There is an old Tagalog saying that goes like this: "kung ano ang itinanim ay siyang aanihin." 

Cornelio M. Pancho, or "Eliong" for short, is a perfect example of this.  His deceased parents - Patricio L. Pancho of Baliwag and the former Aurelia Matias of Gapan, Nueva Ecija - where a hardworking and business-minded couple who were commonly known as "Mang Tisyo" and "Aling Auring" among marketgoers and fellow vendors in the local public market where both tended separate stalls.

Mang Tisyo's main customers were the betel nut-chewing old folk, so his wares were mainly bundles of fresh ikmo leaves, jars of apog and piles of bunga, complemented by aromatic pieces of mascada and stakcs of laundry soap bards.  Aling Auring's customers on the other hand, were the practical housewives bent on making thier pesetas go far, thus her merchandise consisted of bagoong, asin and some cheap chinaware.

He is a highly successful civil engineer, a millionaire who, for three times in a row, had been voted "most outstanding contractor of the year" by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The youthful entrepreneur, who lived at Dike just behind the public market, procured his supplies from a certain Nardong Pilay and conducted his buisness in a small open space in front of Botica de la Merced.  He nostalgically remembers that at day's end, instead of bringing home his goods, about ten cases of them, he would just leave them there overnight in front of the drugstore without any getting  lost.

On another occassion, Eliong had just stepped out of the old Cine Laura one night when he shaw about six truckloads of unarmed Huks who had stopped over at a kapihan in town enroute home presumably to Pampanga from Manila where they had attended a peace gathering.

Ever since the postliberation period, when his Inang began their modest bakery, Engr. Pancho had known the ordeal of waking up regularly at four o'clock in the morning to start his daily grind.  As a bakery hand he would help in kneading dough for pan de sal and other products like hopia, binanli and pilipit and arrange these on thier trays in respective areas.

Eliong 's mode of life all throughout his high school days at Baliuag Junior College.  He distinctly recalls that when he finally graduated from BJC there was no one present from the Pancho family to witness the important ceremony, much less to give him a big hand or even a handshake as he recieved his diploma.

As early as his grade school days, when he not infrequently walked around barefooted.  Eliong had shown his ability for figures.  And through high school he was a consistent topnotcher in mathematics, in fact his final grade in this subject was 95% which was 5% higher than of their class valedictorian.

Engr. Pancho started to work in 1955, the year he passed the board exams as a foreman at the National Irrigation Administration's Office in Floridablanca, Pampanga.  Engr. Pancho's business so prospered that in time he acquired two or more freight trucks.

Engr. Pancho plays golf and usually drives around in a sleek Mercedes Benz 240.  He is also a member of the local Knights of Columbus.  He is also a past president of the Baliwag town fiesta executive committee which raised funds for the improvement of the church in 1982.  Five years before he had served as president of the Rotary Club of Baliwag.

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