A simple and modest billionaire
TYCOON Antonio L. Cabangon-Chua, 81, was buried on Wednesday afternoon at the crowded San Felipe Neri Catholic Cemetery in Mandaluyong City in a somewhat subdued ceremony.
He could have been buried in one of his spacious and posh Eternal Garden memorial parks as befits a former ambassador and billionaire.
But the former Ambassador to Laos had said he wanted to be buried beside his mother, Dominga L.
Cabangon.
The San Felipe Neri Parish Church, where the last three days of Chua’s wake were held, is a plain-looking structure unlike the churches of the rich and famous.
Amba Tony (“Amba, short for ambassador, was how many of his friends and subordinates called him), however, wanted to have his wake at the church in Mandaluyong City, where he grew up in the midst of poverty.
He might have been one of the country’s richest men, but he was very humble.
Tony always wanted to recall the times when, as a young boy, he would dive into the Pasig River for “tulya” or clams that he and his mother would have for lunch or dinner.
Pasig River was still pristine and unpolluted in the late ’40s and early ’50s.
“That’s why I’m a little hard of hearing as frequent diving into the river for food in my youth had damaged one ear,” Chua said.
His businesses were so varied they covered almost everything—pawnshops, restaurants, motels, insurance, media, medical care and memorial parks—or as one wag quipped, “from erection to resurrection.”
Among his media outlets are BusinessMirror, a multiawarded business daily; Philippine Graphic, a weekly magazine; and radio station dwIZ, now home to my “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo” public service program.
A certified public accountant and reserve colonel in the Armed Forces, Chua once told me he was a frustrated journalist.
* * *
Tony’s defining moment which shaped his destiny was his encounter with an American soldier as a young boy.
As he was shining the soldier’s boots, Tony inadvertently looked up to see the American biting an apple.
The soldier, sensing that the young bootblack’s mouth was watering, threw the half-consumed apple on the ground and told the boy to pick it up.
When Tony didn’t budge, the American kicked him.
Hurt and humiliated, the young Tony vowed to become very rich when he grew up “so nobody could kick me around,” the former ambassador told me.
That incident and the memory of his mother would always make Tony cry.
* * *
Why is Emmanuel Rivera, Cavite assistant provincial prosecutor, acting like he’s the attorney of the accused instead of the complainant?
Rivera is the prosecutor in a frustrated murder case involving Kenneth Casimiro who was shot in the back last year by a drunk policeman, PO2 Jose Salamante, in Imus town, Cavite province.
Casimiro’s only fault was to stare at the policeman who walks with a wobble.
Is it true Rivera told the victim’s sister to accept P2 million from the respondent as down payment and a monthly stipend for Kenneth?
The victim is now wheelchair-bound as he was hit in the spine by the accused.
Rivera was said to have told Lea, the victim’s sister, that Salamante would serve a short jail term for good behavior if he gets a conviction.
“Be practical, ” the prosecutor allegedly advised the siblings.
