Miami, FL – Let me cut to the chase. Angeles City Councilor Jay Sangil should and must be the city’s vice mayor in 2013. Yes, yes, it is early politicking but bull crap, everybody does it but nobody just would admit it.
I know, I know too, that being absent from Angeles City for over a decade now, the only persons who probably still value my humble political insights would be my mom and my sister.
But what the heck, this is not an attempt to be politically savvy, let me just tell you why Jay needs to sit at the helm of the city council.
My reasons are personal and you will see how those can actually reflect the personal stories and lives of the average Angeleño. Nah, Jay neither hired me as a PR consultant, I just believe in his ability to take the city’s second highest job.
Jay has been a very good friend since our days in the now defunct weekly paper The Angeles Sun.
I will not bore you with what he did as managing editor, although he steered us neophyte reporters, with publisher and now foreign affairs exec Elmer Cato, to come up with quality and enterprising stories that made us and The Sun different. That was in the late 1980s.
What is more important is the humanity inside “Susing” as we still call him, because behind those late night copyreading/proofreading in Pima Press, Jay stands out more as a big brother, “kuya” of sorts to all of us especially when it comes to merienda, or better yet, downing San Mig bottles after work.
Yes, ordinary this is, many of you will say, but I say not, especially when you realize that Jay was just in his 20s then and some of us in our teens (I was 16), which clearly demonstrated our lack of financial prowess.
With the little stipend and correspondent’s fee from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jay would spread his wealth among us, his team, Obama style, although Obama’s country has vast more financial resources than Jay’s and Elmer’s The Angeles Sun.
This never meant that Jay’s journalism skills were wanting because I remember how his story of a New People’s Army (NPA) rebel’s funeral in Angeles City landed the front page of the Inquirer and mine was buried at the bottom half of the now defunct too, Daily Globe where I was correspondent for Pampanga.
Landing at the bottom half of a story page is not really good in journalism parlance. The reason jay got page one was obvious:
Jay’s description of the tension that marked that funeral (when Army Scout rangers tried to stop them) was far more vivid than mine so that I got an earful from my desk editor the next day.
Back to Jay’s human side, his penchant to help those in need is just innate, to say the least. And boy, was I always in need those times.
As a struggling Globe correspondent and poor college kid at the University of the Philippines in San Fernando (UPSF), I was always a guest at Jay’s office at the Department of Agriculture (DA) very near UPSF where lunch was always available around 12 pm or 1 pm. What a coincidence.
Even today, decades later, Jay would still find time to help me or should I say, I still find time for him to help me.
For one, my mom’s departure here to the US would not have happened without Jay’s and his staff’s (as city councilor now) assistance.
Emphasis here that nothing illegal was done to expedite any process, the fact that Jay and his staff simply assisted my aging mom where to go and what to do enabled her to process her papers on time before her US visa would expire.
Long story short, I am now enjoying my mom’s company in Miami, thanks a million to Susing (it’s not over Jay, next is my sister Mai and soon to be adopted son/nephew Jamjam).
My point in sharing these stories that frankly nobody perhaps cares about, is that Jay’s passion to help regular friends like me can easily translate, as it already does, in helping a bigger constituency.
Kung si Konsehal Jesus Sangil ay natulungan ako bilang isang ordinaryong kaibigan at mamamayan simula noong ako ay 16 anyos pa lamang, na wala naman syang nakukuhang kapalit at siguro ay walang makukuha kalian pa man, ano pang laking tulong ang maiiambag nya sa Angeles at kanyang taumbayan?
The passion to care, the devotion to help, the ability to lead, the commitment to social justice especially for the working poor. That to me, is the embodiment of a leader and I see that in my friend Jay Sangil. That to me, is bigger than any degree or fancy diploma from any university.
Some of you may dismiss this as a paid propaganda but think whatever you want; I would rather speak great of someone I sincerely know, from the heart, than speak ill of any other politico in Angeles I really do not know and do not care about.
All I know is Jay is ripe for the vice mayorship and trust me, if he goes off track, I will be among the first to go home and make him accountable.
I know, I know again, I am nobody in Angeles politics but I still have a right and responsibility, as a regular person, to educate my cabalens, especially the young ones who probably do not know him much, and make them think who indeed deserves to be the city’s number two.
The choice, my friends, is now yours.
But damn it, let me say it: Jay Sangil for Angeles City vice mayor in 2013.
