by Moses Billacura
Senator Gregorio Honasan has said that he ran for public office and got elected because he loves his country.
The ugly part of politics are things they have to deal with all their lives. But it is part of the game, he added
When Sir Ricky Enriquez taught us Political Science as one of our minor subjects at the Ateneo de Davao University (along with my classmate, Schmid V. Apat. The latter surprisingly called me up last Friday and invited me to a sumptuous dinner of crabs, crabs and crabs).
Randy F. Babao asked us on the first day of classes if we considered political science important. Neither Schmid nor I replied. We left it to our more aggressive classmates to do the answering. Melbert Oczon, who is now a top executive of SunCellular in Davao, Schmid and Randy listened intently to the reply made by classmate Alvin Luque, the campus politician.
To make sure that we understood the importance of political science, Sir Ricky required us to memorize important parts of the Philippine Constitution, like its Preamble, Principles, State Policies and especially the Bill of Rights.
The phrases “a just and humane society”… “to establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good”…“truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace”…“to serve and protect the people”…“protection of life, liberty and property”…“the promotion of the general welfare” were then so strange to us. But as we got older, we started to deeply understand the importance of those words and phrases.
Oral exams were normal then. We went to the radio booth on the fifth floor where we took our exams and outside the glass-windowed room, we waited for our turn to bet grilled. After the exams, we eagerly waited for the results to be posted on the bulletin board of the Humanities Division.
We did not get high grades but, luckily, we passed anyway. Good enough for us.
The strict Sir Ricky opened our young minds (we were then 18 years old) and taught us that political science as a subject is important if we cared for our countrymen, that we could have a good government if we loved our country.
Senator Greg reminded me of that the morning of last November 26 during a meeting at the Felis Beach Resort.
He was fiery in his speech, the same kind of fervor and sincerity when he delivered a speech during the launching of the National Unified Sports Program three years ago.
Later on, he accompanied a family member, William “Butch” Ramirez, who filed his certificate of candidacy for Davao City councilor who, after months of convincing his wife Mercy and his children Omar, Farah and Joshua, decided to join the very challenging world of politics.
For love of country and of Davao City, the chairman of the Sports for Peace Mindanao will run for city councilor in the first district.
If Butch gets lucky, he will surely provide the light at the end of the tunnel for sports-loving Dabawenyos by taking the lead in the crafting of a comprehensive and genuine Sports Code of Davao City and making it the finest example of sports development.
Butch, like Senator Greg, loves the City of Davao, loves the island region of Mindanao, and loves this beautiful country.
Good luck Sir Butch!
