ROGELIO ALEGADO
Roger was a high school teacher when he was recruited as development trainer for the "Ilaw ng Buhay" program in Digos, Davao del Sur in the late 70s. He brought a fresh approach to Family Ilaw Training by singing songs relevant to the inputs for the night.
Prior to each input on family planning, environmental management or any topic assigned to him, he would always entertain the audience with his jokes and stories. His many versions of Matudnila became top hits in all the barangays where he was assigned.
When the training modules for Family Ilaw Training were being pilot-tested in Luzon, he was one of those from Mindanao who was recruited to be part of the national team. He became an instant hit in the barangays. When we organized the staff for the Ilaw International Center in Bohol, he was part of the original team. He resigned his teaching post to be part of the Crazy Company.
Roger and his guitar actually gave a new persona for the fieldworker - as entertainer in addition to being a trainer. He represented a new breed of fieldworkers, those good in singing and playing the guitar in contrast to earlier days when PACD barrio workers were known to bring blackboards and chalks and visual aids to get their message across. With Roger's popularity in Ilaw ng Buhay barangays, the fieldworker must also bring a guitar and sing before villagers would listen.
Of all the fieldworkers and trainers in those days, Roger logged the most number of hours in barangays considered risky by the military. With his songs and guitar, he went to areas considered strongly influenced by armed insurgents and delivered his message about nutrition and family planning and encouraged everybody to sing with him. He had the distinction of logging the most number of training hours in the remote barangays of Quezon, Catanduanes, Leyte and Davao del Sur.
Roger served as resident director of the Ilaw International Center during its final three years, from late 1989 to 1993.
For a brief period after IIC closed, he served as agent for a funeral parlor in Tagbilaran City to keep body and soul together and to support his family. Atty. Juanito Cambangay, head of the Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO) took him from this job from where, as the joke goes, he could not sing and play his guitar to corpses. At the planning office, he was able to transform himself as a planner and contributed insights to the creation of a tool for ranking households based on core poverty indicators.
In fact, the need for a software was identified when he manually did the calculations to rank municipalities based on four indicators (child malnutrition, drop-outs, income and unemployment). It took him quite some time to finish it. He became part of the think tank which provided inputs to Tony Irving for the first version of the Poverty Datbase Monitory System (PDMS) software known at that time as LPRAP (Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan).
While at PPDO, he was assigned usually to conduct workshops and seminars where he again displayed his talent as entertainer. Several weeks after his death, when our DReAMS' project team went to Balilihan, the participants mentioned his name several times and proposed a prayer for him. A tribute any fieldworker would be happy about.
During his necrological services, he might have been pleased to know that his training buddy, Dodong Formentara, was there to bid him farewell. Dodong had just retired from the community work he loved to do with Roger in so many villages, winning hearts and minds for the cause of child welfare despite political conflicts.
Tony Irving was there, too, part of the crowd which grieved with the family of Roger. A senior member from one of his field teams, a trustee of Bohol Local Development Foundation, former Guindulman Vice Mayor Eleno Laga, delivered an eulogy on our behalf.
Roger, we all love and remember you because, as we always would quote in the old days, "you love the people who are the real heroes."
Roger was a high school teacher when he was recruited as development trainer for the "Ilaw ng Buhay" program in Digos, Davao del Sur in the late 70s. He brought a fresh approach to Family Ilaw Training by singing songs relevant to the inputs for the night.
Prior to each input on family planning, environmental management or any topic assigned to him, he would always entertain the audience with his jokes and stories. His many versions of Matudnila became top hits in all the barangays where he was assigned.
When the training modules for Family Ilaw Training were being pilot-tested in Luzon, he was one of those from Mindanao who was recruited to be part of the national team. He became an instant hit in the barangays. When we organized the staff for the Ilaw International Center in Bohol, he was part of the original team. He resigned his teaching post to be part of the Crazy Company.
Roger and his guitar actually gave a new persona for the fieldworker - as entertainer in addition to being a trainer. He represented a new breed of fieldworkers, those good in singing and playing the guitar in contrast to earlier days when PACD barrio workers were known to bring blackboards and chalks and visual aids to get their message across. With Roger's popularity in Ilaw ng Buhay barangays, the fieldworker must also bring a guitar and sing before villagers would listen.
Of all the fieldworkers and trainers in those days, Roger logged the most number of hours in barangays considered risky by the military. With his songs and guitar, he went to areas considered strongly influenced by armed insurgents and delivered his message about nutrition and family planning and encouraged everybody to sing with him. He had the distinction of logging the most number of training hours in the remote barangays of Quezon, Catanduanes, Leyte and Davao del Sur.
Roger served as resident director of the Ilaw International Center during its final three years, from late 1989 to 1993.
For a brief period after IIC closed, he served as agent for a funeral parlor in Tagbilaran City to keep body and soul together and to support his family. Atty. Juanito Cambangay, head of the Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO) took him from this job from where, as the joke goes, he could not sing and play his guitar to corpses. At the planning office, he was able to transform himself as a planner and contributed insights to the creation of a tool for ranking households based on core poverty indicators.
In fact, the need for a software was identified when he manually did the calculations to rank municipalities based on four indicators (child malnutrition, drop-outs, income and unemployment). It took him quite some time to finish it. He became part of the think tank which provided inputs to Tony Irving for the first version of the Poverty Datbase Monitory System (PDMS) software known at that time as LPRAP (Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan).
While at PPDO, he was assigned usually to conduct workshops and seminars where he again displayed his talent as entertainer. Several weeks after his death, when our DReAMS' project team went to Balilihan, the participants mentioned his name several times and proposed a prayer for him. A tribute any fieldworker would be happy about.
During his necrological services, he might have been pleased to know that his training buddy, Dodong Formentara, was there to bid him farewell. Dodong had just retired from the community work he loved to do with Roger in so many villages, winning hearts and minds for the cause of child welfare despite political conflicts.
Tony Irving was there, too, part of the crowd which grieved with the family of Roger. A senior member from one of his field teams, a trustee of Bohol Local Development Foundation, former Guindulman Vice Mayor Eleno Laga, delivered an eulogy on our behalf.
Roger, we all love and remember you because, as we always would quote in the old days, "you love the people who are the real heroes."
I'm so proud of my uncle and his contribution to the community he served in Digos City and in Bohol. He didn't only bring education to those he served, he also brought laughter. Thank you for this wonderfully written article. I miss him so...
ReplyDeleteHe was a great uncle, father, partner, and brother. Most of all, he was a great man with a very big heart. Thank you for this very nice article that truly speaks of our uncle's kindness, dedication, and humor.
ReplyDelete