When you lose an old friend . . .

Throughout life, he walked painfully. Now he can soar. Those were among the thoughts that occurred to me yesterday when I learned that our colleague and friend, Art Borjal, had passed away. Art had been fighting cancer for the past three years. He had been briefly, and indeed almost miraculously "cured", but the "Big C" (as the late actor John Wayne once called it) had recurred. Yesterday, game to the end, Art lost that fight. He lapsed into a coma – then was gone.

Gone where? Where else, but to the heaven of reward above – where all good Samaritans go. For when Art’s "Will" was opened and read yesterday, message to friends and mourners at his burol was that "in lieu of flowers" he hoped they would, instead, send their cash donations to his Good Samaritan Foundation. This Foundation he established many years ago has generously helped hundreds of the sick and disabled recover from their afflictions, or at least eased their suffering. It was typical of Art to have stated this wish as his Last Will and Testament.

For me, Art Borjal’s finest trait was his boundless optimism. He was "crippled" from the age of three, when he contracted polio, but he never considered himself crippled. (He even preferred the description, "physically challenged".) He met the challenge of life head-on. Whether on crutches, in a wheelchair, or, in the past few years, astride a cute little motorized bike he used to roll around on, he was one of the STAR’s most "mobile" columnists. He was forever flying off to Zamboanga, Davao, Cebu, Aparri, and all over Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, and even places in our archipelago we had never heard of. He travelled to the United States, Europe, and other Asian countries, attending international conferences, or being the guest of foreign governments. He joined religious pilgrimages (as to Fatima and Lourdes), and was always on the go.

Needless to say, he devoted much of his time and efforts to "uplifting the lives of persons with disabilities and to helping the sick and the needy". He was a "joiner". He was a member of several civic clubs and business organizations. Why, he was even a member of the Philippine Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and was a UN "Fellow". When he became a member of the House of Representatives (as a sectoral congressman), he pushed into law – as the principal author – Republic Act 7277, better known as the "Magna Carta for Disabled Persons." He also served as Presidential Consultant for the Disabled in the Ramos administration.

It was logical that when he published his 1999 book, a collection of his best columns, Art cheekily entitled the volume, WALKING THROUGH THE PATHWAYS OF LIFE. He not merely "walked". He barged his way through life, striving to excel in everything he did.

Our other columnist, also an old family friend since his younger days as a Jesuit student "theologian", the revered Father Jim Reuter,wrote the Foreword to that book. In it, Father Reuter recalled: "I first met Art Borjal when he was a student in college at the Ateneo de Manila. He was a student in my class, in Sophomore A.B. at Loyola Heights in Quezon City. He came to class on crutches."

"One afternoon, early in the school year, on the day we held the first meeting of the Ateneo Debating Society, I found him at the foot of the stairwell,on the ground floor, on his crutches, looking at the stairs. The Debating Society met in the auditorium which was on the third floor.

"I said: ‘Art, come on up! The meeting starts right now.’ He said: ‘Ah, no, Father. The stairs are too tough for me. And I would not be of any help to the Debating Society.’ "

"I said: ‘Art, that’s not true! When it comes to thought . . . to intellect . . . to argumentation . . . to debating . . . you are as good as any man! The crutches would be no handicap there! . . . And that is the whole thrust of the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum: Sapienta et Eloquentia! . . . Wisdom and eloquence! . . . You’re a bright boy! You have the wisdom! . . . This is the chance to practice expression!’ "

"Art thought about this. Then he struggled up the two flights of stairs, on his crutches. He joined the Debating Society . . . And he not only became one of our finest debaters, he was elected President of the Debating Society!"

Father Jim’s tribute to Art rings so true today that we mourn him. It is a tribute, too, I must add to Father Reuter’s own boundless optimism and his capacity, like the terrific Jesuit teachers who moulded our lives (most of them already gone to the bosom of God), to inspire young men to embrace the challenge they once posed in Latin: Ad astra per aspera – "through adversity to the stars!"

* * *

Father Reuter wrote one other thing of Art Borjal. He declared, " . . . above all, he had a will to win!" (Jim always thinks in exclamation points!)

Yet, that was an accurate assessment. Art received an A.B. in Humanities and a Bachelor of Laws from the Ateneo de Manila University, then went on to become a lawyer-journalist. On the way to that, he was editor of the school publications, including The Guidon. He was elected President of the Student Council.

