An exceptional woman passes away

The remains of an exceptional woman, Amelia Gordon, will be interred tomorrow at the Gordon Memorial Park after the 1 o’clock mass at the Olongapo City Convention Center. Her passing away leaves many in sadness, she having touched them in myriad ways, and holding up a lamp to light their path.

I first heard about Mrs. Gordon in the late ’70s, and noted how much, up to her last days, her vigor, dedication and concern for people impacted on her son, Sen. Richard Gordon, as well as on her other children — Veronica Lorenzana, Barbara de los Reyes, Cecille Mullen, James Gordon, and Imelda Deza.

She was born Sept. 1919 in Subic in the province of Zambales. Her parents were Juan Gonzales Juico, president of Subic during the American regime (1917-1919) and Ma. Espiritu Nepumoceno Juico.

While in high school, the very beautiful girl met James Gordon Sr., the son of John Jacob Gordon of Kingston, New York, an American serviceman who arrived with the American forces under Admiral George Dewey and later settled in Barrio Olongapo with Veronica Tagle, the daughter of Capt. Jose Tagle of Imus, Cavite.

 In 1952, James Gordon became deputy governor of Zambales and in 1959 fought for the independence of Olongapo from the United States, being a military reservation. He was elected as its first mayor in 1963 and in 1966, when Olongapo became a city, the first city mayor.

 She and her son Richard (“Dick” to friends), had one great thing in common: love for the Philippine National Red Cross. She founded and chaired the PNRC Olongapo chapter and the PNRC Blood bank of Olongapo City. Dick grew up with the Red Cross on his lips; he is now chairman of the PNRC, as well as a governor of the International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies. Where there are calamities and people in pain, Dick could not be far behind.

Dick learned the art and passion for good governance from his mom. She had been flung into the political arena when her husband, who was known for his strict adherence to law and order, was gunned down in broad daylight at city hall. She became city mayor, then assemblywoman at the Batasang Pambansa. Dick was a law student when he ran for and won a seat in the 1971 Constitutional Convention. He became mayor of Olongapo City, and when the US Military Bases closed down in 1992, he mobilized the local population to help transform the abandoned facility to become Subic Bay Freeport, invite foreign companies to invest billions of pesos — a miraculous showcase for economic progress. He became Secretary of Tourism, and then, senator.

 Of his mother’s entrepreneurial talent, the girls became heir to, running poultry and restaurant businesses. The second Gordon son, James Jr., did not join the girls, but entered politics; he is now Olongapo City mayor. Veronica said all of them children were wondering why their mother had very little time for her family, and later, they realized that she had busied herself with business matters, including putting up hotels, in order to support her growing family, and then, because of her involvement with civic matters. Christmas Eve, for example, she spent with orphans of whom she had legions of, and when the clock nearly struck 12, that were when she joined the family for the festive noche buena.

Her dedication to children and adoption was well known. She took in abandoned children, legally adopting 54 of them as her own, and later, founded the Olongapo Boys Town and Girls Home. In recognition of these pursuits, and her life-long work for the cause of abandoned Filipino children of American descent, she became the second Filipina recipient of the Pearl S. Buck International Woman of the Year Award in 2002. She received many other awards, among them, the Dona Aurora Aragon Medal, the Silver Jubilee Family Award, the Silver Medal award from PNRC, the 1985 Gintong Ina Award Alay Kay Inay, the 1993 Gold Humanitarian Service Cross Award, and the 2000 Centennial Woman of the Year Award.

Many will remember what a great woman Amelia Gordon was.

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 Liongoren Gallery and Operation Blessing Foundation Inc. will present Unos at Banaag (Storm and Ray of Hope), a benefit art show, at the Liongoren gallery in Cubao, Quezon City from Nov. 26 to Dec. 9. Proceeds of the show will go to Operation Blessing’s fund for medical missions and livelihood workshops for the victims of typhoon Pepeng in Pangasinan Province. The exhibit serves as the inaugural offering of the newly-constructed gallery, whose owner, Norma Liongoren, says, is part of the gallery’s “efforts to strengthen awareness-building and action on environment and social concerns among Philippine visual artists.”

Among the 49 visual artists whose works will be exhibited are Yasmin Amonte, Remy Boquiren, Elmer Borlongan, Rey Contreras, Tala Contreras, Renato Habulan, Alfredo Liongoren, Julie Lluch, Alma Quinto, and Arlene Villaver.

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People with disabilities (PWDs) are looked upon as incompetent or unproductive, and often seen as unfit to work, hence they end up jobless. They are, says Richard D. Arceno, national coordinator of the Philippine Council of Cheshire Homes for the Disabled (PhilCOCHED), a non-government organization working for and with PWDs, “the last to be hired but the first to be fired.”

To turn around people’s attitude towards PWDs, PhilCOCHED has embarked on a two-year pilot project aimed primarily to address the issue of employment for PWDs called “Access to Livelihoods: The Economic Empowerment Program in the Philippines.” The project is funded and supported by its international affiliate, Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD), a UK-based NGO. The project aims to ensure the recognition of the right to work of PWDs as enshrined in the recently ratified UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD) and as mandated in the Philippines’ Magna Carta for Persons with Disability. The activity promotes job placement, self-employment, and other support services for PWDs to meaningfully participate in career advancement and sustainable livelihood development programs.

PhilCOCHED will formally launch the program with a forum on Nov. 25 at the Entertainment Plaza, SM North EDSA. Some 100 participants are expected to attend the event dubbed “PWD, Pwedeng Pwede!”

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