MOMENT OF HISTORY

Cheers, jeers for ‘Boss Boy’

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

January 31, 2009

STO. DOMINGO, ALBAY—Thousands of angry depositors may revile the owner of the Legacy Group for defrauding them, but residents of this town have nothing but praises for Celso de los Angeles Jr., who is also the town mayor.

He’s “Boss Boy” to his employees.

For the town’s residents, what is important is that their mayor is doing his job well and that his performance is not being affected by the problems of his businesses.

“I do not care about Legacy because that is another side of him as a businessman. We are not affected anyway,” said Ed Balana, the municipal environment management officer.

Balana said De los Angeles has assured municipal employees that it was his personal problem and that he had nothing to hide.

“He told us that what we should do is to serve the community.”

Action man

According to Balana, late last year the mayor announced he had a problem and did not intend to run away from it.

“He is not the type of person who would do things to put his name in a bad light, but circumstances happen,” he said.

He described De los Angeles, “Boss Boy” to his employees, as an “action man.”

“He wants things done as fast as possible,” Balana said.

He said the physical transformation of the town in De los Angeles’ first 100 days as mayor included the renovation of the Plaza Pugad Lawin in front of the municipal hall, the renovation of the town gym, improvements in the public market and street-lighting projects.

“He also plans to transform the second floor of the market into a community hospital since there is no hospital in the town,” he said.

Balana, who is also the municipal cultural and tourism officer, said the mayor is also focusing on the resettlement project in Barangay San Andres, where residents living in the danger zones near the Mayon Volcano have been relocated.

Not everyone is happy with the way the mayor is running the town, however.

A market vendor who refused to be named said she regretted having voted for De los Angeles.

Jueteng collector

“I was made to believe his good intentions for the town,” she said, but under the mayor, the market rental has risen from P330 to P3,000.

De los Angeles first arrived in Sto. Domingo in 2005 to develop a property he had bought in Barangay Calayucay called the Black Sands Beach Resort, which is also his residence.

De los Angeles was interested in politics and two years after his arrival he successfully ran for town mayor.

De los Angeles, a great grandson of Laureano “Kapitan Moy” Guevara, the Marikina mayor who established the Marikina shoe industry in 1887, had unsuccessfully sought Marikina’s lone congressional seat in 2001.

A graduate of the Asian Institute of Management, he is said to have worked in the United States for almost a decade before returning to the country in 1997. He acquired Legacy Plans, the first of the Legacy companies, the same year.

Luis “Chavit” Singson, the deputy national security adviser and the main government witness in the impeachment trial of deposed President Joseph Estrada, named De los Angeles as Estrada’s jueteng collector in Ilocos Norte.

Cashing in

According to Balana, the 2007 mayoral election in Sto. Domingo was hotly contested and De los Angeles’ residency became an issue but he won anyway.

A tricycle driver, who did not want to be named, said he knew of people who received rice and money from De los Angeles during the elections.

“Barangay leaders received P2,000 while the others received P1,500. His rival gave only P300 to P500,” he said.

He said that during the campaign, tricycle drivers who joined the De los Angeles motorcade were given P500.

“Some people who also went to his house in Calayucay received money from him, and he always gives rice,” the tricycle driver said.

He said De los Angeles also distributed motorcycles, which recipients could pay back on installment.

But, according to the market vendor, those who borrowed money during the elections and were given motorcycles were made to sign blank sheets of paper.

The source also claimed that De los Angeles lent people P5,000 and said that if he won, he would forget about the loan.

“But he still collected on the loan, with interest,” the market vendor said.

She said most of the people in this town were either being paid by De los Angeles or were afraid of what he could do to them.