor, Lacson cleaned up a corrupt administration and a wide-open city by firing 600 incompetent job holders.
A Time article illustrated how Mayor Lacson conducted nightly patrols in a black police car; returning from time to time to a corner table at the lounges of Bay View or Filipinas hotels, where he listened to complaints and requests, or talked profusely on a plugged-in telephone -- "punctuating his conversations with shots of whisky and four-letter expletives." On Sundays, Manileños got to hear their gutsy mayor on a half-hour radio program, pre-recorded with expletives deleted.
Appearing more brawny than brainy, Lacson was forthcoming with his predilection to antagonize; challenging Ferdinand Marcos to a boxing match which the latter didn't accept, and branding a twenty-something city councilor named Ernesto Maceda, with a damning catchphrase, “so young yet so corrupt.”
There was also his feud with President Elpidio Quirino which resulted to Lacson's suspension as Manila's mayor. And years before, in 1947, President Manuel Roxas, whom he nicknamed "Manny the Weep," ordered his suspension from the airwaves. The incident attracted much international attention: with the former United States Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes applauding the President's action, while the popular American radio commentator Walter Winchell lambasting the Interior Secretary for it.
Auspiciously for Lacson, in his seemingly endless battles, the popular public opinion remained vociferously on his side.
During his second mayoral term, a group of American mayors cited Manila as one of the ten best-administered cities in the world -- the only city deemed as such in Asia. And during his third term, his intention to run for the presidency became apparent. Unfortunately, he died in mid-term on April 15, 1962. The ten years he served as Manila's mayor were filled with sterling accomplishments, foremost of which was the liquidation of a 21-million peso City Hall debt incurred by the previous nine administrations.
When the second elective mayor, Antonio Villegas, took over the city's helm, he admirably completed Lacson's unfinished projects -- such as a city hospital (Ospital ng Maynila), a city university (Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila), a city compost plant to recycle garbage, and a city reclamation of the Tondo offshore.
The Manila Zoo and the Quiapo underpass were the other Lacson projects widely cherished by Manileños. Villegas, upon taking office, immediately decreed that the latter was to bear the name of Arsenio H. Lacson.
Hence, with the issue of Plaza Goiti having been renamed Plaza Lacson, I've taken comfort to what Conrado de Quiros, in his column What's in the name?, had said: "I personally do not mind that Azcarraga gave way to Claro M. Recto and Forbes to Arsenio Lacson. Recto and Lacson were more than politicians, or they showed the best that politicians could be."
Statue of Mayor Arsenio H. Lacson on Baywalkcreated by Julie Lluch
Top Photo:
Plaza Lacson (formerly Plaza Goiti) before it was reopened to
vehicular traffic as ordered by incoming mayor elect
Alfredo S. Lim.
Notable quote:
"When people say for instance that our corruption will never be banished, just remember that Arsenio Lacson as Mayor of Manila and Ramon Magsaysay as President brought a clean government." - F. Sionil Jose - Why the Philippines is Standing Still
Special mention:
The father of our fellow blogger, Pete Lacson (Noypetes), is a cousin of Arsenio H. Lacson. Although only a little tyke at that time, Pete remembers the mayoral election that ushered his uncle into City Hall. Pete also remembers visiting the mayor's house with his father on M. Earnshaw Street near the corner of Gov. Forbes Avenue and España.
* * *
Please note:
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
Labels: Manila history, politics, street name change
posted by Señor Enrique at 7:57 AM
| 36 comments
Saturday, September 27, 2008
THE SUDDENLY BARREN PLAZA ROMA
Mayor Alfredo S. Lim was astonished and alarmed when he passed by Intramuros to see the trees which included six narra and two mahogany trees at the IA-regulated Plaza Roma opposite Manila Cathedral had been cut.
How could Mrs. Bambi Harper, the Intramuros Administration chief, do such a thing? -- he must have thought. Mrs. Harper was not answering her cell phone so the mayor called the police station nearest to the scene of this environmental chainsaw massacre.
