What Jesse would have done

Now that President Aquino has shown to us that DILG secretary Jesse Robredo is a government executive who must be emulated, perhaps it is time that Bacolod motorists remind him that it is more than one year that DOE secretary Rene Almendras was here to act on their complaints that the rates of fuel here are  P5 higher than that in Metro Manila.

Despite the assurances of immediate action, this has not been acted upon. Not even a reason for the delay in the study if it were done at all.

We know that Robredo is a difficult act to follow. But one of the reasons for this is simply that  he did not delay addressing a complaint brought to his attention. So perhaps, Bacolodnons should now ask Aquino whether he considers Almendras as having lived up to what Robredo would have done were  he at the helm of DOE.

***

So much has been written about Robredo but one of the most striking is his role as a father. Despite his hectic schedule, he always found time to join his family for a refresher.

He often begged off from social affairs. He just wanted to have time for his family. Most of us, when we become involved in professional or political affairs, tend to get ourselves so immersed that we forget out familial obligations.

This is one reason why Robredo was blessed with gifts of good governance and wisdom to be able to discharge his duties. And this may have been the reason why he remained the simple man that he was until he died in that plane crash.

Robredo also remained profoundly religious. In short, he was not one who just paid tribute to God by the simple gesture of doing his Sunday obligation. Instead, he lived his life as Christ would have wanted him to. Simple, unassuming, and faithful to his obligation to live like Christ.

He touched the hearts of thousands and inspired among them the desire to live according to what Christ had wanted us to do – as community-loving disciples.

Ave, Jesse. God be thanked for having given us the gift of you.

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Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra yesterday conferred the Thomas More Awards at the San Sebastian Cathedral. The awardees were Mitchelle Abella, Henrietta Vinco, the late Judge Henry Arles, and the late Ombudsman Juan Hagad.

Arles is known to Negrenses as the judge who was waylaid by assassins in Ilog town, Negros Occidental. His killing remains the subject of an intense legal controversy.

And the names of two politicians of the province and Ilog have been dragged into the case, including three members of the RPA-ABB who  reportedly had admitted their part in killing Arles.

The latest twist is the claim by a new personality, Honeybee, who linked Vice Gov. Genaro Alvarez and Vice Mayor Jerry Tabujara to the crime.

On the other hand, Hagad was the one whom I admired much when he was still alive. He was an idol of my wife, Dr. Lourdes Espina. Both Johnny and wife were personal friends. We belonged to the Christian Family Movement.

But Michelle Abella is one low-key lawyer whom I profoundly admire, too. Not because he was a former seminarian, but because he delivers on his assigned task.

As one of the former members of the Pioneer Class of the Sacred Heart Seminary, I had a deep respect for Mitchelle. But it is not just our former alma mater that made us close. It is that he remains a faithful Christian despite his successes in his profession. I don’t know much about Henrietta Vinco or about her services to the church.

Let me, instead,  doff my hat off to Mitchelle – an ideal Christian lawyer and man of God.*

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