They all forgot about Negros Cares

Everybody has a lot of explanations about charisma. But what is it actually? First, it is mystifying. It just makes itself perceptible, but nobody can seem to pinpoint the source of charisma.

But one can immediately note it with the number of people rallying to a cause espoused by the charismatic personality. It is something that can mobilize people behind a cause regardless of whether it is good or bad. It has a mesmeric quality.

And that is why I sort of got myself disappointed that despite its magnificent impact and implication, most Negrenses seem to have overlooked Negros Cares. I consider it the crowning achievement of former Negros Governor Alfredo Montelibano Jr. It also showed his charisma.

Consider these points. The cause was to help not Negrenses but those living outside the province. And the result was that the entire province rose to the challenge of reaching out a helping hand to people they hardly knew.

It started when I got caught with R. Tagamolilla, then secretary of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, inside the NFSP office at the Ermita Building along Roxas Boulevard . I had to ask Tagamolilla to accommodate me at his Royal Hotel room in downtown Quiapo because there was no chance for me to reach my residence then at Vito Cruz, Manila .

We stayed there for two days. After that flew back to Bacolod . And briefed Montelibano on the extent of the damage to Metro Manila and Central Luzon . Later, more stories and photos of the flood reached us. And Montelibano then decided that we should go to help the Central Luzon flood-stricken people.

We discussed various rallying calls for the project. Finally, we settled on Negros Cares – to show that the entire province cared for the flood stricken Central Luzon residents.

The local radio and television stations then swung into action. And people trekked to the provincial capitol to hand in their contributions. Later, the schools became the gathering places for these “gifts” for the Central Luzon victims.

Bacolod Bishop Antonio Y. Fortich joined the call for donations. And the impact was electric. I was at the Bishop's house when groups of Dacongcogon farmers descended and handed him food stuff (Bishop Fortich) including eggs. That was an unforgettable display of Christian charity.

The students, too, were galvanized by the call to help the Central Luzon flood victims. Groups from St. Scholastica's Academy, University of St. La Salle , Tay Tung, and Hua Ming as well as La Consolacion College trooped to the capitol to help pack their goods.

They were formed into an assembly line. Msgr. John Liu went around and instructed students on what they could do and how to do the packing. So with a lot of other school officials, including then USLS's Bro. Hughes, a towering American brother.

It was an impressive display of a province united by the common purpose of reaching out to “neighbors” whom they did not even know. It was a Christian reach out unprecedented in the annals of provincial history.

I found later that our schoolchildren were importuning us to give them goods or money for the Negros Cares project. And they kept pestering us every day despite their awareness that Nene (Dr. Lourdes L. Espina) and I had already been deeply involved in Negros Cares. But we had to give more.

The enthusiasm was electric. Not only old or used clothes were given but including new ones were thrown into the donation boxes. So with groceries. And anything we knew that could be used by the flood victims.

Later, Roberto S. Benedicto donated the use of two ships from his Northern Lines to ferry the goods to Metro Manila. Bro. Hughes flew with us to the Capitol and the huge brother applied himself to the task of loading the goods aboard choppers and C-130 with complete abandon.

Montelibano also had three teams of the Negros mobile medical teams deployed to Luzon with medicines. Among those who were with the group were former Councilor Mariano Villarosa and Heidi, now head of the OB-Gyne department of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital .

Junior personally went to Manila and Central Luzon to help supervise the relief distribution and the deployment of the mobile medical teams. It was an operation that was exhausting.

To cut the story short, it was a magnificent display of provincial unity in response to help the flood-stricken victims of Central Luzon .

But there was an ugly sequel to it. Shortly after the declaration of Martial Law, when Negros was caught in the grip of a sugar rice crisis that had even Iloilo clamp an embargo on the exit of rice from the province, then Silay Mayor Natalio Velez and me, together with several other mayors, were deployed by Montelibano to several places to look for rice for Negros . Even the groceries were emptied of oatmeals or other edible products. There just was not enough rice for Negros and even the corn were not enough.

Later, to cut it short, Mayor Velez and I appealed to Bulacan Governor L. Santiago that we be allowed to address the Bulacan rice-growers about the possibility of their “making available rice for Negros at their price,” we ended up scouring the interior farm lands for palay stocks to buy.

They had forgotten about Negros Cares and what we did for them in their hour of darkness need. But later, we found rice from the most unexpected places. But that's another story.

Anyway, the more important is that we seem to have forgotten that episode in the history of the province. And how once, as one, we joined hands in an impressive display of Christian charity.

That, I think, was a crowning achievement of Montelibano.*

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