To be 75 today and still feeling 57

Today, March 19, is the Feast of St. Joseph, patron saint of good fathers. He was the silent, hardworking and reliable foster father of, Jesus, who never said a single word in the New Testament. Today is also the 75th birthday of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma who, I believe, deserves a red hat as a cardinal.

It must have been one of the strange coincidences, albeit the Bible says nothing happens without reason, that on March 19, 1950, two boys were born, a few minutes apart. One was a handsome boy in Dingle, Iloilo, Jose Serofia Palma, who grew up to become Cebu archbishop. He is the father of the Sugbuswak, giving birth to three dioceses, instead of only one. I feel he will become a saint even if he doesn’t get the red biretta.

The other boy was myself, a sinner, not a bishop, although I dreamed of becoming a priest but I was called and not chosen. I was also named Jose, later renamed Josephus, born in the small maternity house in Poblacion, Argao, Cebu, in front of the Church of Saint Michael, the Archangel. Because my parents married before they could finish college, our family migrated to Langin, Ronda, Cebu, in the mountain farm of my maternal grandparents. There, I grew up as a barefoot boy who walked two kilometers each day to get to school and back until I was 12.

When I graduated from elementary, I decided to leave my life as a farm boy because my parents couldn’t send me to high school. I already had 10 brothers and sisters at the age of 12 as the eldest. I supported myself and worked as a houseboy to pay for high school. Then I transferred to the city to work as a school janitor in SWU.

I lived in a squatter area in B. Rodriguez and built my own shanty from junk from scrap yards. I struggled as a working student until I finished high school and AB in SWU and my Law studies in UV Gullas Law School as Magna Cum Laude. I walked from B. Rodriguez to Colon and back for lack of money. When I became a lawyer at 24 I met a wonderful man, Blas Ople, who found in me a spark of his younger days, when he too struggled as a son of a banca maker in Hagonoy, Bulacan. He mentored me and brought me to President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who appointed me Labor arbiter at 26, the youngest and only one outside Luzon.

The rest is history, I later joined Petron, then PNOC, then San Miguel Corp., Pepsi Cola, and taught Labor Laws in UST, FEU, UE, CEU, UM, San Sebastian, and San Beda Alabang. I travelled the world, all expenses paid by the government and my private employers. I worked and resided for nine years in three countries. I wrote 12 books on HR and 32 books on Labor Law. I built a name in the HR and academic community.

At 75, I feel still 57 and still teach in four universities. I write a daily column and lecture all over Asia. There’s no dull moment. I help in church and community affairs. I go home to Langin and plant trees. I organize family and clan reunions and still get in touch with classmates. I helped a lot silently. God is good and my struggles have been blessed a thousandfold.

My greatest blessing is my family, my wife of 47 years, Emma, our five children John Paul, Joyce Mae, Josef Rey, Jeremiah, and Jiza Mari, and my three daughters-in-law Irene Matta, Kate Casquero, and Lara Nario, my grandchildren Kale, Alonzo, Calli, Rafa, Noah, Theodore, and one more coming. At the end of the day, what matters most, next to God, is family. A family united in our love for God and each another. I also have another family, the Magis Deo of Ignatian encountered couples.

Working hard in my jobs for more than 55 years, I always put God in the center of my life, with my family as my first priority. No success can ever make up for failure in marriage and family. I cannot be loyal to my country if I cannot be faithful to my wife and children. When the Lord shall finally summon me, I shall gladly come, happy and feeling successful that I honored the gift of life God gave me.

I’m sure the archbishop and future saint will be there too in the holy embrace of God. Amen.