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Vicente Lara |
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Vicente Arcilla Lara served as Caramoan municipal mayor almost entirely during the Japanese occupation.
CRANE MONITOR received this information after its June, 2006 issue which carried a story on Caramoan mayors, including those who headed the town as Capitan del Pueblo or as town president.
In 1941 Basilisa Araw Obias was indeed elected as the first Lady Mayor of Caramoan. She was the wife of Hermogenes Obias who served several terms as town president.
But when war broke out, she abandoned her position and Lara was summoned by the Japanese Occupation Forces and designated as mayor.
A flamboyant, charismatic leader, Lara found a way to effectively deal with both the Japanese and the guerillas. In fact, he saved the lives of many Caramoanons who were suspected to be guerillas by the Japanese and about to be executed. Most were, in reality, guerillas.
After the war, he opted to run only as councilor and won. Mayor Glicerio O. Alarkon, Sr. was elected as the first postwar mayor and Esteban Azaña, father of incumbent Caramoan Councilor Vicente Azaña, was his vice mayor under the Liberal Party.
Lara was married to Maria Dianela whose father Tomas Dianela also served as town president. They had two children, Domingo, now deceased, and Dr. Nelia Lara-Rosales, retired Dean of the Naga College Foundation College of Education and wife of Atty. Florencio Rosales, Chairman of the CRANE board of directors.
Lara died in 1985 here in Naga City.
