'We can be heroes just for one day'

MANILA, Philippines –  In the interior streets of Addition Hills in Mandaluyong City, barangay Looban of the village adjacent to the Women’s Correctional Institute that could be the setting of a film of the city’s adopted son Brillante Mendoza, resides HERO (Help Educate and Rear Orphans) Foundation scholar Luis Christian Maniczic, who just turned 9 years old last Dec. 10.

Luis Christian or Loys as his lola Angelica ‘Ate Egay’ Yu calls him, is the middle son of three of the late 1st Lt. Israel Maniczic, lone fatality in an ambush by communist rebels on Feb. 8, 2006 in Leyte. The ambush occurred when the first lieutenant, who had been in the Army for nearly a decade, was due for promotion in a couple of months.

At the time of his father’s death Loys was only 4, but his lola, his mom’s mom, assures the visitor that the boy remembers the wake held in their place in Lower Fairville and at Camp Aguinaldo, though he is shy to speak, not with strangers around.

Loy’s brothers are Lawrence Christopher, 10, who wants someday to be an army medic, and Lyniel Crisostomo, 7, and all of them go to school just a stone’s throw away at the Nueve de Pebrero Elementary School, the 6 a.m. to noon shift. Loy himself is good at drawing, his notebooks full of Dragonball Z and Transformer drawings.

Their mom has been working in Dubai for the past two months as a domestic helper. As much as it can be helped, she doesn’t want any of her sons becoming a soldier, according to Ate Egay.

It’s a hard life, she says, you don’t know where you will be assigned, and there are months when you are away from home.

Ate Egay, who has had nine kids of her own and now is in charge of the three boys as well as two other grandchildren, remembers well the last Christmas spent by her son-in-law in Mandaluyong.

Lieutenant Israel was usually the silent type, but during holiday furlough in 2005 he was uncharacteristically restless and talkative, full of stories about life in the front lines.

Hero scholar Loys Maniczic with his brothers and Lola Egay at their Mandaluyong neighborhood.

Looking back now, Mrs. Yu says that the soldier may have already had an inkling it was to be his last Christmas with his young sons.

“Inabangan siya,” says Ate Egay, the enemy really waited in ambush for him.

Loys entered the HERO program two years ago, in time for Grade 1. It’s been a big help, the boy’s lola says, “malaking tulong rin, kahit papaano.”

Now Ate Egay sees herself taking care of her daughter’s sons for the long haul, because Israel’s widow would soon try and migrate to Canada to join a sister there after her contract ends in the Emirates.

It’s been like this: Lola gets up early each morning to help prepare her apos for school, down to putting on their socks and cooking their breakfast, packing their baon, then walking the winding maze-like way of their neighborhood to Nueve de Pebrero.

They seldom get to watch movies, Ate Egay says, not even the yearly metro film fest, but recently at school the kids were required to watch “Ay Ayeng,” the indie film starring Heart Evangelista, and so she went with them to this rare screening.

“Mabuti para matahimik ng kaunti (good so we can have some peace and quiet),” was the lola’s reaction to news of the 19-day ceasefire through the holidays into the new year.

Asked what were his plans for his birthday, Loys, a sty budding in one of his eyes as if he’d taken a peek into the future, couldn’t be stirred out of his shell and barely flashed a smile.

He got a Pokemon ahead of the day he turned 9, though his elder brother said he might have preferred a remote control for the TV, currently tuned to some cartoons and anime programs, whose images fill the notebooks of the HERO scholar because art, maybe more than soldiering, runs in the family.

Shortly after ushering in the New Year of 2010 in a village in Ilocos Norte, the widow Teresita Padaoan had just finished saying the rosary and inadvertently left a candle burning at the altar to greet neighbors a happy new year. Before morning light came her house had burned down, and along with it photographs and mementoes of Corporal Wilmar Padaoan, one of six soldiers killed in a New People’s Army ambush in Nueva Ecija in December 1988.

Hero graduate Leomhar Padaoan (above) with mom Teresita at Hero office near Camp Aguinaldo.

Their only child Leomhar was barely four months old then, and what the now 22-year-old licensed engineer remembers about his dad are stories told by those who knew him.

“Laging may kapalit (there’s always something taken in exchange),” Teresita says, remembering how the house burned down in the new year just months after Leomhar passed the board of mechanical engineers exam and took his oath, his license also going up in flames so that they had to file an affidavit of loss.

Padaoan, who works as technical and safety engineer for Liquigaz at the head office in Alabang, became a HERO scholar in 2004 when he entered the Northwestern University in Laoag for college.

He acknowledges the difficulties experienced growing up with a lone parent, mostly financial – sometimes short on transport fare, and there were days he had to skip merienda.

“Dumating lang, ‘di naman pinagplanuhan (it just came about, never planned it),” Leomhar says about his taking up mechanical engineering, in an interview with STARweek at the HERO offices at the corner of EDSA and Boni Serrano, near Camp Aguinaldo, before Christmas.

But he says he’s always been interested in things mechanical.

His advice to young scholars like Loys? “Mag-aral nang mabuti, hindi basta binigay ito kung di dahil sa tatay. Pagsikapan, gamitin nang maayos (study well, this was not handed on a silver platter but was due to our father’s sacrifice, take care not to waste the opportunity).”

