Mayor Boking, but of course

IT’S ALL over for the mayorship of Mabalacat. Kaput. Finis. Done with, six months before the elections.
No counting required, no proclamation needed. Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales just got re-elected for the umpteenth time.
All it took is just an hour guesting in John Susi’s Hamon Central Luzon over CLTV-36 last Tuesday.
Boking agonistes. A performance worthy of a Palm d’Or or an Oscar – okay, a Famas will do – were it in reel, was Mayor Boking’s projection, nay, sincere portrayal of a father pained to near-devastation by a daughter’s betrayal but still forgiving, still loving her, and remaining hopeful, pining for her requited love.
But real, all too real was Mayor Boking’s pain. The Parable of the Prodigal Son, albeit transgendered and transposed in Mabalacat, unraveled here.
Not that the daughter loved her father less, but that she loved her husband more. So the viewer took it in from Mayor Boking.
Our poet Balagtas immortalized: “O pag-ibig na makapangyarihan, kapag ika’y nasok sa puso ninoman, hahamakin lahat – maging ang magulang -- masunod ka lamang.” The power of the words will be lost in translation so I leave it at that. Of course, the parent in the quote is my insertion.
So the Kapampangan has his own take of the clichéd not-losing-a-daughter-but-gaining-a-son in the father of the bride’s toasts in wedding receptions: The daughter marrying a good man, gains the father a son; with a bad one, the father loses a daughter.
Ah, what parent would not have melted in total empathy with Mayor Boking there.
Pained as he is over the decision of beloved daughter Marjorie Morales-Sambo to run against him for mayor of Mabalacat, Mayor Boking nonetheless has to stand squarely on his performance to face all the issues the daughter has started raising as the impetus of her candidacy.
Sambo’s run, she says, is primarily platformed on “change.” A rather rickety platform given the only change the electorate would expect with a Sambo win is a change of gender, if not a change of face which – if we choose to believe some Mabalacat matrons – Sambo is reputedly a master of. Cry Belo, and let loose a thousand tongues wagging there.
Change is the worst thing Sambo, or anyone, could impact against Mayor Boking. For, notwithstanding his continuous term in office since 1995, Mayor Boking is the very embodiment of change. The constancy of change makes the defining line of his administration. By remaining mayor, Boking has effected tremendous change in Mabalacat. No paradox there.
In 1995, Mayor Boking took over a Mabalacat best known for its appropriately named Barangay Tabun, which along with a number of other northern villages was swamped by lahar rampages.
Today, Barangay Tabun is at the very epicenter of urban renewal, the core of the emerging central business district of Mabalacat, the promise of being Makati of the North. The P6-billion Xevera project serving as warranty for its realization.
In 1995, Mabalacat had no more than P20 million in annual income, its principal industry that is the US surplus goods, used and stolen, is no industry at all being mere trading.
Today, Mabalacat has an annual income of P400 million and still rising, is home to the Clark Freeport, and the industrial center of Pampanga.
In 1995, Mabalacat was no more than a poor suburb of Angeles City.
Today, Mabalacat is on the threshold of cityhood, and right at the vortex of of development being at the crossroads of the SCTEx, the NLEx, not to mention the old but rehabilitated MacArthur Highway.
In 1995 – better yet to say “before Mayor Boking” – Mabalacat did not even have a national high school.
Today, with Mayor Boking, Mabalacat has not only a national high school but is the first in Pampanga to have its own community college – beating the City College of San Fernando by over a year.
All these statistics of achievements articulated to the fullest, and most convincingly, by Mayor Boking on John Susi’s high-rating show.
With his unconditional love for a rebellious daughter, Mayor Boking won the hearts of his audience, the parents among them, most especially. His daughter Sambo exposed as apparently causeless as much as clueless about her rebellion.
With his unimpeachable achievements in Mabalacat, Mayor Boking captured the minds of his audience, the Mabalacat electorate most especially.
With but an hour of performance in John Susi’s show, Mayor Boking has rendered all pretenders to the Mabalacat mayorship irrelevant, and the challenge of his daughter no more than the temper tantrums of a brat.
The elections are over and done with in Mabalacat. On to cityhood!