MAYOR JOSE MA. ROCHA
We met him at a difficult part of our life when we were trying to make sense of what could be done given the restrictions of the martial law regime and the burden of getting a normal life after being on the run for many years. Looking back, it was a great thing we knew him during the mid-70s and 80s as we struggled to redefine our place in the sun, so to speak, after so many storms had passed leaving us ashore in the company of those whose life and career had a trajectory markedly different from ours.
While Undoy Rocha, as he was called by friends and associates, and the other community development pioneers, spent their youth in the usual career path of finishing a college degree and being absorbed later into government service or some other kind of formal employment, our generation produced many examples of lives led in contrast to this path. It was a generation which had to carry the burden of the struggle against a repressive regime and took, as a consequence, the uncertain path of protest and underground work which led for many of us to destinations not entirely matching our initial plans.
It was easy for some of us to just give up and continue to survive from day to day with bitterness, cynicism and despair as some did distorting their perception of events and of their lives as a result. Knowing Mayor Rocha at this point of our life helped save us from falling into this emotional abyss which could be considered a fate worst than death.
He typified the kind of political leader who could be trusted by Filipinos of all ages. We saw him at work and in his home, first near the church in Tagbilaran City, and then later in Mansasa. Both home and office at various times of the day or night provided opportunities for us to see, hear and experience a true leader of the people. He gave everyone who came to him, despite varying economic stations and social positions, the same investment of time and efforts.
Those who flocked to greet him on his birthday constituted in themselves the microcosm of society which held him in high esteem for his sense of fairness in dealing with those who sought favor from him and his unwavering commitment to public service often beyond the call of duty.
Being close to the young Father of Community Development, Atty. Ramon P. Binamira, since the trying and pioneering years of the country's community development program under Pres. Ramon Magsaysay, he quickly understood the mission of the "Ilaw ng Buhay" group to find more effective ways to deliver services to the people, most especially beyond the boundaries of the town center or poblacion.
When the backyard gardening program or Green Revolution sought support for funding, Mayor Rocha galvanized support to raise funds through a Php 1 donation drive. He was the first Mayor to demonstrate how child-based data could mobilize community support for his nutrition campaign.
Mayor Rocha and his wife, Lily, were there in all the supplementary feeding activities and launching of Mothers' Classes to emphasize the point that the solution to child malnutrition was right there at the backyard where perennial vegetables could be grown without the use of chemicals. He led the drive to discourage the buying of junk food in school campuses. His leadership made it possible for the city to carry out regular weighing of preschool children and the data used as basis for interventions by the health department and the private sector.
His administration gave due recognition to trained Unit Leaders for 20-family clusters who extended the outreach of services and information to households not normally reached by government agencies. Both UNICEF and the national government acknowledged the success of the community-based nutrition program in the city. The city was recipient of several awards on account of its consistent reduction of child malnutrition cases in each barangay.
Probably a proof of the popularity of child-based programs under Mayor Rocha's administration was the launching of the International Year of the Child in 1979. The UNICEF staff who were present noted that it was the first time they attended an activity in which there were more people in the parade than those watching from the sidewalk. It was those who were in the parade who were clapping their hands to acknowledge greetings and wild cheers from onlookers looking down from windows and the few who were on the street.
He and his wife led local development trainers in conducting Family Ilaw Training called FIT for the cluster of 20-family units which constituted the Ilaw ng Buhay (Light of Life) chapters. He supported Ilaw's "supermarket" approach to family planning which makes available all information about family planning devices, including their advantages and disadvantages, and appeals to the husband and wife to decide jointly which method to use based on their own conscience and technical assessment of each choice.
The approach emphasizes it is the moral duty of parents to bring forth to the world the number of children they can feed, clothe, shelter and educate. After their presentation to the Bishop and the clergy in conservative Tagbilaran City, the approach was officially endorsed by the church for Tagbilaran City and Bohol and the priests and nuns were allowed to be part of the training team. It was clearly through the leadership of Mayor Rocha that this became possible.
Mayor Rocha supported the move to establish the Ilaw International Center in Bool, Tagbilaran City to serve as resource institution for the replication of the "Ilaw ng Buhay (Life of Life)" approach to development. His support to this UNICEF-assisted initiative consisted of the following:
Among the rare breed of development-oriented Mayors in the province and the country, he became an instant hit in the role of what development workers call as "legitimizer," one who validates concepts, principles and theoretical frameworks with one's own analysis and insights derived from practical experiences and personal reflections.
He was designated as chair of a Board of Trustees for a foundation that would run the Center, as it was originally planned, but it did not materialize for reasons only RPB knew. When he learned about this seeming unexpected development towards the end of the ten-year existence of IIC, he leaned back in his chair as he faced the lawyer hired by Atty. Binamira and said gently, "Let us not have anything to do with how RPB will dispose the property. We have done our part in good faith."
RPB ended up selling the property to a realtor who owns a hotel, but the sale is reportedly contested by his heirs, who were all disowned in his will before he died.
True to his word, Mayor Rocha did not contest the sale on behalf of all of us in the organization who raised the funds for the land and the building as counterpart to the assistance provided by UNICEF to enable our old and young staff to carry on with the mission to bring the light of life to those who are most in need.
Mayor Rocha became the Chair of a new group, the Bohol Local Development Foundation, composed of survivors from the old IIC. He died early this year mourned by hundreds of people from all walks of life in contrast to the death of the Father of Community Development who passed away unmourned by even his own immediate family.
