Manong Max's response: All A Matter of Keeping your Nose Clean

ALL A MATTER OF KEEPING YOUR NOSE CLEAN


By Max Edralin Jr.

(Excerpts from Mr. Edralin's response to A TRIBUTE given in his honor by his peers in the public relations profession at the Manila Peninsula Hotel on May 19, 2010.)



I've heard all that has been said tonight and it is so totally overwhelming I feel any attempt to respond would be inadequate. I’ve never seen my entire life laid bare like an open book. Now everybody knows I am a jail bird !

There's just one thing I'd like to deny. Somebody commented that my high school graduation picture in the power point was taken (and I quote) when that luxuriant hair was still mine. I insist that the hair I have today is mine still. I paid P20,000.00 for it.

Kidding aside, I am most grateful for this Tribute in my honor and I’d like to thank the organizers as well as the ladies and gentlemen who stood up to speak generously about my person and what I’ve supposedly done to make our world a little better. I fervently hope I deserve all these words of admiration.

I know the principal suspects in this conspiracy and they – well, we – belong to a small closely-knit Philippine chapter of the International Public Relations Association. The president is Edd Fuentes, CEO of one of the best PR agencies you can find. Their preparations were so secret for the first time my daughter dared to tell me to keep quiet. I am happy to see all the major PR organizations joining forces with IPRA in a rare display of unity. I refer to the Public Relations of the Philippines led by Butch Raquel and the International Association of Business Communicators led by Roni Tapia-Merk. The ultimate credit goes to Romy Virtusio, my esteemed colleague who started it all. Let’s give them a big hand.

I am deeply honored by the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank, Say Tetangco. He is a very busy person but he came and delivered a tribute. I saw George Yang earlier, a tenor when he is not managing MacDonalds. My children and our relatives are here in full force to show one and all that the solid north remains solid.


But I deviate. What I would like to do is say thank you to all of you in a very special way. This Tribute is not just an event in my honor. It is a welcome interlude coming as it does just days after we buried Fe, my wife of 52 years, and our grandchild Alexis, a promising young soprano. Their departure in a matter of three days was a devastating experience that will take a long time to heal. But your coming tonight to say words that are music to the family affirms that we have friends who care and we are not alone.

We deeply appreciate the songs, especially those that Alexis liked. Alexis, just 28, was well on the way to make a name for herself in classical music when she was felled by leukemia. I am glad you brought here the prominent friends of Alexis in the music community – George Yang, Tony Pastor, Rachelle Gerodias, Mary Ann and Nenen Espina and Jonathan Co. I cry when Rochelle sings because she sounds exactly like my young soprano.

I can only speculate on why my colleagues thought of organizing this Tribute tonight. I could see their desire to cheer me up knowing the ordeal we’ve been through. They said the proceeds would go to the medical expenses of Fe and Alexis But not only that. They tell me I've done a lot not only in our line of work, paraticularly my passion for competence and integrity in the practice of public relations, but also my involvement in many beneficial causes over the years. They said it was time I was recognized for what I've done and to let the younger generation take a cue from the example.

Looking back, and listening to the speakers, I think I must have led an interesting life. My children truth to tell have been nagging me to write a book for the last two of three years. And so did my friend J.J. Calero, the PR and advertising guru who was here earlier.

I think that if my experience of a lifetime has any message to impart, it is that there is no substitute for self-reliance and hard work. That poverty or modest beginnings are no excuse for failure. That it is possible to succeed in life despite the odds if you have the determination to pursue what you want to achieve and the strength of character to do it. In the end, if you want to combine success and respectability, which all of us desire, my advice is simple, keep your nose clean. I must admit that in this generation where we live in a culture of impunity, that is easier said than done.

I was not as poor as Senator Villar but I was poor nevertheless. My mother in our sleepy town up north called Sarrat could not afford to send me to college in Manila. I came to Manila anyway at the age of 17, found a job during the day and went to school at night. By sheer determination and a lot of guts, the young man rose from a messenger janitor of a newspaper to a full-fledged reporter in just four years at age 21. My contemporaries became headline stuff like Max Soliven, Sonny Belmonte, Ninoy Aquino, Oscar Villadolid, Raul Locsin, Teddy Benigno. I just found out yesterday, Vergel Santos joined the Herald after I left. He is now the publisher of Business World. The downside was that I had to stop schooling, which makes me a school dropout but it didn’t matter anymore. When my classmates were looking for work, I was already flying high.

