01/09/2026
TAY, MAY ABOGADO KA NA💙
When Atty. Alex Castro returned to UP Diliman as a lawyer in 2019, she found herself looking around campus for someone who had been part of nearly every chapter of her eight years there.
His name was Romeo “Dingdong” Corpuz, a longtime taho vendor she called Tatay D**g.
They met when Alex was still a freshman. Tatay D**g was usually stationed near the building where she had her 7 AM class, and their mornings became a routine of taho and conversation.
Eventually, he learned that Alex often arrived at school on an empty stomach.
From then on, she recalled, Tatay D**g made it a point to wait for her every morning, “rain or shine,” with a fresh cup of taho. He kept doing it for four years, until she finished her undergraduate degree.
The two also began talking about their lives. Tatay D**g would tell her about his daughters and fellow vendors, while asking Alex about her studies, plans, sports and student council work.
For Alex, those conversations came to mean much more. She shared that she grew up without a father, and over time, the concern Tatay D**g showed her gave her a father figure on campus. Tatay D**g, in turn, began treating her like one of his own daughters.
One rainy day in December 2009, he noticed that Alex had come to school without a jacket.
The following morning, he handed her a package together with her usual taho. Inside was the jacket she had always seen him wearing.
Alex tried to return it, but he had already washed it for her.
“Nilaban ko na ’yan, ’Nak. Iyo na ’yan.”
She later bought Tatay D**g a new jacket of his own. Alex remembered how proudly he wore it afterward, telling his friends whenever they asked about it, “Bigay ng anak ko ’yan.”
Their relationship did not end when Alex finished college. Tatay D**g continued supporting her through law school, just as he had supported her in sports and campus politics. Alex later described him as a major part of all eight of her years in UP: four in college and another four in law school.
So when she returned to campus in 2019, already a lawyer, she kept looking for him.
Word eventually reached Tatay D**g that Alex was there. She saw him rushing toward the Sunken Garden, and when they finally met, he immediately embraced her and told her he had missed her.
Tatay D**g would later tell GMA that he was extremely proud of Alex, adding that simply hearing her call him “Tatay” already made him happy.
And after years of taho before class, conversations in the morning, one carefully washed jacket, and the support that continued long after college, Alex finally got to tell him the words he had been waiting to hear:
“’Tay, may abogado ka na.”
