“Don't be
dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And
meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are
friends.” Richard Bach
By Alex
P. Vidal
When the late former Iloilo City lone district
congressman and justice secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. was in power, he had a
stormy relationship with the mainstream press in Iloilo.
He filed cases against almost all bombastic
radio commentators, editors and newspaper columnists who called him “Sir Raul.”
Gonzalez fired back by hauling them off to court
and threatening that he would “make life difficult for you,” his trademark
slogan.
In 1997, I was the editor of Sun Star Iloilo, a
daily newspaper in Western Visayas, when Gonzalez, then a congressman, stormed
our office and demanded to see Lolo Beloy Jr., one of our hard-hitting
columnists, who had earlier lambasted him for the “anomalous” asphalt overlay
projects in the city.
Editors and reporters gathered news in the field
in the morning and reported in the afternoon.
OFFICE
The solon and his bodyguards went to our office
on Rizal St., City Proper in the morning, thus they only met Nelson Robles,
columnist of Super Balita, Sun Star’s sister publication.
One thing led to another and the chance
encounter with Robles, now 64, ended in a not-so-pleasant exchange of harsh
words. Robles became a recipient of Gonzalez’s suit for “unjust vexation”.
The National Union of Journalists of the
Philippines (NUJP)-Iloilo, headed then by Limuel Celebria, castigated Gonzalez
for trespassing in the office of a media outlet and viewed the unannounced
visit as an act of harassment.
Among his fiercest critics were Panay News
publisher Daniel Fajardo, Daily Informer publisher Bernie Miaque, then
Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Nereo Lujan, then Bombo Radyo anchormen
Novie Guazo and Rhod Tecson (now with RMN-Iloilo), columnist/radio commentator
and later Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada.
Gonzalez’s feuds with Fajardo and Miaque lasted
for decades.
They even had near-violent scuffles in the
airplanes that started with dagger looks.
COLUMNIST
Ironically, Gonzalez, who had served as
Tanodbayan justice during the term of the late President Cory Aquino, started
to reintroduce himself to the memories of the Ilonggos in the early 90s as a
columnist of Fajardo’s newspaper.
Mejorada nearly missed his plane to Germany when
Gonzalez, then the justice secretary under the Arroyo administration, placed
his name under the immigration hold departure order.
Radio blocktime commentators loyal to Gonzalez
“ate alive” Guazo, Tecson, Lujan, and other critics.
It was chaos when Gonzalez’s loyal bodyguards,
media sympathizers and village chiefs figured the media critics in ugly verbal
skirmishes.
Others ended in brawl.
Most village chiefs and councilors, local
leaders, lawyers and some personalities in the broadcast and print media
regarded Gonzalez as a hero and savior.
ARRIVED
Whenever he arrived from Manila, they elbowed each
other to get a front seat view in his district office in Muelly Loney near the
Iloilo Freedom Grandstand.
Gonzalez would engage them in a protracted
tete-a-tete, swapping of jokes and laughter; and they all ended up “satisfied”
and smiling from ear-to-ear as they raced toward the exit door.
Gonzalez’s benevolence and generosity was an
urban legend.
Gonzalez, a bigwig in the Lakas-Kampi-CMD, was
instrumental in making his son, Raul Jr. as congressman when he vacated the
post in congress in 2004.
He dreamt of becoming a city mayor when he left
the Department of Justice in 2009 but was upset by Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog in the 2010 mayoral contest.
May he rest in peace.
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