We met him at a difficult part of our life when we were trying to make sense of what could be done given the restrictions of the martial law regime and the burden of getting a normal life after being on the run for many years. Looking back, it was a great thing we knew him during the mid-70s and 80s as we struggled to redefine our place in the sun, so to speak, after so many storms had passed leaving us ashore in the company of those whose life and career had a trajectory markedly different from ours.
While Undoy Rocha, as he was called by friends and associates, and the other community development pioneers, spent their youth in the usual career path of finishing a college degree and being absorbed later into government service or some other kind of formal employment, our generation produced many examples of lives led in contrast to this path. It was a generation which had to carry the burden of the struggle against a repressive regime and took, as a consequence, the uncertain path of protest and underground work which led for many of us to destinations not entirely matching our initial plans.
It was easy for some of us to just give up and continue to survive from day to day with bitterness, cynicism and despair as some did distorting their perception of events and of their lives as a result. Knowing Mayor Rocha at this point of our life helped save us from falling into this emotional abyss which could be considered a fate worst than death.
He typified the kind of political leader who could be trusted by Filipinos of all ages. We saw him at work and in his home, first near the church in Tagbilaran City, and then later in Mansasa. Both home and office at various times of the day or night provided opportunities for us to see, hear and experience a true leader of the people. He gave everyone who came to him, despite varying economic stations and social positions, the same investment of time and efforts.
Those who flocked to greet him on his birthday constituted in themselves the microcosm of society which held him in high esteem for his sense of fairness in dealing with those who sought favor from him and his unwavering commitment to public service often beyond the call of duty.
Being close to the young Father of Community Development, Atty. Ramon P. Binamira, since the trying and pioneering years of the country's community development program under Pres. Ramon Magsaysay, he quickly understood the mission of the "Ilaw ng Buhay" group to find more effective ways to deliver services to the people, most especially beyond the boundaries of the town center or poblacion.
When the backyard gardening program or Green Revolution sought support for funding, Mayor Rocha galvanized support to raise funds through a Php 1 donation drive. He was the first Mayor to demonstrate how child-based data could mobilize community support for his nutrition campaign.
Mayor Rocha and his wife, Lily, were there in all the supplementary feeding activities and launching of Mothers' Classes to emphasize the point that the solution to child malnutrition was right there at the backyard where perennial vegetables could be grown without the use of chemicals. He led the drive to discourage the buying of junk food in school campuses. His leadership made it possible for the city to carry out regular weighing of preschool children and the data used as basis for interventions by the health department and the private sector.
His administration gave due recognition to trained Unit Leaders for 20-family clusters who extended the outreach of services and information to households not normally reached by government agencies. Both UNICEF and the national government acknowledged the success of the community-based nutrition program in the city. The city was recipient of several awards on account of its consistent reduction of child malnutrition cases in each barangay.
Probably a proof of the popularity of child-based programs under Mayor Rocha's administration was the launching of the International Year of the Child in 1979. The UNICEF staff who were present noted that it was the first time they attended an activity in which there were more people in the parade than those watching from the sidewalk. It was those who were in the parade who were clapping their hands to acknowledge greetings and wild cheers from onlookers looking down from windows and the few who were on the street.
He and his wife led local development trainers in conducting Family Ilaw Training called FIT for the cluster of 20-family units which constituted the Ilaw ng Buhay (Light of Life) chapters. He supported Ilaw's "supermarket" approach to family planning which makes available all information about family planning devices, including their advantages and disadvantages, and appeals to the husband and wife to decide jointly which method to use based on their own conscience and technical assessment of each choice.
The approach emphasizes it is the moral duty of parents to bring forth to the world the number of children they can feed, clothe, shelter and educate. After their presentation to the Bishop and the clergy in conservative Tagbilaran City, the approach was officially endorsed by the church for Tagbilaran City and Bohol and the priests and nuns were allowed to be part of the training team. It was clearly through the leadership of Mayor Rocha that this became possible.
Mayor Rocha supported the move to establish the Ilaw International Center in Bool, Tagbilaran City to serve as resource institution for the replication of the "Ilaw ng Buhay (Life of Life)" approach to development. His support to this UNICEF-assisted initiative consisted of the following:
- negotiation with landowners for the purchase of the lots for the Center;
- advocacy with his friends in the business sector to assist the Ilaw staff get bargain prices for construction materials as well as to provide advice on the construction;
- liaison work with the Provincial Government for support during the pre-construction, construction and post-construction phases on matters related to legal requirements and other support;
- validating the resumes and background of most applicants applying to be in the program support staff of the Center.
Among the rare breed of development-oriented Mayors in the province and the country, he became an instant hit in the role of what development workers call as "legitimizer," one who validates concepts, principles and theoretical frameworks with one's own analysis and insights derived from practical experiences and personal reflections.
He was designated as chair of a Board of Trustees for a foundation that would run the Center, as it was originally planned, but it did not materialize for reasons only RPB knew. When he learned about this seeming unexpected development towards the end of the ten-year existence of IIC, he leaned back in his chair as he faced the lawyer hired by Atty. Binamira and said gently, "Let us not have anything to do with how RPB will dispose the property. We have done our part in good faith."
RPB ended up selling the property to a realtor who owns a hotel, but the sale is reportedly contested by his heirs, who were all disowned in his will before he died.
True to his word, Mayor Rocha did not contest the sale on behalf of all of us in the organization who raised the funds for the land and the building as counterpart to the assistance provided by UNICEF to enable our old and young staff to carry on with the mission to bring the light of life to those who are most in need.
Mayor Rocha became the Chair of a new group, the Bohol Local Development Foundation, composed of survivors from the old IIC. He died early this year mourned by hundreds of people from all walks of life in contrast to the death of the Father of Community Development who passed away unmourned by even his own immediate family.
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