Most of the contents that you will be reading here were published in the now defunct Kabayan Weekly in its January 3 to 9, 2019 issue. This is about being a Public Servant. You see before getting into a serious relationship in 1991 with my ex-girlfriend and now wife, Rachel Salinel, I was planning to enter local politics in Legazpi City in Albay Province. We got married in 1996 and had our own family in March 1998 when our son Yuji was born. We transferred to Dubai in 2001 and we are still here in the Middle East.
I have political blood on both sides of the Ante and Los Banos clans. A grandfather, Luis Los Banos, was the first elected mayor of the city from 1959 to 1967. His son, Jory Los Banos, was city councilor in 1986 as an appointee and then as an elected official from 1987 to 1992. There is now an avenue in the city dedicated to Mayor Luis Los Banos. The picture accompanying this column was taken in September 2019 when I visited my then 84-year old mother Yit.
I am not directly under the former late mayor’s family. He was the younger brother of my father’s father, Joaquin Los Banos, Sr., who was a once a municipal councilor himself and was one of the most successful businessmen of Legazpi from the 50s to the 70s. My late father, Jackie, was one of the very few privileged residents of Albay who studied in the US mainland in the mid-50s.
My first cousin, Peter Ante Sabido, son of my mother’s eldest sister, was an assemblyman from 1984 until 1986 when the Batasang Pambasa or National Assembly was abolished. My mother’s youngest brother, Dr. Rudy Ante, was a provincial board member from 1987 to 1991 and later appointed as Vice-Governor in 1992. Their eldest brother, Dr. Ping Ante, served as councilor of Legazpi in the 50s. My mother’s family opened the first private hospital in Legazpi which they inaugurated as Sta. Teresita Hospital and renamed Dr. Esteban Ante Hospital in honor of the family patriarch.
Serving in government is still a desire. I am not looking at an elective position anymore as I have long been away from Legazpi. My only chance of achieving this aspiration is to be appointed.
Hypothetically, I can work in government as part of the public information machinery like being a spokesman of a department or a Government- Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC). Or I can work with any entity that deals with Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) being in the UAE for the past 21 years and having interacted with the local Filipino communities in the countries I had visited across the Middle East and Africa.
By the way, former Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat is a second cousin. He mother is a first cousin of my father from the Valenzuela clan of Polo, Bulacan. We are descendants of Dr. Pio Valenzuela who was known as a member of the Katipunan Triumvirate with Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto. A distant relative served in the foreign service, former Ambassador Oscar Valenzuela.
Actually, in 1987 the year when I graduated from college with a Political Science degree I almost joined as a key staff of the late Representative Efren Sarte of the 3rd district of Albay. He wanted me to manage his media relations because at that time I was working as a reporter with Congress Week, a special interest publication focusing on the Senate and House of Representatives. I did not accept his offer because I wanted to fully experience journalism work.
One of my ultimate goals really is to serve the Philippines using my experience as a communications expert. In addition, my encounters with OFWs across the Middle East and Africa can be a source of valuable information in policy making and project implementation.
Note: Art ‘Popoy’ Los Banos is veteran PR consultant with a combined 24-year PR experience in the Philippines and UAE. He is currently the Senior Manager for Corporate Communications of the Tristar Group and is the only Filipino in the senior management team of the Oil & Gas logistics company. He was the former 2008 Philippine Independence Day (PID) organizing committee chairman in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. In December 2019, Art ‘Popoy’ received the Philippine Pride Awards in Public Relations from the Philippine Business Council-Abu Dhabi chapter for his ‘exemplary leadership and tireless efforts to continuously support, boost and campaign for excellence to uplift the Filipino image.’ Recently, he was named as one of the Philippines’ Top 30 Leaders on LinkedIn.