8th death anniversary of Francisco ‘Soc’ Rodrigo

As an Atenean, there were certain older students I came to admire. One of them was Francisco "Soc" Rodrigo. His family had given him the nickname "Paquito", but in the Ateneo, people kept calling him "Soc" after Socrates, the Athenian philosopher and teacher, and that eventually became his official nickname. The two books that have influenced me most in my life were Don Quijote de la Mancha and Cyrano de Bergerac. In the Ateneo, Cyrano was not only a great book but the idol. After graduating from the Ateneo, Soc Rodrigo studied at the University of the Philippines and there he became the president of the UP Dramatics Club. He was their scriptwriter and it was then that he translated Cyrano de Bergerac to Tagalog in rhyming couplets.

The finest tribute that will mark his 8th death anniversary is the Radio Balintataw version of his Tagalog immortalization of said play at DZRH that started last Monday and will continue to Friday from 9 to 9:30 p.m. We urge all our readers to listen to this program. There is no better way one can observe the 8th anniversary of Soc Rodrigo’s demise. Rodrigo was a close friend of another great Atenean writer – Fr. Horacio de la Costa Jr., who was his contemporary and author of a very popular radio play called "Kuwentong Kutsero". It was from Fr. De la Costa and Soc Rodrigo that we learned how to utilize folk material when we started writing short stories. Many people dismiss Ateneo writers as "elitist". The fact is that Ateneo writers are the gross examples of those who always wrote about the common man. It all started with de la Costa’s "Kuwentong Kutsero".

During World War II, Soc, along with another fellow Atenean — Raul Manglapus — wrote underground anti-Japanese leaflets. And along with some friends, formed Dramatic Philippines that staged several plays in the now-abandoned Metropolitan Theatre. One of his original plays was "Sa Pula! Sa Puti!", a play about the Philippine national sport. It was that play that inspired all the short stories that I later wrote about cockfighting. He also did the Tagalog translation of Claro M. Recto’s Solo Entre Las Sombras and the Ateneo passion play Martir Sa Golgota.

After the war, he had a regular television program called "Mga Kuro-Kuro ni Soc Rodrigo" which received several CAT awards. His marathon broadcast of the 1953 presidential elections was so thorough and effective that he was honored with a Legion of Honor Medal. When martial law was declared, he was among the very first to be arrested and imprisoned. In prison, he kept writing poems that his wife and relatives would smuggle out and print for distribution. After his release, he became one of Ninoy Aquino’s closest colleagues.

After the fall of Marcos, he started writing in The Philippine STAR and was its official ombudsman. His column won the Catholic Mass Media Award.

His two alma maters have recognized his great contribution to the nation. The Ateneo has honored him with the Ozanam and the Lux-in-Domino Awards. UP on the other hand, recognized him as their Most Distinguished Alumnus and the oldest university in the country – Santo Tomas – classified him as its Golden Achievement Awardee.

He should belatedly be proclaimed as one of our national artists.