the CHAMP

Dear Mayor Saludaga

“When God allows you to suffer, He is doing something beautiful through you”

So simple yet a statement with a deep meaning. We may not fathom why He let the worst ever to happen in our beloved town and to you particularly, but I am quite sure that He uses you for a purpose, for His Divine purpose. Whatever history has for you, but I have deep faith that you will have a very special place especially in the hearts of the ordinary people in Lavezares.

You are simple. You are humble. Yes, you are. With these two very rare qualities always seen in Great Men and Women in history who have touched lives, you are also Great in your own way. That made me decide to write my very first article for you a few years ago when I have it entitled ‘Tingting is Great’.

You are both simple and humble not because you are in the public service, but because it is the real you. Because of this, you are so easily to be approached even by the poorest or the most ordinary man in town who would ask for help.

24/7 you are there for your people, for our people. I have witnessed this fact when I was a young child. Cannot understand this goodness of yours because I was limited to children plays at that time, it was in the past few years that I only have understand how good you are as a person. I vividly remember the day, it was between six or seven in the morning, when my sleep at your house was disturbed by an old man who came to your house for help. During those hours, you were still sleeping, but then when Ate Gie woke you up and informed you about the man seeking for help, you easily got up and faced the man at your sala. After that man, it was followed by another one who was also asking for help. I could not remember the details of your talks with them but what can I remember were the ‘thank you’ words from them. In many cases, I have witnessed these.

In 2007, I was given the chance to be in several municipalities in Samar province for a research. Here, I saw how poor was the delivery of the basic social services to these municipalities I visited by their public servants compared to Lavezares. And I have said these words to myself, ‘Lavezares is so lucky to have you, to have the Saludagas for the town and our people’. I never have told you with my observation, only in this letter, since I was aloof, maybe because of the respect I have for you as my Mayor.

Blessed to have studied in the country’s premier university always put me in a high expectation of all public servants. For several times already, I got frustrated at how they served their own interests, and not their constituents’.

In May 2007, I was very active, vocal, and supportive of you. I did some sacrifices. I was visible to some of your campaigns in the barangays, and there were times that tears would just come down from my cheeks knowing the sincerity of your heart, the sincerity of your words for our people. I have written many articles for you, the only person I have written much. I was there for you last year when the bad guys have just started to grab your post but never succeeded. For this year, I was in Lavezares for a week and another week with you in Manila. In Lavezares, I did what I think I could do. I was even in one of those in front of the human barricade, not afraid of what will happen to me, trying to be dispersed by some uniformed men with false and wrong motto of ‘To Serve and Protect’. I was with those people who cried out loudly and repeatedly the word ‘Justice!’ in Filipino. I was with them when they raised their hands with the ‘L’ (for Laban) sign. I was with them when the women led us in singing the ‘Bayan Ko’ song. I was there to pray with our people to ‘let this cup pass over’ you. I pray intently, I pray silently, I pray wholeheartedly. I even have filed leave at my work for more than two weeks. I did all of these and other memories for you because I believe in you, I have full trust in your leadership. I did all of them to give justice to the sacred votes (if really they were sacred) and to the ‘small voices’ of the majority of the people in Lavezares entrusted to you in 2007. I did all of them because of my love for Lavezares. But I know that these sacrifices I have were only a small percentage compared to the sacrifices of those ordinary men and women who also believed in you even until to this very day. And that my sacrifices were nothing compared to yours.

Some people may accuse me and would not believe me for my reasons why I did all of them, and maybe they would utter that ‘I was a relative of yours’. Maybe. But honestly, it is beyond that.

I will continue to support you. And if only there will be another election, if you decide to run next year, I will still give my full support to you. If only I am entitled to one million votes, I will give all of them to you. That is how much I respect you as my mayor, the public servant to its truest sense. To me, you are really Tingting The Great.

I would have to end my letter by the following words:

“There is always a place in the plans of God for pain for even His own beloved Son, He chose the lash, the thorns, the spittle, the cross, the nails, the lance, the tomb. But through them Our Lord saved the world.”

No matter what happens, you will always be my mayor, you will be Tingting The Great to me.

Sincerely,

Carl Jamie Simple S. Bordeos

27 September 2009