(Note: This article is an excerpt from the book I am writing “The Miracle of the Red Tomato: Experiences and Lessons From a God-Guided Governance. – Gov. Manny Pinol)
THE POOR ILOILO FARMER WHO BECAME
COTABATO’S POLITICAL KINGMAKER
The Story of How A Peasant’s Descendants
Became A Major Force in Cotabato Politics
Jose Cordero Pinol, a diminutive man who was barely 5 feet tall, was my grandfather. He was a tenant in a rich man’s land in Pototan, Iloilo.
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 Pinol 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, Bernardo, 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 one term 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.
But my father opened a new door of public service for us his sons.
After three years as Mayor of M’lang, I became Governor of North Cotabato for nine years from 1998 to 2007.
As Governor, I hold the record in North Cotabato politics of having the biggest winning margins in my two reelections – 125,000 plus in 2001 and 170,000 plus in 2004.
I opted to become Vice Governor of North Cotabato in 2007 to support the candidacy of my Vice Governor then, Jesus Sacdalan, who was elected Governor and is now Congressman.
When I attempted to run for Governor in 2010, I lost in the country’s first computerized elections by 37,000 votes. It was a result that I protested by I lost the protest when the COMELEC chose to ignore proofs of computer manipulation.
It was in North Cotabato where the PCOS machine’s CF card, when decrypted, printed results of the Presidential Election in Colombia, South America, a mystery which the COMELEC was never able to explain.
My brother Bernardo, Jr. became Congressman in 2007 but he also lost in 2010.
Two other brothers became Mayors — Efren in Magpet where he is in his last term and Joselito in our hometown M’lang where he is vying for his third and final term.
Another brother, Socrates, became a provincial board member while Gerardo is now an incumbent municipal councilor of M’lang.
Our family’s politics have 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, has 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.
(Here is a rare picture of all of us 11 brothers, the descendants of Jose Cordero Pinol and Azucena Porras Magbanua, and Bernardo M Pinol Sr. and Efigenia Coloquio Fantin.)
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