Raul Roco: The candidate as Mr. Clean

We extend our deepest condolences to the Roco family.

It cannot be denied that some of the young lawyers today were shaped by Roco’s ideals.

To the late Raul Roco, your ideals and aspirations, will remain alive because of the seeds you have sown.

Farewell our beloved mentor.

I join lawspeak_007 in extending our condolences to the Roco clan.

Working with Senator Roco then in the Senate, was all worth the pain.

So long, dear mentor and friend.

Drawn by a similar interests rather than that of kinship, I had the opportunity once to volunteer my legal know how to then Senator Raul Roco.

His straightforwardness may sometimes drive you out-balanced, but in the ned, one will realised, it make sense.

Senator and Secretary Raul Roco– you will always be remembered.

I feel sad that Roco was the president the Philippines would never have. I have great respect for the man.

My most sincere sympathy on the untimely demise of one of our idealistic leader. I wish to convey to his family our collective condolences here my location, yet consoled with the thought that the Lord Almighty has His special reasons for recalling our beloved Senator into His resting place.

GOD has its purpose. I asked myself why He always took the good guys like Roco & FPJ, both candidates in last election? .. and why they died at same hospital -St. Luke? .. I just wondering!

Condolences to Mrs. Sonia Roco & family!!!

Raul Roco Dies

Former Senator Raul S. Roco died this morning, according to an INQ7.net report.

Roco ran for the presidency twice and lost both bids. A former student leader, lawyer, poet and film producer, he also served as secretary of education after People Pow…

We will surely miss a good man like Sec.-Senator Raul Roco.

May his soul rest in peace.

Condolences to the family of Sen. Raul Roco. May you help us in telling to the Almighty to heal our land when you reach heaven. You are really a great loss to the country. May your soul rest in peace….

My utmost sympathy to the family of the former Senator and should-have-been-President ROCO.

His brother Facundo and I were classmates and best of friends in Naga.

I was told that people were praying by his bedside just before he died, and he calmly told them: “Sila ang dapat pagdasalan niniyo” - referring to GMA and her lackeys.

He died as he lived - a great Filipino!

We now have one less intelligent man in the gov’t. He is one of the reasons becoming a lawyer lingers in my heart and mind.

Condolences to the Roco family.

Dear Raul Roco,

I believed in what you are fighting for.

I volunteered myself to campaign for you in the last 2 elections without you nor your staff/team knowing.

Your works inspired me and the bills you authored and co-authored in congress makes impact on our life.

You work wonders and worthy of youth’s and women’s inspirations.

I know that you won the election if GMA did not run for election (as she promised not run earlier) and did not use government resources and did not cheat us last election. For me you are the real winner, the real statemen, the real patriot, the best among your class.

For me you are our country’s president.

For I believed.

Farewell my friend, farewell my mentor, farewell my icon.

We will surely miss you, we will surely suffer from our present leaders of today for they don’t know how principled leadership is and how to care for our future sake as you do in the past.

Condolences to the family of Sen. Raul Roco.

binoto ko yan not once but twice. and if he’s still alive and run again i will coninue to believe on his promise. not even a well oiled machinery as lakas-nucd nor the spiritualy upright bangon pilipinas could persuade me otherwise.

roco stand by its party’s very name - aksyon - which what lacks in philippine politics today. and not a cha-cha could change that but a politician with similar ideals as roco.

Alecks, how did Roco “consciously (take) the moral high ground on…the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.”?

LCsiao,

Read Luis Teodoro’s November 1, 2003 column in the defunct Today, “Separating the men from the girls”.

Ah, ok. I forgot that he took a stand - to protect Davide’s hide.

Thanks for the info, anyway

With Sincere Symphaty to the Family of Sir Roco: May he rest in peace…

Raul Roco’s Legacy of great and clean governance is a much more appealing…

We lost a leader; but the flatform and vision of the man will strive forever if we Filipinos make things happen…

Clean and Good Governance is a heaven…it is a dream…

His Idealism and courage should be carved in the highest pedestal of this land…

We Salute you : Mr Clean

I do not wish to take away anything from Sen. Roco. He sure could have been the great President this country never had. Sad indeed.

Pardon, but I have to use this blog entry for my observation.

Reading the bloggers above, I realized a lot of them are LAWYERS (timawang-batas, indio-lawless, lawspeak, etc.) There’s even this Kate who said being a Lawyer lingers in his/her mind….

I think this is one problem with Filipinos as a people. You have too many lawyers but not enough scientists, men of letters, entrepreneurs—people who do things, create real wealth, map out business horizons, think of new ideas.

I am married to a wonderful Filipina and have learned to love the country. But I find many things wrong with it. Among which is that you have elevated the legal profession to heights it does not deserve. In my country, we look at lawyers with a little disdain and bar exams are not given frontpage treatment.

Why do you do something like that? Lawyers don’t make things happen, they scrounge for morsels of wealth between conflicts. In fact, we settle things out-of-court whenever we can because in the end, only our lawyers end up winning. Think about it, fellas.

Though I’ve been browsing these blogs for quite some time and I shudder how many people respond to bloggers like Benign0 or chuckybolts with unintelligent responses, for the sake of discussion, bring them on.

a very keen observation indeed mr foreign_devil. but do you consider yourself a filipino? what does your wife says about her country now in ruins?

My children consider themselves Filipino and it is on their account that I’m joining this discussion.

Actually, I’m not too worried about this country. You guys have at most what, 400 years or so, of recorded history and at least a 100 years as a body-politic? Whereas other societies, such as mine, have thousands of years behind us. You sure is a young community and you still have a lot to learn.

I read about Lucio Tan’s comment a year ago. He said maybe in a 100 years, there’ll be some real changes. Don’t look now but 100 years is not really that long.

I compare this country to a toddler just learning how to walk. There’ll be all sorts of hurdle all over the place. There’ll be bruises and black-eyes and swelling here and there but nothing to be really worried about. Just don’t despair like it’s the end of the world. As I’ve been fond of saying, if anybody thinks that life is a bitch, ask the Bushmen of Kalahari.

