Mang Gerry as seen by MangTene

BENCHWARMER

Ramon S. Dacawi

(Former Baguio city councilor EdilbertoTenefrancia delivered this tribute to former city councilor and media icon Gerry Evangelista last Thursday afternoon at the city council session hall. Evangelista, a pioneering pillar of the print media here, passed on last July 1. )

We have come to say goodbye even as we pay high respects to an outstanding citizen, an exemplary public servant, a chronicler and booster of Baguio and its virtues. We bid farewell to a good man.

Gerry Evangelista grew up in and practically with the city of Baguio. The city has just passed its centennial year, and Gerry is, at 84, not far behind. Gerry has seen how Baguio has changed over the years, and has chronicled for future generations what Baguio was, and could be.

Sometimes in despair, we look at how unpleasant things are and ask, why? Gerry dreamed of what his city could be, and with fist in the air he would exclaim, why not! He did what he could. It wasn’t enough. It never is even with the best of us. That he tried is all that was expected of him.

Sixty years ago, when Gerry was in the prime of youth, I came to Baguio as a teenager in pursuit of higher learning. It was a city then of 60,000 residents, no traffic, no pollution, all peace and quiet, order and serenity. I came to know Gerry as one of the campus writers of Baguio Colleges, and I admired him from a distance.

I remember Gerry writing under the pen name Squire Gevan. Gevan is short for Geronimo Evangelista. Squire is what he also aspired to be. In British tradition a squire is above a gentleman and below a knight. In British and American legal history a justice of the peace could put Esq. after his name. That he was too. Learned in the law.

Accomplished as hearing officer in the Peoples Law Enforcement Board. It wasn’t a high profile position. But he knew that at the PLEB he could do some things positive. He strove to cleanse and to improve the police service. The face of government is often the face of a policeman. Where you have an abusive officer, you are certain to create enemies of the state.        

Where you have dedication and heroism in a police officer, you make loyal citizens, willing to give all for the sake of flag and country. In his own way Gerry made everyone feel in PLEB the stirrings of civic duty and patriotic pride.

But back to when Gerry was young. Those campus writers whom I admired were a hardy lot: Monching Mitra and Carding Parana. G. Bert  Floresca and the brothers Florendo.Steve Jularbal and Gerry Evangelista. They were mentored and patiently guided by Ben Salvosa, Sinai Hamada, Cecile Afable and the local intellectuals of post-war Baguio. They themselves chose the name for the fortnightly student publication: the Gold Ore.

It was an appropriate name for the venture they started to pursue. Baguio was the mining capital of the country during the gold boom of the thirties. The budding writers of Baguio were not yet gold, but they were gold ore. They were young and their skills were raw. They were struggling to get out of their cocoons and their drafts were rough. But they had wise and patient mentors for guides. They would soon be the pillars of Baguio print media. And sooner than we think they are gone or are going.

A generation has passed. Our earthly abode has turned a million times since our city was chartered, and a sea change has come upon our city, and even on our psyche. The old folks still remember early mornings when the mists roll in splendor from the beauty of the hills and the sunshine warm and tender falls in kisses on the rills. Can the Baguio of our tender years come back? It’s the dream of most everyone. It was the dream of Gerry. Now he dreams no more.

This event is a milestone in the annals of journalism in Baguio City. With Nars Padilla, Swanny Valdez and Gil Bautista, Gerry Evangelista is the last of the grand old hands in print media in this city. Writers whose by-lines underscored the news and opinions about Baguio have gone to their heavenly rewards with the passing of the millennium.

The brothers Hamada, Ben Salvosa, Cecile Afable, Monching Mitra, Tibo Mijares, Carding Paraan, Bert Floresca, the brothers Florendo, Kiko Dipasupil, Gem Mamoyac, Sid Chammag, Cecile Afable. Now Gerry Evangelista takes center stage and bows out like all the rest did before him. It was their lifelong passion, their magnificent obsession: to dig up the facts, to sift fact from fiction, to bring truth to light and leave an informed, involved and enlightened public to make up its mind and make the decisions.

Baguio is a good place to bring up children. Good schools, good teachers, good students, good environment. Our children grew up together. The Evangelistas never heard of the RH bill. Good for humanity. With or without planning they have ten lovely children, assets wherever they live. June and our Cynthia were with the second batch of SPED Center. June and our Danny would work together in the Office of the Solicitor General. Rachel and Emily were classmates in Central School. Eric and our twins were in the grades and high school together. Secretly we all want to live forever.

We don’t But we live forever in the children we bring to this world and who take on after us. Often they are better than we have ever been. That can happen here in Baguio because as good our teachers are, we don't leave our children to the sole responsibility of the teachers. Gerry and all the rest of us were active in PTA.

PTA was not just and adjunct to the school. It was a partner in  the rearing of the children for self discovery, for pursuits to reach their best potentials, for community involvement and civic efficiency.

Gerry knew the weakness of public governance. He could have simply raged, raged against Augean stables. But to him that wasn’t enough. He knew that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. So he offered himself to public service. And for a time he was city councilor. A good one. And for the last time he would come to the City Council. His body is now cold but our memories of him are warm. His voice is now still but his concern for his city vibrates in the book of ordinances and resolutions.

Baguio was not built in a day, Gerry would say. Nor was Baguio City. Over a hundred years, peoples and events made  up what Baguio turned out to be. It is a city we are proud of. It is a city many would like to be part of. To commemorate its centennial, it was necessary to recall the past,  honor the builders, inspire aspirations of a better Baguio.

It was Gerry principally who with a facile pen chronicled what was and used to be, and rallied us to what Baguio should be. What would have been his epic contribution to the celebration of Baguio’s centennial is a book: The Builders of Baguio. It records the history of Baguio as exemplified in the lives of those who helped build Baguio. Gerry was about to put it to press when tragedy struck.

The last year had been difficult for Gerry and his family. That road to calvary is over now. But his book is still an unfinished opus. The chairman of the defunct centennial commission, Dr. Virgilio Bautista, declares it will go to press. It will be a fitting tribute to him who through life chronicled the life and times of his beloved city, Baguio.