Salamat san sa gabos, Secretary Robredo

I first heard of Secretary Jesse Robredo in college. He was one of the people our orientors said was a Lasallian we could be proud of. I never really was aware of his achievements, though, until they came to light this week. 

courtesy of TheLaSallian (www.facebook.com/thelasallian)

It's funny how people whom you never met can have an impact on your life, and Mr. Robredo certainly had that positive impact on me after I heard his story. A devoted family man, he went straight from an official function to be with his daughter, who had just won a swimming competition. To the very end, he showed his love for his family. Admirable. 

It's a moment of infinite loss. I will always remember where I was when I first heard that his plane crashed: at my girlfriend's house, about to eat out. It was a breaking news flash on ABS-CBN. I thought to myself, "It's going to be alright. It will work out just fine." I was wrong. 

For three days, the nation was focused on the search for Robredo, in the vain hope that he was still alive. After all, stranger things had happened. Maybe the secretary had by some miracle escaped and was in fact on an isolated island. Maybe he was floating on the sea, barely clinging to life. 

All those hopes were dashed with the discovery of his body. And I felt a moment of loss. How could someone so good at what he does be taken away? How could the positive future of this country's politics have died? Questions, questions, questions. With no answers.

The truth is, I can think of hundreds of politicians who should have been on that plane instead of Robredo. It seemed like he was one of those people who was not corrupted by power and money, who still led a simple life with his family and friends. His final act says a lot about that. 

If there's anything to be learned here, I daresay that Mr. Robredo's dedication allows us to hope that there's a better future for Philippine politics. It opened up the fact that not all politicians are dirty crooks. Some of them are just like the rest of us, trying to get by, loving our families, dreaming of a bright future, working as hard as humanly possible. 

Some of them are just like Jesse Robredo.