Lilian and Petra

Mariano Carrasco

MY aunt, Petra (Velez-Carrasco) Pabilona has passed away into the Creator’s hand, recently. May she be at peace now. She succumbed to complications from diabetes. Modern food, replete with sugar, soft drinks, and complicated carbohydrates, have presumably caused this widespread ailment.

She’s  the sister of my father, the late Segundo  Carrasco (grandchildren of Salvador Velez Sr. and Maria Gabor from Opol). Tia Petra or Tia Peting’s son-in law, Bebot Dagapioso is a campaign manager of Candy Darimbang, Klarex Uy’s opponent for the 1st congressional district, though he used to be in Klarex’s camp before. The boss of LTFRB director Mandangan Darimbang, Winston Ginez, LTFRB chair, is my lawyer-daughter Angeline Marie Carrasco-Genoso’s wedding principal sponsor and former boss of our daughter in the Makati law office. My lawyer-wife, Atty. Evangeline Tadlas-Carrasco, Angeline Marie, and I, have been legal counsel for  Klarex Uy and Kikang Uy for years now, including the 2010 and 2013 mayoral and congressional elections. Bebot Dagapioso’s sister, Em-em Gatuslao, now working at Moreno’s City Hall, is the widow of our good friend, noted journalist and photopgrapher, the late  Romy Gatuslao. Life and its connections can really be so intertwined and complicated.

Now, this 2016 electoral campaign is getting hotter by the day, and nastier, too.  Candy Darimbang’s radio spokesman, and a good friend of mine before he joined Emano’s camp, has been heard over the radio to have said that Congressman Klarex Uy, whose wife is being treated for cancer, is having some kind of a “karma.” This electoral approach or tactic, much like the so-called “kharma” of Dongkoy Emano when he was brought to the hospital for some treatment, should be stopped. This electoral tactic is below the belt. It is dirty and unfair, and most of all, un-Chistian. When a close relative of our opponent gets sick, we should not be celebrating it, much less gloat about it. All of us, sooner or later, will get sick or will ultimately die because of ailments, accidents, or malicious intentions. Only God knows when, and when it comes, we should be more respectful of God’s will.

My other relatives on the Velez-Gabor side have complicated and intertwining stories, too.

Salvador Velez Sr. and Maria Gabor, my father’s grandparents, had several children, among them being the famous song composer Manuel Velez who married in Cebu and had a lovely daughter by the name of Lilian Velez. Of course, we know about the Lilian Velez story that was made into a movie. Lilian  sang the beautiful Visayan song “Ang Kabukiran” which catapulted her to stardom right before and after the Second World War. She and another actor, Nardo Anzures, became a famous love team then, and became real life lovers. Then she married the song and movie producer Climaco, and bore a child, Vivian Velez-Climaco, who witnessed the murder of her mother and their housemaid by actor Narding Ansures. The murder was a cause célèbre and was made famous in the 1995 Caparas movie which starred Sharon Cuneta and Cesar Montano.

Salvador Velez Sr. and Maria Gabor belonged to a musically inclined clan that included the families of Neri, Yap, Ramos and Corrales, and others. My father’s aunt, the late Caridad Velez Abrogar, mother of Pepe and Raffy Abrogar, was a musician and pianist, too. Her daughter, the late Nita Abrogar Quinto, became a famous internationally-known pianist and became head of the UP Conservatory of Music Piano department. Of course, Salvador Velez, Sr.’s more famous brother is the late Col. Apolinar Velez, the revolutionary who masterminded the defeat of  the American forces in the famous battle of Macahambus cave. Unfortunately, that revolutionary struggle collapsed when Gen. Nicolas Capistrano surrendered to the American forces and which led to the surrender of other generals, including Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo who is now known to have masterminded the assassination of Katipuneros Gen. Antonio Luna and Andres Bonifacio. Ironically, not far from the Macahambus cave, the American military forces will have a grand comeback when the Sangley airforce base in Cavite is finally transferred to Lumbia and which would now allow the entry of American military forces and warplanes, thus endangering the city and its residents, exposing them to a possible attack by the Chinese or Russian nuclear-tipped missiles if war breaks out. We will suffer first before the missiles could reach mainland United States. We should not allow our city to become a nuclear shield or magnet or defense wall of the Americans. My wife, Atty. Evangeline T. Carrasco, if elected as congresswoman of the second district, will resist the entry of the American military forces here. Sangley airforce base should remain in Cavite, or if not, should be relocated to Palawan, not here. But then, the opposition can only prosper if the people of the City, especially those residing near Lumbia, would organize themselves and start a movement or campaign against the Edca military bases here.

 (Mariano B. Carrasco is a lawyer based in Cagayan de Oro.)