: )

we lost a man who could have change our lives. i really can not understand why the majority of our people did not vote for him. but i guess in the end, we deserve this kind of leadership we are now expereincing.

condolence to the filipino people specially to Sen. Roco’s immediate family.

yeah foreign_devil, but why compare our 400-year old politics to your 1000-aged history? Is the philippines the single country in asia? Does our history just a toddler compared to singapore or malaysia?

Does age matter?

This is supposed to be a happy day for me, being Friday in a long and torturing workweek and looking forward to a relaxing weekend. But then the news of Raul Roco’s passing hits me like a hammer, I was left paralyzed with grief and hopelessness. Why? What now? I remember myself mumbling stupidly.

The realization that our apostle of hope is no longer with us in our country’s darkest hours has undone the last strands of faith that there will be a better future ahead of us.

What now? Whereto Philippines? I guess I just have take a deep breath and plod on. Just plod on.

Raul Roco, you will surely be missed.

i agree with your take on lawyers in the phils, foreign devil. part of it is we give too much importance to titles. it’s attorney this and engineer that. it’s inferiority and superiority complex combined on the part of everybody.

it’s also a depiction of striving to be on the side of the haves rather than the have nots to enjoy the fruits thereof, instead of striving for everybody to be part of the haves as well so that everybody gets to live a life in dignity befitting a human being. we lack effective social conscience.

Noelet,

Just a correction, I did say 100-year or so of being a body-politic since 1898.

You asked, does age really matter? I think so because I believe AGE indeed have something to do with MATURITY. Between a carefree adolescent and a serious young man say, in his 30s, whom would you really choose to handle an important task?

I think it was your country’s utter misfortune to have been under Spain, one of the lousiest colonial power on earth, and still under the influence of the United States, one of the crassest powers hereabouts. Had you guys been under the Brits, it would have been a totally different story.

To foreign devil, noelet and masha,

For the sake of respect to a dearly departed, can you please take your bickering somewhere else. Raul Roco, if alive, would have entertained your paltry historiographic prattle and assymetric analyses.
But we who currently mourns the parting of a great soul and a brilliant mind, would have none of these imbecilic tit for tat and would rather have strangled all of you given the opportunity.

I’m real sorry, kimosabe27, for having offended your sensibilities. For your information, my wife and the rest of her family voted for SEN. RAUL ROCO in the last elections. Had I been able to vote, I too would have voted for the man.

Part of political maturity, however, is the capacity to go beyond the personality of even a great leader and his great philosophy. That is, to be able to discuss ideas and their implications separate from the man who expounded them or lived up to the imperatives of these ideas. The incapacity of most people, or races if you will, to separate these things has always been the deathknell of democratic politics—which may be said to be the crowning glory of civilization. I hate to say it but without this capacity, people tend to go back to tribal politics where the leader of the tribe is mystified and given all sorts of divine and mundane powers.

Sen. Roco was one of the gentlest persona in Philippine politics. In fact, he was honored to be the first honorary woman. I doubt very much if he would agree to your act of strangling us with your passionate little hands instead of strangling us with the beauty and logic of your ideas.

kimosabe27,

cool ka lang bro. you’re doing a disservice to the memory of the good senator. pabayaan mo na lang. Halos tawagin tayo ni foreigndevil na barbarian. Wag mo ipakita na totoo.

Sabi nga the truth hurts…the problem with us is that we can’t handle the truth..

leatherneck…para kang si nicholson ha sa movie na - a few good man.

correction…”a few good men” pala

It’s people like you KIMOSABE who are the reason why good men like Raul Roco did not make it. Mga mistulang langaw kayo na natuntong sa taong gaya ni Senador na kala e mas mataas pa kayo sa kanya!

Bakit akala nyo ba, puro matatamis na salita lang ang dapat sa blog na to? kahit na ba mabuting tao si Senador Roco, ano karapatan mo na magbawal sa mga bloggers dito? At sasakalin mo pa! @@@@%&*&!!!!
Baket, lamay ba niya ito? Ankapal mo naman! Kayo ang mga tao na kung naluklok siguro si Senador sa Presidente ay ang una-unang mangungurakot at malalasing sa kapangyarihan!!!!! Yon e kung marunong ka. Kung tanga ka naman e, hanggang HAWI BOYS ka na lang!!!!!

Let me be passionate about this because the time for cool and calculated reasoning is way past, this is the time for gnashing of teeth and ripping of raiments.

Raul Roco may be one of the most effective debaters in the Senate by applying cutting edge logic in a cool yet resonating manner, but anyone who knows him well would attest that he was at his finest when he bombards biting and inciting polemics.

Remember the elder Atty. Fortun, that spineless conniving ambulance catcher who attempted to mislead the Senate during Erap’s impeachment trial? Remember how he cowered and sweated in his seat as Sen. Raul Roco thundered at him and asked that he be disbarred for not showing the Senate candor? That was vintage Raul Roco. That was why the late FPJ and GMA avoided him like the plague during invitations in political debate.

Foreign devil, how dare you lecture us on political maturity in this time when we are mourning the loss of a Filipino giant in political thinking. Let me give you one word regarding Western political maturity–Auschwitz. Perhaps the 6 million dead Jews would thank you and your Western Political Philosophy by having the maturity and sensitivity of playing Wagner in the loudspeakers while leading them on to the “showers”.

I might also assume that you are bloody Brit who suggests to us Filipinos; us being mentally boorish, to go beyond the political personality, well again one word–Gandhi.

I really would like to have a go on you regarding your high regard of your western political philosophy and how backward we are Filipinos, but then, due to “tribal” sensibilities in lieu of a wake, I’ll just contain my rage. But as my fellow Bicolanos would say, “Dai ka mag miter sa mga agi-aging mayo kang aram.” Don’t ever dabble in things you don’t have concern about, else…

Oh man..

I too express my deepest condolences.