During his career, he was a presidential speechwriter, a legman of the late Manila Times columnist, Teodoro "Doroy" Valencia, before he started writing his own column, Jaywalker. (He was always "walking".) He wrote a daily column since 1979, hosted television talk shows, and anchored radio programs. The Rotary Club of Manila named him "Newspaperman of the Year", and the Catholic Mass Media Awards lauded him as "Best Opinion Columnist". He became President of both the National Press Club (NPC) and the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) simultaneously for two consecutive years. Why, he even was President of the City College of Manila!

Indeed, as Reuter had asserted, Art had the will to win.

Most striking of all, however, was his loyalty to his friends. With our late Philippine STAR Chairman, Mrs. Betty Go-Belmonte (the mother of STAR President Miguel, our Editor-in-Chief Isaac, and Finance Committee Chairman Kevin B.), Art and I were among the seven founding owners of The Philippine Daily Inquirer in 1985. We had launched the Inquirer to fight the martial-law dictator, Apo Ferdinand Marcos, and had planned to make it a "cooperative", meaning that eventually all journalists and employees would "own" the newspaper.

Betty was the Co-Chairman of the newspaper (with Eggie Apostol), while I was the Publisher (a fact which they always pointedly omit when writing the "history" of the Inquirer), and Art Borjal was a columnist and member of the Board of Directors. We had named Luis Beltran Editor-in-Chief.

One day in 1986, just a few months after Marcos was overthrown by People Power (EDSA I) and Cory had been established as President of the country, and the Inquirer had become the biggest and most successful daily, I decided to quit. When I told Betty, she declared: "I’m leaving, too." We had no intention, at that time, of starting another newspaper. (Louie Beltran asked to stay on as Editor for a few more months "so the kids on the newspaper wouldn’t lose their jobs" — but he joined us about a year later.)

When he saw me packing my papers and stuff in my office, Art asked me what I was doing. "I’m leaving, Art," I replied. Without hesitation, he asserted: "Wait for me! I’m leaving, too!"

"Why on earth are you leaving?" I asked him. "You have no part in this quarrel!"

To which he answered: "I’m going with you because I am a Soliven Loyalist!"

Afterwards, when we were outside, he asked me: "By the way, where are we going?"

I’m afraid I didn’t have an immediate answer to that. So, Art smiled and shrugged: "Anyway, Max, I can always go back to law practice."

In any event, whenever critics assailed Art and tried to turn me against him, I would say, "Nonsense!" I could never forget what he did.

A few weeks later, Betty resolved the question. She prayed, opened the Bible with closed eyes, then found her finger on a phrase in the Holy Book. She told Art and myself: "The Lord has given us His approval to start a new newspaper!" Believe it or not, that’s how The STAR was born. Sounds corny, but it’s . . . uh, gospel truth.

Art, indeed, became not only a Board member but served for a while as President of The STAR. As for Betty, God bless her, she always chaired our Board meetings with Bible in hand. We’d pray, she would open the Bible with closed eyes, and her finger would descend on the page – and we would get our "marching orders" from above. In the early years, when we were undergoing hard times, Art and I used to irreverently murmur a "side-prayer" to God: "Lord, Lord – along with Your divine inspiration, please, could You send us some profits?" Our prayers were ultimately – indeed, ultimately – but very generously answered. What even helped us prosper was the jibe some of our detractors coined against us: "Who do those people at The STAR think they are? They believe that they are the only newspaper run by God!"

To be frank, I always considered myself the sinner in the group, while Betty was the saint — and Art was the impish and mischievous cynic.

When Betty died, also by the way of cancer, Art wrote the following affectionate and sincere words of her: "I think Betty was all heart because she was God’s messenger in this world. She spoke God, she thought God, she acted as God’s Apostle all the time. Probably, it was God who made decisions for her. If she succeeded in almost everything she did, it was because God was always behind her. Betty has passed away, but she will not be gone. She will forever be there, as guiding light and inspiration."

In another column, on the death of a mutual friend, former Agriculture Minister Arturo "Bong" Tanco, Art penned what might be the summation of his own life – and passing. It went:

"Only when men die do they appear bigger than life. That is a time when friends and critics alike recall their good deeds. Faults are forgotten and monuments are built in the dead man’s honor."

I beg to disagree in the case of Art. He was always, even when he was a nuisance to some, bigger than life. And the only monument he needs is the memory of his own good deeds.

It was said of the Spanish soldier-saint who founded the Society of Jesus, a man of war who had been converted to God when he was recovering from a battle wound that shattered his leg in the Battle of Pamplona – St. Ignatius Loyola – that he was "the lame man who looks at the stars."

Art Borjal, too, looked at the stars. Now, he has gone "home" to live among them in the heavenly constellation.