Secretary Robredo is the Epitome of Great Governance

Secretary Florencio Abad had hit the point right on the mark about Secretary Jessie Robredo’s demise, about how endeared he is to his own people, and by the nation as well, and how exemplary was his work with the government.

Secretary Abad was wary, in a eulogy he had given one night, in honor of his departed friend and colleague at work, that it would be such an uneasy situation that if he or others dies – referring perhaps to people in high government such as him and the late Interior Secretary – and there would be no outpouring of sadness and sympathy from the public.

Such accolade and tribute of course are reserved merely for great men, those that have made significant work and efforts to uplift the life of the people they had served, with great passion and sincerity. These are heroes, and Secretary Jessie is already one even if I do not feel I have the authority to grant a person such title, dead or still alive.

He was “champion of the poor’ a missionary priest called him. More than that, he was an exemplary icon in terms of governance, the ‘mayor in slippers’ his constituents had dearly referred to him. he was "a brilliant man", a "man of vision", a religious devout - he was everything positive for a government man.He was a "trailblazer" according to Pnoy himself.

Secretary Robredo’s death is just like any other national hero’s death, such as that of the vigorous fighter in Ninoy Aquino, who had died similarly from a flight towards home, in the same month, just days wide in difference, and similarly that of the sublime defender of the nation’s freedom, Jose Rizal, whose death have awakened the nation’s fervor for freedom and self-determination.

The demise of the late Secretary, no matter how unpleasant and horrid it was, dying in a crashing aircraft, did not come to naught at all, for it had awaken the nation, especially to all servers and workers in government, that there is one man in Secretary Jessie Robredo that harbors all the high qualities of what a public servant ought to be, sensitive to the plight of those who suffer in the streets, who works with fervor and need not seek great monetary reward, and exerts effort to the fullest to see to it that the people he serves would attain what government ought to deliver to them, upliftment and great welfare.

We all should learn from the man. Every government servant for that matter, from the lowly clerk to the high senator, should learn greatly from the life and works of Secretary Jessie Robredo.

May the soul of the great man, a man of honor and service, rest in peace.