The Philippines lost a great man..
sad indeed..
well..

Godbless!

My wife and I are “absemtee voters” and we voted for the late MR. RAUL ROCO, here in San Francisco, California last election. SAYANG TALAGA !!!!!

May he rest in peace.

Condolence to the ROCO family.

kimosabe27,

I really can’t understand where all your hostility is coming from. I too am a fan of the good Senator and i think i did not desecrate his name in any way. I also think that if you like to gnash your teeth and curse the high heavens for that good man’s passing, i see no reason why my posts and that of noelet and masha would have anything to do with it.

if readers would review my first post, i just made a remark regarding lawyers. After that i just answered noelet in a few paragraphs. suddenly you posted your blog telling us all to scram and beat it as if we are desecrating the Senator’s memory. Tell you what, why don’t you create a website dedicated to the senator’s legacies, and i will be the first to contribute to its maintenance. fair enough?

but this place is a blogging site, if i still get it right. a place where people can discuss ideas, if im not mistaken. With this in mind, let me get to the point.

I don’t think it’s fair for you to equate Auschwitz with the British people or the entire West for that matter. i have lots of relatives who died there and in the Operation Sealion where bombs fell on a daily basis in London. Eyewitness accounts may finally enlighten you in that regard. I also don’t think Gandhi is even remotely a rebuttal, if at all, to any idea you have about how i view asian civilization (of which i have high regard and esteem).

It was not my intention to lecture anybody at all. I was just stating a fact regarding Philippine recorded history. And democratic ideals being direct products of Western history, I just felt compelled to share a few points regarding the imperatives of the idea and how it can be actually operationalized.

To anybody else who felt insulted by my views in any way, my apologies. I might not be a Filipino but my children are. Even then, don’t anybody realise that the whole world too has a stake in all that’s been happening here?

My apologies too for using the name Foreign_Devil. it’s just a self-inflicted pun because a century ago, the Chinese people used the term to describe all foreigners.

foreign_devil said,
August 6, 2005 @ 6:40 am

…Had you guys been under the Brits, it would have been a totally different story.

==========

I agree. We were supposed to have been under the Brits - a fact that is glossed over in most history books.

But then they decided to concentrate all their efforts on India (which they thought was a more significant catch) and gave us back to Spain.

kimosabe, Thats immaturity youre blabbing. The truth hurts because you and I cannot admit that they are right. Basically the dude was implying about our own nature as a filipinos. We were never united mind you.

About the memory of Raul Roco being abashed I dont think so. Raul Roco if he is still with us will participate in this kind of discussion.

The man was great, he did what he did. But unfortunately his best wasnt good enough for the voters to see what he has to offer.

Foreign devil,

I would have remained silent in deference to people who would not want this blog to be cluttered with the muck of non sequiturs and skewed reasoning rather eulogies to a fallen hero, but you
really are pushing the envelope. Call this a whip of Bicolano temper, we don’t want to be disrespected when it comes to our dignity and our intelligence.

Yes, your first blog entry are remarks disparaging our lawyers, forgetting the fact that the blog is in commemoration to the deeds of a great lawyer (bar topnotcher) and lawmaker (most outstanding congressman and senator). I might have forgiven you given the fact that Brits are universally accepted as uncouth and cloddish being offsprings of marauding Anglo-Saxons, but then it is just pointblank rude. It is like having an Egyptian be a member of an audience in a live TV talkshow commemorating the life of the late Lady Diana Spencer and during the part when the speakers are really pouring in their sympathies for the deceased, you have the Egyptian shouting at the top of his voice, ” BUT SHE’S A F***ING WHORE!”

I am also positive that the late senator will not let your snide remarks like “this is the one problem with Filipinos as a people you have so many lawyers” , “you have elevated the legal profession to the heights it does not deserve”, and , my favorite “lawyers don’t make things happen, they scrounge for morsels of wealth between conflicts” go unchallenged. I remember him during the Erap impeachment trial when Sen. Miram Santiago tried to frazzle a lawyer-witness by insinuating, like you, that lawyers are just in it for the money. Roco, in his sharp rebuttal asked all the lawyers in the premises if such is the case and garnered the response au contraire. He then stated that “law is not a business but a noble profession.” It was a slap in the face for those who believe that the Philippine brand of legal practice is based on pecuniary interests and not on honor and excellence.

Good thing the senator is not alive today, foreign devil, for if he is, he will have made haggish out of your paltry reasoning and odoriferous remarks.

On my retort about Auschwitz, well you, in the most condescending tone, mentioned that, “Actually, I’m not too worried about this country. You guys have at most what, 400 years or so, of recorded history and at least a 100 years as a body-politic? Whereas other societies, such as mine, have thousands of years behind us. You sure is a young community and you still have a lot to learn.”

Foreign devil, before you start pontificating about your western history, try to do some reading. It’s really embarassing to catch you being on the shallow side in recounting history.

Those thousands of years of western history is a history of pillage, of decimating whole populations and of wanton disregard for human life. From the Histories of Herodotus who largely narrated the Greek-Persian wars to the Peloponnesian Wars of Thucydides to the modern historical works of Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, western societies such as yours are proved to have evolved and progressed based on wholesale slaughter of populations. This butchery of populations reached, for the moment, its zenith at Auschwitz where modern science, politics and economics are applied to efficiently and effectively kill people in a massive scale. At present, this proclivity to widespread bloodshed by western societies is being checked since World War 2 with the belief that the next war will annihilate (with the use of nukes) not only the warring parties but the entire human race. But thanks to the US and your country, such an impasse is in danger of being undone in the very near future.

Now what does Auschwitz, in specific has got to do with the Brits, well it was British appeasement that enabled Hitler to build up his war machinery and the propagation of his anti-semitic ideology. It was also the ramming down the German throats by the Brits of the Versailles treaty that infuriated these soon to be Nazi fanatics; enough for them to embrace a homicidal maniac to be their deliverer.

Now what about Gandhi? You mentioned:

“Part of political maturity, however, is the capacity to go beyond the personality of even a great leader and his great philosophy. That is, to be able to discuss ideas and their implications separate from the man who expounded them or lived up to the imperatives of these ideas. The incapacity of most people, or races if you will, to separate these things has always been the deathknell of democratic politics—which may be said to be the crowning glory of civilization. I hate to say it but without this capacity, people tend to go back to tribal politics where the leader of the tribe is mystified and given all sorts of divine and mundane powers”

It was Gandhi’s personality, like Jesus Christ, that enabled one frail-looking man to put a great empire to its knees and have the enslaved people go. Gandhi (who by the way is a lawyer) neither have the pedantry nor the high airs of a John Locke and Thomas Hobbes to have his ideas and ideals of written for all to marvel and be in awe of, he lived his ideas and ideals, down to the marrow of his bones. When the British Crown prohibited the implementation of local marriage laws, Gandhi, instead of writing polemics against this unjust policy, invited all of the leaders in India to a meeting and said to them directly and without casuistry, “what this means is that all of us here are bastards and that all of our wives and mothers are whores!” The law was instantly implemented. Of course who can forget Gandhis’ boycott of British textiles and his march to the sea.

Political maturity being equated with detached and calculating examination of the man and his political ideas? What a sophomoric assumption! It was the applying of his political convictions to everyday life that a man like Gandhi was able to sound, not the deathknell, but the alarums of birth of the world’s largest democracy.

It is the same living of political ideals in the most mundane and banal of situations that Raul Roco tried to impart to us when he mentioned about the sowing the seeds of hope.

And you say that mystification of leaders is just a degeneration to tribal politics, but then again its just you.

To sum up, what you have done is: interrupt a flow of blog praising the great deeds in memoriam of a very respected leader, insult the profession from where that very respected leader belonged to, insult the history of his people and show how backward it is compared to yours, insult his people’s way of venerating the deeds of their leaders by saying that they are immature and tribalistic in their outlook.

And you have the gall to ask me where my hostility is coming from.

TAMA NA AWAY!!! PARA SA AKIN WALANG DAHILAN PARA HINDI UMUNLAD ANG PILIPINAS! BAKIT ANG UAE UMUNLAD NG HUSTO FOR JUST 20 YEARS, DAHIL MAYRON SILANG LANGIS? BAKIT MAYRON DIN TAYONG NATURAL RESOURCES! BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? THEIR LEADERS ARE COMMITED TO SERVE, MAY SAMPU TAYONG ADVANTAGES AT SILA DALAWA LAMANG,SA KANILA EDUCATION IS LESS BUTFOR US WE ARE EDUCATED ENOUGH TO TO COMPETE THE BEST OF THE WORLD, THESE UNEDUCATED PEOPLE WAS ABLE TO BUILD NOT A STRUCTURE BUT A PROMISING COUNTRY!!! SO 100 YEARS IS NOT A REASON WHY OUR GOVT IS NOT STABLE, WE ARE NOT YOUNG ANYMORE! NO EXCUSE PLS!!!

Joe said, ..THESE UNEDUCATED PEOPLE WAS ABLE TO BUILD NOT A STRUCTURE BUT A PROMISING COUNTRY!!! …
————————————-
With your due respect Joe, people of UAE are not uneducated. I agree that they are building a great country and their economy is enormous while their government is really for the people. If you are talking about their ancestors who did not graduated from prestigious schools then I agree with you, but if you are talking about their citizen today then better visit the place and you will find out that you are WRONG. Nakarating ka na ba sa UAE, Joe? Kung nakarating ka na dito baka naman mga nag-aalaga lang ng camel ang nakasama mo at kaya nasabi mong UNEDUCATED sila.

Ang problema kasi sa atin kulang tayo sa pagmamahal sa ating bansa. Mas madali kasi nating laiitin ang Pilipinas kesa ipagyabang sa mga banyaga, kung sabagay kung ang paguusapan natin ang kasalukuyang sitwasyon eh talagang kahiya-hiya tayo. Aba eh tanggapin ba nating tayo ay pinamumunuan ng pangulong walang integridad. Halos karamihan kasi sa atin puro lang salita pero kulang sa gawa. Pero ngayon yata eh wala na tayong magawa kasi WALA NG TRABAHO SA PILIPINAS.

Asa pa ba kayo? Antay na lang ulit kayo ng 100 years, malay nyo maganda na ang Pilipinas, eh yun kung buhay pa kayo.

Such erudition, kimosabe27, such passion! These I must say to you, first of all, before I clarify a few things that you mistook as my “crimes.”

To begin with, the thousand years of Western civilization indeed were marked by interminable conquest, pillage and wholesale butchery of the conquered. I won’t argue this point. It’s for everybody to read. However, for you to imply that I was glossing over this fact is uncalled for. All that I wrote was that your country’s history is young, it still has lots to learn, and if ever there are problems, don’t despair like it’s the end of the world. Is this line of argument pontification of Western history?

What I was trying to impart, had you not been blinded by your grief, was that there is hope even when the darkest hour seemed like forever. Having read a few books on European civilization, plus some insights I’ve heard from equally-erudite people in the European continent, I can say that people change over time. The Vikings were once the most feared marauders in all of Europe and yet does anyone see traces of such savagery among the Scandinavians nowadays? Or the Romans who once ruled the entire known world (at least to Westerners) with such ruthlessness, does anyone see traces of such among the gay and fun-loving Italians (except of course from the Cosa Nostra)?

Your polemic against the British are not really fair, inasmuch as you assumed that all British are in awe of the royals (I for one, believe that Diana was indiscreet) or that the act of Lloyd George’s government was never fought every inch of the way by a Winston Churchill. What I find disturbing in your reasoning is that you seem to exculpate the deranged Hitler and his equally-deranged Nazis from their great crime by attributing to the British the direct blame for Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, etc. What’s this logic of yours? Commission by omission? This is the first time I’ve encountered such reasoning, my dear barrister. I doubt very much if the Israelis would agree with your Bicolano reasoning. And besides, it was not the British that were so adamant about Versailles. If you will only read a little carefully and less haphazardly, you will blame the French.

