Lights

The little town of Carmen (a little more than 20,000 population) in Agusan del Norte attracts tourists during the Christmas season for its splendidly lit up municipal building and grounds located on a hill. The scene is a spectacular wonderland, with 8,000 tiny Christmas bulbs strung around the façade of the three-story edifice, animal wire figures, a 30-foot Christmas tree, and a walkway. Motor vehicles create traffic jams with drivers and passengers crawling turtle-paced for pictures to take home and invite friends to go look. This happens every year, since 2005, when Ramon Calo took over as mayor, starting a reign of four terms. 

Many years ago the municipality was just a barangay of the municipality of Nasipit, Agusan del Norte. It was formerly named “Kabayawa” by its native Manobo inhabitants. Its present name is said to be an allusion to a historical event where the image of the Virgin del Carmen was believed to have felled bandits in the place. Father Saturnino Urios, a Jesuit priest who was instrumental in the Christianization of Agusan during that time, suggested that the name of Kabayawa be changed to Carmen.

The late congressman Marcos Calo was behind Republic Act 380 creating Carmen as a municipality on July 1, 1949.       

Ten years later, on March 14, 1959, Ramon Calo was born in Carmen. His political roots are traced to a great grandfather on his mother’s side, Jose Malimot, who served as mayor, then to a grandfather on his father’s side, who was mayor then vice mayor, and then to his father, Atty. Tranquilino Calo, who served as mayor.

Ramon worked as staff of Assemblyman Antonio Tupaz from 1980 to 1995. Ramon’s own political career began with his election as provincial board member. He studied at San Sebastian College in Manila, but he did not pass the bar examinations. No matter, because by that time he was already elected provincial board member for 1988 to 1995. One does not have to be a lawyer to get elected to a government post.

He ran and won the mayor’s seat three times, serving from 1995 to 2004, or three terms. After his third term ended, he let his wife Jovitt run for mayor in the 2004 elections, which she won and served until 2007. She is a native of Cabadbaran, several kilometers east of Carmen, and a graduate of San Carlos University in Cebu City. Interestingly, her losing opponent was her husband Ramon’s brother, Jesus Calo. Why Ramon allowed Jovitt to run was, in his words, to have continuity of his projects for the town. 

Having a wife run is nothing unusual. Philippine politics allows husbands whose terms have run out, to appoint their wives to take over the post they would vacate; mothers run for mayor and daughters for vice mayor, then in the next election, it’s daughters running for mayor, and the mother, as vice-mayor. Also, brothers fight brothers and brothers fight sisters in the race for a government post. On the higher level, uncles and nephews run for president of the Republic. Weird. But that’s Philippine politics, although the protagonists say, “In fairness. . .”         

In the elections of 2007, Ramon ran and won his fourth bid for mayor again. He would run up to 2019. But his opponent, his own brother again, Jesus Calo, was declared by the municipal judge as the winner because according to him the votes listing Monching, the nickname of Ramon, were invalid. Ramon was surprised, because the judge knew that he was called Monching. His brother Jesus then served as mayor, but for only eight months, as the Comelec declared Ramon to be the rightful winner. 

Ramon’s fourth term ends this year. He is running for vice-mayor, not as mayor in this year’s election because of term limitation. Not surprisingly, his wife, former Mayor Jovitt, is the candidate for mayor, “as requested by the barangay leaders under the PDP party of Gov. Angel Amante Matba.”

When Ramon was out of work for eight months, he was at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City, conferring with his lawyer everyday to get Comelec to ferret the truth of his victory over his brother. Persistence is one of Ramon’s virtues; his daily visits with his lawyer, a known lawyer of opposition candidates, paid off. 

The mayor proudly says his projects are designed and built by his government’s own engineering department and employees, and not by outside private contractors. He did hire a few job orders. That way, there is no corruption involved, he says. Only P25 million went into the construction of the administration building and furnishings. Somebody told him a structure like Carmen’s would cost P50 million elsewhere. “We don’t owe anybody for the buildings,” he says. “This is a good example of local autonomy. Inutang ko sa mga hardware.”

To save on government money, the mayor insists on using old Christmas bulbs, and when new ones are needed he personally buys them at #168 Binondo. “Our town is the most beautifully lighted town. Sure, Tagum (Davao) probably has more lights, but Tagum is a city, and Carmen is a small town. We spend P700,000 on the lights, while Tagum spends P2 million.”

The lighting fest provides livelihood opportunities for residents and out-of-towners who put up barbecue stands and eateries across the street. The vendors rent their stalls and roadside cafes for P15 a day, and give the government around P30,000 at the end of the festival. This year’s lighting carnival of sorts opened last Nov. 30 and will end on Jan. 6 this year.

Even before he was elected mayor, Ramon told himself he wanted his town to improve. “Kaluoy ang bayan ko.” (My town’s so poor.) He “imported” Butuan basketball players to be in his team, and beauties also from Butuan to participate in the local beauty pageants.

He says Carmen is a must-see tourism place, as it has 42 caves, as well as a good Punta Diwata beach. He developed his private property, Benapar Blue Water, “but this is to improve tourism. Our sea is considered an equivalent of Anilao in Batangas for scuba diving, and its coral reefs are intact.”

One of Agusan’s moneyed men, Calo has been president and general manager of Nasipit Integrated Arrastre & Stevedoring Services Inc. (NIASSI) from 1993 up to the present. 

As to problems in his town, he says, “Anywhere you go there is the NPA problem.” He shrugs off drugs as a major problem. Even policemen making money is found everywhere, he says. 

Carmen depends on agricultural crops for revenue. It is in partnership with Spanish and American businessmen for developing a dried mangoes industry. The mayor says mangoes in Carmen are considered “the best in Mindanao and are comparable to those in Guimaras.”

He keeps fit by going to his own gym called Ramon’s Fitness Gym. “One of the best,” he says. He wants his constituents to see that he is healthy and fit. “I’ve never been into sports, but now, at age 59, I want to be in good health.”

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The past days have been happy for me, what with my family flying in from Manila to join me and my husband in our home in Gingoog .We moved to this city in Misamis Oriental (sandwiched between Cagayan de Oro and Butuan cities) seven months ago. It was such a nice feeling, seeing, and embracing members of my small family once more – son Andoy and his wife Joabi Caluag and their son Santi, and my nephew who’s like my second son Oliver Alfonso Estella and his girlfriend Kay Cera. In three days all they could be taken to were the town plaza bedecked with Christmas lights, a trip down the seaside boulevard called “Pahayahay,” lunch at the city’s popular resto Fusion, dinner at Garaje for broiled seafoods, a trip to see the famous Christmas lights in Carmen, Agusan del Norte, and lunch at a Talisayan seaside restaurant. There was of course the family feast, ending with the almost until dawn frolicking with Gingoog-based cousins. Alas, the day came when they had to leave. Too soon! If only I could rewind the hands of time, for them to stay one more hour, one more day, one more week, all year round. I am left clutching at Michael Jackson’s song, “Gone too Soon.” . . . “Like a comet/Blazing across the evening sky/Gone too soon; Like a rainbow/Fading in the twinkling of an eye/Gone too soon; Shiny and sparkly/ And splendidly bright/Here one day/Gone one night. . . . .”