Marking Mabalacat

SOON-TO-BE-city Mabalacat is celebrating its tercentenary this year. Over espressos and cappuccinos at Starbucks-SM Clark last week, our group of media boys had a grand time picking brains and pitching corn on the subject Mabalacat at 300.
Malinis. Masala. Masaya. Mabalacat. Deng Pangilinan sloganeered.
Malugud memalen. Arnel San Pedro pitched in.
Mayor Marino Morales! Ashley Manabat exulted.
Masalese manungkulan! Deng ejaculated.
Marakal asa ….Deng’s elbow on his rib stopped Rey Navales from completing whatever it was he wanted to append to the mayor.
Melanie Marquez. Maricel Morales. Chimed in Peter Alagos, shifting the focus of the talks from politics to Mabalacat beauties.
Teka, teka. We seem to be limiting ourselves to the letter M. Mabalacat has more things, people, events of interest and value other than those that start with the letter M. Let’s go over the alphabet. A is for…
Anthony Dee, may he rest in peace. Never retreated, never surrendered unto death.
B…Boking, is there anyone or anything else?
Yes, how about balacat, the tree whence the town’s name came.
Comes C for Clark, a large chunk of its land lying in Mabalacat.
Caragan too, the Aeta king of ancient Mabalacat after whom the town’s signature festival is named.
And Community College, the first local government-established and -run tertiary-level institution in Pampanga, maybe even in Central Luzon.
D now…No brainer there – Dau, once center of the PX trade and reputed to be biggest barangay in the country in terms of voting population.
And also for Don Bosco, the premier elementary and secondary school for boys, finding refuge in the town after its old campus in Cabalantian was buried in Pinatubo sand.
E…E…not so easy now…”Education… the great equalizer, the sure way to get out of poverty.” So Boking decreed. So it shall be with 31 one educational institutions comprising one state college, one private college, one technical training school, two public and two private high schools and 25 elementary schools divided into two districts, aside from a number of TESDA-accredited institutions offering vocational-technical skills training.
F can well be for Fred Halili, the charismatic and colourful visionary mayor during the Marcos era who sparked the second Japanese invasion of the town – with donations, grants and other as some sort of reparation for WWII.
G goes for golf at Marina, the poor man’s green. And for a while – in the immediate post-Pinatubo period – the only playable course hereabouts.
H, the Kapampangans have it silent in their speech but in Mabalacat there’s Haduan Falls, waiting to be tracked and tabbed in the tourist trap. Hilbero too, the Guy championing the town’s tourism potentials.
Impossible is nothing. So goes the Adidas blurb. Impossible is nothing. So it is, with term limits, to Boking.
J? How about Jo-pilan? The street where your friendly, unlicensed pharmacists live. And thrive.
K can only stand for Kamikaze, birthed in Mabalacat – where now stands a shrine, blown – in self-immolation – on the decks of US aircraft carriers.
L – lapse of memory here, couldn’t think of anything associated with Mabalacat that begins with L…except some extremes unflattering to Boking: On one hand, the ladies’ man in him. On the other, his loss in 1992 despite getting endorsement from both Lakas-NUCD and LDP, whose standard bearers, Fidel V. Ramos and Ramon Mitra were locked in a bitter fight for the presidency.
Myriad M’s still…Makati north of Manila, Boking’s favourite moniker for his town…McDonald’s Dau, the first franchise of the fast food chain outside Metro Manila… Marina Arcade, Dau’s largest and most popular retailer of PX goods – from Playboy and Penthouse to Architectural Digest, from Salems and Benson & Hedges to Jim Beam and Fundador, yes, even Rambo knives and used Stinger missile launchers…Mabalacat Water District, national hall of famer as best water service provider. (Take a bow, Chairman Deng.)
N stands for NLEx, the North Luzon Expressway which northern terminus is sited in Sta. Ines, fast tracking travel and transport, harbinger of progress.
O is for Our Lady of Divine Grace, the town’s patroness.
Ody Fabian too – God bless his soul – Mabalacat’s pride in the field of journalism.
P for pindang damulag – the town’s best kept food secret – far better than Pampanga’s other “bests” – waiting to be discovered.
Also for PELCO-2, making Earth Hour – that annual one-hour power put-out – more than a daily affair in Mabalacat.
Querubin Fernandez, poet-laureate who writes in the amanung siswan at its purest, great pride of the Kapampangan race.
Q is for quarry too – rich resource for the town’s coffers. And bone of contention with neighboring Bamban.
R – comes immediately to mind Rox Pena, honourable town councillor, eminent environmentalist, propagator of the balacat tree.
Then the resettlement sites – Mawaque and Madapdap – ending the diaspora of those displaced by the Pinatubo eruptions.
Ssss…Sogo – so clean, so good – so swoon Lotharios of all ages of Pampanga’s finest love nest. With condoms upon request, no laying there of unwanted eggs.
SCTEx, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, concreting the synergy of the former bastions of American imperialism into engines of national development; confluencing with the NLEx at Mabiga in Mabalacat, but of course..
To a T is Tipco – Trust International Paper Co., the first of the big-time investors locating in Mabalacat, pioneer in paper manufacturing sans the decimation of forests.
T makes Tarzan too. Tarzan? Yes, Lazatin the congressman, father of the impending City of Mabalacat.
U…U…uh-oh – Unity. Solidarity. Teamwork. Fidel V. Ramos’ slogan – vintage 1992 – appropriated by Boking.
V…Boking’s favourite invocation – vox populi, vox dei – in clearing doubts about the integrity of his elections in, let’s see now: 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, and still counting.
W…Boking’s wit to the fore anew – “With the strongest of conviction and without any fear of contradiction…” the mayor’s recurring refrain in just about any talk lasting at least five minutes.
Willy Tan, the emerging giant of a housing developer, taking off where the troubled Globe Asiatique sputtered. Which leads us to X…
Xevera Mabalacat, the very template of housing development, gifted the municipality a magnificent town hall and the archdiocese an imposing church, built and ran a school for free to the residents’ children – now in a limbo of uncertainty.
Y? Need still ask? Yes to cityhood! Yes to Cong Tarzan!
Zingers, I hope, you found here aplenty.
Mabalacat 300 years hence, Boking pa rin.