Who really deserves to be mayor of San Pedro Tunasán, La Laguna?

For the past several months, I’ve been itching on writing a blogpost against Eugenio Ynión, Jr., the gentleman who threatened to kill me two summers ago. “What better time than now,” I thought, “because it’s election time. His kind simply has to be stopped.” To those unaware, he is gunning for the mayoralty post of San Pedro Tunasán in sun-soaked La Laguna Province, my family’s home since 2007. Of course I like the idea of him helming my adoptive city very less because of what he did, or would like to do, to me. But my plan has been hindered by several factors: my night job is taking a toll on my exhausted mind, my reflex neurovascular dystrophy gives me plenty of excuses not to write too much, and of course, there’s the concern (for my family, not for myself) that he will violently retaliate.

As election day draws nearer and nearer, I’ve been wanting to discredit him all the more, to destroy his campaign online, to put him to shame. I had wanted to expose him to be the fraud that he really is. But I couldn’t. Because I’m not like him, and I don’t want to become like him. I mean, just check out his Facebook account: it’s filled with calumnies, defamation of character (directed towards his political rivals), dicey accusations, and other negative vibes. So I’d rather not. I simply thought that maybe, just maybe, it would be better to question his character, his real identity, his true motives. But then, that would be boring. As a debt-ridden man, what really interests me now is how he became a tycoon. (his words).

Yes, I admit that I’m jealous of him. Who wouldn’t? He’s got a huge building in the barrio he administers; you won’t see him in the barangay hall because he’s always holed up in that handsome building which he calls SABAK (perfectly rhymes with the Tagálog word “sápac” if you know what I mean 😎). He’s got luxury cars, regularly dines with his family and friends in the most extravagant restaurants, and can go to any dream resort any time he wants (at the expense of his duties as barrio chairman, that is). Of course he can! Because he’s the owner of that famous multi-billion peso conglomerate called Ynión General Holdings, or Yngen for short (if you’ve never heard of it, then you’re surely living under a rock). I checked its website. To be honest, I was impressed! Says the website:

Yngen Holdings, Inc. is a 100% Filipino-owned corporation based in Manila. It is a progressive holdings firm composed of competent companies in various fields and industries such as shipping and logistics, technology marketing, properties and property development, and fine food. Its subsidiaries are Le Soleil International Logistics Co., Inc., Le Soleil Shipping Agencies, Inc. Fil-Port Express Brokerate, Inc., Yngentech, Inc., Yngen Properties Inc., and OWG Coffee Co., Inc.

CEO Jun Ynión proudly declares in interviews that he’s one of the youngest shipping magnates in the country. But I wonder why his Le Soleil Shipping Agencies, apparently an exclusive representative for ZIM Integrated Shipping, created online accounts with other shipping companies but has not done any physical shipping transaction with them, if at all. Well, that statement of mine is not entirely accurate. Outside its activities with Zim, Le Soleil does have a transaction, albeit done very recently. Actually, the company ordered thousands of pounds of chicharón from the Visayas, most of which are now somewhere in Southern Luzón (interestingly, Le Soleil is both the shipper and the consignee for this shipment; such a transaction is not unusual for a logistics company, but one should take note that this chicharón shipment is the only transaction it has outside of Le Soleil for this anonymous company). But I won’t delve on that further if CEO Ynión will use it for his campaign (or perhaps as pulutan for an expected elections victory?). The point here is that if Le Soleil prides itself as Zim’s exclusive representative, then why make outside transactions with other shipping companies just to ship a couple of containers filled with nothing but chicharón? For large conglomerates, this is virtually unprofitable, a total waste of time. Shouldn’t a seasoned CEO like Ynión be aware of that?

Also, conglomerates tend to divest non-performing assets or subsidiaries. Upon careful scrutiny of Yngen’s website, it made me wonder even more. Aside from his “well-known” logistics company, what immediately grabbed my attention was one of his products called On What Grounds? (OWG) Coffee. When me and my family went into hiding because of his and his mentally unstable brother‘s death threats, I had the opportunity to visit his coffee product’s office in Macati. Under an assumed identity, I got to talk to one of his representatives. It turned out that CEO Ynión was just a middleman for the real company  which owns OWG (if memory serves right, that company is based in Australia).

