Days of remembering

By BenCyrus Ellorin

IT’S Halloween, Kalag-kalag, Undas Todos los Santos.

Parties have become longer in between and dreadful nights becoming closer. As we near the half-century mark, many of those closely ahead of us are nearing or had reached the finish line.

This month, no Octoberfest for me. But I had been on a night out at least twice, first to honor and bid goodbye to a high school friend who left early due to cardiac arrest. Engr. Apolinar Kilem was in the prime of his profession. The “Build, Build, Build” era got him into his elements until the unexplainable came in. 

Then, I did come out of my pyjamas to honor a patriot, statesman, journalist, senator and former Cagayan de Oro mayor Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel. 

What seemed obligatory night outs had turned out, as always great.

The death of a kin, a friend, of anybody always reminds us of our own mortality; that each of us, has her or his own life journey; that while alive, many lives intersect, seemed to ran parallel, collide, and when the great equalizer comes, each one enters or leaves, depending on one’s perspective, his or her own door, and into the beyond.

For the living, what matters is remembering, celebrating the life of the departed while putting things in perspective.

Nene Pimentel was a great statesman, a rare breed of politician, patriot. He is best remembered for his staunch struggle against the Marcos Martial Law that had him imprisoned thrice before becoming one of most, actually the most powerful man in post-Edsa government. He had the powers to appoint OICs to lead local governments, and to dismantle the political machinery of the Marcos dictatorship and facilitate new democracy. Instead of concentrating power to the central government, he did the opposite.

His biggest contribution to legislation indubitably is the Local Government Code which is actually the predicate of a federal republic. For many, pushing federalism is the best way to honor the man.

I have not agreed to all that Sen. Nene did and stood for. I found it ironic his political party, which was born out of democratic ideals and principles of human rights, authentic humanism, became the party of this administration which throws out the window human rights books any given time.

But I have only respects for the man. His legacy was already etched in stone. After the Martial Law, he was a made man. Mission accomplished. And it is for the younger generation to carry on the torch.

Maybe for some time we have carried that torch, and in fact, ran with the torch bearer now. But maybe, not forever, just like Sen. Nene. 

We all have our moments. Not that we have to lose the fire, but when certain realities sit in, we got to shift gears, sit back and accept reality. That, unlike before, one’s heart beats fast into staccato and then on dreadful legato for no reason at all. I do still get really excited, agitated, but often with my pyjamas on at 7 o’clock in the evening to well, around noontime the next day.

In one of my later encounters with the senator, he asked me: “Gasulat pa ba ka?” I nodded and then he told me: “Padayona, writing keeps the brain healthy.”

I’ll bear that in mind.