Stateside Macapagal Campaigning for Aquino

by Lito Gutierrez
Reposted in its entirety from the original: “This Stateside Macapacal is Campaigning for Aquino”  Feb 7, 2010, on the Philippine Daily Inquirier

FREMONT, CA—Snug in the supple seat of his gleaming milk-white E Class Mercedes and tapping on the walnut and leather trim of its steering wheel to the beat of ’80s soft-rock ditties, Michael Macapagal is a picture of the fulfillment of the American dream.

The owner of a thriving title insurance business insurance business, Macapagal should be gearing up for the imminent upswing in the real estate industry. Instead he is preparing for a trip to the Philippines to join his father rally support for the presidential run of Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Macapagal is the president and CEO of Daly City-based First Southwestern Escrow, the largest ethnic minority-owned titling outfit (it makes sure for both the lender and the property buyer that the title is “clean”) in California. His father, Teddy Macapagal, is a human-rights lawyer, a former mayor of Olongapo City, and a “distant cousin” of President Macapagal-Arroyo.

“My dad was GMA’s lawyer when she ran for vice president and I remember them calling each other pinsan (cousin),” he recalled.

How far removed, he’s not sure, but his family was a longtime and close political ally of the president. “Our family supported Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she ran for vice president and later for president,” he said.

Macapagal said that the Lakas-CMD, the president’s political party, even designated his brother Marvin, “who is very close to Mikey Arroyo up to now,” to take charge of the campaign in Olongapo and Zambales.

Then the “Hello Garci” controversy erupted and their father, Teddy Macapagal, turning sour on President Arroyo, withdrew from politics.

Back to politics

Active in regional politics even as a history student at the University of the Philippines, Macapagal dropped all interest in politics when he came to America 20 years ago. He continued his education, taking paralegal studies at the Merritt College and later human resource management at the University of California, Berkeley. He got an entry-level job at a titling company and learned enough of the business to give him the confidence to strike out on his own.

With wife Kate, he focused on building his business and raising a family. They have four children, aged 5 to 21, all still in school. But when former President Corazon Aquino died last year and her son, Noynoy Aquino, decided to run for the presidency, Macapagal felt he had to plunge back into politics.

“I once risked my life for an Aquino (Ninoy) while campaigning against Marcos (Ferdinand) in Olongapo,” he continued. “I never thought I would actively campaign again—for another Aquino.”

Macapagal, who is turning 40 this May, is just one of the snowballing ranks of Filipino-Americans across America who formed themselves into US Pinoys for Noynoy (Aquino)-Mar (Roxas) Movement (USP4NM). It was conceived last year—even before Aquino announced his intention to run for president—by top San Francisco lawyers Ted Laguatan and Rodel Rodis, along with civic activists Gloria Navarette, mother of comic Rex, and Fred Acquitania.

“Cory had just died and we figured the best person to run for the presidency would be Noynoy,” said Laguatan, one of California’s top trial lawyers, who first broached the idea.

Ex-GMA backers, financiers

Businesswomen Loida Nicolas Lewis, formerly a staunch GMA supporter, and her sister Imelda, a member of the “Hyatt 10” Arroyo Cabinet members who quit in 2005 following allegations of cheating during the 2004 elections, are vigorously organizing town-hall-type meetings and fundraisers for USP4NM in the East Coast. Similar events are being held in the cities of Las Vegas, Chicago and Detroit.

In fact, most of the movement’s leaders were responsible for the landslide support Ms Arroyo got from the Fil-Am community during her 2004 run for the presidency. Disgruntled and disappointed with the President’s failure to stem corruption as she had promised, they are not just giving money for Aquino’s campaign, they are also taking time from their grueling work schedules to organize pro-Aquino events in their homes, community centers and popular hangouts during weekends.

Over the weekend, Aquino supporters packed Edna’s Ichiban Library, a Daly City club and restaurant favored by Bay Area Filipinos, for a late-afternoon lunch-cum-fundraiser.

Taking off to campaign

Macapagal said he was taking a leave from his job to join his father in Olongapo in February to help drum up support for the Aquino-Roxas ticket. His wife, he said, had given him her full support and would take care of their business while he was away. Kate (née Gastrock; her dad Mike was president of Unilab) is FSE vice president and escrow administrator.

“We need a clean and honest president who will rid our country of corruption,” Macapagal said, adding that he and his business associates had contributed $2,000 to Aquino’s campaign. He was rounding up friends to raise more money and hopes he could personally hand over the funds to Aquino when he gets to Manila.

Targeting 100,000 Fil-Ams

USP4NM itself wants to raise $2 million for Aquino’s campaign coffers and among the projects and activities it has organized is a website, noymay2010.com, courtesy of Lewis. The website has a Paypal link through which the movement hopes 100,000 Fil-Ams could use their credit cards to donate $25 each.

Laguatan, who specializes on immigration, personal injury and civil rights cases, said last year during a USP4NM rally in Union City, California, that Aquino offered the best hope for change. “There’s nobody else,” he said, implying that the other candidates are just “trapos (traditional politicians)” who would just carry on with the system’s corruption-ridden ways. “The most important kind of leadership in the Philippines today is moral leadership,” he said.

To be sure, the other candidates have their own following here.
Oscar B., a nursing aide and a fan of the TFC entertainment program “Wowowee,” said he was going with the TV show’s host Willie Revillame’s candidate, Sen. Manuel Villar.

Marge A. said she was rooting for Villar’s running mate, Sen. Loren Legarda, for her record as an environmentalist and feminist.

USP4NM founder Fred Acquitania said Gilbert Teodoro was an attractive candidate and he could vote for him were he (Gibo) not President Arroyo’s anointed one.

Also, many don’t really care. “Pare-pareho lang ’yan (They’re all the same). They’re all the same s–t,” said Ben P., a retired executive. “What the Philippines needs is a bloody revolution where people can storm Malacañang and Congress and hang their occupants,” he continued, partly in jest.

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