If you haven’t even tasted OWG, you’re probably from another planet. But if you insist that you’re an earthling, then that means it’s only logical for Yngen to have divested OWG a long, long time ago because there’s no chance in hell that it could compete with more well-known brands such as Nescafé and Café Puro.

I could just imagine the hilarity of OWG contributing heavily to Yngen’s bottomline.

But wait! There’s more! Who has not even heard of Yngen’s best-selling Quiti-Kill? It’s an innovative tool for the natural, safe, and effective control of mosquitoes. For sure, Yngen has profited heavily from this very familiar brand so much that CEO Ynión could afford all the riches in life.

Unfortunately for him, Baygon katol is more popular and profitable compared to his Quiti-Kiwhatever-that-junk-is, even in this day and age of airconditioned slums.

For sure, CEO Ynión will insist that the bulk of Yngen’s profits come from Le Soleil. I believe him… but he’s got his dad to thank for. 😂

As CEO Ynión’s die hard fan, I wonder why, for all his press releases of business successes left and right, he never thought of signing up Yngen to the Philippine Stock Exchange. Even more mind-boggling is the fact that Yngen never made it to our country’s list of top 500 companies.

But enough about CEO Ynión. Between him and his rivals, mud-slinging should belong exclusively to him and only him. Besides, I really don’t have that mud to sling at him. He already has his fair share of it. And from deep within that putrid mud of his own making, we see his PR man Manuel Mejorada rearing his not-so-pretty-looking head. But no, I won’t go into details on how mejorada sold his soul to his beloved “Brother’s Ynión” (the people of Iloílo will tell you that fact themselves), nor will I attack him for what he did to me after the Ynión death threats. Mejorada already destroyed himself in the eyes of the world, exposing himself to be a total buffoon of an “investigative journalist” when he relied solely on rumors, gossips, and editable Wikipedia in attacking his nemesis, Senator Franklin Drilón.

The problem with CEO Ynión is that he is overly opportunistic. After befriending former Mayor Calex, the former immediately asked the latter that he handle San Pedro Tunasán’s garbage disposal system and waterworks. But these favors are not cheap toys that could be given away in an instant handshake. Processes and certain qualifications had to take effect. Blinded by ambition and greed, this didn’t sit well with CEO Ynión. That’s why he started to rebel. Using his Facebook account (not to mention a legion of hundreds of fake Facebook accounts as his attack dogs), he started stirring up a hornet’s nest, throwing calumnies and unprovable accusations here and there.

As he allowed ambitious anger to engulf the very fabric of his mind, our poor CEO basically forgot one simple trait that would have probably endeared him to those few people who do not support his rivals: COURTESY and HUMILITY. He should have remembered in the first place that he was an outsider. He only moved to San Pedro Tunasán during the last decade. He failed to blend with the people. He had to pay (and at times slap) his way through them just to be accepted. He should have kept in mind that one does not simply go to somebody’s house and tell the people living there how to run their home or how to live their lives. But that’s exactly what he is doing to the people of San Pedro Tunasán. He made people quarrel with each other, take sides. He may have succeeded in these areas, but he didn’t realize that a true San Pedrense is against calumnying. If Super Ynión had seen anything worth saving and protecting in San Pedro Tunasán, he should have never attacked the people running it. He should have talked with them and worked with them COURTEOUSLY. But he never did.

Hindí gusto ng taal na tagá San Pedro ang táong mahilig manira ng capuà.

As an outsider, this Eugenio Ynión, Jr. failed to see (of course, because he had a different agenda in mind).

It appears that CEO Ynión was hellbent in avoiding the mistakes his imbecile of a brother had committed in Iloílo, if just to create a political niche for himself here in La Laguna Province. Unfortunately, he’s making the very same mistakes his brother did (and is still doing). He had, in fact, become his brother’s doppelgänger.

