MEMORIES: Mayor Pantaleon Alihan

As often mentioned in this blog site, Calamba used to be an idyllic agricultural town where everybody knows almost everybody. Calesas, a few vintage US Army jeeps from World War II, and once-in-a-while outdated cars plied the rough asphalt paved town roads.

Sometime in the late 1954 when Calamba was just beginning to recover from mourning the death of Mayor Sesinando V. Rizal who died from a vehicle accident, Pantaleon Alihan who succeeded Mayor Rizal came to our house to collect my father, who was then a Municipal Councilor for a meeting with then President Ramon Magsaysay at Malacañang Palace. I was then a ten year-old boy. Our house was a two level house made of timber along Rizal Street. At the ground level was a “Botica,” called “Farmacia Miranda.” My father was a Pharmacist. Between our house and the road was a 4 meter wide irrigation canal. Since we were close to the railroad station, the canal in front of our botica was spanned with a bridge made of discarded railroad ties over steel railway steel bars.

As Mayor Pantaleon Alihan approached the bridge, a two year-old boy fell in the knee deep water of the canal and was being carried by strong currents. The mayor wearing a white Barong Tagalog, white sharkskin pants and white gamuza (soft suede leather) shoes fashionable during the period, jumped into the canal to save the boy. He then gave the gasping little boy to the thankful mother.

Neighbors cheered for the new mayor’s heroism, which made his drenched white pants and shoes unfit for Malacañang dress code.