The importance of being a son of Hilario G. Davide Jr or of Pablo P. Garcia
My late mother, who was an Argawanon, used to inspire me with the story of a brilliant aspiring barefoot boy from Colawin, Argao. His name then was just Jun Davide. My Mama told me that such a boy should serve as our idol, our behavior model, our icon of passion for education. He is a son of a public school administrator, Hilario Davide Sr, and a classroom teacher who had to give up her teaching career to attend to a growing brood of young Davides. Well, I took the words of my mother and looked up to Noy Jun as indeed my silent inspiration. I first saw him in the law firm (they used to call it ''bufete'') of my distant grand uncle Francisco Famor Remotigue (who was later elected governor and appointed as the SWA or DSWD administrator by President F. Marcos). Noy Jun was a junior partner in that law firm composed of lawyers from Argao and Ronda.
On the other hand, my father, who is from Poblacion, Dumanjug, (still living today in Seattle as a US citizen, at 91 years old) used to tell me stories of two brilliant boys from Bitoon of that town, who used to walk their way from that peripheral barrio near the boundary to Barili, to the poblacion. The elder was Jesus (who much later on, got number 10 in the 1946 Bar Examinations with a rating of 88.25%). The younger was Pablo (who got number 3 in the 1951 Bar Exams with a rating of 91.5%). Pablo is the father of Pablo John (who got number 4 in the 1994 Bar with a rating of 86.51%). My Papa told me that Pablo and himself were classmates and fellow acolytes in the Catholic Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Dumanjug. Pablo and Jesus used to walk five kilometers every day to their school, the Colegio de San Carlos branch in that town. That was before the war. The Garcia brothers were looked upon as ''heroes'' in Dumanjug. Dumanjug and Ronda then belonged to the old sixth district up to Toledo City. Argao then belonged to the old fourth district.
Hilario G Davide Jr also walked barefoot from Colawin to Argao town. That was a distance that was much more than double the five kilometers that the Garcias had to walk. Davide Sr sired many brilliant children, and he had enough foresight to send them to good schools. After Argao, Hilario Jr was sent to Abellana National Schools where he finished his high school with honors. Then he was sent to UP with his brother who became a doctor. Incidentally, both Hilario Jr and his brother were awardees of the Asian Nobel Prize, the prestigious MAGSAYSAY AWARD. Jun Davide became a lawyer and taught law in SWU. Guess who was the dean then. A famous trial lawyer, named PABLO P GARCIA. I was just a high school and later an AB student in SWU then. But I remember well. I used to visit Dean Pabling in the Capitol and saw him how he defended his clients in the Court of First Instance.
Noy Pabling, as we fondly call him in Dumanjug, became a Provincial Board member and later, vice governor, and my family and relatives supported him all the way. Noy Jun Davide was a very good trial lawyer. I saw him in action. I was a Court Interpreter. He was later elected delegate to the 1973 Constitutional Convention. I was a youth campaigner for him. He became an assemblyman in the Batasang Pambansa in 1978. He was also appointed by President Cory Aquino as member of the 1987 Constitutional Commission. He was named as COMELEC CHAIRMAN in 1988 and appointed as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1991. President Joseph Estrada appointed him Chief Justice in 1998, but later he presided over the impeachment court that tried Estrada and impeached him. He was named by PGMA as ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In 2005, Davide Jr recieved the Magsaaysay Award.
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