Appreciating F.F. Cruz, 93

Arrays of white flowers mounted in varied arrangements, each with a message of condolence, lined up the entrance and both sides of the corridor leading to the main chapel of the Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park.

Inside the chapel more flowers from government personages, corporations, professional and civic organizations, families and friends bedecked the walls.

At the altar, in a white coffin, lay the body of Felipe F. Cruz Sr., 93, post-war pioneer in land surveying who built up one of the country’s top 10 construction firms and gained national and international recognition for professional and business excellence.

In stark contrast, beside the bier, was a life-size contemporary portrait of FF in red barong.

The scene instantly impressed me last Wednesday when my wife and I came to pay our respects and say farewell to a dear departed friend.

The white motif was quintessentially FF’s. Invariably he appeared in public clad all in white down to his shoes.

Also the overflowing floral tributes and the crowd at the wake signified the broad range of people that FF had positively related with, who loved or regarded him highly. Among them were the senior citizens of Angat, Bulacan (FF’s hometown) and his neighbors in Heroes Hills, Quezon City.

At Heroes Hills since the late 1950s, Dean Armando J. Malay and Paula Carolina Santos-Malay, my parents-in-law now both departed, were good friends and neighbors of FF and his amiable wife, Angelita Almeda-Cruz.

On my part, I developed a friendship with FF in the mid-1960s, when I was business reporter and construction-section editor of The Manila Times. Our friendship grew stronger during the years of struggle against the Marcos dictatorship; it endured firmly thereafter.

Mrs. Cruz instantly warmed up to Bobbie and me when we expressed our solidarity with her and her grieving family. It struck me profoundly when, looking into my eyes, she remarked, “My husband had a very high regard for you!”

It was the first time I had an intimate talk with Mrs. Cruz. In all the occasions I had visited and talked with FF, mostly in his office and a few times in their home, she simply greeted me smiling sweetly but refrained from joining in the conversation.

At the wake she huddled with us and talked animatedly about FF’s humble beginnings, his struggles, successes, and frustrations (specifically over public-works contracts with the government). As she spoke, her eyes glistened with pride.

Some aspects of his life:

• Born to a poor peasant family in Sulukan, Angat, FF wasn’t sent to school until he was nine years old. Of eight siblings he was the only one who went on to high school and then college.

 â€¢ Finding FF “very intelligent,” appreciative teacher Amador K. Roxas convinced the parents to send him to high school with his assistance. True enough, he graduated as valedictorian from high school in Malolos.

 â€¢ FF also labored to earn his keep — as janitor of the school library. He managed to keep clean and wear in class daily only one set of clothes (“corto” and a shirt).

ʉۢ He earned a geodetic engineering degree from the University of the Philippines and another in civil engineering from the National University. In 1949 he put up a small land-surveying firm; by 1954 it had grown into a full-range service engineering company.

• FF never forgot his roots. He constructed a schoolbuilding in Sulukan with a memorial hall named after Roxas, and established a foundation that grants secondary and tertiary education scholarships to poor youths.

• He also built a church to replace the village chapel where, as an out-of-school boy, he had worked cleaning religious statues and pews.

Today, FF’s remains will be interred in his hometown, upon his expressed wish to rejoin his parents and siblings who had died ahead of him, and return to the land which through their honest toil had provided sustenance, however meager, to the family.

 In honoring FF’s good deeds and steadfast friendship, I wish to share the following:

• He was one of the friends who consistently provided financial help when I was in the underground movement against the Marcos dictatorship. Discreetly, I visited them to seek support and never left empty-handed.

• On one such visit, FF handed me three books, including Lenin’s classic, “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.” He told me he had read them and wished others would do so too. Since I already had a copy, I passed on Lenin’s seminal work to economist Alejandro Lichauco. After reading it, Ding was profuse in his appreciation.

Two other friends who shared some of my dreams for our people were former Central Bank Gov. Gregorio S. Licaros – who, in confidence, had kept me updated on the dire state of the economy then -- and industrialist Mariano V. del Rosario. Both have also gone.

Marianing told me once: “I informed Soc (the late Sen. Francisco Rodrigo), as my lawyer, about your coming here. He advised, ‘Satur is a communist, but a good man. Help him!’”

In those two instances, FF’s mysterious smile and Marianing’s wink left me highly delighted.

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Email: satur.ocampo@gmail.com