Heartwarming Remembrance

At my ripe age now, I am getting the drift of the Lord’s purpose for my life. There have been crucial tasks I need to perform and, as recently emerged, a mission I have yet to fulfill. All the burdens that have been placed on my shoulders have worked to strengthened me.

My challenges at the University of the Visayas alone are unceasing. I always bear in mind that Papa Inting designated me as “janitor” (he meant “keeper”) of the school, and I strive to do as he wished. Papa’s Visayan Institute has grown to become the first university in Cebu.

The responsibilities I carry are heavy, but I do not complain. I am only too grateful and happy to have someone – “ang kapitik sa akong kasing-kasing (with whose heart mine beats),” my wife Nena who is very supportive of me. And there are also the heartwarming memories of the past to sustain me.

It is very comforting for me realizing that we, the second generation Gullases – my brother Eddie and elder sister Inday Sering and myself – have always been close and that we share a special bond as siblings. We look after each other all these years and are always supportive of our individual interests and passions.

Back in the day, Inday Sering had to be separated from the family and had to live with my maternal grandmother, Lola Andrea Rivera. It was after we moved to a small house that Papa and Mama labored hard to build at the corner of the city’s Manalili and Jakosalem Streets, adjacent to our grandparents’ house. Our parents wanted us to be on our own as a family – but there was a hitch.

In our new house, the number 13 seemed to figure quite prominently in our family. Mama Pining’s birthday is March 13, Inday Sering’s is May 13, and Eddie is October 13. Papa Inting was born on January 12 and I on February 1; Papa’s 12 and my 1 together make another 13. The number 13 was thought to bring bad luck.

So, in order to preclude anything undesirable, Lola Ande performed a little ritual. She ‘purchased’ my sister, Inday Sering, from my parents for seven centavos, seven being thought to be a lucky number. That was supposed to release our family from possible doom. I didn’t fully comprehend the sense of it, but we all trusted that Lola did what was best.

When the war broke out, our family truly bonded. We evacuated to Banhigan, Badian, Cebu. The difficulties brought by the war prompted us boys, Eddie and I, to help Mama Pining make ends meet. We learned to gather “tungog,” a tree bark for coloring tuba or coconut wine, to sell. At one time, while doing that, Eddie even had an accident causing a deep cut on his back.

As we’ve grown and Eddie decided to run for Congress, he tasked me to take care of Talisay during the campaign. He was running against Bascon and Cuenco, both incumbent congressmen at the time. We took on the challenge – a big one at that – and together with my good friends, Atty. Joseph Baduel, Judge Rey Belarmino, and Judge Benjioe Cobarde, we were able to deliver good result. Eddie won and has since continuously worked both as mayor of the City of Talisay and as congressman of the First District of Cebu.

In the year 2000, he asked me to run for Congress. I was dumbfounded, since politics is not in my personal agenda. But it was a request I could not refuse, because it was coming from my brother. I can’t refuse a request from my brother. In a manner of speaking, I have his back, and I know he has mine.

When Papa Inting passed away in 1970, Eddie was a neophyte congressman. In 1984, when Mama Pining died, he was the governor of the province of Cebu. Now with a lot in Eddie’s hands, I realized that on my shoulders fell the “tahas” – the task of looking after the legacy of Papa Inting, the University of the Visayas. All these years, any keen Visayanian observer must have seen how we, the second generation Gullases, have tried our best to uphold this legacy.

With the blessings of my constant companion Sr. Santo Niño, the ever-protective arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the watchful eyes of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the tender touch of my brother, Servant of God Bishop Teofilo Camomot, the University of the Visayas is celebrating its centennial this year, starting on the birth anniversary of Papa Inting on January 12. The year-long activities are to close on Papa’s death anniversary on December 22.

At the same time, The Freeman, this newspaper founded by my uncle Paulino Gullas and which I revived in 1965, also celebrates its centennial this year. It is in good part for the purpose of memorializing my uncle’s noble cause that I decided to revive his newspaper. I want to uphold his legacy – to give Cebuanos fair and fearless news.

I can only hope that Papa Inting and Mama Pining are happy and proud with what we, my siblings Eddie and Inday Sering and I, are doing to nurture the seeds that they sowed. The seeds have since grown and branched into an eight-campus academic institution, producing countless Visayanians, whom Papa Inting once envisioned to be “kings and queens who do not wear crowns but are royals just the same.”