He admits once entertaining the idea of joining the Army too as an engineer and was even invited for training, but Liquigaz loomed, and he has been employed with the LPG giant since June, beginning at the Bataan terminal. If Teresita can help it, she’d also rather not have Leomhar follow Wilmar’s footsteps.

Leomhar says there are times he seeks a father’s cariño, but he has learned to adjust, “nandyan na yan eh (that’s just the way it is).”

The engineer was the chapter president for HERO scholars in the north, where they have reunions every three years.

On the longest ceasefire in 10 years, the mother and son Padaoan say this should be put to good use by focusing on the peace talks. It is not known if the young man has forgiven his father’s killers.

For now the widow Teresita would prefer to spend the holidays with her only son in Manila for a change, and not in Sarrat of the windmills on the beach. Too many bad memories of the house burning down, along with it the news clipping of the ambush that took the life of Wilmar, who was from Bangui also in Norte, and five others.

She remembers only too well how always there is something in exchange.

Heroes in the world of business

As people go about their daily tasks at home and at work, Filipino soldiers live in very dangerous circumstances. They are away from their families, and face constant threat to their lives as they strive to keep our country safe and free. When these brave soldiers die, their families find themselves faced with an uncertain future.

Ayala Land chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala and president Antonino Aquino with SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy.

Twenty-two years ago, 15 businessmen joined then President Cory Aquino and her then chief of staff Gen. Renato de Villa in a special mission to help rear and educate these military orphans. At the time, hundreds of children and families were left behind by soldiers who were killed in battles against so called “enemies of the state.”

Industrialist Jaime Zobel de Ayala led the group of businessmen which included, among others, Raul Concepcion, chairman of Concepcion Industries; Washington Sycip, chairman of SGV and Associates; Cesar Buenaventura, former president of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp.; and Wilfrido Tecson, head of The Consolidated Bank and Trust Co. Together with the former President and the AFP leaders, they made sure that orphans would get additional financial support needed to keep them in school.

The HERO Foundation was organized to secure an endowment fund for the military orphans. Each year, qualified orphans receive a stipend that augments the government’s mandated tuition fee support. The amount is used by their families for meals, transportation, and school supplies that enable the children to sustain their schooling.

The foundation has helped a total of 2,156 orphans since 1988. More than 700 of these orphans have graduated from college. However, the number of orphans needing support continues to increase.

In 2010, the HERO Foundation and the AFP-Educational Benefits System Office were able to continue giving valuable support to their beneficiaries. In November, the foundation was the main beneficiary of the United Run in Bonifacio Global City, a race organized by Rio de la Cruz and UNILAB. On Dec. 8, HERO was again the main beneficiary of the Charity Day event of ICAP Philippines, where the commissions of the company for the day were donated to the foundation.

The foundation estimates that there are 6,000 children of soldiers nationwide who are still in need of educational support.

Once again, today’s business leaders have responded to the call of military orphans. A new generation of businessmen is making a sincere effort to respond to the persisting challenge that our soldier-heroes and their families face.

HERO Foundation recently elected a new Board of Trustees with Ayala Land’s (ALI) Fernando Zobel de Ayala and Antonino Aquino at the helm as chairman and president, respectively, together with Gen. Renato de Villa AFP as vice chairman, Gen. Renato Garcia as executive director and Toti Bengzon of ALI as treasurer. Pledging support for HERO Foundation are Pinky Aquino-Abellada; Michael Tan, CEO of Asia Brewery; Ton Concepcion, CEO of Condura; Hans Sy, CEO of SM; broadcast journalist Ces Drilon; Miguel Belmonte, president/CEO of The Philippine STAR; Sonny Dominguez, CEO of Philippine Tobacco Flue-Curing and Redrying Corp.; Ernest Cu, CEO of Globe; Gilberto Duavit of GMA 7; Jun Bisnar of ALI; Sandy Prieto Romualdez of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; and Margie Juico, chair of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

During its annual board meeting held recently, the founding members of the foundation were honored for their years of service and commitment to the foundation. Most of them will remain members of an advisory board that will ensure that the principles behind the foundation’s work will remain the backbone of every program it rolls out in the future.

A HERO taskforce led by ALI’s Aquino assisted by Bisnar, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, and Pinky Ruiz set the framework for the revitalization of the foundation’s programs. The taskforce designed a 3-point strategy that was presented to the new board: Enhance the HERO organization; launch a fund raising program; and build partnerships and tie-ups.

The new board is working towards the goal of a trust fund target of at least P100 million in the next few years through fund raising projects and donations. Ten HERO donation boxes have been allocated for installation in five Ayala malls throughout Metro Manila. HERO looks forward to tie-ups with other foundations, corporations, and individuals who would want to share their resources, manpower, and blessings with the beneficiaries of the foundation.

This will allow HERO to sustain the educational support that it is providing to a growing number of orphans of soldiers killed in action while protecting the country.

For information on how you can be a hero yourself and help the HERO Foundation, call 912-0361 or 912-9330 (ask for Gemma), email [email protected] or log on to herofoundationinc.com