Lawyer Roy Fiel affixes his signature to a manifesto of commitment among the KAABAG convenors. Will he stand a chance against the incumbent, his friend Beboy Codilla, especially with two groups running?
THE NAME of Atty. Roy Fiel has been circulating a lot lately. People who claim to be in the know say that he could be the opposition’s best bet for mayor, as he is respected in the circles he circulates. He is young, yes, yet he has made his mark in endeavors he’s joined, even as he keeps a low profile.
The buzz about his running for mayor started to get stronger this week when, together with some other respected members of society here, he appeared before the media to help launch KAABAG and revealed that he was one of its convenors. KAABAG is a movement of concerned Ormocanons committed to push for a change in Ormoc politics, and to make the city’s leaders accountable to the people.
Now, who really is Roy Fiel? In an interview after the KAABAG launching, Atty. Fiel gamely granted an interview with the EV Mail so that readers would know him better. Again, he did not categorically say he’d be running for mayor, but added that yes, it’s time that Ormocanons know him better.
Roy Fiel, he said, was christened Roy Bernard Fiel. He is not exactly with political pedigree because he is the only son of the late RTC judge Heliodoro “Dodong” Fiel who was also a vice-mayor of this city, and the ever beautiful Pura “Daydee” Catingub-Fiel. The Fiel clan are known in the city as a culturally enriched and highly educated clan, and their political relations include the Fiel-Garcias of Cebu. Roy Fiel is a first cousin of Gwen Garcia, governor of Cebu.
He has five other siblings. The eldest is Maria Isabel, a liver specialist, who works at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, New York; second is Geraldine who is currently the executive judge of the RTC in Marikina; third sister is Desiree, a former Ms Ormoc and another doctor who is a lung specialist; Sandra Angelica, also a doctor is the fourth sister and currently medical director of the OSPA-Farmer’s Medical Center and proprietress of Monterey Meatshop. The youngest is Atty. Beulah Coeli Fiel, an occasional columnist of this paper, and who has a lucrative private practice is Quezon City. She is also the third nominee of the 1PCL, a party list advocating for the environment and adaptation of climate change mitigation policies in the country.
When asked a hypothetical question that if he ever becomes mayor, would his lady siblings be another “kamag-anak incorporated”, Fiel laughed it off saying that he cannot foresee his siblings leaving their very lucrative and prestigious professions just to meddle in city hall affairs and see where they could cut some business deals. “Chicken feed na para sa ako mga igsoon”, said Fiel, who pointed out that only one sister remains in the city and she is also making good on her own.
Fiel also bared his personal life to the EV Mail, describing himself as a 48-year old bachelor with simple needs and wants – among which is to see a better Ormoc in the future.
His life’s jewel, he said, is his son Dingdong (Heliodoro II), the product of young love. He said that somehow, he must have done something good in his life because God gifted him a son like Dingdong. Dingdong is a budding world class pianist, one of the few young Filipinos who is known in the world arena of music. Currently, the young Fiel is in Germany on full scholarship at a prestigious school of music there.
The EV Mail also learned that this low-key lawyer was class valedictorian when he graduated from the elementary grades at St. Peter’s College, and got first honors upon graduating in high school. His National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) score was 99+, putting him in a crop of a few people who earned such rating.
He then proceeded to study Industrial Engineering at UP Diliman but admitted it was there that he fell into the temptations of the youth. He dropped out from school and bummed around, but returned to Ormoc a few years later to straighten out his life. At this point, he said, he decides to go back to school and took up law.
He became a lawyer in 1992. A year later, he said, his father died which made him return to Ormoc to take care of the family business. He continued his father’s sugar farm and ventured into real estate development. He’s had “modest successes” in both ventures, he said.
Asked what he has so far achieved from the day he returned to Ormoc, Fiel said he was proud to say that he became part of the board of the Ormoc Sugar Planter’s Association that was able to turn around the floundering association to the lucrative one it is now.
He is also proud to be part of the board that has given birth to the OSPA Foundation which now runs the OSPA Training Center.
In a short one year, he pointed out, 100 nationally competent graduates in welding courses have already walked out of its doors. A majority of the graduates are sons and daughters of sugar farm workers, a part of the humanitarian commitment of sugar planters in the city to take care of their farm workers and their dependents.
Fiel, however, emphasizes that all these became a reality through the selfless and visionary leadership of “Junior Aki” or Atty. Iñaki Larrazabal Jr., son of the late Ormoc Mayor Iñaki Larrazabal who was said to have ushered Ormoc to its golden years.
He also counts among his achievements the advocacies he espoused when he was president for two terms of the Ormoc Chamber. He said that he penned the opposition to a 72-centavo increase being asked by Leyeco V, and was able to delay its approval for three years. When ERC finally approved the increase, the 72-centavos was lowered to only 31-centavos, largely because of the well-studied opposition he sent in behalf of the city’s businessmen.
When he was chamber president, he was also active in cooperating with GTZ programs, leading to what is now a world model – the streamlining of the business permit issuance of the city – one that has earned for Ormoc the accolade of being a business friendly city during his term.
Presently, Fiel is the president of the Ormoc-Kananga Mill District. In a short time, he straightened out the MDCC and introduced innovative programs to help sugar planters. They are now operating six tractors for rent to the planters, and are giving away free cane points to new farmers. He is also aggressively pushing for the provision of support services and research, to help develop sugarcane farms in the area by introducing new high yielding varieties and environmentally sound farm management.
Fiel said that looking back, he could safely say that he did his best in the endeavors he has entered, and was a person who thought every action he took to always gear to what is good for everybody. By Lalaine M. Jimenea
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Oi kadali lang dugay naman ko sa ormoc karun pa man ko nakaila anang roy fiel bantog lang na FIEL apiledo tali pud ma FAIL ang ato pag ka FIEL…
Mau lagi, unya ingun ra ba sila nga sila daw ang third force, ang ako kahadlukan unsa nga klase nga force ilang buhaton, kay nagpaluyo na sad ang mga L sa kaning mga oposisyon candidate, basig mabalik na sad ang patay, ug mg fake money nga mau ra ba ang ila kalake, sa mga ni aging eleksyon, tsk.tsk.tsk. pagmata kita.