Filipinos Mourn a Great Man in Secretary Robredo

Six days after his chartered flight went down into the depths of Masbate bay, it now finally sinks in for his loved ones, and to the entire nation for that matter, that DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo is finally gone into the netherworld.

A highly intense and watched search-and-rescue operation have gripped the nation for several days, hoping and wishing that the secretary would still be found alive and survived this tragedy. But divers could only produce his body, disappointing the entire nation.

This tragedy has irony so written all over it that it took this unexpected turn in order for many to know and realized how a great man in government has just been lost, to the regret of all.

In a time when we need the kind of technocrat like Secretary Robredo, we still have to lose him. He was an achiever in every aspect of his endeavor, a young government executive at the very age of 29, becoming youngest at that, transforming a underdeveloped and tumultuous city into one that is the envy of many local governments.

And his gait and character speaks so much about the man, his simplicity and humility shines like no other. Picture collages about him on news television shows a man who had worked so hard and so passionately that he is seen combing the streets of his city, mingling with his constituents, as if he is just one of them, an unpretentious and an unassuming entity, who in reality is full of ability and guile.

He could have just been a future president of this nation if this tragedy had not happened. I would have voted for him and would have egged on the greater population of this nation to rally behind him. Secretary Robredo is just the kind of leader that this nation needs.

And yet we have to lose him in this unexpected event, a tragic accident.

Perhaps, we are wishing that his death would not be in great vain; that this great man should continue to inspire a nation now that he is in the other life.