LAOAG CITY VICE-MAYOR EDWARD DOMINGO NEWEST SUBSCRIBER OF TIMPUYOG JOURNAL

Laoag City Vice-Mayor Edward Domingo is the newest subscriber of Timpuyog Journal, the official publication of Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas. He was a gangling fellow in our high school days and we called him Ichabod Crane, one of the characters of Silas Marner that we discussed in literature class. Eddie has bulked--he goes to his private gym twice a week lifting weights. It was our second meeting yesterday at the City Hall, a Spanish building at the foot of the northern portion of Gilbert bridge crossing the River Padsan. "We are some of the "survivors" of that class," he said in Ilokano as he enumerated those who have crossed the Great Divide: Judith Pascual, Juan Rebolledo, Jr., Artemio Agustin, who was an engineer; Alberto Maneja, a lawyer who became a judge; Francisco Arriola--"he could have been the NPA cadre who rose from the ranks and got killed in an encounter with the military in Isabela, where there is a Francisco Arriola Command"--; Allan Estabillo, Eddie Arzadon, father of Cristina, a correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; Simplicio "Impling" de la Cruz, the class' basketball player and others I could not recall at the moment. Eddie will seek the same position, his last term, next year. He said that the wife of City Mayor Michael V. Farinas will replace her husband as the city executive in 2013. "Pagsusublatan laeng ti familia ti takem," he said. "Dinastia ngarud," I said. We had a good laugh. Eddie, a sports buff, has practically lost all his upper teeth. He was not wearing dentures. When we parted, he gave me a keepsake, a powerful rechargeable China-made flashlight. Dios-ti-agngina, Apo Eddie, the best mayor Laoag City never had.

Photos of a stretch of Rizal street in Laoag and the unsinkable calesa