Gloria

Never have my friends and I differed drastically in our choices than in the just finished elections. Sometimes they made me feel I was a lost cause by choosing GMA as my next president; they themselves were split among FPJ, Ping Lacson, Brother Eddie and Raul Roco. Discussions became heated sometimes even during Bible study sessions, and each one of us argued for our candidate. My candidate won, and my friends have no choice but talk to me about anything – but GMA. But we will remain friends, and in time hurt feelings would be healed.

Healing. That is crucial in having peace in the land, in building trust and confidence between the governor and the governed.

The President in her inaugural address at the Quirino Grandstand yesterday spelled out her program for the nation. This includes giving jobs for everyone, free education, eliminating poverty, having enough water, and having warring factions lay down their arms and embracing peace. If we can have all those elements, what more can we ask for?

The challenge for all of us is to support the President in her efforts to keep her promises. Friends and foes, we must unite and help in the building of a great nation.

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The President demonstrated her wish for a frugal and austere celebration by wearing a re-cycled terno designed by Inno Sotto. The world-class designer was shown on television retouching the aquamarine costume. This is a lesson not for us who only have one terno to wear to all occasions but for those who have more Filipina dresses than they can wear in their lifetime hanging in their walk-in closets and who could have new tucks and plaids made here and there and no one will notice. Frugality and practicality are words that hopefully will gain currency under the new dispensation.

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I felt proud of former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona Jr. when he turned over his office to his elected successor, Sen. Noli de Castro without bitterness or rancor. He told a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines that he may be leaving the government, but he "will continue to fight for this land and its people."

The Vice-President resigned as foreign secretary in July 2002 due to irreconcilable differences with President Arroyo over major policy issues. For sure, during the many years he served as a legislator, he had espoused nationalistic bills, and strongly opposed the retention of American military bases in this country.

Now that he is an ordinary citizen like you and me, he will continue to watch how the President and her government will perform. And he is one not to mince words when he feels something has gone awry.

For sure he will act as adviser – I guess when he is consulted – to his wife, the former Ruth de Lara, who is the newly elected mayor of Gingoog City, and his son, Teofisto III, who was elected second district representative of Bukidnon.

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The barangay of Tanqui in San Fernando City, La Union, had two reasons to be happy the other day: the launching of Project RAID (Reading Enhancement Approaches Development) and the blessing and dedication of Balay Tadiar.

The project READ will mean more people learning to read and understand what they’re reading. Greetings at the launching were made by Dr. Edil R. Obana, Project READ director, and Project READ partners Atty. Armando C. Aquino, San Fernando City (La Union) Mayor Mary Jane C. Ortega, Dr. Leticia Penano Ho, and Dean Froilan C. Bacungan, chairman of the Participating Research Organizations of Communities and Education Towards Self-Reliance (PROCESS). Rev. Joel c. Lewton and Rev. Eunice Runes Lewton, ministers of the UCCP Capitol Church, officiated in the blessing ceremonies, and Dr. Florence Macagba Tadiar, BMTMF executive director, was master of ceremonies. Esther Tadiar Bautista gave the opening prayer and Atty. Alfredo F. Tadiar, BMTMF president, the welcome remarks.

Now about Balay Tadiar˜this was set up by the Bonifacio and Maria Tadiar Memorial Foundation in honor of two of La Union’s outstanding educators.

Bonifacio was the first Filipino principal in the province of La Union to head an elementary school in the provincial capital of San Fernando. He was a model family man, an exemplary public servant, and a lay leader of Protestantism. He was a Worshipful Brother and a distinguished lecturer of Free Masonry in the Ilocos. He saw it as his patriotic duty to accept appointment as provincial governor in 1942 to restore order after the Japanese invasion and to protect his people from further depredation by the enemy and so that Filipino survivors of the Bataan Death March could be released under his official custody. Ironically, he was killed by the retreating wartime enemy in 1945.

Maria Flores Tadiar was among the first public school teachers in the Philippines. She married Bonifacio Tadiar in 1913. When the war took him and two of her sons away, she had to raise her remaining six children on her own. Her children all became successful professionals, and for this she was recognized as the Most Outstanding Mother of the Philippines of 1974 by the National Federation of Filipino women’s Clubs in the Philippines. In the same year, she was also awarded by the provincial government as La Union’s Most Outstanding Mother. She passed away in 1975.

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