Salamat Mr. Estimo

A phone call from UP High School batchmate Averell Piramide last Wednesday informed me that the father of another batchmate, Jethro Estimo, died earlier that day because of kidney failure. Jethro’s father, Mr. Leonilo Estimo, is a multi-talented and multi-awarded artist, who promoted Cebuano literature in the country. He was also my Cebuano 100 teacher in college.

If I remember right, my batch in college was the first to experience Mr. Estimo’s stint as a teacher of Cebuano at UP Cebu College Mass Communications Department. Aside from teaching at UP, he also taught Cebuano Literature at Southwestern University.

It was Mr. Estimo who taught me the difference between “og” and “ug,” the correct way to spell Cebuano words, and even the correct pronunciation of these words. He also helped me with my first ever, and only to date, published work in Cebuano. I wasn’t his favorite student though. I was never good at the subject. I admit that even if I am Cebuano and speak the language everyday, I had difficulty in the subject and almost failed in it. I never got perfect marks in our spelling tests and had a really hard time whenever we were required to write news and feature articles in Cebuano.

But Mr. Estimo was so patient with students like me. He encouraged us to read and read Cebuano articles to familiarize ourselves with the language in its written form. To make Cebuano writing fun, he introduced as to writing comic scripts, something that he had been doing for quite some time already, and made us read Bisaya Magasin. He encouraged us to write scripts not only as class requirements but also to earn money since Bisaya pays for published works. Mr. Estimo promised the class that whoever gets to have his or her work published in Bisaya, will get a 1.0 final grade in the subject. To have better chances of getting published, he advised us to use simple but interesting plots, use simple Cebuano words and, the cornier your story is, the better.

Having my work published, if only to redeem myself, was my ultimate goal during that semester. After writing a story which I thought was corny yet simple and interesting, and after having Mr. Estimo check it, I mailed my work to Bisaya and hoped for the best. A few weeks after, my corny yet simple and interesting comic script became one of the featured stories of Bisaya Magasin. It was my first ever published work, and the story title and my name was on the cover! Mr. Estimo proudly showed the magazine’s issue to the class. I got a 1.0 in Cebuano 100 and a P250 check.

I never got to see Mr. Estimo after taking Cebuano 100. I only found out from a colleague that he published a book entitled Suhot in 2006. I still suck at Cebuano writing but I will forever be grateful to a teacher who patiently taught me the beauty of the Cebuano language. Daghan kaayong salamat Mr. Estimo.

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