THE late former Vice Mayor Danilo Lacuna, better known as “Danny,” is one very good mayor the city of Manila never had.
I was covering the Manila City Hall beat in 1989 when I first met him.
He was then the Vice Mayor of Manila and the Presiding Officer of the Manila City Council. It was under his rein that the City Council had the best crop, led by the likes of now city administrator Bernie ‘Yantao’ Ang and lawyers Bert Basco and Bert Domingo, Pete de Jesus, Ernie Rivera, Flaviano Concepcion, Ernest Maceda, Maning Isip, to name a few. Easily, it was the “golden era” of the Manila City Council.
Back then, reporters physically covered the Council proceedings owing to the colorful personalities and the quality ordinances and resolutions being filed, with the majority and minority blocs ‘out-filing’ each other. The deliberations and debates were feisty and for newbies in the media industry like myself, it was such a delight to learn from them. Until now, the genius in Ang continues to amaze me and I continue to learn from his many words of wisdom.
A lawyer himself, Vice Danny would not be bullied by Council members who also come from the legal profession. At the end of the day, he would always come up with a peaceful resolution and emerge as a true leader of the Council. Outside the august halls of the Council, he is friends with all of them.
While we may have not started on the right foot, Vice Danny and I ended up as good friends, sharing stories along with other smokers like us while we puffed the hours away with varied stories, mostly funny ones, and politics in Manila.
When I became president of the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Association (MACHRA), Vice Danny was there to back me up and supported our press corps especially when we were being booted out of office for being critical of the sitting administration at that time.
Here’s the funny story. When our telephone line was cut (there were no cellphones yet then) along with our water supply and electricity as part of efforts to get back at us for writing adverse stories about the mayor, it was Vice Danny who found a way -albeit secretly- for us to continue having a telephone line, water and power through connections made to his office which was right beside ours. Only a wall divides the MACHRA office and that of Vice Danny’s so that the extension of his supplies became easy. As the saying goes, “dingding lang ang pagitan.”
He was our secret adviser at that time until such time that it was already okay to come out as such. Hehehe…
It was through constant conversations that we got to know Vice Danny well. He was a brainy lawyer and was a very reasonable man. He was down to earth and treated everybody equally. He would talk to a lowly beggar the same way he would talk to a business magnate.
He was never a braggadocio and always fought for what he stood for. No matter how lonely the battle may be for him, he always stood by his principles — a legacy and trait which, as I can see, he bequeathed to his eldest daughter, now Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna.
These are only some of the characteristics of a true leader that I have personally seen from Vice Mayor Danny. These are the reasons why I think he would have been such a good mayor and Manilans, sadly, were deprived of the chance to benefit from what he had to offer.
It’s good that before he left, he saw Mayor Honey achieve his dream of giving Manilans the “Lacuna brand” of service they so deserve. Vice Mayor Danny, I’m sure, is now smiling in heaven.
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