Spotlight on Maricel Morales
YOUNG LEADERS- The Angeles City Council holds its sessions every Tuesday and it is scheduled at 2 in the afternoon. The sessions are the usual legislative works which are almost similar you may have witnessed in any august bodies. There are Tuesdays wherein not much to discuss, and there are Tuesdays where there are contentious issues that need long deliberations and sometimes results to acrimonious debates.
Sans for Carlito Ganzon who maybe bit older than I am, the rest of the councilors are between 24 to 45 years of age. Youngest is Danica Lacson at 24 and Alex Indiongco at 45. Any fir st time visitor in the council sessions he or she will not fail to be impressed by Councilor Maricel Morales, a former beauty queen who was Mutya ng Pilipinas in 1995. She is the cur rent majority floor leader, and as such she is responsible in the preparation of the items of discussions in the agenda.
THE LADY- Councilor Maricel Morales aka Marang wi ll conclude her stint after completing three terms in the Angeles City Council in June, 30 2016, and whatever political ambitions in her mind, she is not talking and she keeps it so close to her chest.
Never did she dream of getting into politics. In her youth, she won almost all the beauty contests she joined. She was the campus beauty desired by the red hot males of Angeles University Foundation ( AUF). She was declared as Miss Palarong Pambansa. She was a member of the Tuesday group of German Moreno’s That’s Entertainment. She was a television model of several beauty products till she was spotted by a talent manager and cast in several movies. It was in a location shoot of a movie where he would meet the man, the lead actor, who would become the father of her two sons. Other details in her love life will be better not revealed.
‘To me what is important is that I can raise my kids as good persons, God fearing, respectful to elders. And never should I place on the back burner my advocacies,’ she said.
The young Maricel who was described by movie press as elegant, ethereal in her beauty and the most promising young actress’ placed on hold her movie career and dedicated herself to motherhood. And movie offers became far and between.
POLITICS- It was in 2007 when she first got elected as a member of the Angeles City Council. She has done well as a member of the local legislature. She filed measures that benefited the city constituency, and pursued her advocacies with dedication. The question commonly asked during our ‘chill, chill sessions’ with other councilors at nearby Marquee Mall, if what political direction Morales and the other members of the so-called PAMI ( Pamintuan, Aguas, Morales, Indiongco) will trek in 2016.
Sans for Edu Pamintuan, the amiable son of Mayor Edpam, Jericho Aguas, Morales and Alex Indiongco may aspire for the vice mayorship which will be left vacant by Vice Mayor Vicky Vega who wanted to run for congress in case Angeles City will become a lone congressional distr ict. It is said by political observers that Morales has another option, and that is to run for congress if the first congressional district will remain as is, and the quest to make Angeles City a separate district will fail.
Her roots are from Mabalacat. Getting huge chunk of votes of the two cities will make a sure win. She may woo the support of the Nepomucenos and Lazatin families which are not suppor ters of the incumbent.
Her father Rene is the brother of incumbent Mabalacat Mayor Boking Morales. Her mother is a member of the prominent Gomez family of both Angeles and Mabalacat cities. As a matter she was even considered sometime ago as successor to her uncle Boking as Mabalacat Mayor. At this point, Councilor Marang is still carefully weighing her options.