ANSWER: Yes, when Daddy made us run races.
The Life and Times of Lawyer Atty. Gualberto Q. Lambino (Atty. Gualberto Quinto Lambino) Nov. 1 Day of Remembering
on mobile, tap “Listen in Browser” this day of remembering November 1, Daddy always played Mario Lanza and Elvis Presley in the house
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LAWYER ATTY. GUALBERTO Q. LAMBINO. He saw American soldiers victoriously march on the streets distributing chocolate bars at the fall of the Japanese Imperial Army and waved at them — at the same time in the 1980s, he and Mommy joined a rally at the Luneta organized by Senator Jose W. Diokno critical of the bases treaty and shook Senator Diokno’s hand. He was an admirer of then President Marcos during his first term in 1965, yet when martial law was declared and Senator Diokno, Senator Aquino, and thousands of journalists, students, laborers were warrantlessly arrested and ABS-CBN was shut down, he was in disbelief, and years later in 1978 quietly campaigned for Laban. He wanted to enrol me in an exclusive all-girls’ high school but when Mommy got home beaming with a big smile with the U.P.I.S. results, trusted us enough to go there (and probably because it was the same high school that Marcos went to). My parents, ordinary working folks whose main interest was to raise their children in the city quietly and safely, changed their hearts and minds without knowing it and changed with the beat of the pulse of the nation. Atty. Gualberto Q. Lambino worked his way through law school, doing odd jobs at a barber shop until he was promoted to full barber, at the same time going to law school in the evening. He had to earn his keep to send himself to school and it took a longer time, and upon finishing the units, he passed the bar exam right away and set up his own law practice in Dagupan City.
Upon a Google search anew today November 1, 2025, Google Gemini showed this:
Daddy never mentioned he was Managing Editor of the Gold Ore, the student publication of Baguio Colleges. (our hearts are filled anew at today’s remembrances upon reading about this online thru the digitization project of the University of the Philippines Diliman Main Library of “rare periodicals”. Marami pong salamat, our profound thanks to the UP Diliman Main Library for this project. Many, many thanks to the University of the Philippines Diliman Main Library for this project at: https://repository.mainlib.upd.edu.ph/omekas/s/rare-periodicals/media/148391 )
He and Mommy met in Dagupan City where Mommy regularly visited with her grandmother and relatives. Daddy was asked to run for a local post and he said he didn’t have any stash of money for that, but his friends promised him that whatever the results were, he was qualified to later be given a post at a GOCC in Manila.
It sounded like a practical win-win offer, and that was how my siblings and I were born here in the city and studied at a nearby public school two kilometers from our city apartment and three blocks from Daddy’s office. Daddy was in charge of our haircuts and nails and ears (being a professional barber before he became a lawyer, he had kept his barber’s scissors, hair clipper, and nail set). Being sandwiched between two boys, Kuya Junior and Teng, the three of us were given the same boys’ crew cut haircut with the side of the head and back shaved with a clipper until Mommy reminded him, she’s a girl she’s going to go to school and we’re getting ribbons for her hair which we will grow long.
Daddy made us siblings and the neighborhood children run races every weekend in the wide pathway in front of the row of apartments where we lived. Being safety-conscious, he made us comb the wide pathway with our eyes and pick up any stone, rock, blade, or shard that may hurt our feet. We sprinted barefoot, back and forth, and Daddy raised the hand of each and every child who finished the race, declaring a special title or award for each kid from first placer to tenth placer.
Daddy was also the most health-conscious, bringing us regularly to medical check-ups, and when the family doctor detected a whizzing, instead of getting us injected with all sorts of chemicals, the family doctor recommended to try, first, fresh sea breeze in the morning to see any improvement. We were brought to run on the beach and swim every weekend. It was later discovered that our “nanny” who smoked brown Alhambra cigarettes by putting the lit end inside her mouth, had primary complex and was sent to get well to a hospital.
There were Mormon missionaries visiting the apartments regularly, and my parents were so fascinated with the blue-eyed Americans that they agreed to go to the Mormon church for a while, and Kuya Junior was even baptized in one of the Mormon swimming pools – so… technically, Kuya Junior had been baptized in at least two churches.
The bungalow we moved into was always littered with Readers’ Digest, Time Magazine, Walt Disney classics, encyclopedias, Daddy as a notary public later on made me as a highschooler write and type up affidavits and rewarded me with a cut off the notarial fees. His reading habits later on changed when we began to have WE Forum and later on, Ang Pahayagang Malaya in the living room.
Daddy’s full name is Gualberto Quinto Lambino, born in Pangasinan. Some relatives claim we might be related to the Quintos of Pangasinan, the lineage of Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quintos, the mother of national hero Jose Rizal – I don’t know about that but we have a nephew in Los Angeles who suddenly took up and excelled in sword fencing in grade school, Hmmmm. I sign with my mother’s and father’s name and bylined a shorter version of that at age 19 as a regular columnist of WE Forum and later Ang Pahayagang Malaya. They were the favorite newspapers of my dad. My parents waited up for me every night, and quietly checked on me every day and every evening to make sure I was safe. A nation is shaped by the way the parents watch over their children, today is not just a day of remembering the people who had watched over us but a time to understand and pursue all the unfinished tasks ahead.
