The small town boy who made good - DIRECT LINE by Boy Abunda

When you mention the name Edgardo Angara, ACCRA comes to mind or the controversial diary of the last days of Erap in the Palace. Both give him a formidable image.

Ed Angara knows the meaning of struggle. And Nanay (who was a public school teacher for 43 years) always reminds me that Angara never wavered in his faith in the public school system.

That Edgardo J. Angara is elitist is one gargantuan misconception. Angara, whose humble roots are genuine, had focused his legislative work on the underclass and the marginal, forgotten sectors.

Ed Angara studied in the public schools of Baler, Aurora. This is a rugged, remote but beautiful town. During Angara’s school days, he had to walk three kilometers to and from school and cross a river. Sometimes, he was with classmates. Most of the time, he was alone. He would hum the school songs in his daily trek to school, the monotony of his walks oftentimes broken by a crossing deer or an eagle soaring above with his mighty wings.

The discipline that sustained Angara through long hours of legislative deliberations and his career as a lawyer was first honed during his early school days in Baler.

From the Baler Elementary School, he went to the University of the Philippines, the premier public school system in the country, for his pre-law and law degrees. His masters degree was in the United States – the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor – another public school.

Ed Angara’s father was one of the first male nurses in the country (he was a nurse and dentist). He was not poor. But he was a politician of the old school – those who did not enrich themselves in public service. And he had ten children to send to college. For Ed Angara to have the best education, he had to go through the route of the public school system.

From day one of his 12 years in the Senate, Angara’s legislative agenda was clear – legislation for the sectors that need public investment and support.

The impressive body of legislative work achieved by Angara has a dominant tone – investment in human capital. Invest in people and the institutions that in turn empower people.

Angara was the principal author of the Free High School Law. He was the prime mover behind the intense and sustained effort to reorganize the Department of Education, Culture and Sports. He used the legislature to create the Commission on Higher Education, the Technical Education and Skill Development Authority.

He was also the main force behind the first big adjustment in the salaries of public school teachers to make them cooperative and well-compensated.

Congress, on Angara’s initiative, passed the measure that provides massive financial support to private school teachers and students _ the government Assistance to Students and Teacher in Private Education (GASTPE).

Agriculture, small farmers and farm producers, have been the prime beneficiaries of the Agricultural Modernization Law. The landmark law is now the blueprint and the guidepost for the state’s agricultural modernization program – which Angara himself oversaw during the two years that he was agriculture secretary.

From a negative 6.6 percent performance in 1998, the agriculture sector, under Angara’s term as secretary rebounded to a 6.3 percent growth in 1999 and 3.4 percent growth last year. The Modernization Law also provides for massive government investments to deliver credit, adequate irrigation facilities, post-harvest facilities to farm and fishery products and to intensify agricultural research and development.

Angara was the principal author of the Magna Carta for Public Health Workers which gave better working terms and pay to health workers. He also worked for the concerns of senior citizens and the elderly and that climaxed with the Senior Citizens Act.

Indeed, pro-poor legislation and working for the underclass have been the true hallmarks of Angara’s legislative work.

Ed Angara is shy. He is not loud and voluble like a typical politician. But he is hardworking and brilliant. He also hasn’t forgotten the river he used to cross in his childhood in Baler, Aurora.