Benito Tiamzon and wife Wilma Austria-Tiamzon are my fellow Rizal High alums. Both, I am told, were honor graduates (I wasn’t). I am proud of any fellow alum who puts him/herself where his/her mouth is, without counting the costs, for the sake of our unhappy Motherland. Rizal High taught principles.
He is seen as the incumbent chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) while she is believed to be the second in command and head of the CPP’s National Finance Commission.
To Alex Padilla, the son of Sen. Paddy Padilla, Manila Standard Today attributes the assertion that the spouses had ousted CPP founder Joma Sison. In Polka-Dot MABINI, in the 1980s, we saw Alex as Red or Pink. Today he is the government’s chief negotiator with the CPP-NPA’s National Democratic Front.
Rizalians continue to excel, in and out of government. In my time in the Senate, 1987-92, Rizal High alums Jovy Salonga and Nep Gonzales awed me. Original MABINI Chair Bobbit Sanchez would have been the fourth Rizal High alum but was cheated out by a nuisance bet surnamed Sanchez. Had Dante Santos of the Agrava Board and Philacor agreed to run, we would have been five Rizalians.
The next Senate should have Alex Padilla and either Tiamzon if we want a Senate of tested patriots as in our Celestial Past and arrest our descent into an Abysmal Present. If Jojobama will have his way, “Pinabili ng Suka” stalwart Top House Absentee Manny Pacquiao will pollute the 2016 Senate.
Manny Pacquiao should reform now, along with another perceived Unbeatable, Kris Aquino, for “Kapakanang Pambayan, di Pansarili.”
—R.A.V SAGUISAG RHS ’55,
Saguisag & Associates,
4045 Bigasan Street,
Palanan, Makati