Bless the Bedans, may their tribe increase! By Larry Henares Ever since I can remember, the only schools worth mentioning within the family circle were Ateneo and University of the Philippines. To us the Red Lions of San Beda College were the team to beat in the NCAA with their one-man team champions like Charlie Borck, Antonio Rius, or the incomparable Carlos Loyzaga. Today the Bedans are a wildcard in the national scene, bringing to the highest councils of state, a renewed sense of nationalism a passionate advocacy of human rights and social justice, and a compassion for the poor and the hungry among us, the friendless, the cheated and the beaten. As such they are accused of being “communists” by the modern Carthegenians in our midst: the rightist, the MacCarthyist, the clerico-fascists, the American CIA, the American Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce. The Bedans came upon the national scene in tranches, first Ramon Mitra Jr., then an assistant to Manila Mayor Antonion Villegas, later to be congressman, senator, assemblyman, now Minister of Agriculture and negotiator in the talks with the Communists. Then came the boys of Feliciano Jover Ledesma, an Atenean who served as San Beda’s dean of the College of Law. Hartzell Spence in his biography of Marcos “For Every Tear a Victory”, said that Marcos 98 percent in the bar exam, the highest that ever was. As usual it is brazen bull because according to the records, Marcos had a grade of only 91 percent. The highest grade ever recorded was in 1954, when a San Beda law graduate FLorenz Regalado (now a ConCom member who might have been in the Supreme Court if he was a bit sipsip) got a grade of 96.6 per cent. The second highest grade recorded was in the same year by another Bedan, Bobby dela Fuente (now executive vice president, legal, in Ayala y Cia) who got a grade of 95.90 percent. In the same year, another Bedan Augusto “Bobbit” Sanchez got a grade of 92 percent. Whatta year! Then there was Raul Roco, a young lawyer connected with the Young Turks of the Liberal Party of Ninoy Aquino, since then the president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), now ACCRA lawyer and Corporate Secretary of the San Miguel Corporation. And then there was nationalistic public relations consultant Raul Contreras, who headed the Cory Media Bureau. One day my first cousin Dulce Quintans married a young lawyer named Rene Saguisag, and we had a closer look at what a Bedan really is. He was a bar topnotcher (Number Six, took graduate studies at Harvard Law School, and was offered a lucrative position in the Ayala y Cia and ACCRA. Hitching a ride with Danny Ong (now SGV partner), he saw a student demonstration going on, and got to thinking about it. He stopped the car, joined the student demonstration, and never looked back. His sons were nicknamed Rebo (for rebolusyon), Demo (for demonstrasyon), and Boycott. Rene Saguisag set up a law office, and my company paid him a retainer as a client. He never charged us more than his actual expenses and every so often, when our case involved a poor antagonist Rene would beg off and say, “Kuya, do you mind if my partner handled the case? My heart is not in this one.” Indeed, Rene’s heart really bled for the poor of this earth, and most of his time was engaged in defending people who cannot afford to pay legal fees, especially those whose human rights were abused by the Marcos regime. He once wrote a poignant letter to his children wondering if they will ever live in freedom. Rene was the favorite nephew of my father who when he died made him one of his heirs saying “Rene will do us honor someday.” Rene (not Renato) Saguisag orgamnized MABINI group of human rights lawyers along with another Bedan named Augusto “Bobbit” Sanchez, a management lawyer for labor relations. This MABINI group has a Mafiosi of its own in the Cory government: Saguisag, Joker Arroyo, Jun Factoran and Mariano Sarmiento II in Malacanang; Minister of Labor Bobbit Sanchez and many others in his staff; Concom member Felicitas Aquino and Rene Sarmiento: Metro Manila Governor Joey Lina, Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, Customs Commisioner Bobby Tanada, Alex Padilla of MIA, and National Cousin Ding Tanjuatco. And then there was the other Bedan, Antonio Carpio, also a human rights lawyer (FLAG) in the provinces. Today, Rene is the Presidential Spokesman and head of the Nuclear Plant Task Force, Bobbit is the controversial Minister of Labor and Employment, and Tony is the head of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). The Americans and the CIA are pressuring Cory to get rid of these three simply because Rene cannot be persuaded to recognize immoral debt on the nuke plant; because Bobbit once denounced abuses of m ultinationals; and because the CIA cannot use the NBI to hound Filipino nationalist as long as Tony is there. Another reason Bedans are disliked is that they are so incorruptible. Minister Bobbit Sanchez has the habit of returning unspent dollars from his trips abroad; about $6,000 from his Tokyo trip and $1,000 from his ILO Geneva trip. Rene Saguisag returned $600 unspent during his trip to the USA. The accountants are confused this never happened before, they do not even have forms or procedures to deal with it; and they would rather that Bobbit and Rene keep the money so the books may be cleared without difficulty. It seems only yesterday when in 1961, a high powered debate team from San Beda beat the team from UST captained by now Judge Alfredo Benipayo, son in law of Chief Justice Fred Ruiz Castro and one of our better judges. The Bedan Team was captained by Antonio Carpio with Rene Saguisag as member, and Raul Roco as freshman members. They took the affirmative side on the issue that “Neutralization should be the Foreign Policy of the Philippines”. They won overwhelmingly. In the grounds of San Beda College is a statue of Ninoy Aquino, our new national hero. Ninoy attended 6 schools; St. Joseph, San Beda, Dela Salle, Ateneo, University of the Philippines, and Far Eastern university. Of all the schools, only San Beda can claim Ninoy as an alumnus, since it was in San Beda where Ninoy got his grade school and high school diplomas; Ninoy never got a college diploma.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 15:11:39 +0000