Nostalgia and
poverty as a gift

Saturday is a night that Fabricanaians will long remember. That was the night when Lt. Gen. Rey Ardo, chief of the Western Mindanao command, finally managed to come home and meet old friends and acquaintances as well as relatives and friends.

It was a hushed audience that listened to Gen. Ardo trace his life’s journey from the fish vendor’s son to eventually a Lt. General of the AFP, occupying one of the top positions in the military hierarchy.

For Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., however, that was also the night when he nostalgically recalled the times when he would go up to Minapasok in Calatrava by the railway line and bask under a cover of towering trees unmatched anywhere in the world.

That was the time when Fabrica was listed in the Geography Books as the home of the world’s biggest hardwood lumber mill.

But after several years, what was started without a sustainable plan turned into a decertified area that will require vast amounts of resources and a determined and concerned effort to be able to restore or recapture, mused Marañon.

For the first time, Marañon and Ardo met. Both are Fabricanians. Marañon from Takas off Hulugan and Ardo from Paraiso, the twin barangays of Fabrica, both of Sagay City.

Sagay City Mayor Leo Rafael Cueva also enjoyed the stay of Gen. Ardo, whose words as a Christian soldier will long be remembered rather than as a military man in whose honor the Gran Mafti of the Muslims of Mindanao had two mosques built.

Ardo admitted that he had toured every nook and corner of Mindanao island but has yet to set foot on even a town in Southern Negros, both Occidental and Oriental.

But the bemedalled military officer said poverty was not a curse but rather a gift from God which impelled him and other Fabricanians to devote themselves and their talents to excel.

Some call that poverty for being poor. But I prefer to call it a gift. It is because of this gift that we strove hard to succeed.

And Ardo told his kababayans the secret of his life. He entered the PMA not because he really wanted to, but rather it was greener pastures that prompted him and his poverty to enable his sister to finish a nursing course in Silliman University.

He also tried to give his utmost best in the military service.

“I strove for excellence and without a doubt that I am proud to have served the noblest profession,” Ardo stressed to his silenced audience of mostly professionals from Fabrica.

Ardo also paid tribute to his mother (now an American citizen) who commutes between the US and Negros for her to take care of several “grandchildren”, not because they are truly so but she simply wants to continue serving children of the less privileged.

While he has managed to bring his wife and three children to see the wonderful sights of the US,, Gen. Ardo stressed that at the end of the day, it is not the money and the material wealth that is important.

“The things that are important in life and those that cannot be bought by money,” he stressed.

“I sincerely hope and pray that we may be able to inspire and encourage one another and rekindle in the minds of out children the same values we were taught . . . and to be true and good practicing Christians not only in the words but all as in deeds,” Gen. Ardo emphasized.

Now that he has joined the Fabricanians, Ardo may be able to mobilize Fabricanians in Mindanao and other parts of the country to give back through projects to help fellow Fabricanians who are left behind.

Gen. Ardo also reminded Fabricanians of Dr. Jose Rizal’s worlds – “Kung sino ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan, ay hindi makarating sa paroroonan (He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination).”

Remember Fabrica and never forget the special place it holds in our hearts was his stinging message as Ardo shouted repeatedly “Mabuhay and Fabrica. Mabuhay ang Fabricanians.*

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