This was the time I went to jail for press freedom, the long story that you heard a couple of times. I had my share of libel suits and threats to my life. You inevitably get threats when you write the truth regardless of the consequences. One of the threats was so serious during the administration of President Garcia I had to evacuate my wife and children to Baguio. But that is a long story that you will probably find in my book, when I find the time to write it. That story prompted a presidential committee investigation and an open clash between the Liberal and Nacionalista parties.

I switched to public relations after covering the first year of President Diosdado Macapagal. By then I had four children and the pay of a journalist, given that I resisted fat envelopes, could not make both ends meet.

Modesty aside, the reputation I built as a newspaperman served me in good stead. Except my stint in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization or SEATO in Bangkok, where I had to compete in an examination with 150 others, including Kit Tatad, to get the job, I never applied to get the succeeding jobs. They sought me out. I landed good paying jobs in San Miguel Corporation and Citibank and became a consultant later in half a dozen places, the latest being the Bangko Sentral which kept me for the last 10 years. Hard work and keeping your nose clean are a good combination.

I heard some relatives ask my wife how come I seemed to be getting all the good breaks. Her standard answer was, "Layas yan eh at bolero pa. Maraming kaibigan." Which was her affectionate way of saying I was persuasive (she was a victim) and I had a lot of friends.

I am lucky to have come early under the influence of my mother, who endlessly preached thrift and clean living, and two gentlemen of the old school -- the late Ambassador Modesto Farolan, who made me a newspaperman, and the late Secretary Cornelio Balmaceda, who gave me my first job in public relations. They served corrupt regimes but never stole a single centavo. I learned the ropes in PR from the foremost PR guru, Joe Carpio. I guess their concept of discipline and work ethic rubbed off on me.

The real test came during martial law. It was generally known that I was an Edralin and therefore a relative of President Marcos. I could even imitate his voice and played the role of FM in Gridiron dinners at the National Press Club. There were attempts to make me peddle influence but I turned them down. First I didn't know the mechanics of influence peddling, second I didn't have the stomach for it. One Malacanang reporter called me "Edral-out" not Edralin, meaning I was not in and in fact out of the system. When the fun was over, and the freewheelers started to flee, I could look at everybody straight in the eye and I made sure my children realized this is important in life.

Before I close, let me leave behind a few thoughts for my colleagues to think about, hoping for your indulgence since you put me up here anyway.

1. PR is frequently under siege for the indiscretions of a few practitioners. The trouble is that while most of us are working our butts to deliver good PR results, the bad example of the few tended to diminish public respect and gave a bad impression of what public relations does. And yet we know that PR is an important function that contributes to the success of an individual or business. And so to some people PR is the means for manipulating facts, character assassination and corrupting media. We have difficulty shrugging off this impression.

What I've been advocating is a Summit among the major PR organizations like PRSP, IABC and IPRA to address the problems of competence and integrity as industry problems and come up with a solution. At minimum they should have (1) a common definition of PR and (2) a common code of ethics and the means to make it work. These problems have lingered for so long.

2. There is today a new concept of corporate social responsibility. CSR used to be simply funding projects for the common good and contributing to the Red Cross and the Boy Scouts. Now CSR encompasses obligatory ethical conduct in all aspects of running a corporation like paying your employes well and providing them wholesome work environment. AIM has a complete paper about this that covers managerial behavior, best practices and business models.

Given this definition, I wish PRSP and IABC would be more circumspect in giving awards to companies that do not meet CSR standards. I mean those companies that obviously produce products that harm society and have absolutely no redeeming value. True they undertake projects like any do-gooder but these projects we know are part of a grand deception to cover up the harmful effects of their product. These companies have been banned from advertising, they are now turning to public relations, and we are biting. Let us study more closely our obligations and be consistent in our compliance with corporate social responsibility.

3. Finally, I would like public relations to be more visible in the campaign for good governance. There is a call for unity in the effort to support the reforms that the new administration intends to carry out to curb the excesses of the outgoing administration and move the country forward. In my view, it is getting late in the day, this may be the last chance for us Filipinos to try to do the right things and catch up with our neighbors, which are prospering because they know what's good for them and they are doing something about it. PR, when practised properly, has the potential to move institutions in the proper direction. We can do the same thing for the country.

