Happy Birthday Nanay! Also to our Nonoy Pat!

Our mother, Efigenia, and oldest brother, Patricio, mark their birthday today.

Nanay Pining turns 91 today while our Nonoy Pat is 67.

For years now, our Nanay, a retired public school teacher, has been confined to the wheelchair and her bed because of Alzheimers.

Although she could no longer see and her memory erased by the disease, she would still smile when we sing old songs for her.

I still could not imagine how she was able to raise all of us 11 boys with a teacher’s meager salary.

She and our father, Bernardo, also a teacher had to get GSIS loans and borrow from friends just so we could go to school.

In spite of the hardships, she made sure that we were able to finish our schooling.

She was very proud of what we had become, especially when I won the Governorship of North Cotabato.

it was when I was Vice Governor when I noticed that she started to forget a lot of things, the first symptom of Alzheimer’s.

It is our Nonoy Pat, a retired police officer and a proud member of the Special Action Force commando who trained in England under the Royal Marines, who has taken Nanay under his care all these years.

Since the death of our father, Bernardo, in 1995, Nonoy Pat has taken over the role of head of the family.

Thank you Nanay for the love and thank you Nonoy Pat for taking care of our mother who made us what we are today.

Happy birthday to both of you.