Gina’s generosity

"I was caught flat-footed," quipped Gina Lopez, during a commercial break in Private Conversations (Wednesday, 9 p.m. on the ABS-CBN News Channel). Gina, who is the managing director of the ABS-CBN Foundation was my special guest. My first questions were, "Why are you such a good person, Gina?" and "Why is there a need for you to help?" She said there are others who are better than her and that she helps because she can and this makes her happy.

When you’re as generous as Gina Lopez and when you speak and live from your heart, you will answer any question. Everytime I meet people like Gina, I remind myself that all is not lost on us. That we must not give up on ourselves — that we all can be better than who we are.

Gina is the force behind special projects like the La Mesa Watershed Project, Bantay Bata 163, the Children’s Village in Bulacan, among others.

I have always looked forward to having a private conversation with her. I read that she had spent 20 years of her life in communion with the poorest of the poor in Kenya, Africa.

Before the show started, Gina told me that I could ask her any question and that her life is an open book anyway. The Foundation’s PR girl earlier was badgering me not to ask her about Ananda Marga. "Why not?" Gina asked. "That’s 20 years of my life.

She gave me straight-forward, straight-from-the-heart answers as we talked that sometimes caught me tongue-tied. I admired her candor and her honesty.

A mother of two boys, Benjamin, 5, and Roberto, 9, Gina, who wore an above-the-knee apple green Jeannie Goulbourn creation and wore no make-up, came to the studio with bruised knees. "What happened to your knees?" I asked. She said she injured them while bicycling with her sons. "My son made a sharp turn and I followed." She fell off the bike and hurt her knees.

Her boys are the center of her life. Children are the centerpiece of her projects. The reason why Bantay Bata 163, Children’s Village and empowering children’s TV programs on Science, Mathematics and English such as Sineskwela and Hirayamanawari. "They are our future," she says. As part of her ETV program, Gina distributed about 5,000 TV sets to public schools. "But I don’t allow my kids to watch TV."

"Don’t they know that they own the biggest network in the country?" I asked. "They do not know. I don’t tell them," Gina answered. She added that kids are more creative without TV. Her youngest is reading Aesop’s Fables and the eldest, Ben Hur.

Gina, at age 18 in 1972, that period still reeling from the remnants of the ’60s era of flower people, ran off and joined Ananda Marga. Defying family, friends and a privileged life, she left for Kenya, Africa. "I was magnetized." Twice, her mom and dad tried to "rescue" her but always she escaped. "I was obsessed with the group. I know it was hard for my family but eventually, they gave up after several attempts because they knew I was obsessed." She slept on wooden planks, went on missions armed with nothing but a resolve she only knew.

Years later, she would fall in love with an Ananda Marga guru who is the father of her sons. It was breaking against Ananda Marga rules since falling in love with the guru was forbidden. When did she finally realize it was time to go? She referred to Donald Walsh’s book, Conversations with God. She wrote questions to God and that was it. "The black propaganda on Ananda Marga are not propaganda but are true," she says. Why it took Gina 20 years to realize these things, she explained, "Maybe I had to go through with it."

Gina can be transparent as her projects. Her honesty is disarming. When asked about what she thinks of money, then and now, without batting an eyelash, she retorted, "I love money. Money is good especially when used positively." She has been a good fundraiser for her projects. The Save the La Mesa Watershed, for instance, is getting good response from concerned citizens and friends.

It was a happy childhood for her. And as a mother, she spends a lot of time with her children. "I went into this rather late." Her boys go to school at Waldorf. Gina feels she is better as a mother than as a daughter. She is not so much into parties. She does ballroom dancing and loves the Argentine Tango. Is there a song that would describe her life? There is none, she said, but maybe Up, Up and Away.

Her naivete is still very much apparent. Some friends caution her from being too naive about a lot of things. Maybe it is also her innocence and purity that set her apart. When asked about if she has a favorite sound, she answered, "The sound of dolphins." I learned from friends that she has always wanted to see the dolphins in Bohol and Gina motored to Bohol once and spent time just watching them. For her last meal, she would love to have brocolli to be shared with all her loved ones! And where would she take her last meal? In the forest!

It was a fun interview. For an hour, I got a glimpse of the essential Gina Lopez. You’ll always remember her as a woman who was not afraid to be different and beautiful. "I like that," she said at the end of our conversation.