I never insulted the Filipino people as a whole, much less their history. In fact, I have learned quite a few things that are beyond your standard textbooks. For instance, having patronized William Henry Scott’s books, among others, over the years, I believe I have a deeper grasp of Philippine history than some academics I know. For example, littered among your textbooks is this theory by this American named Beyer that there were 3 waves of migration to these archipelago: Negritos, Indonesians and Malays. Inspite of the flimsy basis of this theory, this theory has been heralded as fact! The pernicious idea is that before these “waves,” there were no people here in the islands! It might interest you to know that the Angono cave markings would easily disprove such a theory. Another example would be the Laguna Copperplate that deserves serious attention, as it would establish the nascent civilization in the islands well before the coming of the Spaniards.

Again, I would like to stress that I have only the highest regard for the departed Senator and I was not my intention to “desecrate” these pages. As to my insulting comments about lawyers in general, those comments are self-evident. Whether or not the practice of law is indeed a “noble profession,” I would let readers decide for themselves if indeed that’s the case in their own ACTUAL experience. By the by, I think I have read somewhere in your history that one of the truly greatest man this country ever had was disqualified from holding office on the account that he was a mere employee of a British company and not of this “noble profession.”

If you are what I think you are, kimosabe27, my dear barrister, now I understand truly, perfectly, where all your hostility is coming from.

To Joe.
I’m sorry but I was writing my answer to kimosabe just as you posted your message “tama na away.” Maybe i should have listened to you. Again, sorry…

Para sa akin, ang mga truly great na leaders ay yung tulad ni Gandhi. He was given power but he refused to accept it.

Si Sun Yat Sen din. He was offered power but declined it.

Rizal too declined the position the Katipunan was giving him.

Bonifacio too accepted a lower position until he was insulted at his lack of a lawyer’s degree.

Ninoy too chose certain death than wait it out safely in the US.

Everybody else falls into the lesser category of near-great or great-enough.

To foreign_devil, who posted among others : “Lawyers don’t make things happen, they scrounge for morsels of wealth between conflicts. In fact, we settle things out-of-court whenever we can because in the end, only our lawyers end up winning.”

I duly respect your opinion, Sir. However, please be reminded that not all lawyers “scrounge for morsels of wealth, between conflicts”.

While ambulance chasing generally make some lawyers do some foraging or scavenging “morsus welthe” , other members of the bar who took their oath seriously, still have the decency to say NO to that kind of malpractice and unethical behavior.

And yes, there are still some lawyers who do make things happen—FOR FREE.

Aray ko po!, Ang sakit naman ng “sweeping generalisation” mo kasamahang foreign_devil. Parang napakalaking kasalan sa mata ng tao at Poong Maykapal ang maging isnag manananggol.

Sabagay, kahit “off-topic” ang lawyer-bashing mo, you are still entitled to your opinion. But, kindly exercise said opinion-making responsibly.

foreign_devils’ bias against lawyers may have a foundation at all.

Consider what Bunye, Senator Santiago, Senator Gordon and the boorish Gonzales do infront of the TV camera lately, one could easily put on the blame to what profession these gloria lackeys belong.

But the rebuttals of lawspeak_007 and timawang_batas, make a good case–not all lawyers are ambulance chasers as well as political prostitutes.

To lawspeak, indio_lawless and timawang_batas,

My apologies for mentioning you fellas as springboard in this little prejudice I have. If what you aver, lawspeak, is true, then good for you. It should be people like you (and the likes of the late Sen. Roco and his admirers) who shall truly reform the profession. I doff my hat to you, even as I’m aware that you’re up against a system a good century old.

As a last word, my challenge is for you guys to be aware at all times that your profession has a lot to do with mess this country is in. Marcos, the bar topnotcher par excellance, is just one of the long litany of notorious lawyers who ruined this beautiful country. Atty. Garcillano is certainly just the latest and unfortunately, I believe, not the last.

Forgive me but I am a believer in mysticism. Among the mystical ideas I hold dear is the thought that this nation is cursed somewhat. To be more specific, I believe that the ghost of Andres Bonifacio haunts this body-politic of yours. He who was insulted for not being a lawyer and executed like the lowliest criminal in the first ever jurisprudence of your Republic, and whose body remains to this day unconsecrated, reportedly quipped: “Fear history, my assassins, for in it there is no place to hide.”

And judging by the electoral contest last year when FPJ was ridiculed tremendously by the intelligentsia as woefully unfit for the position, I had goosebumps when a TV reporter by the surname of “Aguinaldo” showed for all the world to see that the King had a temper. Bonifacio, too, had a particular temper and that proved to be one of the chinks in his armor.

I beg all your indulgence for “meddling” in your affairs. But then again, the most ardent Filipinists this country had always have been foreigners beginning with that Austrian, Ferdinand Blumentritt.

May the Force be with you all.

Apologies accepted, foreign_devil.

Remaining to be a worthy member of the bar is indeed a herculean task to some. Many brethrens fell out of grace, primarily, because they cannot resists the temptation of enriching themselves either materially or otherwise.

Thus, it can be gainly said that while knowing the law may offer a kind of a power to the beholder but the exercise or practice of it comes the greater responsibility. This is, I believe, where we draw the line between the good and the bad ,nay, notorious ones.

As to your “meddling” with our affairs, I for one, welcome foreigner’s insight. Rizal and Blumentritt started it before, why can’t we bloggers?

But again, I wish, that all should be done with the usual civility and outmost respect– as what all jedi in us should be.

No problemo, foreign_devil.

While we can have a lengthly debate on the merits or demerits of the legal profession, one thing, I guess,could make as all agree : it’s the person per se who builds a reputation for himself, whether he is a lawyer or not.

Being a scamps, for sure, is not an exclusive domain of the legal world, other professions got a fair share too.

