Closer to home, An Maogmang Lugar - Naga City that gave us, Mayor Jess

Ituloy ang laban ni Ninoy at Cory!

(Continue the fight of Ninoy and Cory!)

I copied and pasted the last sentence of Jesse Robredo's blog about, coincidentally, the death of President Cory Aquino. It was three years ago, August 16, 2009. Unfortunately, it was also his last blog entry.

My old blog is one of the few blogs in his blogroll or bloglist. I got links from his blog. Of course, I felt elated by that inclusion.

I came to Naga City in the 1990s. Mayor Jess (there are positions that sound so natural before names; Mayor Jess is one of them) was the new mayor of the city. I witnessed the transformations of one of the cities of Bicol to a premier city of Southern Luzon. The changes were not only in the physical and economic improvements of the city; it was social and moral as well. The people, the Nagueńos, breathed and exemplified the positive changes happening in the city.

I came to Naga City as a student. The city was my best university (No offense to Ateneo de Naga University). Through Mayor Jess, I learned that ordinary peoples such as vendors, farmers, women, public transport drivers, youth, informal settlers, senior citizens, and other disadvantaged sectors, had to be part of governance because they were the primary actors of change. They are not merely constituents, they are active partners in the development of the city. Indeed, the city's people's council represents the sentiments, needs, aspirations, and vision of the city, an Maogmang Lugar (a happy place).

I stayed in Naga City as an NGO worker. It was easy to work for positive changes when the local government shared the tasks and mission of empowering the marginalized. Mayor Jess was always our first co-worker. Mayor Jess understood the role of the national government in the local development. In 2000 until the first month of 2001, he roused the Nagueńos to stand and rise up against corrupt practices at the national government. Naga City saw several of its biggest rallies in history in the span of four months (October 2000-January 2001). Mayor Jess symbolized the opposite of what we got rid in 2001. But the country mistakenly put a variation of the same in the old regime after 2001.

I left Naga City for studies elsewhere. Mayor Jess took a cabinet post as the Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in the national government. He became Secretary Jess and suited in the job. Who else could have been a better DILG secretary? Now, President Aquino is forced to answer the question and settle for a better DILG secretary (because the best is gone).

Now I am outside Naga City. The tragedy causes me to be even closer than ever to Naga City, the city that gave you and me, Mayor Jess. It is only proper that he goes home symbolically to Naga City, an Maogmang Lugar which he tried hardest to make it so. Somewhere, there is a true Maogmang Lugar, and that is his home now.

I would end to continue the last sentence of Mayor Jess' blog - Ituloy ang laban ni Ninoy, Cory at Jess.

We know what they fought for - para sa casaraditan - for "small" people, like you and me. They made us "big." And we won big. Let us not lose what we gained from and because of them. One big fight!

'Tay Jack: A kick to my life

Last August 7 (Tuesday), when I logged in to FB, I read one post stating that Jack Rombouts had passed away in the Philippines. Jack was to many a "Kuya Jack" or simply Jack to the Filipino community in Nijmegen-Molenhoek area in the Netherlands. For a few, he was "Tay Jack." And in Tagalog, it sounds like a kick ("tadyak").

That was what I felt when I read the first FB post referring to his sudden death. It was like a kick that would make me look at the culprit with surprise, shock, and questioning stare. And then minutes later, posts of the same news streamed. At that time, the kick carried some forceful weight that tagged me down. Down to the chest and exploded there. My body could hardly contain its intensity and violence inside me. I was aching for a release, to relinquish from the confined emotions weighing me down. My knees and legs gave up to the weight of the sudden loss, like a kick that was forceful and real.

Memories of him flashed.

A day before his departure from the Netherlands to the Philippines, I went with him and Ate Renna to Eindhoven to visit and have dinner with Beca and Richard. Tay Jack drove for more than an hour while Ate Renna and I were sharing stories. After a while, Ate Renna dozed off. I struggled to stay awake to keep Tay Jack a company, but I knew I lost my consciousness to dreamland for some brief moments. It was Tay Jack who did not waver in the task - to bring us to the destination safely.

Tay Jack was a steady presence in the activities of the Filipino community in the Nijmegen-Molenhoek area. I remember in the days leading to the Sinulog Festival in Molenhoek, Tay Jack was always there, supporting and helping his wife. He was very functional in the tasks before him. He simply did and delivered whatever he could do to facilitate the conduct of the event.

My first experience of snow was with him in 2010. He drove me from Molenhoek to Nijmegen for nearly an hour. We were stuck in a traffic jam because of tremendous snowfall. One of our topics was about marriage. At that time, I had just proposed with my then girlfriend, and now my wife. I asked Tay Jack, "how would you know whether or not a woman is right for you?" Tay Jack straightforwardly responded in this context, "when you met that woman with all the feelings, and you made a decision to have her in your life, the question whether she is right or not disappears. Your responsibility now is to make that decision work and to make that decision right. Do not depend on others to help you make it work and make it right. You have yourself and that woman."

Tay Jack was not able to meet "that" woman of my life. Surely now, he won't be able to in this world. But he left me a mark that was real, powerful and personal; like a kick to my life. I needed that.

Thank you, Tay Jack. Dank je wel. Dios mabalos po!