Take two for Toti

Before he ran for congressman of Pasig in 2001, Noel "Toti" Cariño built a fortune selling and building homes for a mostly middle and upper middle class market. The son of a labor lawyer and a schoolteacher, he jokes that he was born with "a stainless steel spoon bought from the Kamuning market."

He earned his first million shortly after graduating from college. He was then a freelance real estate agent with the realty firm V.V. Soliven. And then one day, the company he co-founded, Fil-Estate, became a household (pun intended) word.

Today, Toti holds office in the seventh floor in the main tower of a cluster of posh buildings in Pasig belonging to Fil-Estate, which employs some 1,000 people, and does business with 25,000 agents.

Toti says that in his more than 25 years in the business, he saw that only a minority of Filipinos had access to affordable housing.

He had a good view of the "common marketplace" and saw beyond the profits.

"After receiving the peoples’ payments, I became really curious. I found out that the average Filipino really needs a lot of help to buy his own house," says Toti, now 48.

As upscale subdivisions rose in the prime real-estate areas, squatter colonies also mushroomed, populated by job-seekers from the provinces.

"Hindi mo na maibabalik sa probinsya sila because the jobs are here. But where do you put them?" says Toti.

With his experience in real estate, Toti thinks the solutions are housed in his mind. In 2001, he ran for Pasig congressman, with decent shelter uppermost in his plan of action if elected.

However, it took two years and eight months for him to walk the halls of Congress. And when he finally did, it was only for a day.

Toti was proclaimed by the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal as the winner of the Pasig congressional polls of 2001, two years and eight months after he filed a protest about the election of Henry Lanot. Last March 2, he was sworn into office by Vice President Teofisto Guingona.

But his first day in Congress happened to be the legislative body’s last session day. It had been a long wait for Toti, and when the long dark night was over, it was a very brief dawn.

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Is Toti fed up with the system? Does he feel he is a victim of injustice?

"I am disillusioned, but with disillusionment comes a challenge," says Toti, who is running – again – for Pasig’s lone congressional seat this May.

How has his electoral protest – and the interminable waiting – affected him?

"I have learned that you should always be vigilant about your rights. And you should never give up when you believe in your cause," he says.

While his case was being deliberated on, Toti continued to go around Pasig to consult with the people. Although several upscale villages – like Valle Verde – are in Pasig, there is an entirely different landscape across the river that divides the city. Beyond the Manggahan Floodway, 60 percent of Pasig is poor, says Toti.

Thus, if elected again, Toti is more determined to work for a viable shelter program for marginalized sectors. He promises to use his Countrywide Development Fund as a guarantee for land that will be converted to housing projects for low-income residents of Metro Manila, like tricycle drivers.

He believes high-rises with 20 to 50-sq. meter units, similar to those in Singapore and Hong Kong, are the solution to the squatting and congestion problems in metropolitan areas.

Because he has spent over two decades in the housing industry, Toti says he knows who the leaders of the squatting syndicates are, and vows they will not benefit from his shelter program.

Toti believes squatter colonies are breeding grounds for crime, and the sooner they are decongested and their residents given decent housing, the sooner crime rates will drop.

As a private citizen, Toti has spearheaded a housing project for tricycle drivers, wherein they pay a monthly amortization of P39 for a house and lot. He is also very active with the Gawad Kalinga, an NGO that builds houses for the poor.

"Lending money to the homeless and providing them an opportunity to get out of a squatter colony is a solution to poverty," says Toti.

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Winning his electoral protest wasn’t the biggest challenge of Toti’s life. Eighteen years ago, he had to fight to win back his life from the hands of kidnappers.

"I can’t forget that day in February 1986. It was 12:30 a.m. and I had just come from a meeting and I told the driver to go home already. It was cold so I rolled down the windows… I was down in Ortigas… I made a right on Rodriguez-Lanuza and a car suddenly blocked mine. Several guys in fatigues went out and pointed a gun at me. They yanked me out of my car and immediately kicked me. They brought me inside their car, and I was seated between two guys. The others got into my car and drove off. They got my wallet. They looked at my ID. Then they removed my shoes to make sure I wouldn’t run. Ako yung tanong ng tanong. Sabi nila, tumahimik ka na lang diyan. The guy hit me on the head with his gun… pero the more I kept quiet, the more anxious I became. I started to still talk. After a while, I said, ‘I know you are going to kill me. So, can I make a last request? If you are going to dump my body, can you just inform my wife where? I’m newly married. I have two kids.’ Siguro napikon, because he hit me again with the gun. He said, ‘You better stop talking. Or else we will do you in here.’ So I kept quiet for a while and started to pray. I prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide me. And then a certain calmness came to me and I was able to come up with a plan. I said, if the car stops, and this guy on my left moves out, he will be the only one outside and I can probably run… The driver will stay put. If the guy on the right (moves out), it will be difficult, because the guy on the passenger seat will help him. And true enough, the car stopped… the guy on my left moved out and pointed the gun at me. I said, ‘Eto na yun. This was my chance.’ Paglabas ko, sabay tulak sa kanya and I ran like hell! And I saw a riverbank… tinalon ko yun… and then they followed… I didn’t reach the water and I hid in a cluster of bamboo trees.

"I could hear them, they were shouting… ‘Labas ka diyan! Labas ka diyan! Puputukan ka namin!’ After about three or four shots… I heard their car start… they were probably afraid they’d be noticed… I stayed there for about an hour. I didn’t move out. Then, I started walking for about a kilometer along the river bank. And then I chanced upon a farmer. I learned I was in Bulacan. May dala-dala siyang bolo at naka-inom pa ata. Kita niya ako panay dugo… Naholdup po ako, pakisamahan niyo po ako sa barangay, I begged him."

The day after his escape, Toti got back behind the wheel of his car again and drove around the city alone.

"I wanted to overcome my fear of driving alone, otherwise, I could be spending the rest of my life fearing my own shadow," Toti recalls.

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Toti Cariño has received more than a fair share of life’s blessings. But the fates have not denied him more than life’s fair share of mishaps, too. But he always moves on, none the worse for the experience, and always eager to get back on his feet again.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected])