TEACHING MY SON IMMAN LIFE’S IMPORTANT LESSONS

By Manny Pinol

www.mannypinol.com

There are lessons in life which are not learned in the classroom and in school.

More often than not, these are the lessons which shape our personality and make us what and who we really are.

I and my 10 other brothers were raised by a very strict father and a loving mother.

Early on, I resented being roused from sleep by my father early in the morning to fetch water from a spring about 2 kilometers away from our home in Nueva Vida, M’lang, North Cotabato.

It was hard to rig the carabao with a sled loaded with plastic containers to be filled up with spring water which was the family’s drinking water for the day.

Little did I realize that the difficult experience of fetching water from a spring would help shape the way I would govern first as mayor and then later as Governor of North Cotabato.

Providing water to the villages became one of my priority programs included in the five letters of development which I coined – W-L-R-L-P – which stood for Water, Light, Roads, Livelihood and Peace.

Every Saturday morning, except perhaps when it rained very hard, I and my brothers would parade to our farm in Barangay Pulang-lupa, about 4 kilometers from our home and work until late afternoon planting rubber and later on cutting the weeds and even tapping.

When the night was pitch black, our carabaos proved to be more efficient than the modern day GPS. I and my brothers would just ride on their backs and command the gentle animals to walk home.

These experiences made me appreciate the hardships the farmers in the remote areas go through.

As a father, my greatest regret was not being able to spend more time when my two daughters were growing up.

Every time I remember the many important moments in the lives of Maria Krista, now a doctor, and Josa Bernadette, now a 3rd year medical student, who by the way are both licensed nurses, which I missed I felt a lump in my throat.

Sadly, I cannot turn back the hands of time.

With the third child that my wife, Emily, gave me, Bernhart Immanuel, I have the rare chance of becoming a father once again.

Born 13 years after her Ate JB, Imman was delivered by ceasarian section and was premature with a hole in the heart. He had to be placed in an incubator with a respirator for over two weeks before my wife was able to bring him home.

His early years were marked by almost weeky trips to the hospital.

Imman has grown up to be a healthy young boy and just like his sisters is so well-behaved that I and his mother, who dote on him daily, have no problem bringing him up.

Showered with love and attention, especially by their mother, my children never had any tantrums in all of their lives.

I know this is rare but none of our children ever went through the experience of rolling all over the floor and crying wildly.

Even when I was Governor, my children never displayed any boastful behavior so common among kids of people in politics.

Just like my wife who never interfered with my job, Krista, Josa and Imman preferred to stay away from the limelight of politics.

Today, outside of politics, I find more time with my children and I even cook food for them.

When Imman is free on weekends, I bring him to the farm in Paco, Kidapawan City and teach him lessons in life that he will never learn in school.

We talk about how chicken breed, how bees pollinate the lanzones and the flowers, how the ducks mate in the water and even the stars during the dark nights we are together.

This early, he has decided that he will become a veterinarian to take care of the animals in the farm.

I believe he will really be a very good veterinarian because he loves animals – the gamefowls, the goats when I still had them, the dogs, the carabaos and lately, the Manok PiNoy, a new strain of meat and egg chicken which I bred and developed.

The days that Imman spend in the farm are the happy days for me as I show him the operations in the farm which he and his sisters own.

Indeed, I would be lying if I said that I did not feel bad about losing the elections and facing the financial difficulties which followed.

Money and cheating may have deprived me the opportunity to be a leader of my people again.

But I thank God for giving me the chance again to be a father and a teacher.

(Photo caption: This photo taken three years ago shows Imman rejoicing after he successfully planted rice in his farm in Paco, Kidapawan City.)

Source: Manny Piñol