One of the most intriguing names that came up during the Senate?s investigation of the spectacular failure of the Legacy Consolidated group was that of the second-highest official of the land. Testifying before the Senate committee on trade, a former head of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. said he had been told to go easy on Legacy because the businessman who owned the controversial banking and pre-need group had contributed a lot to the 2004 campaign of Vice President Noli de Castro.

Now a group of Legacy plan holders and investors wants De Castro to help them get their money from former illegal gambling operator (according to Chavit Singson), banker and Sto. Domingo, Albay Mayor Celso de los Angeles. According to these people, De los Angeles used the extensive Legacy plan-holder network to campaign for De Castro in several key provinces in 2004.

The Legacy investors were directed by De los Angeles to put up streamers and other campaign paraphernalia of De Castro in a large swath of the south, from the Leyte provinces all the way up to Davao, where the banker?s double-your-money scheme was especially popular at the time. Because De los Angeles? investors were still awash in cash from what the Senate is now calling an insupportable Ponzi scheme, they happily agreed to campaign for De Castro?who later rewarded the banker by making him head of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. after the elections and his subsequent elevation to national housing czar.

De Castro?s link to De los Angeles has long been established. According to a 2005 report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the vice president endorsed his key contributor for the post of NHMFC chairman soon after the elections, the government position De los Angeles took over in September 2004.

The PCIJ report says De Castro cut his ties with De los Angeles soon after reports of massive corruption at the agency surfaced under his old campaign contributor?s watch.

Indeed, records show that De los Angeles, amid a great outcry from urban poor groups who are the agency?s clients in its community mortgage program, went on sick leave in July 2005 and never returned to his post as NHMFC chairman.

By 2007, De los Angeles was himself elected mayor of Sto. Domingo, and had his eyes set on challenging Gov. Joey Salceda for the provincial capitol. In one radio interview recently, De los Angeles said he would spend his personal fortune of P1.8 billion to defeat Salceda and all his allies in Albay.

But that was before the Legacy group went under in unfunded post-dated checks, the closure by the Bangko Sentral of the group?s 14 affiliated banks and the filing for bankruptcy of the pre-need companies owned by the flamboyant banker-politician also known in Sto. Domingo as ?Boss Boy? and the owner of the yacht M/V Legacy.

For the meantime, at least, De los Angeles? political ambitions have been put on hold, just like they were after his failed bid for a congressional seat in his hometown of Marikina before he ?migrated? to Albay.

As far as De Castro is concerned, perhaps he should clarify his true relationship with De los Angeles, who seems dead set on bringing down every politician and government official that he has curried favor with and funded in the past?apparently with money he made from his Legacy banks and pre-needs?to save himself. Already, the now-famous small-town mayor and nickel-and-dime banker is being linked to House Speaker Prospero Nograles (an old Legacy investor), former Rep. Prospero Pichay and other politicians and De los Angeles himself has virtually accused key Bangko Sentral officials of ?extortion? during his Senate testimony.

As a supposed front-runner in the 2010 polls, De Castro could be brought down by his association with De los Angeles, who is the newest and biggest poster boy of pyramiding scams since Rosario Baladjay, whose Multitel fleeced nearly a million investors out of billions of pesos some years back. Now that some Legacy plan holders and investors are about to go public about the vice president, De Castro needs to clear the air about his links to the controversial banker-businessman.

As Noli himself would have said during his stint as a broadcaster: Abangan!

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Today, our family marks the first anniversary of the death of our father and first mentor, a man of uncompromising principles who lived a life dedicated to hard work, fairness and a lifelong concern for the poor and the oppressed. Outside of his own kin and small circle of friends, few may have known about Higino ?Ino? Robles Sr.?but to us who had the pleasure of knowing him, we will always recall a man whose short frame belied his true stature as a moral giant.

My father believed that nothing was impossible to anyone who was willing to work hard for it, and his entire life was a testimony to this faith. As strong as his belief in his own ability to better himself was, he never took to people who were always looking for short cuts to success and material wealth?even if these people were outwardly happier, wealthier and more successful than himself.

In midlife, my father discovered God and embraced his Catholic faith the way he did everything else that he considered important in his life. But it was not an unthinking faith that my father had?he transformed himself into a self-taught exegete and Bible scholar, the culmination of his own rigid evaluation and study of his religious beliefs.

My father was also a factory worker, a labor leader and organizer, a teacher and a small-time entrepreneur. He was very much interested in politics, both on the local and national levels, even if the people he would campaign for often did not win?not their fault, he would say, because they were really the better candidates who were only defeated by the money and power of those who did emerge victorious.

To us, his children and his wife, Juliana, he was ?Tatay,? a moral force and a force of nature, someone worthy of fear, respect and, ultimately, love. To everyone else, he was known as someone always willing to extend a helping hand in times of need, be they relatives or mere acquaintances, even if he often didn?t have much to share except some kind (if gruffly spoken) words of encouragement.

We?d like to believe that when he finally succumbed to heart and renal failure at 84, just a couple of weeks after his birthday, he had already made his peace with his God and with everyone else. But we whom he left behind miss him still, as we do our best to live up to his ideals even now that he?s gone.

But, of course, living up to his great expectations was what Tatay always wanted us to do?whatever it was that we actually did.