Loving Levi
HOW CAN I not love Levi Laus? Let me count the ways. (And no apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning there.)
On Christmas, he sends me gifts – in tinseled monogrammed wrappings yet, this aside from the cellophaned basket of goodies doled by his CDC’s public affairs.
On my birthday – so long as Jun Sula remembers – something from Levi always find its way to me.
Really, if only for these, how can I not love Levi? Still, there are even far greater things not only for me, but for all of us, to love Levi.
So who was it who saved my home, nooo, make that the whole of San Fernando, from the threats of rampaging lahar?
Why, it was the Save San Fernando Movement! Okay, but who was the heart, soul, brains – verily, who was the SSFM? You’re a clueless dummy if you did not think of Levi.
Who was it who moved heaven and earth – El Tabako too – to build the megadike that stemmed Mount Pinatubo’s devastating fury and saved not only San Fernando but the whole of Pampanga?
Why, it was Levi, incarnated in the SSFM. Go, ask Virgilio Sanchez. Err, sorry, I just realized the former mayor is now addressed as the late, lamented “Baby of the Masses.” Just go, ask the San Fernando bankers.
Who was it who blazed the trail to the Mount Pinatubo crater? In an adventurous quest to show our people there was something good that could be drawn from nature’s devastation?
You’re wrong if you think it was the DOT’s Ronnie Tiotuico. The tourism director did not have even a battered 4X4. Only Levi had the truck worthiest of a terrain so rugged. You don’t believe me? Go, ask the Angeles City Four-Wheelers’ Noel Castro, err, make that the Off-Roaders’ Marni Castro. Yeah, he of the controversial MOKA fame.
If only for these, how can we not love Levi?
So it was Cong Oca Rodriguez that fathered the City of San Fernando. But who gave the city its cosmopolitan value, if not its essential urbanity?
To find the answer, stand at the GSO Road, err, Jose Abad Santos Avenue. Feel the rush of modernity, of prosperity in all their shibboleths – Germany’s BMW, America’s Ford, GM and Chevrolet, Korea’s Kia and Japan’s Mitsubishi and Suzuki. And all thoughts invariably settle on nobody but Levi.
So who brought too to San Fernando the urban amenities of ready information and entertainment? So who holds sway at dwRW 95.1 FM, at CLTV 36, at Sun-Star Pampanga? The Laus Group of Companies, who else?
If only for these, how can we not love Levi?
(Stop your whining Editor Ashley, the Pampanga News had to close down through no fault of Levi. How could he when he always referred to you as his favorite editor?)
Steeped in civic consciousness, steeled in proactive advocacies, stunning in entrepreneurship, who else but Levi could make Clark soar to the highest firmaments of First Worldness?
So who convinced the Senate to declare Clark a Freeport zone?
Why, it was Levi. Or were you so blind to see all those streamers congratulating him for that signal accomplishment? If you were, go, ask Rene Romero as it was his PamCham that put those up.
So who brought the employment level at the Clark Freeport to an unprecedented height of 52,000 workers?
It was Levi. Go, but don’t ask Frankie Villanueva. Ask the Clark Investors and Locators Association instead.
Who pursued that gem of an idea that was the central business district near the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport?
It was Levi. Too bad “parochial minds” got so blinded by its brilliance that they closed their eyes to it. Levi should have impacted his CDC corporate slogan on them: “The future of Clark is so bright you have to wear sunglasses (to see it.)”
Ah, that slogan. So original, so inspiring. If only for it, how can we not love Levi?
So who was principal proponent of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway? It could only be Levi. Or did you not see those towering tarpaulin billboards hailing the SCTex at the initial phase of its construction: one near the Friendship Gate with a full-bodied smiling Levi with three unknown faces, the other by the Mabalacat-Bamban junction with a solo Levi smiling so benignly? GMA’s tarpaulin only came so much later.
Won’t that prove the SCTex was indubitably Levi’s? Unconvinced? Go, read that column of Que Sio Que Tal making a record of Levi’s deeds and be convinced.
I stop here. Else I run out of space. So, with all that oh-so-glorious a litany, how can we not love Levi? But even without it, simply with his beloved Tess -- whom we in the Society of Pampanga Columnists have been privileged to have as Muse – how can we not love Levi?
