A world full of heroism

BENCHWARMER
Ramon Dacawi

As did then United States Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney, I, too, rooted for EfrenPenaflorida, the pushcart teacher who was CNN’s “Hero of the Year” in 2009. Since then, it’s been a year-end treat to watch the giant television network’s annual tribute to ordinary people who quietly live out extraordinary lives.

For celebrities, it’s truly double honor for them to be chosen to present and personally shake hands with these seemingly ordinary mortals who fit novelist Richard Paul Evans’ observance that “the greatest acts are done without plaque, audience or ceremony”.

Still, CNN sees the need to bring to the fore and celebrate the lives of these heroes as a counterpoint to another troubled and tragic year ending with a Christmas His Holiness, the Pope, lamented for being commercialized and materialistic.

In a supposedly universal culture that seems to frown on men shedding tears in public, I found relief being alone watching the tribute in the house this year, while again hoping my kids and grandkids were also witnessing such sacraments of the ordinary from their own sides of the globe our poverty here had forced them to be.

Over the years, I’ve been blessed to have encountered heroes like those in CNN’s list. I list some of them again, as I do - to draw strength and lessons from them each time uncertainties, like the new year, loom dark:

Mongilit Ligmayo – He was an unlettered farmer, originally from Banaue, Ifugao, who resettled in a remote area in Lamut, Ifugao. As more farmers followed him, the wasteland grew into community that is now Ambasa Barangay. They elected the no-read, no-write pioneer as village chief. Not wanting their children to become like him, he built a primary school on a lot he sliced off his property. Soon, they needed a high school so he knocked on doors and built one on a lot he again sliced off his land. After selling most of his cattle to pay the teachers, he traveled to Baguio to ask then education regional director Stephen Capuyan to please include the teachers’ pay in the regular education budget. After Lakay Mongilit died, Lamut town officials led by Mayor AngelitoGuinid renamed the elementary school in honor of the diminutive, unlettered visionary. Then Ifugao Rep. Solomon Chungalao also authored a bill renaming the high school in memory of the pioneer of Ambasa.

Lorie Ramos and Noney Padilla-Marzan – When she heard Noney was battling cancer, Lorie, then a 43-year old widow with a 10-year old son, contributed to the cost of treatment. “I know how your wife is suffering,” she told Conrad Marzan, Noney’s husband to whom she handed her support. “This is my own second bout against cancer – from breast to bone,” the widow said, her apparently bald head wrapped by a turban.

The two women of substance became the best of friends, texting each other until they were too weak to do so. Noney called me once, asking if I could call Lorie, who had deposited her son so he could live with her sister in Quezon city after she had gone. Not knowing what to say, I never rang her up, an omission I regret to this day. Noney spent her last two years supporting children of the cancer ward, now and then comforting parents who had just lost a child to the big C. She prepared a death wish that Conrad and friends followed to the letter: short wake, sealed casket, no gambling and drinking liquor at the vigil; cremation, with her ashes strewn at the top of Mt. Pulag which the couple had climbed when she was already limping; for Conrad to marry again, “so someone would give direction to your life”.

Kids for Central Luzon – Months into “Operation Sayote”, the five-year media-initiated relief mission for lahar-devastated Central Luzon, I opened a box of donations for sorting before shipment at the Philippine Information Agency here. Inside were small plastic packets of white, green, red and black beans. Each packet was sealed by a string, at the end of which was a pad paper tag, on which was pencil-written the young donor’s name, grade, section and elementary school. The box came from Bontoc, Mt. Province. Another box contained an over-ripe pineapple, with a tag on which was written a boy’s name. It came from Sablan, Benguet. Products of good breeding, these kids are adults now. Whoever and wherever you are now, thanks for the inspiration that comes with that image of your contributions after Mt. Pinatubo blew its top over Central Luzon in June, 1991.

Bernard Dicang and Family – The eldest of 12 children, Manong Bernard opened his home in Dinalupihan, Bataan as midway station for volunteers in “Operation Sayote”, the five-year Baguio-based relief mission for Central Luzon. His family has kept a tradition of sharing gifts with kids who line up infront of their home every Christmas Day. His eldest son, newly retired Army Gen. Alex, established a Christmas program for street-children when he was public information officer and logistics chief of the Philippine Military Academy. Alex also worked out the donation of eight buses from Korea. Like his father, Alex never acquired material acquisitiveness and is now a farmer.

Samaritans from all over – Pupils of Brent School would now and then fashion out recyclables for what they call a “thrashion show” and turn the proceeds to a boy or girl battling cancer. Friends of Brent alumnus Carlos Anton would match what the kids would raise to double the donation. For years now, expats the likes of Freddie de Guzman in Canada and Julian Chees in Germany would send over amounts for seriously ill patients back home.

So did local folksingers and their counterparts sing for years with Conrad Marzan. Mike Santos and Joel Aliping here or at Fr. Leonard Oakes’ parish in Northern California. Kids of Westmont Montessori here sold kimchi and cried when, despite their efforts, they lost 13-year 0ld kidney patient Ashley Sabling of Kayan, Tadian, Mt. Province.

Sunshine and Paolo Balanza stood for hours with donation boxes on Sundays and, with other young Cordillera expats, raised $4,195 which went to victims of Typhoon Pepeng that hit Northern Luzon in 2009. A smart-looking, leather jacket-wering Samaritan recently bankrolled dialysis patient Genevieve Gano’s treatment until this New Year. A patient herself who requested anonymity once wrote a check for P50,000, asking that it be distributed to patients who needed support the most. Many others remain an anonymous, too.

Inmates of the Baguio City Jail –Last May, they came up with P4,000 which they coursed through the Philippine Red Cross for victims of the earthquake, tsunami and radiation victims in Japan. Earlier, they passed the hat for two young heart patients, proof that one’s own suffering need not blind us to the pain of others.

Elena, a laundry woman – Her name skips me now but she came some years back to seek help for her daughter needing protracted treatment for lupus. Months after, at Christmastime, she came back, saying her child has been healed, thanks to Samaritans from all over. She then handed P2,000, saying it came from the year-end bonus of her husband who was working as a security guard. She asked that it be given to a patient needing support. It was her way of passing kindness forward.

Alex and Annabelle (nee Codiase) Bangsoy – One of the brightest young couples hereabouts, their initial and impressive success in business hasn’t gone to their heads. Goshenland, their real estate and housing venture, is living up to its name, after the biblical fertile land and sanctuary. They have elevated social responsibility to heights far greater than even some of the most successful and profitable corporations ventured into.

They are into development of football as a means of providing concrete ground on which street-children can pursue their dreams for a better life. The couple brings to mind the comparison by the late Baguio lawyer Art Galace who said the difference between “involvement” and “commitment” is found in a plate of ham and egg. Art said the chicken contributed the egg and that’s involvement. The pig contributed the ham and that’s commitment..

There were countless others I’ve met and will still encounter along this journey to the grave called life. I’ve been and will continue to be blessed by them. They include the numerous Cordillera and Filipino expatriates who readily take you home wherever they are, making you feel they never left home in the first place. (e-mail:mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments.)