I commend you for taking time to study Philippine history. Caveat,however, that some historians were too heavily biased that their objectivity becomes now a suspect.

I could never forget his speech in our commencement exercises in 2002 at UPLB.

Nor the way he changed the Panatang Makabayan.

I voted for him and I am proud to say that my vote was not wasted. Although another peson won…I have always admired the man.

What I only do not like now is that his internment in Manila is too short, and we have been experiencing typhoons on that matter. Maybe the heavens have cried with him.

My final blog really. It was Neville Chamberlain, not Lloyd George, that Churchill fought every inch of the way. I was just testing kimosabe27 whether he really knew his history.

Good day to all of you!

foreign_devil, we may disagree on your slant against lawyers, but I think we both share an interest in History, particularly on Philippine Ancient History.

Credit to you for mentioning the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI). If this artififact, will not turn out to be a hoax just like the Elizalde-Tasaday thing, then an earlier theory that posits a Spanish Royal Decree ordering the destruction of any evidentiary artifacts linking the Philippines with Shri-Vijaya or even Madjapahit, can now be validly pursued.

If only Senator Raul Roco is alive today, I bet, he will surely love this kind of exchanges.

The sole candidate with clean heart and remarkable work ethics. His party stands on principle above all. Even without ROCO, Aksyon Demokratiko and Aksyon Kabataan must continue their plight for a TRUE “democracy”

Sen. Raul Roco, your greatness, ideals and aspirations will be forever in our hearts…

WE LOVE YOU

Many thanks, timawang_batas. I am indeed very interested in Philippine Ancient History and some of my comments above are due in part to this interest. One of the reasons why I said this country is so young is because of the meager archaelogical evidence that are extant and available for study. A large part of the blame were of course the lousy Spanish friars who burned to the ground every trace of civilization so that they could justify their rape and plunder of the islands while at the same time converting the natives to their Papist religion. On the other hand, the nature of ancient society itself was responsible for this. From my readings, social structures have not yet fully developed (or rigidified) so as to produce the “slave labor” necessary to build the marvels of antiquity, i.e. usually great architectural wonders like the Great Wall or the Laotian temples, for instance. Ancient society then was still in a state of flux, in a manner of speaking. And the greatest evidence of this may be found in the nature of many Philippine languages. Tagalog, for instance, is so ambivalent a language that “hindi” may end up as not “hindi” depending on the intonation or manner of delivery or even, the facial expression. In the West, English for instance, “no” means “no” and can never mean “yes” or “perhaps.”

In this regard, can anybody help me out regarding the lost epic of the Tagalogs? There absolutely is no trace of the pre-colonial Tagalog epic in academic literature and the best clue I have has something to do with the Kumintang which is allegedly in some parts of ancient Batangas.

Kimosabe27, if you’re reading this, can you instruct me on your Ibalon? Is there a longer version of Ibalon text that one can have apart from what is meagerly translated in, I think, Arsenio Manuel’s or Damiana Eugenio’s?

A leader of principles who was not given a chance to lead our country. This best describes the late Sen. Raul S. Roco.When will again born a leader like Sen Roco?
As an educator, the ideals of Sen. Roco have been my inspirations in molding youths. I should say the Filipinos are still not intelligent in choosing the right man who can lead this country with loyalty.
The death of Sen Roco is truly a great loss to the Filipino people.

We will truly miss a true leader like you.

the greatest president we never had..

cagayan surely is sorrowed for the loss of a great staesman.

we may have lost you but forever will your memories remain.

My deepest condolence to the Roco Family. I was a volunteer in my province of Nueva Vizcaya when Raul ran for the Senate. I do remember how meager his resources are and have to have his own schedule on his way and travel by land if only to reach Nueva Vizcaya.

The politics of Raul is not in our time. It may take another generation to learn from him.

to raul s. roco
one of the best and the brightest bicolano that even graced the halls of congress, the inspiration will forever live-on!

-rusty

Post ko lang ito avery nice tribute for peace and brotherhood:

Rebels hail Roco as exemplary Filipino

BY JAIME ESPINA

BACOLOD CITY - Communist rebels offered their condolence to the family of former senator Raul Roco, saying they shared the grief “for the passing of an exemplary Filipino patriot and civil libertarian who stood for substantial progressive reforms to uplift the people from their oppressed and exploited condition.”

In a statement, Luis Jalandoni, said the National Democratic Front (NDF) peace negotiating panel, which he chairs, “including its consultants, staffers and volunteers, extends deepest condolences to Sonia Malasarte-Roco, her children and grandchildren on the demise of Senator Raul S. Roco.”

Roco passed away Friday morning after a long bout of prostate cancer at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City. He was 63.

His remains were flown to Naga City, his hometown in Camarines Sur, on Monday.

He will be buried on Thursday at the Santo Niño cemetery in Naga City beside the grave of his father, Sulpicio.

Jalandoni said Roco “lived a meaningful life of service to the people” and “left a legacy that his family, friends and compatriots can be proud of and that can continue to inspire them.”

“Thus, he continues to live in all our hearts and minds,” the rebel negotiator said.

Jalandoni rued that, had Roco’s presidential bid not been derailed by the prostate cancer that claimed his life, “he would have been an excellent partner in peace negotiations for the benefit of the Filipino people.”

He described Roco as “an honorable person” who “stood by his lofty ideals and principles as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1971, during his stint as congressman and senator from 1987 to 2001, as Secretary of Education, and a presidential candidate in 2004.”

“On the eve of his death, he showed great wisdom in calling for the resignation of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for corruption and cheating in the elections,” Jalandoni added.

The rebel official also called Roco “a close ally of the aboveground democratic movement and the underground revolutionary forces and people during the struggle against the Marcos fascist dictatorship” who “defended victims of human rights violations and did his utmost to foster unity among the opposition forces against martial rule.”

He added that Roco was more than a personal friend to the NDF due to his role in arranging the first meeting between Jose Ma. Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines founder and now NDF chief political consultant, Sen. Benigno Aquino in 1968.

