Have your cake, and eat it, too!

WHAT can you give to a man who has everything? It is no accident that Oscar Ileto Violago was born on Labor Day, May 1. Oca attributes his industry to the fact that he hails from San Jose, Nueva Ecija, and learned his reading, ‘riting and ’rithmetic at San Jose Academy. St Joseph, as we all know, is the patron saint of the family and role model of all those who are devoted to labor.

Oca, the youngest of the brood, came to the Ateneo de Manila for college, majoring in Economics. He was not the brightest in our class; and he spent many long hours to catch up. The payoff: He is, sans doute, one of the most successful in our batch.

Last week, Oca hosted dinner to fete a classmate and dorm mate in college who turned a “passing grade” of 75 years.

Yesterday. 1 May 2018, Oca celebrated his own natal date with his high school classmates from St Joseph Academy.

*** It was for my wife Meng to come up with something apropos to mark Oca’s milestone. She whipped up a gourmet Ente la Orange; and she found a wizard to create a two-tier Black Forest cake like an, ahem, “Oscar trophy.”

The cake bannered in bold letters his mantra, “Believe in yourself. Trust in the Lord!” It is Oca’s modern-day translation of what he learned from the Ateneo of the Ignatian maxim, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” (Actually, Saint Augustine’s maxim, pre-empted by the Jesuits.)

• The cake was topped with a sugary reproduction of the pamphlet, “True Stories of Real People – Mama Mary and Her Children” by Fr. James B. Reuter, SJ. Next to the pamphlet is a first-person account titled “A Powerful Help of Mary” by Oscar I. Violago.

• The Black Forest cake was festooned with a garden of bougainvillas, for which Oca has developed a passion.

• On the first tier are more sugary coatings showing Oca and his late wife and shining star, Bootsie Cruz Violago. One in sepia on their nuptial day, and another one on their 40th wedding anniversary.

• A Blue Eagle with Fly High and a G clef musical note!

• A black Rolls Royce Phantom with the plate number OIV 100 for the sweet smell of success. (BTW, all highend motorcars in the Violago stable have the sticker “Thank you, Mama Mary” on the rear window.)

Oca’s early advocacy was providing home to the homeless – when he started the Ad Astra housing under the Pag-Ibig program.

Oca’s first major break came in the seventies when we had world-wide rice shortage. NFA Rice Czar Jess Tanchango had scoured the capitals of rice-growing countries without finding a grain to buy. But a 29 year old Oca was able to source 100,000 MT of rice from, of all places, China. (Whispered to him, he swears, by a celestial voice.)

There have been peaks and valleys in Oca’s career; but Gary Lising says that his classmate is successful “because Oca gives a dam!” Translation: Oca built the Pantabangan Dam during the term of President Fidel V. Ramos, when nobody thought it was financially feasible. Today, Nueva Ecija is the only all-year round green province because of the Pantabangan Dam.

*** The milestone Black Forest cake was embellished on second tier base with other accolades, tributes such as “A Man of Impossible Dreams” (by Banal Pasaiyo); “Some Enchanted Evening (by Gary Lising); “Oscar Violago trumps Warren Buffet” (by Gerry Geronimo); “David bests Goliath” (by J. A. Z.); etc. There is also a sugary replica (also baked in edible cake) of the bronze plaque at Pantabangan Dam which tells of how in the world all these happened.

The best is yet to come because Oscar I. Violago’s San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders and Developers Group goes about its business.

***

Meanwhile, from his towering plateau, Oca can have his cake, and eat it, too.

(BTW, if you ever need a celebratory cake of consequence, try the cake artist Judy Uson at telephone 0917 897 5839 or email judyuson@culinaire.ph.)