April showers
There are already April showers in March, bringing a soothing coolness to the metro before the onset of the summer season. The heat these days isn’t scorching, thanks to April showers nurturing the ground and revitalizing the air.
Las Piñas Vice Mayor April Aguilar is described by her younger sisters as their second mother, one who would shower them with love and attention whenever their parents were away. She would make sure her sisters would be well nourished when their parents were working or travelling, cutting up Spam into bite-sized pieces and spoon-feeding her three sisters from one plate.
“She also used to cook nilaga for me when we were barely teenagers,” recalls her sister celebrity doctor Dr. Aivee Aguilar-Teo. “I was so scrawny she would spoon-feed me till I managed even a few bites.”
When April’s first niece Alexa, daughter of her sister Alelee and her husband Martin Andanar, was born, she took care of the baby. When Alexa was hospitalized when she was a little girl, she refused to sit on the wheelchair if she was not on her Tita April’s lap, recalls Alelee.
April was also a hands-on mother to her four sons when they were growing up, picking them up from school and bringing them to her office while she was working.
“Service is Ate April’s language of love,” says Aivee. She cooks for her family, her staff and her friends. She also does the marketing herself.
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The late Las Piñas Mayor Nene Aguilar and his wife, current Mayor Imelda Aguilar or “Mama Mel,” were not surprised when April, at 16, started tagging along with her dad when he was visiting his constituents. She also helped him attend to people lining up at City Hall.
“Mama says that’s my greatest gift — that I love being around people. I told her, ‘That’s my greatest dream.’ I am a people person,” says April, who also formally trained in culinary school in her twenties because she loved to cook.
“Grassroots talaga siya,” says Aivee. “It’s her comfort zone. Ayaw niya ng mga sosyal-sosyal, ang gusto niya ‘yung talagang talking to the people and the barangay captains.”
“I come to work in tsinelas. I am not the type to wear long gowns in events, pang-tricycle association ako. I think my father saw that in me. I told Aivee not to bring me to any long-gown event, I’m not comfortable. But make me talk to anybody, kaya ko,” says April, who is married to Robert Nery.
Growing up as the Ate who would spoon-feed her sisters and protect them from bullies, April was used to hearing her sisters say, “Bahala na si Ate.”
“I’ve always protected them. Sometimes I don’t tell them I have a problem. I just deal with it myself. Like my father, I am very strong. He had strength of character and purpose. But those who worked with both of us say, the difference is that iyakin ako. I remember one time when we were in the Mayor’s office, he said, ‘’Yang anak ko, magaling talaga yan, iyakin lang talaga’.”
According to her mother and her sisters, April is a magnet for other people “because of her soft heart.” She is a hugger. Alelee says their father also had a soft heart, but didn’t show it.
April blushes at the compliment. But she adds that like her father, she is “driven.”
“Kasi wala namang leader na soft. Hindi naman pwedeng hindi ka driven, otherwise, you cannot lead.”
Education & EmploymentÊ
According to Sen. Grace Poe, her classmate at the Assumption Convent high school, April is “a loyal and supportive friend. A hardworking and devoted public servant. A good cook. A genuine person with a great sense of humor.”
Given the chance to serve Las Piñas again at City Hall’s highest office, April plans to focus on making college education accessible to Las Piñeros and create livelihood hubs and training centers to empower them.
“We have three colleges already. Our college of Engineering will open in a year. We will be able to give scholarships to 4,000 students,” she says proudly.
“It’s one of my favorite programs because once you give students a college education, parang pamana mo na habang buhay ‘yan.”
“A college education gives them an opportunity to turn their lives around,” April, a BSC Management graduate of the Assumption College San Lorenzo, says. She also intends to build more high schools, grade schools, kindergarten schools and even daycare centers.
April shares tha Las Piñas now has a comprehensive health card or “green card” for bona fide residents who are voters of Las Piñas.
“The green card gives you free hospitalization every year, confinement of P30,000. You, your spouse, your children have the same benefits in about eight hospitals,” she points out. “Apart from that, you get free yearly checkup, P15,000 worth. Every member of the family.”
“We have a mobile X-ray van and a dental bus. We bring in everything to the people already, per barangay. So when you go there, you get free X-ray, you get ECG, you get dental care, libreng bunot, and pneumonia vaccines. You get free consultation. And the best part is with whatever prescription they give you, you bring the medicines home with you.”
From her mother Mayor Mel Aguilar, April got her charm. They also both love to cook and share their labor of love with others.
Aivee says, “I think Ate got the best characters of Papa and Mama. I think Mama’s ability to cook, Mama’s ability to be empathetic. And when we fight, Ate always be the first to say ‘Sorry’.”
To her family, the people she works with and the people she works for, especially those at the grassroots, April Aguilar is a shower of affection, and a storm of leadership. And not just in April!
You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez
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