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!