Mother Baby

There are showbiz mothers (led by Regal Matriarch Mother Lily Monteverde) and “mothers” of all shapes and sizes and persuasions in other fields. And then there’s Mother Baby — Rose Marie “Baby” Arenas, that is, who is a mother not only to her own daughter, Rep. Rachel “Baby” Arenas of the Third District of Pangasinan, but also to Rachel’s constituents whom Mother Baby considers her “children.”

This piece is some kind of a “tribute” to Mother Baby, this being Mother’s Month (D-Day was celebrated on May 10, or every second Sunday of the month). She has been helping the sick and the needy not only in the Third District of Pangasinan (dubbed as “The Queen District of Pangasinan”) where she supports hospitals and distributes wheelchairs among indigent residents in far-flung barrios, but in other places as well.

A friend of St. Padre Pio and the Blessed Mother Teresa, Mother Baby inherited her charitable heart from her mother, Opera Diva Remedios Bosch Jimenez, who has been hailed as a Gintong Ina ng Bayan several times.

Rachel is carrying on the family legacy by joining forces (and resources) with her mom in improving the lot of her district’s residents, such as repairing dilapidated classrooms and supporting scholars, one of whom recently graduated magna cum laude and two cum laude from the State University.

It was Mother Baby who brought here Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli (who might do an encore concert soon).

Every now and then, to entertain residents, mother and daughter invite showbiz celebrities, so far including Willie Revillame, Robin Padilla and Piolo Pascual.

Asked if she’s running in 2010, Mother Baby said, “I don’t have to be in politics to serve the people.”

She’s happy acting as the “wind” beneath the wings of daughter Rachel.

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