Nick Joaquin’s tribute to Sen. Edgardo J. Angara

In his last book, the Grand Old Man of Philippine Literature, Nick Joaquin said that "if clothes make the man, laws make the solon, for his product describes the lawmaker."

Joaquin harks back to the days when it was a "working Senate," where debates were heated but totally gentlemanly and intellectual, where laws passed were solid, well-conceived and responsive.

It was the time of the Free Public High School Act, Local Government Code, Philhealth, Senior Citizens Act – landmark laws that even now have a direct positive impact on the lives of Filipinos. From this time rose a man who now is the longest serving Senator of the post-EDSA Senate.

"Seer of Sea and Sierra" chronicle the exceptional life of an extraordinary man – Edgardo Javier Angara, beginning with his boyhood in Baler, Aurora, his days as a young lawyer, up to his rise to national prominence as one of our leading public servants.

Angara will be long identified with groundbreaking laws like the Free High School Act, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Government Assistance to Student and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) and many others.

Joaquin wrote of him, "any sampling of the Angara legislative cuisine will indicate that as chairman of the Senate committee on education and health he had concerns well beyond academe and sanitarium." He called him the Senate’s Mr. Education.

To Nick Joaquin, Angara’s encompassing vision reaches Philippine arts and culture. He created the National Living Treasures Award ("Mga Natatanging Manlilikha ng Bayan") to honor Filipino folk and traditional artists. He modernized the National Museum Charter and set up the National Commission on Culture and Arts.

Even now, he’s working to have the first Islamic mosque ever built in the Philippines – the Sheik Karimul Makhdum Mosque in Simunul, Tawi-Tawi – a National Shrine. His passion for cultural conservation is evident in his proposed National Heritage Act.

Indeed, if a man is to be judged by his work, a public servant should be judged by his service. Said Nick Joaquin: "On that rule it can be assumed that Edgardo Angara as senator had range and relevance: his attention is wide-ranging, his relevance instantaneous."

To be launched today, Nov. 16, Ed Angara: Seer of Sea and Sierra is a rich and timely book.