COUNTLESS CLOSE SHAVES

Erap, of course, is ex-President Estrada, who Chavit says tried to get him killed, which is why he turned against the former action film star. Chavit, however, seems to have more lives than a street cat (the reason why, he has said, people in Nueva Ecija were asking him "for amulets"). Just recently, he claims that the helicopter he was riding while on the campaign trail crashed. Before the campaign started, he even had an operation to rid him of an aneurysm in the stomach. He has had a heart attack, and way before he burned bridges with Estrada, Chavit has been dodging bullets from his many enemies. At one point, assassins lobbed grenades at him, killing 11 people. The bloodstained shirt he wore that day is encased in glass and displayed on the wall of his mansion in Ilocos.

	SINGSON'S presence in the senatorial campaign is in fact a reminder that even in these cybertimes, feudal politics is alive and well. [photo by Jaileen Jimeno]

"Luckily, I was dancing with a fat woman and she took all the shrapnel," he recalled.

A propeller of a private plane he was in fell while in mid-air, a landing gear did not come out, an engine failed on another occasion. He fell asleep while driving a car and there were other near-death experiences that he relishes telling friends. According to Chavit, he is a religious person, even though he doesn't believe in attending masses or going to church on Sundays. "I have a direct line to God," he said.

He owes a lot to God, said Chavit. That's why he has been giving money to the church. "I have built a lot of chapels and churches, especially in interior towns and villages. I don't want to brag about it. It's for God, not for people to admire and look at," he said.

When he had a heart attack, his wife said he was dead "for more than a minute." She asked him what he saw while he was gone. "White, like clouds," he answered. "No, those were not clouds," his wife said. "Those were smoke. You were in hell."

Even in his youth, Chavit was very much acquainted with death — he was an embalmer who dissected rotten cadavers in his family's funeral parlor. He was barely out of his teens then and a college dropout. There was no licensed embalmer to sign death certificates, he recounted, so "I had to study and get a license from the health department. They gave me rotten cadavers that were already eaten by rats to study, but I had to endure for the sake of our business."

TEENAGE MILLIONAIRE

He studied architecture in college for two years before politics hijacked his studies. When his family had to leave Vigan to escape the wrath of their political enemies, Chavit stayed and took care of their businesses: a construction company, movie houses, a tobacco plantation, and the funeral parlor. "I was just a teenager but I was already a millionaire," he said. "The family had a vast landholding and we had a lot of businesses. I was giving away houses to politicians, including (then President Ferdinand) Marcos." To protect the family's interests, Chavit had to enter politics. 

He became councilor of Vigan in 1967. Two years later, he fought and lost against his uncle Floro Crisologo as congressman of Ilocos Sur. In 1970, Crisologo was shot in the head at the entrance of the St. Paul's Cathedral after attending an afternoon mass. The murder remains unsolved, and no case was filed. Yet tongues wagged that the crime could be traced to Chavit, although no one ever came forward with any evidence. Chavit was elected governor the following year, beating his uncle's widow. Since then, Chavit has been either congressman or governor of Ilocos Sur.

Now that he is aiming for the Senate, Chavit has anointed his vice governor, Deogracias Victor Savellano, as his successor at Ilocos Sur's capitol. When Chavit took a breather from politics in 2001, he also endorsed Savellano's bid to take his place as governor.

Other political clans control town-level politics and have their own political machinery in Ilocos Sur. But they seek the support of the provincial elite, and particularly that of their governor, Chavit Singson, to strengthen their political resources. Political alliance with the Singsons becomes more critical as one aspires to be elected for congressional and provincial-level positions.

The Singsons themselves have been quite busy in both provincial and municipal politics. When Chavit became governor, his brother, Evaristo or 'Titong,' was elected mayor of Vigan, the province's capital, while his cousin and now political opponent, Eric Singson, won the mayoralty position in Candon town. Titong became governor in 1987 when Chavit assumed the congressional seat for the first district of Ilocos Sur.

Another brother, Jeremias or 'Jerry,' became a municipal councilor and eventually provincial board member. Titong's daughter, Eva Marie Singson-Medina, was elected provincial board member in 1992 and then sat as Vigan mayor from 1995 to 2004. Chavit's son Randolf won a council seat in Vigan in 1995 and 1998. In 2001, Jerry ran for vice governor while Chavit's wife Evelyn and son Ronald ran for seats in the provincial board. Chavit's sister, Germelina Singson-Goulart, ran for Vigan city councilor.

These days, Jerry Singson is a provincial board member, along with Chavit's son Ronald and son-in-law Jonathan Justo Orros III. Chavit's cousins hold elective positions in the province, too: Eric Singson is the representative of the 2nd district of Ilocos Sur in Congress, while his son Allen is Candon mayor and brother Alfonso a Candon councilor. Edgardo Zaragoza, husband of Chavit's cousin Charito, is Narvacan mayor, while his son Zuriel is a provincial board member. Ferdinand Medina, husband of Chavit's niece Eva Marie, is mayor of Vigan.

Ironically, Chavit was a co-author of the anti-political dynasty bill when he was congressman. His legislative performance in the Eighth Congress includes 19 national bills, 61 local bills, and two local resolutions. But he is most proud of being the author of Republic Act 7171, or the Act to Promote the Development of the Farmers in the Virginia Tobacco-Producing Provinces.