At the beginning of martial law when I was president of PRSP in 1975, I spoke to suggest participatory public relations. I wanted us to function as a committee of the whole to quietly provide inputs to Malacanang that would help make the New Society succeed. If warranted we would become vehement objectors to correct possible excesses resulting from the absence of an opposition party. Nobody wanted to touch the proposal even with a ten-foot pole. Looking back the reaction was understandable. People were afraid. But maybe we can revive the proposal today.

Let us as a people make our presence felt in the administration of our country. We are being left behind and getting notorious as the second most corrupt country in our part of the world. If we are into image building, and we admit we are, we in public relations should envision a role by which we can help improve the image of our country in a big way. This should probably be in the agenda of the Summit meeting among the major PR organizations as I mentioned earlier.

Anyway, thank you again for the honors you've given my person by this Tribute. This is infinitely better than paying tribute when the person is no longer in a position to hear it. I am reminded of a poem entitled “Send the Flowers Now”, and to conclude these remarks, and to complete my family’s profuse thanks to all of you, let me quote a part of it.
“I would rather have one little rose
from the garden of a friend
Than the choicest of flowers
when my stay on earth has come to an end.


“I would rather have a pleasant word
In kindness said to me
Than flattery when my heart is still
And my life has ceased to be.


“I would rather have a loving smile now
From friends I know are true
Than tears shed around my urn or casket
When to this world I bid adieu.”





Thank you and good evening.

Wen, Manong!

On Wednesday, May 19, we paid a tribute to one of the pillars of public relations practice in the Philippines, Max Edralin. who at 79 enjoys his laurels without sitting on them.

At the Rigodon Ballroom of the Manila Peninsula Hotel, the event "Wen, Maong!" became an endearing, exciting, funny, at some point sad, at all times poignant, with the most excellent musical tributes and oratory worth the salt of the industry's best minds and pens.

It was a privilege to emcee the event, to extend some iota of comfort to Manong Max and his family who recently lost his wife and granddaughter Alexis in a matter of days, and in turn to be inspired by Manong Max and his family for their unity and fortitude in the face of such adversity.

Mabuhay ka, Manong Max!

In this photo c/o our official chronicler of images, Rene, are the current IPRA members, back L-R: Me, Rene Nieva, Butch Raquel, Edd Fuentes, Romy Virtusio; front: Joy Buensalido, Millie Dizon, Max Edralin, Jingjing Romero, Karen Villanueva, and Malou Espina

Hooked on the Old Churches of Cavite!
By Richard P. Burgos*

As I opened the latest edition of a popular map of Cavite province, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the land form of the Cavite peninsula. It appears like a giant mechanical clamp or hook strategically poised to clear any obstruction, menacing every enemy intending to encroach on the serenity and beauty of Manila Bay. Thus, centuries ago, it must have likewise impressed the mighty global power that was Spain who quickly transformed it into a naval base, galleon-building facility and launching pad for evangelical campaigns to the more remote areas of the country. As function follows form, the peninsula became known as “Kawit”, the Tagalog word for “hook”, and eventually hispanized to “Cauite” and its present-day name “Cavite”.

Next month, in celebration of Christendom’s holiest season, many roads will once again converge in Cavite, just a few dozen kilometers from the metropolis. Some roads will lead to its popular sandy beach resorts, others to the exclusive enclaves of power and privilege, yet many more to the homes and hospitality of family and friends.

A recent day trip convinced me that, this summer, some roads will also find their way to Cavite to rediscover old churches and appreciate these solid structures of stone, monuments of history, and places of worship wrapped with a wealth of miracles.

Some churches I visited will surely fulfill the faithful’s observance of the visita iglesia, or quench the history-lover’s curiosity or simply satisfy the itch of peripatetic pedal-pushers.

Stanley Cabigas** (http://www.flickr.com/people/estan/) captures the heart and soul of these sacred temples in the accompanying photographs.

1. St. Michael Parish Church, Bacoor

If you think Bacoor is the town of mussels and green shells from the sea, salt from salt beds or “salinas”, or fruits and other agricultural produce, think again. The only town in the Philippines with 2 SM malls, Bacoor has seen an influx of new companies and workers boosting what could be the country’s fastest growing township economy – and the densest population. With dormitory subdivisions sprouting all over and the Manila-Cavite Expressway at its doorstep, it is, in fact, Cavite’s gateway to Metro Manila.

The development push, however, has not obliterated the imprints of its historical past. Like a mute witness, the beautiful church of St. Michael sits just beside the municipal hall and a rather narrow town square or plaza. For 48 years this was the parish administered by Fr. Mariano Gomez, the most senior of the three priests, a.k.a. Gomburza, who were executed by the Spaniards on the garrote vil for allegedly instigating the Cavity mutiny in 1872.