We, at Punto!, do. Believe me. Really, we do.
On Christmas, he sends me gifts – in tinseled monogrammed wrappings yet, this aside from the cellophaned basket of goodies doled by his CDC’s public affairs.
On my birthday – so long as Jun Sula remembers – something from Levi always find its way to me.
Really, if only for these, how can I not love Levi? Still, there are even far greater things not only for me, but for all of us, to love Levi.
So who was it who saved my home, nooo, make that the whole of San Fernando, from the threats of rampaging lahar?
Why, it was the Save San Fernando Movement! Okay, but who was the heart, soul, brains – verily, who was the SSFM? You’re a clueless dummy if you did not think of Levi.
Who was it who moved heaven and earth – El Tabako too – to build the megadike that stemmed Mount Pinatubo’s devastating fury and saved not only San Fernando but the whole of Pampanga?
Why, it was Levi, incarnated in the SSFM. Go, ask Virgilio Sanchez. Err, sorry, I just realized the former mayor is now addressed as the late, lamented “Baby of the Masses.” Just go, ask the San Fernando bankers.
Who was it who blazed the trail to the Mount Pinatubo crater? In an adventurous quest to show our people there was something good that could be drawn from nature’s devastation?
You’re wrong if you think it was the DOT’s Ronnie Tiotuico. The tourism director did not have even a battered 4X4. Only Levi had the truck worthiest of a terrain so rugged. You don’t believe me? Go, ask the Angeles City Four-Wheelers’ Noel Castro, err, make that the Off-Roaders’ Marni Castro. Yeah, he of the controversial MOKA fame.
If only for these, how can we not love Levi?
So it was Cong Oca Rodriguez that fathered the City of San Fernando. But who gave the city its cosmopolitan value, if not its essential urbanity?
To find the answer, stand at the GSO Road, err, Jose Abad Santos Avenue. Feel the rush of modernity, of prosperity in all their shibboleths – Germany’s BMW, America’s Ford, GM and Chevrolet, Korea’s Kia and Japan’s Mitsubishi and Suzuki. And all thoughts invariably settle on nobody but Levi.
So who brought too to San Fernando the urban amenities of ready information and entertainment? So who holds sway at dwRW 95.1 FM, at CLTV 36, at Sun-Star Pampanga? The Laus Group of Companies, who else?
If only for these, how can we not love Levi?
(Stop your whining Editor Ashley, the Pampanga News had to close down through no fault of Levi. How could he when he always referred to you as his favorite editor?)
Steeped in civic consciousness, steeled in proactive advocacies, stunning in entrepreneurship, who else but Levi could make Clark soar to the highest firmaments of First Worldness?
So who convinced the Senate to declare Clark a Freeport zone?
Why, it was Levi. Or were you so blind to see all those streamers congratulating him for that signal accomplishment? If you were, go, ask Rene Romero as it was his PamCham that put those up.
So who brought the employment level at the Clark Freeport to an unprecedented height of 52,000 workers?
It was Levi. Go, but don’t ask Frankie Villanueva. Ask the Clark Investors and Locators Association instead.
Who pursued that gem of an idea that was the central business district near the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport?
It was Levi. Too bad “parochial minds” got so blinded by its brilliance that they closed their eyes to it. Levi should have impacted his CDC corporate slogan on them: “The future of Clark is so bright you have to wear sunglasses (to see it.)”
Ah, that slogan. So original, so inspiring. If only for it, how can we not love Levi?
So who was principal proponent of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway? It could only be Levi. Or did you not see those towering tarpaulin billboards hailing the SCTex at the initial phase of its construction: one near the Friendship Gate with a full-bodied smiling Levi with three unknown faces, the other by the Mabalacat-Bamban junction with a solo Levi smiling so benignly? GMA’s tarpaulin only came so much later.
Won’t that prove the SCTex was indubitably Levi’s? Unconvinced? Go, read that column of Que Sio Que Tal making a record of Levi’s deeds and be convinced.
I stop here. Else I run out of space. So, with all that oh-so-glorious a litany, how can we not love Levi? But even without it, simply with his beloved Tess -- whom we in the Society of Pampanga Columnists have been privileged to have as Muse – how can we not love Levi?
We, at Punto!, do. Believe me. Really, we do.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 4:32 PM
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