Dado’s pal is proud of ‘daughter’ Gloria

DAGUPAN CITY — Ninety-one-year-old Don Pedro Balingit watched with glee as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took her oath as the 14th Philippine president before a euphoric multitude at EDSA Shrine last Jan. 20.

His eyes glued to the TV set that "Sabado de Gloria" in his home in Bonuan Binloc here, Don Pedro raised his fists in victory just as the rousing "EDSA II" crowd did.

Memories streamed through Don Pedro’s mind. Gloria, after all, is the daughter of his bosom friend and classmate at Pampanga High School, the late former President Diosdado Macapagal, who was also the ninong (godfather) of his son, Cecil.

Don Pedro recalled that Gloria, even as a child, loved politics, tagging along with her father in campaign sorties all over the country. A treasured picture showed him with the father and daughter on the campaign trail.

"She loves to be with people always," he said.

Don Pedro has treated Gloria like his own daughter. "Her father treated me like his own brother. She calls me Tio (uncle). When Dado was president, I was always seated beside him in his car bearing license plate 1," he recalled.

When Macapagal was still alive, Don Pedro said he and daughter Gloria would come over to be with him on his birthday. Gloria, too, slept in the Balingit home, not in a hotel, whenever she had to attend social functions or campaign in the province.

"Pag andito na yan, gustong-gusto niyang kainin ’yong Bonuan bangus at alimango (Whenever she’s here, she loves to eat Bonuan bangus and crabs)," the old man quipped.

What impresses Don Pedro most about Gloria is her intelligence and humility. Despite her political stature, Gloria, he said, has not changed a bit and would always relate stories about her family and friends and her political activities whenever she visited him.

"Brainy yan gaya ng kanyang ama at ina. Classmate niya si Clinton sa Georgetown University (She’s brainy like her father and mother. Clinton was her classmate at Georgetown University)," Don Pedro said. Her mother, Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal, who hailed from Binalonan town, was an accomplished doctor.

Now that Gloria is Chief Executive, Don Pedro wishes that she "make a record," being the first-ever child of a former president to occupy such a position.

Like a proud father, Don Pedro is elated as he, too, gets congratulated for the victory of his "daughter," who had him onstage when she, in her first out-of-town sortie since assuming the presidency, took part in a thanksgiving pilgrimage to Manaoag town the other day.