A WIDOW, POLITICIAN, FOREMOST MOTHER	July 1, 2008

“The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that shapes the world.”

This saying is an apt way to describe this province’s Luisa Lloren Cuaresma, 54, who in her own has epitomized the combined strength of a mother and a political leader.  She has been dubbed many things in her more than 20-year political career, a career that she had not planned on but was thrust on her by fate when her mayor husband had been slain by communist rebels 20 years ago.

This accident of fate, her suddenly being thrust into the political limelight because of her untimely widowhood, followed by her landslide win as mayor of Bambang town in place of her slain husband Benjamin Cuaresma Jr., had earned for Luisa Lloren Cuaresma the moniker “Cory Aquino of Nueva Vizcaya” which in a way aptly described her meteoric rise from the relative obscurity of being a politician’s wife to being a politico herself who in the coming years would rise to the positions of vice governor, and ultimately governor of this landlocked province at present.

Thus, in a way her widowhood and her political career had gone hand in hand, this had brought with it the double problems of raising her brood of four without a father and going about her duties as an elected local government official, first as mayor of Bambang town to which she was elected for three terms. This not even discounting the construction business which she and her husband had been managing before his brutal slay.

But in spite of her busy schedule, even during the early years of her widowhood and “accidental” political career, her priority remained unchanged like it had been before her beloved husband, Boyie, was killed: that of looking after her family.

Now, on her second tem as governor, Cuaresma has continued to earn the admiration of her constituents, especially among those who know the story of her life.

“I admire how the governor was able to balance her time between her duties to the electorate and raising her family. She is really an epitome of an outstanding mother and an able woman leader,” said Norma Navoa, a labor leader here.

“It was a real difficult time for me in raising my kids, especially immediately after Boyie’s death, since we had to transfer from place to place for my children’s safety since even our lives then were in danger,” Cuaresma said, explaining of the conditions when her husband was slain which was the time when the rebel influence was strongest in the province, and especially in Bambang town.

Even after she elected as mayor by a landslide, Cuaresma said she never failed to look after her children’s interests, raising her four kids, Benjamin III or Jamie, now 25; Luisa Marie, 23; Lloyd, 21; and the then newly born Luisa Corazon, 20, as best as she could.

“I saw to it that my kids were taken care of despite my busy schedules, and I never failed in my role as their mother,” Cuaresma said, adding that her kids are now all professionals with her eldest now reprising her role as mayor of their town.

“Truly, when we learn of what happened during her life we would be surprised of her capability to withstand pressures for the sake of her children. If I were in her shoes, I might suffer a nervous breakdown since I surely won’t be able to handle the death of my husband and raising my kids on my own, not taking into account having to look after the interests of thousands of her constituents,” said Harriet Cabauatan, a public school teacher.

Of her other children, Luisa Marie is now a law student at the University of the Philippines; Lloyd finished business management and is currently managing their family’s construction firm; while Luisa Corazon finished nursing and is planning to take up medicine.

In fact, many Novo Vizcayanos, both political foes and allies, admire the quirky characteristics that earned her the reputation as a lady governor “with balls” yet still with a mother’s touch. That is, she can be both stern and concerned for others.

“The governor is no longer the mother of just four children who are now all grown up, but now she is mother to more than 400 thousands Novo Vizcayano inhabitants. What she has had to endure since the discovery of the mangled body of her husband is something not just anybody can endure,” said Rudie Bueno, former regional director of the Philippine Information Agency.

“My years since Boyie’s death had taught me that although nobody can replace him in my life, as I have not taken any other partner since his death, the people as a whole, first of Bambang, and then of the whole Nueva Vizcaya are my main concerns, together with my family,” the governor said. #charlie lagasca (NVPC-PAIAD)