BY ROMMEL YNION
I CALL it my four o’clock habit. It’s the time I wake up each morning, come hell or high water. It’s as if there is a built-in alarm clock in my biological system that jolts me out of deep slumber at exactly that time to get me into a brand-new day.
True enough, as soon as I got out of bed at four o’clock last Monday and switched on my laptop to scan the news feeds on my Facebook page, bad news greeted me: Former Iloilo representative and justice secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. passed away, his family announced. He was 83.
Although it was already sort of “expected” considering his condition, I still felt shocked thinking how a man as powerful as Sir Raul as I called him could be gone. Only lesser mortals die, not leaders like him who once enthralled the world with his gung-ho leadership.
That’s reality. No matter how great a man is, he still can’t avoid two things on this planet: death and taxes. And like all great men of history, Sir Raul finally succumbed to the same fate that awaits each of us who have been left behind.
We, too, will inexorably meet our appointment with death one way or another somewhere down the road. And it is up to us the living to come to grips with life and make it worth living before God snatches it away from us.
As we live the rest of our lives, we are fortunate to live in a world that great leaders left behind. Without them, we cannot be what we are today. Without them, we cannot live life as we do today. Without them, we cannot face a future as bright as we see it today.
Raul Gonzalez Sr. was such a leader who made Iloilo City a better place to live in. But sad to say, his enduring legacies, one of which is the Megaworld City, have been camouflaged by the hypocrisy of buffoons who came after him.
Megaworld City was the handiwork of Raul Gonzalez Sr. I myself can attest to how close he was to the family of Andrew Tan whom he persuaded over 10 years ago to buy the land on which the old Iloilo Airport stood. At first, the real estate tycoon was hesitant, but knowing that Sir Raul would not take no for an answer, he eventually bought it.
The Jaro residence of the Gonzalez family was the place where Andrew Tan himself and Raul Gonzalez Sr. consummated that deal. In that place, Raul planted the seeds of Iloilo City’s greatness. In that place, Raul set in motion real estate developments unprecedented in the city’s history. In that place, Raul saw a future only visible to the eyes of a visionary.
That is what leadership is all about. It is like a foundation of a skyscraper. Everybody sees the skyscraper scraping the skies. But nobody can see the foundation on which the skyscraper stands. The foundation is just silent, but it is the raison d’tre of everything else above it.
That is the essence of Raul Gonzalez Sr. Nobody can feel the weight of his legacy but everything that stands in Megaworld City is his legacy to Iloilo City. Sad to say, nobody remembers this legacy anymore as everybody only gives credit to this P35-billion real estate development to others.
If there is a lesson we can learn from the life of this great Ilonggo, it is humility. He epitomized humility when he watched pathetic souls grab credit for Megaworld City. He epitomized humility when he faced harassment from Noynoy (whose father he once saved from firing squad). He epitomized humility when he still helped the poor up to his dying breath.
Like all great men of history, he had many names attached to him as a symbol of his authority: Sir Raul, The King, (or simply) DOJ, Secretary, King Raul. But to me, he was just a friend who stood by me come hell or high water, who taught me courage like no other men did, who inspired me to love my country no matter how imperfect it may be.
As I remember him, I know God sent him to the world to make a difference not just in the lives of the few who are rich but in the lives of the many who are poor. Indeed, the world, especially Iloilo City, is now a better place to live in because this great Ilonggo leader loved us unconditionally all throughout his life./PN
