Dios mabalos, Jesse Robredo

Kenneth Abante

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

So closely did we connect with him that every time we met him in youth events or saw him strolling along the plaza, my high school friends and I would endearingly call him 'Mayor tang Jesse (our Mayor Jesse)'

Kenneth Isaiah Abante graduated cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila in March 2012 with a degree in Management Engineering and a minor in Philosophy. He was valedictorian of his graduating class. Ken is also among this year’s Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines. He has joined government and is now working at the Department of Finance.
 
 

 

KENNETH ISAIAH ABANTEI have heard many people thank the late Secretary Jesse Robredo through the Bikol expression, “Dios mabalos.” In my native tongue, it literally means, “God will return the favor.”

When one says Dios mabalos, however, one endeavors to do more than to appreciate the other. In a heart that overflows with gratitude, one responds by seeking to be the revelation of God to others. 

Dios mabalos does not end in platitude, “I pray that God return your good favor.” It is an active commitment, “Ithrough whom God is present, will return your good favor.”

This highlights two things about Bikol culture: first, the inestimable importance of faith to the Bicolano such that Dios (God) is embedded in everyday language; second and more significantly, that gratitude, a value imperative to the Bicolano, is an active response founded on this faith.

Jesse Robredo, true to his Bikol heritage, showed all of us the power of this gratitude.

That he was always the first and last person on the streets of Naga amid the strongest of typhoons; that he painstakingly listened to every person who asked for his help regardless of socio-economic status; that he built genuine democratic institutions aimed at inclusion and participation in the city’s legislative processes; that he unwaveringly supported many of our youth programs; that he was always there for us for the 18 fruitful years he was our mayor – all these were because Mayor Jesse was deeply thankful.

He was thankful for being elected to a privileged position where power does not rest in the hands of the leader to whom this power is merely bestowed; he regarded himself simply as a vessel of this grace of God.

His faith in God and his people further deepened and animated this gratitude: All are equal in God’s Love, hence all are deserving of his time. All are called to be agents of change and to be persons for others, hence no one is ever too young to do good. Power rests in the hands of the people, hence he called people to speak up and partake in this exercise of power.

When he emptied his hands from flawed visions of self-entitlement that usually stem from power, and instead trusted in the goodness of his people, we in turn trusted him. This was the reason why he always won, and in several instances even ran uncontested as Naga City’s mayor.

In fact, so closely did we connect with him that every time we met him in youth events or saw him strolling along the plaza, my high school friends and I would endearingly call him “Mayor tang Jesse (our Mayor Jesse).”

Tsinelas leadership

Secretary Rene Alemendras was spot-on when he referred to our Mayor Jesse’s brand of leadership as “tsinelas leadership. The metaphor beautifully illustrates the humility of wearing slippers worn by anyone regardless of social or economic status.

The same slippers that fruit and fish vendors wear at the Naga Wet and Dry Market, our Mayor Jesse also wore as he unassumingly sauntered around the Plaza Quince Martires talking to his beloved Nagueños without bodyguards. The same slippers he also took off as he walked barefoot, as he accompanied his Inâ with fellow voyadores during the annual Traslacion Procession at the Feast of Peñafrancia.

All walk on the same ground; all are sons and daughters of the same Mother and the same Lord.

How then do we relay our gratitude to him who has given his entire self to us and has taught us so much?

We thank our Mayor Jesse by living and committing to Dios mabalos, just as he had so greatly done in his lifetime.

Needless to say, the entire nation has shown gratitude in mourning the loss of a great man. But Dios mabalos requires the same humility that abandons our illusions of control.

It is an acceptance that not everything is in our hands – whether it be in leadership, in life or in death. Dios mabalos is a resignation and deference to the reason and will of God that we will not always understand.

Dios mabalos is also the recognition that much to the same humility and gratitude that Jesse Robredo showed in his lifetime, “The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision./We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s Work.”

As the Prayer of the martyred Oscar Romero of El Salvador so eloquently puts, “We are prophets of a future not our own.”

If there is one lesson our Mayor Jesse taught us, it is to be truly and deeply grateful. And as our hearts in turn are filled with love and gratitude over the life of our beloved Jesse, we respond by returning his good favor as we seek to be the light of God to others, and as we continue to build the future for the country he so steadfastly dreamt of.

Dios mabalos, our Mayor Jesse Robredo. – Rappler.com

 

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!