Bryan Nepomuceno: Clan’s heir apparent
(Part 2)
In the last elections, Vice Mayor Bryan Cuyugan Nepomuceno was the handpicked candidate of then incumbent Angeles City Mayor Edgardo D. Pamintuan. Both failed intheirqueststhatyear.BryanlosttheelectionstoCarmelo ‘Pogi’Lazatin Jr. while Pamintuan’s party list group ABEKA didn’t get enough votes. In that 2019 local elections, Bryan was the front runner but Pogi scored a victory in the end. In Bryan and Pogi, the old rivalry of the two most known political names, Nepomuceno vs Lazatin was resurrected.
Who among us wouldn’t want to follow a colorful career of anyone in the family? It wasthe popular belief then of many that when Bryan was elected for the first time as a member of Angeles City council he will carry the torch and banner of the Nepomucenos who were prominent in Pampanga and Angeles politics for decades. Retro: In the early fifties, Bryan's Lolo Quitong was elected first as a town councilor of Angeles, then served few years as a board member and served one term as member of congress, became governor upon prodding then of President Diosdado P. Macapagal. His last public office was mayor of Angeles City as he won in a tight contest in 1980. Both he and wife Juanita Lumanlan retired from mainstream politics when their son Francis aka Blueboy became congressman and city mayor.
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Bryan was destined to become a politician because he was born just a day before the 1980 elections, and the next day his dad, Robin was elected provincial board member. He was an outstanding student from high school days up to the time he finished political science and got his doctor of laws degree at the Ateneo De Manila. Besides his good looks, and being a perennial dean's lister he was the campus prize catch. Her classmate in law school a beautiful Negros Occidental lass Erika Ana Andrea Cailao Jiimenez equally a dean's lister became his wife.
He and wife Erika were invited by many prominent law offices in Manila and served for while with the Romulo, Mabanta, Buenaventura, Sayoc and De Los Angeles law offices but Bryan persuaded his wife to establish their own law offices in Angeles City inorder to extend free legal services to those who could not afford private lawyers. The husband and wife's law practice flourished when in 2010 politics beckons. Bryan was included in the council line up of his uncle , then Mayor Francis 'Blueboy' Nepomuceno. He garnered the fifth slot.
As it was in his studies, and in the many endeavors he got engaged into, the very well focused Bryan authored several resolutions and ordinances and benefits which cascaded most to the underprivileged. It is so basic for Bryan to always be focused on whatever he does. He was invited by the late Mayor Carmelo‘Tarzan’Lazatin to be in his ticket in the 2013 elections and got elected together with Pogi and myself.
What is Bryan’s next move nobody knows except himself, and maybe some close family members. He is one talent that Angeles City needs. He is still very young, full of energy and wisdom. As I said earlier, he can restart his political ambition. He can start from the very beginning.