“He also arranged meetings between the NDF Preparatory Commission on the one hand and Bonifa io Gillego and other members of the Constitutional Convention who opposed (dictator Ferdinand) Marcos’ rape of the 1972 constitution,” Jalandoni added.

He also cited Roco’s advocacy of women’s rights, which earned him the title of “Honorary Woman.”

my condolences to the family of Mr. Roco.

i personally campaigned for him in the elections yet deep in my heart i know he will not win.

for the simple reason that the party doesnt believe in the honesty of the elections.

i myself approved the veracity of his actions when he ran for president. but in his actions i find the concept of a losing battle.

still i applaud him if only to show that there still exist a moralist in our midst.

i was proud when i campaigned for him but i was disillusioned when he accepted defeat from a cheater and he knows and everybody knows that GMA was a cheater.

after that he disappeared from the limelight while his senatoriables continued the fight against GMA and her cohorts.

maybe he wanted rest but as i see it he failed to embody the moral of a leader that doesnt fall when his soldiers are still in the field.

i hated him for not fighting til his last breath.

i thought he would fight til the end.

maybe he did and maybe he didnt..

but im still in awe of my kababayang bicolano.

rest in peace sir…

we’ll continue your fight

and your flame will never falter.

i think we can make the distinctions among the different categories revolving around the fact that our dear friend Roco died, the ritual of our grieving, and the interpretations we make of the fact and the ritual, separately and collectively.

i think Raul knows we will have different ways of learning lessons from how he lived and died.

with deepest condolences to Sonia and the rest of the Roco family.

we extend our deepest condolences to the family and love ones of our dear departed senator, raul roco. we bicolanos are proud of him. he’s one of few bicolanos who succeeded in the field of politics. Raul roco’s legacy of good and clean governance will serve as an inspiration to the young, idealistic aand aspiring politicians. we salute him for all the greatness he has done to our country.

hinde po sya ang choice ko noong nakaraang presidential election. i have my own personal reason of not voting him and i am sorry for that. to be honest si sen lacson ang binoto ko. pero hinde mawawala ang respeto at paggalang ko sa magiting na senador.

goodbye “mr clean” we bicolanos will surely miss you. may your soul rest in peace.

Allow me to say my final tribute to the man,

May Senator Roco be remembered not merely for the achievements he did throughout his exemplary career as a public servant,

May he be remembered not only as an extraordinary mortal with a sharp legal mind and an even-sharper wit and tongue,

May he be remembered not merely for the causes he espoused, the battles he fought, the setbacks he endured, and the shining leadership that he displayed amid all these…

May he enter the pantheon in the minds of the Filipino people in the company of epical heroes as the new Handiong or the new Bantugan or the new Lam-ang who fought impossible odds and terrifying monsters and winged creatures…

For it is only in such can we ever, ever hope for his RESURRECTION.

For the eternal repose of Senator Roco’s soul,
may he finally rest in peace. Amen.

Alecks,

This is off-topic but kindly allow me this one.

I have observed that other than the issue of Philippine politics, History comes next as “favorite” blogging issue.

Thus, could you possibly post something about history, particulary Phillipine history?

If you have noticed too, we have a fair share of PCIJ bloggers who got a good knock on history.Devoid of any condescending hint, consider foreign_devil’s example on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI). This could funnel intelligent discussions if not informative exchanges on Philippine Ancient History, for the benefit of everyone interested.

Hope you could facilitate.Thanks.

A requiem for you Raul
A mournful prayer
Set aloft
The gossamer wings
Of a fading Amihan

Black as spade
The future forebodes
Emptiness
A lull before the storm

The horizon beckoning thunderclouds
Pillars of despair
The balinsasayaw heralding the evil tempest
In a country where legends and war cries
Erode from collective memory
And greatness
Drain in rivulets
Like fading bloodstains
Of fallen warriors

We cry for solace
From this constant deluge
Of wanton wickedness

We wish you were here Raul
Your presence is Isarog
Solitary in a plain of green
Yet lofty and formidable
Forever sheltering fair Naga
From the terrible, terrible claws
Of shredding Habagat

It will be missed…

That keen mind of yours
As sharp as a newly forged Sundang

That penchant for justice
Like Magayon’s slopes
Everything should be equal, proportionate

That bravura, yes that bravura
When everyone else cowered
In the fusillade of lies and deception
You stood up in the defense of Truth

Like the victors of Tancong Vaca
You are relentless
Even though you are outnumbered and outgunned

Still you will be missed…

While the halls of Gugurang
Will rejoice in your presence
And the heroes of Ibalon:
Handiong, Baltog, Bantong
Ola, Vinzons, Escandor
Will welcome you as brethren
We who are left behind
Can only wail in despair

A requiem for you Raul
A mournful prayer
Set aloft
The gossamer wings
Of a dying Amihan

kimosabe27 . what a beatiful elegy befitting to a great man. You must be truly inspired.

I may quite know about Ola and Vinzons but Escandor? can you share. thanks

to the Man that i respected most next to Former President ERAP
who never tried to cheat his way into a Elected Position.
a man of honor and grace under fire.

He was one of the PRESIDENTIABLES that really wants to serve this
country.We love you Senator ROCO.

as A comment on FVR statement sabi nya s news sa ch.5
si Roco daw eh he could have been the president but circumstances was not on his way.Dapat FVR noong ikaw ang pangulo dapat sya ang ini-endorso mo sa pagka pangulo at di yang campaign manager mo na si JDV.sa tingin nyo.hehehe

he he he…remember d_entrep, gustong patamaan ng kidlat ni erap si roco…

jokes lang….

you could have been a great president of this nation, but unforetunately this nation is not yet ready to unshackle the chain of traditonal politics and the trapos are still the one lording over the politics.

goodbye my idol…rest assured that people will never forget the ideals and your dreams for this natio; i know someone will beart he torches and continue your fight for a clean and honest government.

i know my vote was not sayang when wrote your name in my ballot, although i know that money and political machineries were name of the game these days.

but despite of the many obstacles you have to overcome, you still believed, tried and dipped your hat in the dirty world of politics to be the light in the darkness. you may not be Jesus, but you have become a model of Jesus in this world.

i pray to Jesus that he takes you in his bosom, saying: well done thou good and faifthful servant; enter into the joy of My Kingdom.

i hope Gloria would step down from the presidency and confess her sins so she too would hear the voice of God saying the samething by the time death becomes her: remember righteous exalts a nation; sin reproaches.

