Political, Cultural and Sports Luminaries
Published: December 30, 2015 12:00 AM | Updated: February 08, 2018 01:50 PM | Author: CPDO
The City has its share of famous politicians playing roles in the provincial and national scene.
The late Atty. Arturo B. Pascual was elected vice-governor of the province in 1964. The then provincial board member Atty. Crispulo Esguerra representing the 2nd district of the province is from the city. While, the immediate past congressional representatives Atty. Simeon E. Garcia and Dr. Eleuterio R. Violago, and the incumbent Congressman Engr. Joseph Gilbert F. Violago of the same district hails from San Jose.
It is also noteworthy that some well-known government officials came from the city, like Atty. Hermogenes P. Pobre who was the Commissioner of the Professional Regulation Commission for a long time. Chito Sobrepeņa was once the Assistant Director General of NEDA, and he served as one of the high officials of the Presidential Management Staff. On the side of chivalry, it is worth mentioning to name a multi-awarded soldier who served in utmost devotion his decades of public sevice in the person of Col. Rafael Rueda, Jr., son of the late late Prsidente Municipal Rafael Rueda, Sr.
Jake Concepcion, an internationally known saxophone artist based in Japan, who is also a local artist, was credited as the "fastest sax alive". His brother, Tony is a standout trumpet artist in an international band called Miami Sound Machine where Ms. Gloria Estefan is the lead singer. Then who would forget the director Mr. Lino Broka, an institution in his own right, was known worldwide for his issue-conscious films. In the field of sports, Armando Catalan won the tour of Luzon in 1988. Bubbles Custodio was known for her expertise in soap box carting while Jessie Cabanayan in the Philippine Basketball Association is known for his skills in basketball. In the field of science, let us take glimpse and take pride on a budding inventor hailed in our city, a young lass Marjorie Gold Maningas who bagged the Gold Medal Award for International Youth Invention Contest in 2014.
Another pride of San Jose City is Mr. Wilfredo O. Pascual who is internationally acclaimed for his literary works. Mr. Pascual was a two-timer Carlos Palanca Awardee on 2006 and 2007 for winning the Grand Prize on Essay in English. The National Press Club also awarded him a Literary Award on 2008. In 2011 the President of India along with the UNESCO Secretary General awarded the UNESCO Literacy Confucius Prize to a program where he held international workshops on writing and illustrating for children which resulted to the publication of 7 million copies of 700 original children's books in over 20 languages . He also was given the Curt Johnson Prose Award for Non-fiction in 2015. The city has a line of budding artists in literary and prose and who would not take pride for having the current Sangguniang Panlungsod Secretary, Sigfredo R. Iņigo, an essayist and a writer in his own who was awarded of Carlos Palanca Award for short stories in 2014.