Today, January 17, Olongapo City marks the 107th birth anniversary of JAMES LEONARD TAGLE GORDON Sr who was elected as first mayor of the city.
He chose Filipino citizenship when most of his countrymen (true blooded Filipinos) were lining up to obtain U.S. visas, seeking to leave their homeland and loved ones behind for the proverbial greener pasture.
•His story unfolded as a little community in Zambales province struggled to assert its own identity in a unique setup brought upon by an oversight of Philippine officials amid our American benefactors’ intensifying presence, in their eager rush to please them.
•It was James Gordon who raised the contentious issue of American military presence in the country.
It all dated back to 1947 when Olongapo was included in a tract of land leased to the U.S. as a military naval reservation. It was a Philippine territory governed by American navy authorities where Filipinos were deprived of free movement and right of abode, among others.
•Olongapo finally secured its independence via the turnover of Olongapo by the US government to Philippine sovereignty on December 7, 1959, Gordon initially found himself the odd man out. Politics, murky politics and selfish ambitions, threatened to snatch everything away.
•Olongapo was off to a perilous start. Good and evil stood face to face. Yet the people who, for 13 long years, yearned for an independent and prosperous community sided with the good and voted for upright governance under the stewardship of James Gordon.
Gordon paid a dear price – his life. The path ahead after his untimely death was clouded in haze, albeit briefly. The assassin’s bullet might have drawn out his last breath but it sowed the seeds of new beginnings.