Poverty is no hindrance to success, so goes a popular saying.
Nicolas M. Caraquel, a lawyer from Davao Oriental has proven this. The former resident of San Isidro, Davao Oriental has been named recently as one of the 11 Pamana ng Pilipino awardees during the 2018 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas.
“A sought-after immigration lawyer based in New York who broke out of poverty through determination and hard work. He assists in facilitating the family reunification process among Filipinos in the United States,” said the press statement.
The Pamana ng Pilipino Award is conferred on Filipinos overseas who, in exemplifying the talent and industry of the Filipinos, “have brought the country honor and recognition through excellence and distinction in the pursuit of their work or profession.”
When asked what the award has brought to him, Atty. Caraquel replied: “It gives me honor, privilege and responsibility.”
On honor, he explained: “It is an ultimate honor to be recognized by your own country, especially by the president primarily because you are helping our kababayan abroad.”
As for privilege, he said: “Because not everyone can demand for the award. It has to be earned by giving your selfless and unconditional love for the country and countrymen.”
The word “responsibility” brings the words of the Spiderman flick: “With great power comes responsibility.” But in his own words, Atty. Caraquel expounded: “(The award is a responsibility) because I become more inspired to help our kababayans in every way I can possibly do, in coordination with government agencies, Filipino communities and organizations.”
Aside from Atty. Caraquel, the other awardees from the United States were: Paul C. Balan, Edward M. Brotonel, Elizabeth L. Engle, Pedro A. Jose, C. Joe Sayas, Jr., and Jhett D. Tolentino.
Other awardees were from Switzerland (Maria Theresa A. Eviota), Portugal (Teresita A. Marques), Myanmar (Jose Dennis C. Teodosio), and Hong Kong (Saturnino H. Tiamson, Jr.).
This year, 25 distinguished and outstanding Filipinos and foreign-based organizations were honored during the awarding ceremony held at Malacanang. They were selected from a total of 96 nominations received by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas from 28 countries through 137 Philippine embassies and consulates across Asia, North and South America, Africa, Europe and Australia.
“The awardees were thoroughly screened by four different committees from the Philippine Foreign Service Posts, an inter-agency Technical Committee, a multi-sectoral Executive Committee, and finally by the Office of the President,” the press statement said.
Aside from Pamana ng Pilipino, the Presidential Awards have three other categories: Banaag, Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino, and Kaanib ng Bayan.
Institutionalized in 1991 through Executive Order No. 498, the Presidential Awards is a biennial search for individuals and organizations based abroad who have dedicated their work in the service of Filipinos either by selflessly supporting relief, rehabilitation, and development programs in the home country, or by having excelled in their profession or field of expertise overseas.
Atty. Caraquel has gone a long, long way. Poverty didn’t deter him from pursuing his dream. There were seven siblings in the family and he is the sixth. His father was a barber while his mother was a seamstress. Each member had to work. “I can barely remember spending time with the first three siblings because of age gap and the fact that they too were working students while attending school,” he recalled. “Everyone had ample share in helping our parents earn a living or support our family at that time.”
Nick, as he is fondly called, was only six when he started to help the family in making both ends meet. Every day, at 4 o’clock in the morning, his father would wake him up. Although he still wanted to sleep, he had to get up to help his mother prepared for the barbecue vending at the bus terminal.
From their house, he had to walk alone going to the bus terminal to gather used barbecue sticks from the ground and wash them clean because they could not afford to buy a fresh set.
But even then, the family barely made it. When he was in third grade, his parents requested him to quit schooling. He was mad. “I didn’t talk to them for six months but would do everything they asked me to do,” he said. “I could not understand the reason why I needed to stop going to school.”
It was from this experience that he learned the value of hard work, determination, and patience. “I get inspiration from my mother,” he pointed out. “She reminded me that education is the only way out of poverty and that material things are not that important.”
She also taught him about leaning on that Someone Up There and to call help from Him. “When things get rough,” she told him, “just kneel down and pray.”
Nick believed that to get out of poverty, he had to finish school. “Finishing college was the only way or starting point to get out of poverty,” he pinpointed.
He did finish elementary, high school and college but it was a struggle along the way. On why he dreamed of becoming a lawyer when he was still a young boy, he shared this thought: “Generally, people look down on people who were economically challenged. We have the tendency to judge that they have no hopes especially when you live in the province.”
Nick saw that through his mother’s experience. “I cannot forget how my mother tried to encourage me while she herself was hopeless,” he said.
That significantly influenced him in dreaming to become a lawyer: “To defend my family if someone will mistreat them, to uplift their spirit that we can rise from poverty and to financially support my family,” he explained.
Becoming a lawyer was a long arduous journey. But he believes in prayer. “All my life,” he says now, “I am guided by prayers in every major decision I make. It’s a trait I learned from my mother. I always ask for God’s sign to give me confidence that the decisions I make are aligned with His.”
Today, Atty. Caraquel is one of the finest immigration lawyers in New York. “I focus on immigration law because it’s my passion to help other people and immigration is an area where I can greatly demonstrate that,” he said.
