His Profession: Veterinary medicine (one of the board exam topnotchers!)My first encounter with him was when he was a young teacher at the Benguet State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Before I had a chance to hear his genius though, I had to shift my course and move to the College of Agriculture, and so as a student in a different department, I didn’t see nor hear much of him after that. More than 10 years after, we met again, and this time at Kochi University. Again, he is a researcher cum professor in one department; I am a student in another.
– manininjection si baboy?
His Specialization: Cryobiology (just search ScienceDirect!)
– toy yat ngata din wada sin uneg di freezer ay mabiyag?
His Passion: Teaching and learning, plus civic work
– man-isuro gayam panragsakak ngay!
His Cry for his Countrymen: Hunger for knowledge, passion for reading
– maniskwila kayo! manbasa kayo!
His Other Hand: Business (service first, profit second)
– uray busy ak adi yan ikuskusak sik-a si card
He’s a treasure here at Kochi and not just for the University but for all Filipinos around here, especially the Benguet trainees scattered around the province. For Kochi University, he’s the excellent graduate, the productive researcher--well-loved, difficult to let go. For Kochi and the Japanese, he’s the Filipino to be emulated. For most of us Filipinos in Kochi, the brother, the sister, the mother, the father, the friend, the driver, the tourist guide, the guidance counselor, the postman, the garbage-collector, the educator, the salesman, the person-to-run-to, the encourager all rolled into one. He’s a gem to everyone and he’s loved.
As a new student in the University, he was part of God’s grace to me. He helped me settle in my apartment in the old campus, leave my apartment, and enter another dwelling in this new campus. My frequent exchanges with him through SMS or through the net were part of my survival strategies. Above all, he continues to inspire me not only through his accomplishments, but more so, his discipline and humility as a student and a researcher.
It is my fervent hope that this gem will one day be found by one of the institutions in Benguet, or at least in any part of the Philippines the way Kochi has found him. For in this era of capital and labor globalization, it is not very unlikely for Benguet and the Philippines to lose him.
I wish I could give more justice in writing about Manong Nato or Valdez-san to many. But people like him can never be contained in words, so this is just a trial of some kind, similar to his many experiments. This time he is the subject.
