Remembering ambush of ex-Iloilo City mayor

By Alex P. Vidal

“Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”— Mao Zedong

BEFORE his 50^th birthday in March 1972, the late former Iloilo City mayor Rodolfo “Bagyo Roding” Ganzon survived an ambush that killed his four bodyguards on Mapa St. in downtown, City Proper.

The entourage of two cars reportedly came from the City Hall at past six o’clock in the evening a few blocks away when unidentified armed men peppered the vehicles with bullets.

According to the St. Joseph News-Press, a newspaper based in Buchanan County in Missouri, USA, three of the dead were policemen acting as Ganzon’s bodyguards. The other was his civilian driver.

Ganzon, a former senator and congressman, was “wounded on the shoulder but managed to fire back at the attackers with a Thompson submachine gun. Apparently, no one was hit,” reported the St. Joseph News-Press.

The bloody incident happened six months before President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. declared Martial Law on September 21, 1972.

Ganzon, a staunch Marcos critic, was charged and convicted with murder in a separate incident but spent time in jail as “political prisoner” until his release in 1986 where he was allegedly “forced” to campaign for Marcos versus Corazon Aquino in a snap presidential election in exchange for his freedom.

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Because he was at odds with then Iloilo City congressman Fermin “Nene” Zarandin Caram Jr. over the violent control of Muelly Loney dock territory, it was rumored that Caram had something to do with the ambush.

The Carams used to be Marcos’ former allies during the pre-Martial Law years. But when the couple reportedly offended then First Lady Imelda R. Marcos, their asset, Filipinas Orient, then the country’s third largest domestic airline first licensed to fly in 1964 over the opposition of the flag carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL), was abolished.

It was supposed to be a move to rationalize the airline industry as part of Marcos’ Martial Law reforms.

Marcos granted PAL a domestic monopoly and allowed PAL to expropriate Filipinas Orient’s aircraft and charged Caram with plundering the firm, winning a court case to freeze all of Caram’s assets.

Badly hurt, the Carams broke up politically with Marcos.

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When Caram’s wife, Rosa “Tita”, was appointed as OIC Iloilo City mayor after the 1986 EDSA Revolution, she denied her husband, or family for that matter, had something to do with the failed attempt to kill Ganzon.

“Indi kami violenti. Public servants kami kag negosyante (We are not violent. We are public servants and we engage in business),” the Spanish mestiza lady OIC mayor remarked in halted Hiligaynon.

When Mayor Caram refused to run against Ganzon in the mayoral election, Ganzon, who ran and lost to newcomer Rafael Lopez-Vito for congressman in the 1987 elections, blasted the Caram couple in his political rally on corner Delgado and Jalandoni Streets, City Proper.

“Nahadlok si Tita (Rosa Caram) nga mag padalagan kontra sa akon. Kay man sadtong nag sabtanay kami ni Nene (Fermin Caram) gin hambalan ya ako nga putyong kuno ako. Ang sabat ko kay Nene, abi pamangkota si Tita kun matuud nga putyong ako (Tita is afraid to face me in the election because one time when Nene and I had an argument, he accused me of being uncircumcised. I told him, why don’t you ask Tita if it is true that I am uncircumcised),” boomed Ganzon, then 66, who claimed Mayor Caram was “once my girlfriend.”

The crowd erupted in laughter. Political pundits claimed mercurial Ganzon’s outbursts were part of his sardonic style as a seasoned politician.

Paque Caram, the Carams’ son who ran unsuccessfully against Albertito Lopez in the congressional election in the second district of Iloilo, dismissed Ganzon’s allegations as “a total lie.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)