The Angara women: Standing by their men

MANILA, Philippines - If the trite though timeless formula holds in an election campaign as in life — that behind every successful man is a woman, standing by him, nudging or shoving (as needed), lifting up or grounding him, and yes, willing to go in his stead on the campaign trail — then Team P-Noy senatorial candidate Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has a double chance for success.

There are two women, both with a very strong presence, active in Angara’s life these days, a crucial chapter as he aims to hurdle the transition from Congress to the Senate. Their paths hardly cross these days, by choice. They’d much rather be going their separate ways, to different places, but for the same Sonny-focused mission.

Tootsy Echauz-Angara, 37, has been married to Sonny for 10 years, has three children with him, and has seen him through three terms in Congress. 

The other “Mrs. Angara” has been around all of Sonny’s life, raised him and his three sisters, and may well be considered a campaign veteran, having seen her own husband, Sen. Edgardo J. Angara, through successful campaigns and public service through four six-year terms in the Senate. 

No sparks

Tootsy, of course, has known Sonny longer than 10 years, having first met him “when I was a gangly high school kid in braces.”  But though both remember that they had known each other from way back in their teenage years, they agree that “there were no sparks that flew then and we didn’t make a lasting impression on each other.”

They met again some years later, when Sonny was back from college at the London School of Economics and studying law at the University of the Philippines. By then Tootsy was through with college and starting her career.  This time, on their first date set up by mutual friends, the sparks must have flown fast and furious, for another date was set for the Sunday next.

“Our first date, I mean when he actually asked me out, was Sunday Mass and then dinner,” she recalls. “It was as simple as ‘What are you doing on Sunday?’  I’m going to Mass. ‘OK, I’ll go with you’.”    

More Sunday Masses and dinners together, and a couple of years later in 2003, with post-graduate studies they managed to complete along the way (Master of Laws at Harvard for Sonny and Master’s in Marketing Communications at the Northwestern University in Illinois for Tootsy), they were married.

“This is actually the first time that Tootsy is actively campaigning with me,” Sonny shares. The times he ran for Congress as the lone representative of Aurora province, she was pregnant or close to her delivery date. They have three children, Manolo, Ines and Javier who are all very much aware and involved in their dad’s senatorial bid. 

This time around, Tootsy, an ABS-CBN marketing executive, was determined to be part of the action, often with the kids who are now eight, seven and two. She took a leave of absence from work to be at the helm of the campaign, drawing in supporters, marshaling resources, charting the campaign routes and schedules, and making her own rounds of sorties and palengke tours.    

“She’s a people person, very much in touch with people. She’s actually more personable and more charming than I am,” Sonny concedes. “And in that sense, we complement each other. I’ve become a warmer, more relaxed person because of her.”

Send me anywhere, anytime

There are also precious lessons she has picked up from the elder Mrs. Angara, “a beautiful person and an elegant lady,” Tootsy says.

With Senator Angara set to retire from politics at the end of his term this June, Gloria Manalang-Angara is now the younger Angara’s avid and indefatigable supporter.

She can get on a flight at a moment’s notice to sub for her candidate son and is not above warbling a popular tune or swaying to the rhythm of the beat on the stage on a provincial campaign sortie.

“She’s 110 percent behind me, absolutely,” Sonny says of his mom’s support. “I didn’t expect her to campaign this hard for me, the way she did for my father. I think she’s giving me the same, probably even more, support,” he adds with a smile.

At the Angara headquarters in Makati, campaign staff relate how, when asked if she had any preferences or restrictions in terms of time or distance in the distribution of campaign assignments, Sonny’s mom was quick to reply, “Oh, you can send me anywhere, anytime.  If no one can or wants to go, I’ll take it.”

Mrs. Angara, 69, a retired teacher, was former chairman of the board of trustees of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Philippine Ballet Theater and the Philippine Centennial Commission.

 â€œShe’s very cultured, and it was from her that I learned to appreciate art, history, literature and culture,” her only son says. “I’ve always known her to be such a smart and knowledgeable person and she just enjoyed sharing what she knew. I’d ask her a question, and mahaba ng kwento ‘yun.”

Sonny recalls his mother’s counsel during his first foray into politics in 2004, when he sought a seat in Congress as the lone representative of Aurora province.

“She was always very practical. I’ll never forget what she said: ‘If you enter politics, make sure it’s what you really want to do, because it’s not a career where you’re going to get rich.  So if you want better things in life, you should go to other professions’.”

Other women-in-waiting

Son and daughter-in-law have kept these words to heart. The reason perhaps why, as Sonny has continued to chart his own political path, aiming to begin his first term in the Senate this year, Tootsy is determined to put in the “better half” of family fund.

“With Sonny in public service, I can’t afford not to work,” she says.  And so she’s going back to work as a television executive once the campaign is over. 

But in a few more days, Tootsy and Gloria, Sonny Angara’s two women, have a vital job to do — to get their man on the ballot and into the Senate.

And, if the going should ever get any tougher, Sonny’s fortunate to have other women-in-waiting. There’s Sonny and Tootsy’s only daughter Ines, and then Sonny’s three sisters, Anna Rosalyn, Katerina Gloria Lopez-Vito and Alexandra Leia and Tootsy’s mom, writer Baboo Mondoñedo.