Dr. Juan Escandor from Sorsogon
UP alum
Assassinated during the Marcos years

yes - thank you kimisabe27. i liked your composition very much you must be a member of a creative writing class to be able to do that. again my congratulations to you

Hey Koj,

oo nga wala eh tao lang po…wala talagang ubod ng linis or
a Politician without flaw theres such thing here in this country
i just hope our future politicians be more different…

Remember Malakanyang also did launch their own operation against the candidacy of ROCO.He was as reported to newspaper were also
involved in corruption which the reason why he did gave up DEPED.

if FVR was so sincere in what he said he should have campaign for him
in the 2004 election,but instead he opted to go to GMA campaign sorties.hehehe..plastic talaga..hehehe..

What else can you expect? They are a bunch of hypocrites.

May pa-patriot-patriot pa silang pa-utot dyan eh sila nga ang nagsiwalat na may katiwaliang nagawa RAW si Roco sa DepEd. Parang pinalabas yata itong balitang ‘to ng grupo ni Rama na binuo ni Pandak.

Tapos sila nga rin sa Malakanyang ang naglabas ng tsismis na may No. 2 si Roco at may bastardong anak ito. Parang si Lorna Kapunan pa nga ang ini-insinuate nilang other woman ni Roco eh.

Wag na tayong magtaka. Kung si Ramos, plastic. Ganun din si Cory.

Naaalala ko na pinuri niya nang lubusan si Doy Laurel sa burol nito pero noong nabubuhay pa si Doy katakut-takot na insulto at pag-e-etsepwera ang natanggap niya mula kanila Cory. Naaalala ko pa na tinawag siya ni Cory na isang bangaw/langaw na pipitikin niya sa isang EDSA celebration.

Grabe! Mga OROCAN talaga sila.

Mr. Raul Roco, lawyer, ex-senator, ex-education secretary, etc. truly stands out from among the present breed of politicians, whether the young ones or young once. And it is in contrast to Mr. Roco that I am completely shamed by the kind of leaders we have here in our beloved Bikol, the governors and the congressmen, chief of them.
But I would like to have known Mr. Roco’s, or his admirers’, take on the following ordinary things:

Whether he, or anyone for that matter, raged against being given preferential treatment just because he or she is a lawyer, a celebrity, a journalist, a foreigner, a mestiza, a politician, a priest, an imam, a christian or a muslim? We see this everyday but do we care? Or do we see it as but natural, god-ordained, matter of right order of things? Do we see no injustice in it? Is it not a form of corruption of the more subtle and insiduous kind?

On the sprouting overpasses in Metro Manila. Do we not see the injustice in this? Is it fair to let the ordinary folks, the children, the pregnant women, the disbaled, the elderly and ocassionally, some of the well heeled, among them, climb up the stairs, brave the rains, the lightnings and what else, just so the vehicles can go about its business of ferrying passengers faster? Is it all a question of money? And we praise the man responsible for it for his genious or his “political will” when his will and power was vented merely on the hapless helpless citizen?

On our appreciation of persons or their testimonies. Do we consciously consider that the person’s appearance or station in life should not be the overriding factor in our decisions with respect to him or her or their statements? For the lawyers, have you not observed in court that the judges and even the justices give more credence to the testimonies of the powerful, influential, wealthy people more than the ordinary folk’s? And do you not believe that your word should be given more weight than, say, that of an accused?

These are all instances of power and powerlessness, whether actual or perceived, real or imaginary, that are duplicated in our everyday dealings, in the government most especially.

I am sure Mr. Roco would love to share his thoughts on those things and his opinion would have a better impact or impression on the reader than that of Juan dela Cruz’s. But isn’t that exactly the point?

I do not think, as I believe Mr. Roco did not think, that what ails this country is the political immaturity of its people. And he had reason to hope (as in his platform of hope) since the solution may not be found elsewhere than in each of us.

The seeds have already been sown, it is now up to the soil to make it flower- that may be the reason he loved his shirts with flowers- a life dedicated to making things flower, and this time, I hope they are not just onamental but fruit bearing ones.

THEY WILL GIVE ALL THE PRAISE TO RAUL ROCO DAHIL PATAY NA AT SIGURADO NA HINDI NA SISIKAT AT HINDI NA MAKAKATAKBONG PRESIDENTE, BUT KUNG BUHAY PA YAN SIGURADO MAY BUDGET NGAYON YAN SA DEMOLITION TEAM NI TABAKO AT GLORIA, EH aba kelan ba napuri ng ganito yung tao ngayon lang dahil patay na! sabagay si gloria at tabako pupurihin din ang mga yan balang araw… kelan kaya yun????

hahaha, nice, joe yun nga sana sasabihin ko kaya lang naunahan mo ako . But how i wish soon very soon. pero sabi nga only the good die young.

Does the lawyer son of the late Sen. Roco not have any plan to continue what his father has started?

He is a lawyer, and for sure he has also the same intelligence that jis father had!

I challenge him to think entering the politics in the Philippines..

Hope this simple request will be taken into account…

*SOB* *SOB*

farewell to you my President ROCO

farewell…

I went to St. Jude’s last night and after the novena mass, I passed by San Beda. Outside they posted SAN BEDA JOINS THE COUNTRY IN THE MOURNING FOR THE GREAT BEDAN RAUL S ROCO. Need they say more?

ROCO ang presidenteng hindi naupo. Maayos na sana ang bayan natin ngayon. REBOLUSYON NA!