For a soldier who’s had numerous deployments throughout a storied career, Delfin Lorenzana, the 72-year-old Philippine Secretary of National Defense might count Washington D.C. as a second home, and tonight his friends came in full force to welcome him at the National Harbor in Maryland.
He came game for the event, billed as a “fellowship” and spent as much time “kodakan” (which was a LOT) as he was answering questions that ranged from the communist insurgency (talk about forever wars) to the Marawi siege to speculations of a run for the Philippine Senate.
He confessed that there’s only one race he’s dreaming of - a final run in the Marine Corps marathon, the gruelling 26-mile foot race that runs through D.C. and Virginia that he’s finished nine times, “before my knees run out”.
“I’ve toyed with the idea,” he finally conceded, intimating that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte had asked him to try a Senate run. He said “no” after asking his wife - who’s had to forsake the bliss of retirement twice before, when he accepted the US posting and later as defense chief - and after surveying the field.
Over 20 years in Washington as defense attache then special envoy on veterans affairs enabled him to cultivate deep contacts in the Pentagon, State Department and Capitol Hill.
His work lobbying for recognition for Filipino World War II veterans led to the passage of the $265 million Filipino Veterans Equity Fund in 2009 and paved the way for the grant of the Congressional Gold Medal in 2015. That frequently placed him in close touch with key lawmakers from both chambers and both political parties. Few Philippine officials can match this familiarity with intricacies of the American legislative and military apparatus.
Seated at far end of the presidential table was 94-year-old Rey Cabacar, a US Navy veteran who served on a PT Boat in World War II and later on a minesweeper during the Korean War. After retiring, he opened a barber shop in Oxon Hill, a Filipino enclave in Maryland, not far from here.
Gen. Lorenzana recalled how he would drop by for a haircut and Mr. Cabacar would refuse to charge him. They knew each other because Mr. Cabacar was one of the stalwarts for Filipino veterans recognition on Capitol Hill.
The defense chief, like most of the militarymen at the Philippine Embassy, were habitues at Arsenio “Tito Al” Alpapara’s “karaoke bar.” The former Constabulary major had built from scratch the most successful distribution network of Filipino food products in the Metro DC area, supplying everything from M.Y. San Skyflakes to longganisa to his trademark Tito Al’s Chicharon.
The karaoke chamber was built in a corner of his Oxon Hill warehouse. Tito Al took his music as seriously as his business and found a kindred spirit in the likes of Gen. Lorenzana.
But on one of his earlier sorties at Tito Al’s, he ran afoul of another Maryland institution -Judge David Valderrama, the first-ever Filipino American to win elective office in the US Mainland. He held the 26th District seat in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1991 to 2003, a post currently held by his daughter Kris.
With his deep baritone, Judge Valderrama has been known to belt a Frank Sinatra ballad with gusto. So when Gen. Lorenzana started singing “My Way”, he got a quick rebuke from the Judge because everyone knew that while he was around that was “his” song.
The wealth of anecdotes about Gen. Lorenzana is testament to the friendships he’s built over many years. To many Fil-Ams in Metro D.C. he’s one of them.
He is scheduled to speak about the South China Sea dispute before the Center for Strategic & International Studies on Wednesday and meet with US Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin on Friday where aides say they will discuss ways to improve the US-PH Mutual Defense Treaty that turned 70 years old last Aug. 30.
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