Only For The Honorable And The Brave
Thursday, August 28, 2008
(A Tribute to Dr. Sergio Buencamino Morales, MD, On His Centennial Celebration, August 27, 1908 – August 27, 2008)
Today,
when you are so far away
and only your memory remains,
a poet pens a few lines in the rain
in the stillness of the night
in remembrance of you.
Gapan, Nueva Ecija
saw your birth,
in an old house near the old church
where you would later spend
wonderful times
in your lovely youth.
And your mother loved you,
and your father loved you,
and your siblings loved you
through those peaceful years
of American presence
in our beautiful islands.
And you went to the
University of the Philippines in Manila
as a young man
to take up medicine
to give hope to the sick and needy
which you envisioned in your youth.
And there,
a young nurse from San Joaquin,Iloilo,
so tender and beautiful,
tickled your heart and thought,
and you loved her
and she loved you in return.
Love is so powerful.
In the year 1940
the two of you became one
there in Manila Cathedral,
as God destined that the two of you
become one
in love and mystery.
For this is love as God designed –
that a man must leave father and mother
and cleave to his wife
and they shall become one.
On the third day
after your wedding day,
you took a ship to Mindanao
as President Quezon’s appointed physician
for the Marbel Settlement in Cotabato.
And then, the Pacific War broke out,
and both of you
were trapped there
as witnesses of man’s inhumanity to man
during a time of great conflict
in the whole violent world,
and you kissed the earth
which was full of blood.
But God
protected you both,
and your love for each other
nurtured and strengthened you
during those trying years.
In horror, love calmed you,
in pain, it assuaged you.
Love, how powerful it is,
more powerful than the bombs and bullets
which destroyed and killed the innocent victims
of bloodshed and madness.
And the war ended
and you both survived,
because the Lord God protected you both
during those trying years
and beyond.
And both of you
would see your children grow
and the leaves would fall
in both morning and evening,
in sunshine and in rain,
there in the plains and hills of Marbel
where your children grew up.
You loved the rugged place
and the needy people
who needed you.
It is love
that moved you to help them,
and it is your love for the poor and the marginalized
which strengthened your resolve
to stay
in that settlement in Mindanao.
You served your people well,
both you and Mommy,
and those who knew you
have much to thank the Lord for
that He sent both of you
to them
in their hours of need.
Honor,
you both knew it
and lived it,
and so I will tell
my children and the youth
and the world
that I know a man and a woman
who knew honor and lived it.
Rest then in His kingdom
which will never be shaken,
where there is no more pain
and there is no more night,
for both of you served well
the people of the Lord
here on earth.
And we miss you both
but we will see you again in God’s time
when our work on earth is done
as God wills.
Tonight,
I reminisce the times we were together,
and those were very good times
to remember
and to cherish for a lifetime.
So let me write a few lines
for the honorable and the brave
on his 100th birthday anniversary.
Happy Birthday Daddy!
Love,
Bert
Poet’s Note : Dr. Sergio B. Morales, my father-in-law, and his wife Gregoria Serra Morales were laid to rest in the public cemetery in Marbel, South Cotabato. Dr. Sergio Morales, who spends his 100th Birthday today, is the first Governor of South Cotabato. He was chosen three times as one of the Outstanding Governors of the Philippines (1973,1974,and 1975). He was also chosen by the Mindanao Press and Radio Club as The Most Oustanding Governor of Mindanao. He served as Governor of South Cotabato from 1967 to 1986. He is buried in a simple grave, beside his wife, in Marbel.
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