My Quezon City dreams

I first lived in Quezon City in 1975, when I transferred in first-year in high school from Don Bosco Academy in Bacolor, Pampanga.  Since I was too late to enroll at Don Bosco in Mandaluyong, I enrolled in Jose P. Laurel Sr. High School, in Project 4, Quezon City.

Studying in the city was a shock for me, since the school got flooded when the rains poured and the space was constricted. I was also put in Section 5, because I had arrived in August, past the first grading period. My father had recently retired from the military and opened a trading firm that did business with Camp Aguinaldo. My mother taught Music and was first assigned to a public elementary school in Novaliches, Quezon City. She was later transferred to Quirino Elementary School in Project 2, thanks to the efforts of Dr Alicia Parro, the then music supervisor of the city schools.

Project 4 was a government housing district with lots of trees and open spaces. It was only a jeepney ride to Cubao, and every December, we would go to the Manila C.O.D. Department Store to watch its movable display of mannequins on wheels, garbed in the clothes of Christmas. We also visited friends in Camp Aguinaldo and had Sunday masses at the Saint Ignatius Church. Later, we would hold my father’s wake at this church, where a posse of officers came past midnight, saluted my father, and told me, “Professor Remoto, we would help you reach all of your dreams.” Amen, officers and gentlemen of the republic.

My school had good teachers, especially my English teacher Mrs Usaffe Silvosa, who assigned me as the associate editor and later the editor-in-chief of The Laurel, the high school paper. Ms San Antonio taught me English as well, and Mrs Machado taught us to love our country and to be fluent in Filipino. But the buildings were old and decrepit and the toilet unusable, and we had to make do as the years passed. It was the height of the Marcos dictatorship and there was no local politics. Mayors were appointed.

All these changed after 1986, when the Marcoses were driven out of the country. Lucky for them the American helicopter plucked them from Malacanang Palace before an angry mob could tear down the gates of the Palace. Otherwise, we would have seen a Philippine version of the Ceausescu family, when the dictator Nicolai of Romania, his wife and children were shot to death by he truly pissed Romanians. Some people are still lucky and should not really, come on, push their luck too much.

There were free elections for the first time and Nikki Coseteng was elected congresswoman of District 3, where I lived. She built classrooms and erected buildings, and funded education programs as well. The other boon companions of my city were then Mayor Sonny Belmonte, who improved on what Nikki had done in my district, built more infrastructure and improved the public-health system as well. He was later followed by my friend, Congressman Bolet Banal, who set up projects for the poor, and my former student Joy, who became the Vice-Mayor of Quezon City.

Yesterday, I swatted in Facebook a careless comment that Joy was lazy. No, I answered, she put books in the Quezon City’s public libraries, she set up a museum and instituted a film festival. Once I saw her in Gateway Mall talking to my female constituents in Escopa II about reproductive health, and I would often tease her as the “Raspa Queen of Quezon City.” She also helped set up centers for HIV counseling and testing, and during its opening, where I served as the master of ceremonies, she said that “Present here is my former teacher, Professor Danton Remoto, whose social consciousness was one of the reasons I became a public servant.” Thank you, Vice-Mayor.

I now live a quiet and comfortable life at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia, where I am the head of school and a professor of Creative Writing and Literature. But I get emails every day, from the simplest of people – from students and senior citizens, from drivers and LGBTIs, asking me to come back to my TV and radio show in the Philippines, or just to come back.

And so I came back this week, to visit some sick relatives and to file my candidacy for independent councilor of District 3, Quezon City. I am coming to this position with a ripe CV. I had worked in Congress (as editor), in the Senate (as editorial consultant to two senators –both of whom won No. 1 when they ran), and as a newspaper columnist and TV-radio talk show host on history and politics. Moreover, I had worked for three years at the United Nations Development Programme, whose mandate was to deliver development projects to the poorest amongst us. I have visited slums and farms, interviewed rebels and soldiers, asked the most difficult questions from the politicians who appeared in my shows. My hands are clean. If you dip my fingers in the holy water of the font in a Catholic church, my fingers won’t sizzle and burn. I don’t know about the other politicians.

Misyon Edukasyon is my logo and my platform is twofold: physical infrastructure and intellectual infrastructure.  I want to rebuild classrooms, libraries, and multi-purpose centers as well as provide tables, chairs, and desks. We also need clean and comfortable toilets and we need a WASH system, following the UNICEF model in school hygiene. Well-stocked public health centers would certainly lead to students who are healthy and wise. Day-care centers should be set up and nutrition programs started in the elementary schools. The cultivation of gardens should also be encouraged and dental care given to the poor.

Intellectual infrastructure means clean and well-stocked libraries as well as computer rooms with Internet service. We should also upgrade teachers’ expertise by further training and provide help to bright students taking entrance tests in colleges. A viable internship system should be started and free English review classes given to those applying for work abroad. I have a harvest of ideas on education  because for the last 32 years, I have taught in school, happy at the sight of students whose eyes gleam with intelligence and insight.

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