But I really shouldn’t be blogging about CEO Ynión, his crazed brother, or their gossipy, Wikipedia-minded PR slave. A family friend had advised me a few days ago about this because it will certainly endanger the lives of my loved ones. Very well then. I’ll stop here. What I really wanted to talk about is why, after declaring that I will never participate in political elections ever again, I want to reclaim my right to suffrage.

Nobody took that right away from me. It was I who threw it away. I have become apolitical towards national politics brought about by my cynicism towards democracy (whose rickety strings are attached somewhere else, anyway). However, I now would like to express my willingness to support and endorse the team of Mayor Lourdes “Baby” Cataquiz, the current chief magistrate of SPT. I believe that it is much easier to govern and administer basic public service to a city of only 9.29 sq mi with more or less 300,000 souls compared to a big archipelago, or to other larger cities and municipalities for that matter. In this area, the current administration of SPT has proven itself to be successful.

In the current government setup, the results of local government action are more quantifiable and are much easier felt in the grassroots level. Planning and development are more fast-paced, more transparent, because local government units (LGUs) such as SPT are, in fact, autonomous in several aspects of public administration. Citizen participation in governmental matters is more feasible, not to mention the smoothness of a two-way communication between residents and the LGU (a citizen could even affectionately consider their hometown or city as their “little kingdom”). In SPT, the Catáquiz administration —from former Mayor Calixto R. Catáquiz to current Mayor Baby— has shown its worth in implementing laws and reforms that proved to be beneficial to its constituents. The city is even getting close to achieving its “Road Map 2020” mission and vision.

One sterling Catáquiz achievement was the conversion of SPT from a municipality into a component city on 28 December 2013. Cityhood for SPT was a decades-old dream, almost considered impossible because the number of business establishments, particularly large-scale enterprises, is not enough to reach the annual income requirement of ₱50,000,000. Add to that the reputation (which in fact is a fact) of SPT as simply a dormitory area, mostly for those working in Metro Manila. But former Mayor Calex Catáquiz was able to weave his magic by applying effective fiscal policies, strict budgetary measures, and other workable business strategies that he learned as a seasoned businessman. In no time, SPT was able to earn over ₱350,000,000 a year!

Upon taking the leadership from her husband three years ago, Mayor Baby continued his legacy, his programs and projects, and even more. And the best part of this is that she is the type of leader who will listen to you and take action if, in her good wisdom, she deems that what you say or suggest is beneficial for the city as a whole. Once or twice, I broached to her the idea of establishing a historica group for San Pedro Tunasán. To my delight, she did. Late last year, the San Pedro City Historical Council was organized. This clearly shows her genuine concern for the city’s historical and cultural aspects.

I’m not claiming that the Catáquiz couple made San Pedro Tunasán as the most perfect city in our province. Mistakes and lapses happen from time to time. But I am of the firm belief that anything unpleasant a visitor sees in San Pedro Tunasán is no longer the fault of the hardworking Catáquiz administration but of undisciplined and highly uncooperative citizens (and political rivals) who blatantly refuse to follow even the simplest of laws.

I am confident that our young city is in good hands with Team Cataquiz-Tayao BOOOM HALAL. They are native San Pedrenses. Ergo, their love and concern for the city is genuine and pure compared to scheming outsiders like CEO Ynión. They are set to continue tried and tested strategies and achievements of the past. And more.

What perhaps stands out from this team is the remarkable humility of its members. Time and again, each and every member of Mayor Baby’s team have shown genuine concern and unselfish dedication towards their duties.

To my fellow San Pedrenses, try them. And let’s not just vote for them. LET’S WORK WITH THEM in getting rid of whatever unpleasantries our city may still have. Road Map 2020 is at hand!

PS: In the event that any member of my family disappears or is violently harmed once this blogpost has been published, you should very well know who the culprits are. Stay safe, everyone. 😉