(Our regular columnist yields his space to Associate Justice Edward B. Contreras of the Court of Appeals, writing on the political fortune of his relatives. Formerly executive judge of the Regional Trial Court in Roxas City, he is a nephew of Capiz’s governor-elect, Vice Governor Esteban Evan Contreras Jr.)
IN the early morning of May 14, 2019, my family and I were en route to Madrid when news of early results of the previous day’s midterm elections began filtering online. I had a pleasant jolt when the report flashed that Vice Governor Esteban Evan Contreras Jr., aka Nonoy, was poised to win overwhelmingly as the new governor of Capiz. In the succeeding hours, Nonoy was proclaimed as winner for the position of governor.
His father Esteban Evan Sr. was proclaimed as re-elected mayor of Pontevedra. The elder son, Dr. Steve, won the number one post at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan while their relative Tambol Contreras Apolinario ranked 3rd post.
I consider this feat of the Contrerases as so historic that I felt compelled and inspired to write this discourse, notwithstanding that I am in the midst of a rare journey across a magnificent continent that is home to one of the oldest and unrelentingly modernizing civilizations.
I like to believe that this electoral victory of the Contrerases is a resounding vindication and affirmation of the visionary and principled politics spearheaded by Esteban Evan Contreras Sr. (Dodoy Evan) when he ran and won as number 1 member of SP-Capiz in 1987, and when he trounced handily in 1992 the incumbent governor, Ting Borda, and when he blocked magnificently with an overwhelming number of votes his challenger in 1995. He could have bagged his 3rd term had he not declined the urging of Senator Mar Roxas to formally join the Liberal Party, of which he would have been the official candidate of LP for governor. Dodoy Evan, however, out of gratitude to President Ramos, stuck it out with the latter’s Lakas-NUCD.
In the ensuing years, Dodoy Evan reconciled with Senator Roxas, paving the way for the election of his eldest son, Dr. Steve, to the mayorship of Pontevedra, and of Nonoy Evan to the number one post in SP-Capiz, and later, the election of Dodoy Evan to the Pontevedra mayoral post.
Throughout all these years, Dodoy Evan has never wavered in his commitment and service to the people of Capiz. He continues with singular dedication his thrust at Primary Health Care in the barangays and among the poorest in Capiz. As has been shown in medical studies, primary health care is crucial and pivotal to maintaining the health of the broad masses of our people. It saves a lot of expenses for our people in the barrios. Dodoy Evan is truly a “doctor to the masses.”
Certainly, the good name and the solid reputation attached to Dodoy Evan has rubbed off on Governor Nonoy. And Nonoy, true to his own sterling character, did not just rest on the legacy of his forebears. From day one of his political life, he doggedly sought and served his fellow Capiznons in the barrios and poblaciones.
And to Governor Nonoy may yet fall the long-running, enduring mantle of progressive, visionary, and principled leadership commenced by the Contreras forebears: the revolutionary hero Gen. Esteban D. Contreras and Commonwealth mayors Fabian Contreras and Ramon Contreras./PN
