Mayor Ipe Remollo the 2nd time around

Dropping in at the office  of Dumaguete city  mayor Felipe “Ipe”  Antonio B. Remollo I, like many naughty journalists, asked for a recount of the story of the framed picture of former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada being flushed down the toilet. The story was headlined in local and national dailies with the amazing title, “Erap, sa Kubeta ka na lang.” Last Tuesday, the  mayor, 56, plump and engaging, corrected me, as he had tried to correct the “fake news” flashed on TV in 2001.

He said he had been  disappointed over the actuations of the former playboy (my own word) commander-in-chief; in fact he was one of the first local executives to ask for his resignation. Erap, he told me, “had no moral ascendancy to govern.” That fateful morning of 2001, he decided to take down Erap’s portrait from the wall behind his desk. At the precise moment he was taking it down,  a photographer  who had entered his room with a reporter from the city’s ABS-CBN network clicked his camera. He thought he had taken a prize-winning shot. But it was another photo that stole the show.

Mayor Ipe called the cleaning lady to hang the portrait in  the comfort room next to  his office. The lady did put the portrait in the shower,  and, thinking of sanitizing the toilet bowl, flushed it. The cameraman took a picture of her doing that. In no time, the picture turned viral, carrying  the head, “Erap, Hanggang Kubeta ka Lang.” The portrait  2 had not been flushed down the toilet. But the media men made it appear it had been.  Media had a heyday with a blistering photo; the Inquirer, Bandera, People Tonight and Abante  had a field day headlining it on page one. In no  time, Erap was driven out of Malacanang.

But Erap turned out to be not vindictive.  Ipe himself lost in his reelection bid for mayor in the 2001 election. A couple of years later, the tormented and tormentor were at the wedding of the son of Robert Coyiuto in Hong Kong. Erap was one of the ninongs, as were Ramon Ang and Manolo Lopez, and Tessie Sy-Coson.  Coyiuto had brought with  Ipe with him,  the legal officer of the Coyuito Group of Companies. (Coyiuto is now presidential adviser for capital market development.)

Jojo Binay, who as mayor of Makati  was legally allowed to officiate at the wedding, told Erap as he pointed to Ipe, “”Sir, si Mayor Remollo.” Erap looked at him, and said, “Ah, Dumaguete! Are you still mayor there?” Ipe said, “No sir, I lost in the election.” “Ha ha ha. You should run again, you’re still young,” said Erap, who, bless his soul, probably might have forgiven and forgotten the toilet episode.

Ipe’s political life has the elements of a telenovela. Born in Dumaguete, he finished his elementary and high school and a bachelor’s degree major in political science (magna cum laude) in 1981 at Silliman University.  During his junior and senior years he had a taste of local governance when he was elected kagawad (1978-81) of San Jose, a town close to Dumaguete, where his father, Atty. Orlando Remollo, was mayor. He then took the law course at the Ateneo University  in Manila (1981-85).

After Ipe passed the bar, his  father asked  him to run  as  the unopposed candidate for San Jose mayor in the 1986 election, but the young lawyer refused, feeling he was too young to handle the job.  Instead he went into private practice in Makati, primarily serving as general counsel of R. Coyiuto Securities.

Finally, he made a run for the Dumaguete mayorship (not San Jose, as his father had wished), in 1998, and won. Having lived and worked in Makati for years, and virtually an unknown entity in Dumaguete, why was he elected its mayor? This was cause for wonderment in the city’s political landscape. 

Dumaguete is the most populous city in Negros Oriental,  with an average daytime population of 400,000, and total voting population of 68,648 as of 2010. It’s a nice city, with lots of hotels and restaurants and shops,  the quiet sliced by roaring motorized tricycles, its main attraction the Silliman University campus.

The 39-year-old lawyer’s opponents were bigwigs Gene Duran (the Lakas ng Bayan candidate) and Arthur Pinili (Lakas-NUCD) who did not take him seriously, said Ipe. “The two were fighting each other, while I worked with students, academe, professors.” Only three days before election day, his  opponents realized too late that the Liberal Party candidate was winning the race. Indeed, Ipe topped the election. 

The assumption of a young and bright leader was electrifying. A master plan  drawn up with  internationally known architects and urban planners gave the city a face lift, with parks and roads, a new gymnasium, and cultural/social activities that “made Dumaguete alive” like free movies, ballroom dancing and concerts in the park. Five housing projects were built for the less endowed. 

Like a roller coaster ride, Ipe’s reelection bid in 2001 took a dive. He admits that he invested time in supporting the campaign of a close friend running for Congress, and  neglecting his own battle. But he was not dismayed.  

He immersed himself in the corporate world in Makati as general counsel of the Coyiuto enterprises, and handling important private cases of high-end corporations. He was chair of Clark Development Corporation,  Clark International Airport,  and Metro Clark Development Council and, in the political realm was vice-president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, covering  the Visayas 6, 7 and 8 regions. 

By the time he made his third bid for the mayoralty  in the 2016 election, he had experience, connections and knowledge of  public-private partnerships. A downside was his near-disqualification from the race as he was listed as belonging to the wrong region. He had to run not as a Liberal, but as an Independent candidate. The gods were for him with his election.

In that election, Ipe supported LP chief Mar Roxas for president, and Rodrigo Duterte of PDP-Laban  for vice-president. Mar, he told me, “is a good guy, an economist,” but Duterte “is a doer.”

Incidentally, Digong and Ipe are distant cousins, both tracing their roots to Cebu, from where  Digong’s father moved to Davao, and Ipe’s, to Negros Oriental. In July 2015, Ipe, who was president of the Veloso Foundation, invited the Velosos from all over the Philippines to a reunion held at Bethel restaurant in Dumaguete. Digong said he was not interested in running for president of the Philippines. A few months later he changed his mind.  

This second time around, Mayor Remollo told me he is more experienced and mature as a town executive. His first year saw him revisiting his master plan, and thanking planners Manny Almagro and Dr. Efren Padilla for their creative contribution. He’s glad he has the support of the city council, six of whom are lawyers, of his program, the first of which was giving up the city’s P6-million yearly intelligence fund in favor of women’s and elderly citizens’ projects.

Big projects are the restoration of the museum, transfer of the city hall and government center, building a high-rise structure to be leased as a source of revenue, and a new public market. There are plans  to extend the seaside boulevard, and transfer bus terminals to decongest traffic.

Peace and order prevails in the city, he said, and only two residents have been shut down by a Tokhang operation. Dumaguete, he proudly said, is the No.One drawers of Chinese tourists, and is considered 5th in the world as a retirement city.

A friend comments that the mayor should make the improvement of the bad garbage situation a priority. Hear ye, Mr. Mayor.

But this same friend praises him for allowing into the city scores of Muslims fleeing from their homes in war-torn Marawi. “They are not terrorists, they are our brothers and sisters,” said Remollo.

Ipe’s problem, he said, is his being separated from his family.  He sees them about once or twice a month. His wife, the former Cristin Cuisia, works in Makati as legal counsel in the Coyiuto group of companies, and their two boys are law students at the Ateneo.            

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