A View By An Aquino

An Open Letter to the “Balita” on Its Continued Reference to the Non-existing Position of “Philippine Town Mayor”

By Al Gaerlan Aquino

E ditor’s Note: The author begins his occasional column in this website by reproducing an e-mail that he requested this editor to forward to the recipient, with BCC to the members of the Filipino-American press. Mr. Aquino is the immediate past chapter commander of the Order of the Knights of Rizal, Los Angeles chapter. He was also a former mayor of the town of San Juan in La Union Province, the Philippines.

Here is Mr. Aquino’s Open Letter:

Mr. Rhony Laigo

Editor-in-Chief

Balita Newspaper

Glendale, California

Dear Mr. Laigo,

I hope that you are in good disposition, as I would like to go straight to the point. You see, I am writing you as the Editor-in-Chief who is responsible and answerable to such shenanigan as intentionally fostering deception upon your unsuspecting readers by a markedly dishonest, and, therefore, false, identification of an individual who consummately savors with much gusto the appendage or title, if you will: “Honorable Mayor of Historic Filipino Town” or “the first elected Mayor of Philippine Town. There are simply no such things that exist in the Filipino community of Los Angeles, California.

In the first instance, when the Los Angeles City Council approved to designate a certain area of the city as the “Historic Filipinotown,” it did not provide a position for a Filipino Honorary Mayor. However, a non-profit organization called the “Historic Filipinotown, Inc.,” and headed by Meng Gatus as founder and CEO, does exist. And any intent to usurp this organization will have to answer to Mr. Gatus, who I believe will mean trouble. Maybe, just maybe, I would suggest that this individual, who I would identify later, could just as well enjoy being the onerous Mayor of “Pre-historic Filipino Town,” where baboons and apes are his constituents. That way, he will avoid getting into trouble with the hot-tempered Mr. Gatus.

In the second instance, the “first elected Mayor of ‘Philippine Town, Inc.’,” a non-profit organization, was Jay Valencia, a slick community operator and labor organizer and so on and so forth, among his qualifications. He is not though the “first elected Mayor of Philippine Town,” as such piece of real estate is just a figment of his imagination. I should know what I’m talking about because at one forlorn point, I took charge of the organization as its “Acting Mayor” for more-than a year, ostensibly tasked to prevent it from being relegated into the dustbin of history.

Now, I made a grave accusation at the outset of this letter – that a deception is being created by this untrue identification of a “wannabe.” There are only two suspects who can be fingered as being responsible: The author and the recipient. The publicist may just be the kind who is on the take and would write anything to titillate the vanity of the recipient or the recipient is having delusions of grandeur. As for the latter, I can’t believe it. I hate to believe it.

Any attempt to set the record straight now rests in your hands, and I expect that you comply with obligation to publish this letter.

                                                Very truly yours,

                                                Al Gaerlan Aquino

                                                A Concerned Reader

E ditor’ Notes: Please read two articles about the same topic:

Wags Humiliate Filipino-American Pretenders to “Public Offices” in Los Angeles By Pundit Nehru

What Is in a Name? Or a “Title” Such as the Fictional “Mayor of (the Fictitious) Philippine Town”? By Larry G. Pelayo