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ARCHIVE
A Tribute To The Late: President Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos (Part I) The Early Years:
It was as if the storm-driven night was but a dream. As the antique clock, hanging on the wall of the Edralin house, struck 7 a.m., a baby wailed gustily. Blood still on his hands, the man held the child in the light and then brought him into the arms of the woman whose face sang quietly with joy. Thus, for the joyful parents--Mariano Marcos and Josefa Edralin-Marcos--it was a boy, the pride of their ancestry. And so the pains were gone, the fevers in the blood vanished for finally on that momentous day of September 11, 1917, the light of the world shone on the first fruit of their love, and it bore the scent of earth and flowers.
When the boy was
three months old, he was baptized in the Aglipayan church, officiated by
no less that the nationalist firebrand who founded this religion, Bishop
Gregorio Aglipay. Again, when he was three years old, he was
baptized in the Catholic Church. These dual baptisms, although
unheard of during those fanatical days, symbolized a union of religious
faiths, an ecumenical philosophy of the boy's parents which antedated the
ecumenical message of the late Pope John XXIII. If eyebrows were
raised for their iconoclastic attitude towards religion, Mariano Marcos
and Josefa Edralin-Marcos didn't mind it. They wanted for their son
the best of two possible worlds, a wish in which history would prove them
right. The boy was called FERDINAND EMMANUEL EDRALIN MARCOS,
after Ferdinand, King of Spain and Fernando Quiaoit, municipal judge of
Batac. Judge Quiaoit, Mariano marco's uncle, was also young Ferdinand's
godfather.
Old
Family Portrait shows Marcoses when the President was about 10 years
old. He is at the extreme right. Others are Don mariano Marcos and
Dona Josefa, Pacifico, 8, and Elizabeth,6. Not in photo is the
youngest, Fortuna. For the first
seven years of his life, the young Marcos lived in Sarrat. He grew
up in the small town "like one of the boys," but he was a world
away from his playmates in many aspects. For not only was he smarter
and more quick-witted; he was also more full of life and adventurous.
And he loved to read books and talk things over with himself. His kinship
with rain was prophetic. Old folks in the town as well as prophets
of antiquity often said that men who love rain are destined for greatness.
For, according to them, rain symbolizes growth, fertility.
Memories
In every story of a great
man, in his passage from womb to tomb, there are countless people who have
touched his life and whose lives he has touched in return, leaving upon
such lives the impact of his personality, the light of his vision, the
testament of his greatness, the engaging
warmth
of his humanity. For a child of destiny, according to a Western
sage, exhibits early in life the traits and qualities that set him apart
from the lesser men. Is young Ferdinand a child of destiny? Did he
also show the traits and qualities that would make him a leader of men and
nation?
"During the town fiesta
Lola Meren (lola of Ferdidnand) pulled from several rolled slips of paper
attached to a lottery called Game of the Oracle the following
inscription: "Your grandson will become president." The first
thought that came to her was that it would be Ferdinand."~Juan A. Alegre~
"From
the window, I used to watch young Ferdinand play with other kids in the
neighborhood, as a child, you would easily mark him as a budding leader
for his playmates followed his orders." ~Demetrio Q. Pena~
"As
a baby, Ferdie could easily imitate and repeat what you say. He was
exceptionally smart for his age, he's an early learner. He's fast to learn
to crawl, talk and walk and to acquire new words and new skills. He's very
bright. He can be somebody someday." ~Ines-Quetulio-Payoyo~
"I
never knew that he could already write his name. Later, I learned he had
taught himself the alphabet by merely observing in my classroom where he
was a frequent guest." ~Dona Josefa Marcos~
"One
time I noticed Ferdinand eating while reading. I got curious and asked him
why. And he answered: ' I believe that intelligence can be eaten.' I
found out later that he wanted to use his time productively while eating
because he was a slow eater. He was very diligent in his studies. He
would stay at the UP library up to 10 p.m. to read and read. And he was
very meticulous in his reading. Every word that he didn't
understand, he would look up in the dictionary, and he referred every
footnote to other books and traced its history." ~Dr. Andres T. Quiaoit~
"His
PR was terrific, even as a boy. He made friends easily; he had
friends everywhere. And he prepared for everything--hard-working,
persevering, patient. I remember he often told me: 'Just be patient.
We'll also have our break.' When I got mad at his enemies, at people who
were out to ruin his career, he cautioned me by saying: 'Don't worry. Even
our enemies will be with us someday.'" ~Mayor Irineo Rubio~
-------------------------------------
A strong influence on the young Marcos was his maternal
grandfather, the landowner Fructuoso. The old man regaled the young
boy with firsthand accounts of the Revolution of 1896, of the Ilocano
heroes the boy could only read about in schoolbooks. The heroic
tales were to impress upon the young Marcos a passionate concern for his
country and an incipient ambition to write history himself, in his own
time.
MORE ARTICLES... * Tribute to the Late President
Ferdinand Marcos Part I
Salamat po sa inyong pagdalaw dito. |
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