Tribute to Ka Rene Saguisag, a Lion of Justice
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Sen. Rene Saguisag (Source: Senate PRIB / Puti Calvelo)
I had planned to surprise Ka Rene in the second week of March, but a Commission on Appointments hearing came up, and so on and so forth week after week until, irreversibly, he was gone.
It has been said that there is nothing sadder in life than vain regrets. Perhaps that is why Ka Rene had such joie de vivre, because he had none of those. He seemed to do what needed to be done in the moment.
So he did as one of our opposition leaders during Martial Law and the anti-dictatorship struggle. So he did as one of the Magnificent 12 who voted the RP-US bases treaty down. So he still seemed to do in the brilliant sunset of his life.
We texted each other for several years.
He esteemed his colleagues, and was so funny. Referring to former Senator Bobby Tañada while discussing in June 2017 his being one of the ex-Senator petitioners in a mandamus case in the Supreme Court, he deprecated in his telegraphic way, “Tuta ako n Bobby (I’m Bobby’s lapdog). Hs wsh, my cmmand.”
Photos that I love were taken of us the following month, walking into the joint session of Congress in the House of Representatives where we opposed in vain Duterte’s extension of martial law in Mindanao.
He radiated the brilliance of Aslan the Lion in The Chronicles of Narnia on that dark morning in our nation’s recent history, guiding a juvenile lion in the den of authoritarian governance.
Sen. Saguisag and Sen. Lorenzo Tañada (Source: Raissa Robles’ Twitter Page)
I sent him the photos. Like an old-fashioned, and again self-deprecating gentleman, he thanked me, “TY for d px, Beauty. Who’s d Beast?”
He was concerned about people beyond our shared work. After my bunso (youngest) was confined in the hospital in September 2018, even though he himself was already always in Makati Medical Center then, he asked, “K na anak mo (How’s your child)?”
When I praised him for his article on Ka Tanny Tañada and Ka Pepe Diokno in ANC X in April 2019, Ka Rene replied, “How sweet nmn. TY vry many, haha. U hv made very gd moves urself. Keep d torch burnng. Non sibi sed patriae. Nt self bt country.” Apparently, his life’s motto. And he practiced what he preached.
Sen. Rene Saguisag and Sen. Wigberto Tañada at Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Photo by Tarra Quismundo | Philippine Daily Inquirer)
When I apologized for being late for our meeting at the Senate four months later, he reassured, “Nt 2 bother. Lnch on d road. Dn meets n Pncake n Luk Yuen. Hold d letsong baka (roasted calf)! Sa dismissal na,” referring to the case in which he was my lawyer and in which, ever the hopeful one, full of humor and joy, he delivered on the hope.
And when I thanked him for delivering a dismissal in February 2020, he mock-bewailed, “U mean I cn no lnger visit u n jail? Nor cn I tease (Solicitor General) Calida any longer?” Even after a legal victory, Ka Rene could deliver a linguistic and humorous coup de grace with his rapier-sharp wit.
Non sibi sed patriae. Not self but country. Not many have loved Inangbayan (Motherland) with a greater self-denial.
“I will miss you, Ka Rene; not just saying “Goodbye” to you, but saying ‘Hello and tuloy ang laban (the fight goes on)!’ in the many battles that still lie ahead.”
Perhaps even fewer have done so without losing their personal, loving touch. I will miss you, Ka Rene; not just saying “Goodbye” to you, but saying “Hello and tuloy ang laban (the fight goes on)!” in the many battles that still lie ahead. Please watch over us like St. Michael the Archangel; like a lion spirit casting timidity out of our hearts.
I wish I had something more to say, but there is only more to be done.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Sen. Rene Saguisag (Source: Sen. Hontiveros’ Facebook page)
Senator Risa Hontiveros is currently one of only two oppositionists in the Senate of the Philippines. Lifted from her Facebook post.