A Tale of Two Fathers!

Today, as the world celebrates Father’s Day, let me share with you the story of two men – father and son – who literally struggled through poverty and raised their children guided by the virtue of hard work.

This is the story of Jose Cordero Piñol, a diminutive man who was barely 5 feet tall, our grandfather, and his son, Bernardo, our father.

Lolo Jose was a tenant in a rich man’s land in Pototan, Iloilo, who also worked as a railway employee before he ventured to Mindanao before the Second World War as a “sacada.”

He first settled down in Upi, Cotabato, now part of Maguindanao Norte Province, before moving to the town of Mlang where he passed away.

He married my grandmother, Azucena Porras Magbanua, through parental arrangement when she was only 15 and he was in his late 30s, which was the reason why Lola Azun called Lolo Jose “that old man.”

Lolo Jose only had one brother but when he was still alive, he told us that he had very close relatives who carried the Piñol family name spelled differently – Peñol and Peñolvo.

He and his only brother, Silvestre, however, vowed that their children will have to be educated to liberate them from the bondage of the soil.

And so they plowed the fields which were not theirs relying mainly on the benevolence of the landowners to make extra money to send their children to school.

Poverty did not stop them from their desire to educate their children. In fact, when my father graduated from the elementary grades, he received his diploma barefoot.

But my father was never embarrassed to tell us that story. In fact, he was proud of it.

Lolo Bestre’s eldest son, my uncle Roberto, was older than my father and so when he found work as a drugs salesman, he helped send my father to school until he became a teacher.

It was when Tatay was assigned as a teacher in Lika, M’lang when he met and married my mother, Efigenia, whose roots were from Janiuay, Iloilo and Abuyog, Leyte.

We were poor. Our parents’ salaries as teachers were barely enough to buy food for a family of 11 boys. But we had a happy childhood.

Birthdays were marked by simply encircling the birth dates in the calendar and greeting each other “happy birthday” in the morning. The rest of the day would just be like any other day in our lives. Nothing special.

But that practice of not being extravagant beyond our means taught us very important lessons in life – that there is happiness in simple living and that a frugal life can be fulfilling.

My father’s entry into politics was not planned. It came after he retired from the public schools as division supervisor. All he wanted to do was to be the voice of the teachers, who were grossly underpaid, in government.

After two terms as provincial board member and surviving an ambush right in front of the capitol compound, my father, decided to run for mayor of our hometown, M’lang.

With three weeks to go before the election, he pulled out of the race because of an unknown illness. I was asked to come home from Manila where I was working for then Pres. Fidel V. Ramos and take over his candidacy.

Coming from behind, I won over our mayor for 27 years by 246 votes.

My father was in a wheelchair when I took my oath as Mayor of M’lang. One month later he died of brain cancer.

Lolo Jose never got rich. When he died, he left behind a one-hectare lot in Bialong, M’lang which was divided among four of his five children.

Tatay gave up his share to his younger siblings because it was too small and he already had a 10-hectare farm in Pulanglupa, M’lang.

The greatest gift our grandfather bestowed on us his grandchildren, however, was not material. It was actually a story of how he found money in a “buri” bag left behind by a train passenger which he surrendered to the railway management.

That amount would have been enough to change his family’s fortunes but in his crackling Karay-a, he told us: “Insa’t bul-on mo rang buko’t imo.”

“Why take what is not yours?” was the golden lesson Lolo Jose inculcated in our young minds.

It was practiced by our father as well when as a teacher and school official, we saw him carefully account every peso of his travelling expenses during seminars, making sure that he would return everything not covered by his expense receipts.

And so we grew up guided by these principles and virtues in life of not taking what is not ours.

Our family’s politics had always been guided by what we learned from our father and our grandfather — the poor should always be given the opportunity to achieve what they do not have in life so that they could offer their children a better future.

And that Governance is and will always be about people and their desire to have a fruitful and fulfilling life.

My politics, on the other hand, had always been based on what the Holy Book says that serving the poor is glorifying the Lord.

After all, God’s greatest glory is man fully alive.

Today, we say our prayers of thanks to these two great fathers who guided us and moulded us into what we are today.

My only hope and dream is to pass these on to my children and their children.

Happy Father’s Day, Lolo Jose and Tatay Narding and thank you for everything.

(First photo shows Tatay, who remained a farmer even when he was already a public school teacher, in his corn farm. Second photo shows all of us sons of Bernardo Magbanua Piñol and grandsons of Jose Cordero Piñol, all living up to the dreams and ideals of these two great fathers.)