What’s next for EdPam?
A banner story of Sun•Star Pampanga last week said Angeles City Mayor Edgardo D. Pamintuan is eyeing a seat in congress in the coming elections. It even hinted that he may run for the senate or at the very least a seat in the lower house. Btw, Pamintuan will finish his last and final term as the city chief executive in June next year. In the meanwhile, in a few months, and that will be in October, we will know Pamintuan’s move when candidates seeking for public office will file their certificates of candidacy.
Looking back, the well loved and charismatic Alberto Pamintuan who was vice mayor and undefeated in all his political outings knew that his lawyer son will succeed in the area of public service. I remember he attended all our public meetings in the hustings of 1998 when Edpam was running in tandem with then mayoral candidate Antonio ‘Bubusok’ Abad Santos and I was included in the council ticket. As Tatang Bert observed, while his son was delivering his campaign speech, he knew his successor will achieve further heights.
Opportunity rises when adversity comes. It happened to EdPam. The eruption of nearby volcano Mt. Pinatubo in June 1991 brought widespread destruction, but true to the saying that in every adversity there lies opportunity, Vice Mayor Ed Pamintuan was ushered into the tide of good fortune. He was the acting mayor when Abad Santos made a trip to the United States, and ina brief period he exerted some efforts to get the attention of the Angeles constituency. He succeeded.
In one column article appearing in a local daily, here goes an observation: Market goers and shopkeepers at the city’s Pampang public market were aroused by the sudden presence of what appeared to be a giant demonstration in the area. Blaring sound system, megaphone and honking vehicles caused a cacophony of riotous souls as men holding brooms paraded in the area. Around the delegation and nearby positioned to do their chores where young boys and girls holding hundreds of brooms. It was the opening day salvo of a total clean up campaign of ‘ANGELES ON THE MOVE.’And this was the prelude on Pamintuan’s quest for mayorship.
‘My record as a public servant is an open book. Believing as I do that the voice of the people is supreme and that people are wise and just. I humbly ask the people to render their judgment based on my performance r ecor d.’
And in the May 1992 elections, Pamintuan bested all his opponents in that mayoral race. But in the 1998 congressional race, he was pitted against Vice Mayor Francis ‘Blueboy’, his running mate in the 1995 elections and his only defeat in a long political career was recorded. He only faded from public view for a while but was tapped in 2001 by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to head the National Housing Administration and later given several appointments with a cabinet rank.
He returned to politics after his stint in Malacanang and overwhelmingly got the support of the Angelenos, and in the next nine years he was comfortably seated at City Hall. So what’s next Mayor? Congress? Senate? A top position in Duterte’s government?