COMMENTARY: Raul Roco, Jojo Binay, and other friends of my youth  

Raul Sagarbarria Roco called me up very early September 23, 1972 in our Sandejas, Pasay duplex apartment and said, "if we're going to get arrested, we might as well be arrested together."

I hurriedly prepared some personal effects, reported for work in San Beda Law (only Byron Bocar and Alex Almario showed up) and then met up with Raul. We spent the night in Bel-Air, Makati, where Raul's bayaw, Boy, lived.

A week or so earlier, Raul, and wife Sonia, and I, with wife Dulce, were in a Camp Aguinaldo, to assist activists rounded up by the military. My Dulce was eight months preggy and delivered our first baby, Rene, Jr.,  on October 20, 1972. Nicknaming him Rebo was a natural.

I was away from May 22, 1967 to December 30, 1970. Dulce, who I met when she attended Boston College, and I, came home to a country in effervescent ferment. 

Raul had been elected as a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He had medals when he finished law in 1964. Ninoy Aquino was the commencement speaker. Ninoy boomed "it was in this institution. . . ." but not beyond easier recall was Amalia Fuentes ascending the stage to accompany a graduating nephew. Ninoy Aquino who? Upstaged, as it happened.

Raul eventually became the top political lieutenant of Ninoy, which accounts for the early morning raid in his home on September 23, 1972.

Raul went on to star in ACCRA; he headed the IBP, which took pronounced anti-martial-misrule positions, marching with us to the beat of a different drummer, on different avenues.

When Ninoy's remains were moved from Times St. to Santo Domingo, I saw and chatted briefly with Raul in the Delta Circle.
 

I was shy and uninterested in politics, Raul was a natural, like Ninoy, a charming political animal, as it were.

Raul indeed could make words speak, editing campus publications - some lyrical lines he wrote were classic and evergreen - and sing, as he wrote the Bedan Hymn lyrics during his honeymoon. I was part of the Sonia-Raul wedding entourage. 

Raul would occasionally see me in Pasig (when I could not attend classes for some reason), where the ?masa got to know the budding politico mixing with the masa. He had the common touch which made campaigning on campus and beyond a walk in the park, so to speak. 
 

Orphaned Jojobama has an even more effective common touch. He co-founded LUMABAN - Lupon ng Manananggol ng Bansa, forerunner of FLAG-MABINI. Heart in the right place even then.

     

Robert Penn Warren wrote in All the King's Men something like the friends of one's youth being the finest, not calculating or using.

In 1987, Christmas, Cong. Raul sent me a card and added by hand a positive remark on my taking Robert Frost's "less traveled road."

 

I remember Raul by his best - such as how he punctuated in the Estrada impeachment trial how we regard law in San Beda by pointing to the fixed star we are exhorted to try to follow and go by - and in that sense he was my BFF, Best Friend Forever, or in a larger sense, BFFP, Best Friend of the Filipino People.             

 

Jejomar Cabauatan Binay, another friend of my youth, has a tougher path to hack as he seeks the highest post. Will I vote for him?

A week is a long time in politics. Who'll remain standing by October? Let's see the cards we will be dealt. Bongbong Marcos? Digong Duterte? Will Grace survive her citizenship-residence issues?

My best friend in Makati Elem was Carlos M, from Pinagkaisahan, but we just drifted apart after graduation. I read that he excelled as a golf club pro. I don't rightly know if he is still with us but I hope he has stayed as sweet as he was. 

I reminisce cuz a Rizal Hi classmate texted me today that our class would nominate me for something. No enthusiasm as I have always said, public service is its own reward.

But, I agree, good people should go to the ministry, priesthood or nunnery, but the best ones should go to politics.
 

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