Love for the men in uniform

One gets an idea of the institution by the people that make it up. This is my experience of the Philippine military. When one of our foresters was beheaded five years ago in La Mesa, I went to  Gen. Angie Reyes, who was then head of the AFP. He immediately called for a meeting and addressed my concerns. And to this day, Angie Reyes and the Department of Energy have been of invaluable assistance. He just recently provided P80 million from the DOE so that we could electrify 4,000 houses in Calauan. I explained to him how the lack of electricity made it hard to keep peace and order and would lead to a population explosion. He immediately responded.

During Typhoon Ondoy I honestly feel we would not have been able to serve so many people without the help of the military. They were there almost 24/7 carrying heavy boxes, repacking, asking nothing in return.

When the Armed Forces went to La Mesa, Gibo and noticed the muddy pathways, out of their own money they gave P200,000 without any fanfare whatsoever. The military went there and committed to help the La Mesa project.

I have a memorandum of agreement which Gen. Ibrado signed wherein he commits the AFP to help with the Pasig River Project. Through their trucks and their personnel, we have been able to relocate hundreds from Estero de Paco to Calauan, Laguna. They come on time and they stay until their duty is done. They dig trenches and plant what they call the Seeds for Peace. Weekly their people do Tae-Bo exercises with the residents.

Deep into the Pasig River Project and needing help, I called Col. Dennis Eclarin. We shared the same professor, Prof. Ed Morato in the Asian Institute of Man-

agement. Col. Eclarin is a West Pointer — highly intelligent and visionary. It’s his inner quiet passion and integrity that moves me. Dennis listened attentively and the next week introduced me to Col. Bong Visaya — the head of NCR land forces. We wanted to see how the army could get involved in a more strategic way in this ambitious and noble project.

Col. Visaya right away dispatched a hundred men to help in the cleanup of the tenement area in Quirino, which was the beginning of Estero de Paco. Their men worked under the hot sun together with the tenement dwellers as we endeavored to transform a smelly garbage-infested area into an area fit to be visited. I was deeply impressed when I saw how they worked their way into the heart of the community, offering haircuts, shoe repairs, playing with the children... I witnessed my first-ever Boodle Fight, which is an enterprise where people eat banana leaves together. Children standing at attention at the end of the day — that’s a telling sign of the effect they had on the community.

Col. Visaya brought Gen. Mapagu who is in charge of the NCR forces; he, too, was very supportive of the activity.

So now Col. Visaya is working with our contractor so that we can extend the money that we have for riprapping the easements. They have set up base at the Paco Market providing labor for the easements.

I love their intensity. When they commit, they go all the way. They will not let you down. I also feel an integrity, which I deeply resonate with. When I saw Gen. Lim on TV, something in me clicked. There was something noble about the person. It saddens me that someone like him is in jail.

I was elated when Dennis told me that the Army is looking to become more involved in community development. They do see that adopting a proactive approach is a more productive way to addressing terrorism and insurgency. I am 100-percent confident that, by clearing the esteros of communities where disparate lives have become breeding grounds for anti-social elements, the peace and order situation will improve dramatically — not by putting people in jail, but by uplifting communities that are vulnerable to manipulative elements.

So to the military, on Valentine’s Day — for injecting energy and dynamism into the Pasig River Project, and on behalf of the hundreds and thousands who have been helped by men and women in arms — I applaud your efforts to go into community development. I applaud your integrity, your idealism, and with you as a key component in cleaning the Pasig River, I have not the slightest doubt that our country will see the light of day.