Think about it
Culture of service and leadership
By Jun Velasco
“It has been rightly said that a mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make learning unnecessary,” E.C. McKenzie
WE felicitate our cousin Fernando “Pandong” Velasco-dela Cruz, founder/chief operating officer of Addessa Appliance Center for the opening of its new building, Addessa Galeria, beside the old City hall in Urdaneta City.
Three years our senior, Pandong is the personification of single-mindedness, humility and family-centered leadership.
When he was still mayor of Urdaneta town, Ambassador Amadito Perez told us he was trying to convince Pandong to run for a municipal council seat, but Pandong knew what was in his heart.
Our low-profile cousin is always self-effacing and family-centered, and has lived his life’s creed.
Addessa, today, has more than 30 branches all over Luzon, a testimonial of achievement.
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On the political front, it seems the guy who cooked up the Mark Cojuangco-Pogi Espino gubernatorial tandem was just joking.
That yarn was shot down by a Provincial Information Office text message as a lie. The text message says politics should be shunned “at this time” and urges Pangasinenses to stay focused on work, productive work the provincial government is busy doing.
It’s strange that while on the subject, we remembered a non-political incident.
During a family gathering in Bautista town, a huffing courier arrived and blurted a balita, “Gustong ikandidato ng mga barangay si Pogi para gobernador.”
Those present included Lola Victoriana aka “Lola Turing,” the governor’s beloved mother, a former teacher.
Everyone thought she would shrug off the “balita” or tsimis or rebuke the courier-announcer for polluting the environment with politics.
But no, lola Turing smiled royally, as if to say Pogi was perfectly within his right to grow in public service just like his father.
The old woman, who once suffered from venomous attacks launched by detractors against a well-loved son was in 2012 hospitalized and declared in a comatose state.
More than leading in shaping the intellect and character, Lola Turing loved family members who’d serve the common weal and the poor.
She is proud of her son-governor and showed lavishly her affection for him and his achievements. She’d be hurt no end when he is attacked.
Knowing it would now be his last term as governor, Lola Turing felt there are more roads in Pangasinan to travel in governance.
Many are surprised at the old woman’s unabashed faith in Pogi and his political star. Home-spun stories say Lola Turing would be jubilant at apo Pogi’s forays in leadership, and if she’d have her way, she would want him to be his father’s heir apparent in public service.
You see, the old folk and the elderly have something to say on the role of women in a man’s life.
Woman, they say, can design or shape a man’s career.
Which reminds us of Mary in the life of Jesus, and Teodora Alonzo Rizal, Jose Rizal’s first teacher.
Our mothers/grandmothers are builders of character as well as builders of leaders. And so by inference, they are builders of nations, too.
As of press time, a certain inveterate newsman told us last week he bumped into Pogi and her mother, Mely, who were taking a patient to a government hospital.
The mother and son was a portrait of joyous harmony in the field of service, as if to underscore that in the Espino family, public service is a well-treasured culture and a life mission.
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A dispatch that specializes on locals who make good abroad sent us a news clipping about Ryla Tada-Pasaoa, daughter of Raul Pasaoa and the former Vanessa Tada, daughter of Ben Tada and Vicky Siapno, who excelled in essay writing contest at the Immaculate Conception School in Jamaica in New York. We understand Vicky attended the awarding rites in New York last week. Congrats!…. It took a woman, Mayor Belen Fernandez, to re-define local governance in Dagupan City as less of ego and more of performance. It’s widely believed that under her, the city’s fullest potentials will be identified and developed. More on this next issue….
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