It was later discovered that Mrs. Harper was planning to plant about 22 fire trees at the plaza so she had ten narra and three mahogany trees – all endangered species, as well as 17 fruit bearing trees (neem, mango, langka and atis) cut and transferred elsewhere. However, her failure to announce her intention to do some tree-cutting astounded and irked many powers that be.
Executive director Corazon Davis of the Department of Environment and Natural Resource’s National Capital Region office wasted no time to file charges against Mrs. Harper -- for violation of Presidential Decree 953, Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) and Republic Act 9175 -- before the Office of the Ombudsman.
PD 953 penalizes the unauthorized cutting, destruction, damage and injury of trees, plants and vegetation. RA 9175, on the other hand, regulates the ownership, possession, sale and use of chainsaws. RA 3019, well, astounded and irked many of Mrs. Harper's allies.
However, Mayor Lim, a lawyer, read the legal ramifications of this environmental misdeed correctly and cleared Mrs. Harper, ordering City Hall’s legal department to charge instead the contractor, Fernando Simborio of the Batangas based Green Philippine Nursery Plant, with five counts of violation of PD 953.
Rene Martel, in a Manila Times opinion column claims, "We didn’t hear any verbal thundering from from Davis when DENR Secretary Lito Atienza, in his previous role as Mayor of Manila, ordered (despite an uproar by the caring environmental community) well over two hundred trees to be chopped down at the two historic sites of Mehan Garden and Arroceros Forest Park. And ironically, Harper’s voice was one of the loudest to rail against Atienza at that time."
Be that as it may, poor Mr. Simborio the contractor. He was, after all, simply following what he was ordered and paid to do.
View photo of the shady Plaza Roma here before its ten-decade old trees were chainsawed.
*
THE BARREN PLAZA
© 2008 Señor Enrique
Aperture: F3.5
Shutter: 10/200 sec
Focal Length: 27mm
ISO: 100
THE BARREN PLAZA
© 2008 Señor Enrique
Aperture: F3.5
Shutter: 10/200 sec
Focal Length: 27mm
ISO: 100
* * *
Please note:
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
*
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
*
Labels: current affairs, Intramuros, life in Manila, politics
posted by Señor Enrique at 2:32 AM
| 28 comments
Saturday, April 01, 2006
BILL & HILLARY
All I can say is that this couple is the quintessential civil servants.
I, for one, would like to see both of them back in the White House. Oh, yes, this time with Hillary as president. Why not?
* * *
Related link:
Why not Hillary? She can win the White House
By Carl M. Cannon
Photo credit: Medal of Freedom
Why not Hillary? She can win the White House
By Carl M. Cannon
Photo credit: Medal of Freedom
Labels: politics
posted by Señor Enrique at 6:56 AM
| 4 comments
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
RELIGIOUS WAR AGAINST BARBIE
Parents beware! Barbie may not be as innocuous as she seems. The religious right has gone to war against the doll for promoting "gender confusion."
Bob Knight, the director of Concerned Women for America’s Culture & Family Institute claims that children aged four to eight are given three options by Mattel’s Website for their choice of gender. Better think twice then before giving your precious little princess a Barbie doll lest you want to risk her becoming a degenerate bisexual or a lesbian; that is, if CWA is to be believed.
Poor Barbie, there was a time when she was under fire from the feminist movement about her impossible to attain physique while some religious groups attacked her career choices. But for crying out loud, Barbie is an inanimate plastic object!
The previous culprits fingered by the religious right for having promoted sexual deviancy were SpongeBob SquarePants, Tinky Winky, and Lenny the Shark. The anime characters may soon be next considering their stylish wardrobes and hair dos, or are they too violent and misogynistic to be a threat?
Makes one ponder what the Concerned Women for America’s true agenda here is.
*
Labels: politics
posted by Señor Enrique at 12:05 PM
| 0 comments