The parish itself was established by Royal Decree on January 18, 1752. It was administered by the secular clergy until 1872 when it passed on to the Recollect missionaries. The church is an imposing structure of stone with a three-tiered octagonal bell tower. Its annual fiesta on 8 May features a caracol or boat procession.

2. St. Mary Magdalene Parish Church, Kawit

During the late 16th century, Chinese merchants exchanged porcelain, silk, and tea in the town of Kawit, only 23 kilometers from Manila, for silver coins brought by galleon from Acapulco.
Kawit produced what must undisputedly be its most famous son in Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, himself part Chinese, and who became the president of the first Philippine Republic. From the balcony of his stately home the Decree of Independence was read, the flag was raised and the national anthem, sometimes known as Marcha Filipina Magdalo, sung for the first time on June 12, 1898. Every year, on Independence Day, national attention invariably returns to this historical place making it almost a requirement for every freedom-loving Filipino to come and visit this town.

The other historical landmark in the vicinity is the towering church of St. Mary Magdalene where Aguinaldo was baptized. The parish was first administered by the Jesuits in 1624. A wooden church was erected in 1638 by six Filipino families from the towns of Maragondon and Silang and this was replaced by a stone church in 1737 which was devastated by a strong typhoon in 1831. It was administered by the secular priests in 1786 and then by the Recoletos in 1894. A recent renovation revealed original brickwork which now characterizes the remarkable architecture of the church accentuated by a tall hexagonal belfry with a glistening tin roof.
The Kawitenos are a deeply religious lot and they manifest their faith through their fiestas, caracol, processions, and most especially the Maytinis Festival, a Christmas Eve event reenacting Joseph’s and Mary's search for shelter, to the edification of locals and tourists alike.

3. St. Francis of Assisi Church, Gen. Trias

The town derives its name from Gen. Mariano Trias y Closas who was Fiscal of Bgy. Mapagtiis, Minister of Justice and Vice-President of Aguinaldo’s revolutionary government which replaced the Katipunan. A mural in the town plaza, features him in one of his brave exploits in a revolutionary encounter. The plaza itself is surrounded by buildings new and old: a modern municipal hall and a new office building for the police and fire departments fronting the seventeenth-century Spanish church.
The church complex itself is a delightful group of buildings with a convento, a parochial school at the back and in the middle a smaller chapel set in a lovely garden with a statue of St. Francis and a fountain for the birds. It is obvious that reconstruction work begun in the 1990s continues - as workers paint the convento a shade of rose and otherwise add to or modify the early work of Franciscan missionaries who built the first church of light materials in this area in 1611. The Jesuits came in 1624 and built a bigger church but it was not until September 9, 1753 that it was established as a parish.
Dona Maria Josefa deYrrizarri y Ursua, Condesa de Lizarraga, who died in 1782, must have been an important personage and benefactress as her tombstone is prominently located near the church’s massive wooden doors.
The church altar is decorated with many ornately-carved statues of Catholic saints set upon a multi-tiered retablo of carved wood.

4. Diocesan Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Naic

Traveling along the road between Tanza and Naic, we were flanked on one side by irrigated rice fields and on the other by the beach where many resorts are located. Naic or “Canayic”, meaning “from the other side”, is a fishing town and a favorite embarkation point for sports fishermen looking for triggerfish, locally called “papacol” or “baget”.
There’s nothing fishy about the church perched on a higher part of town, though. It is simply massive, and must be the biggest church in the whole province. An image of La Purisima Concepcion on the façade of the gothic-inspired church looks down on the front courtyard where winged archangels stand guard. The Jesuits had jurisdiction from 1693-1768 as part of the Hacienda de San Isidro. In 1796 it became a parish and two years later went to the administration of the secular clergy who built the stone church in 1835 and the convent in 1857. The Dominicans took over the parish from 1865 until 1899 when at the height of the revolution the parish became Aguinaldo’s headquarters and later the hospital for injured revolutionaries.
Reconstruction work is on-going especially on the old convent built by Fr. Modesto de Castro from proceeds of the book “Urbana at Felisa”. Fr. de Castro was a learned and respected diocesan priest who preferred to preach in Tagalog rather than in Spanish which he also mastered. Among others, he wrote Cartas de Urbana Y Felisa or Pagsusulatan Nang Dalauang: Binibini Na si Urbana at Felisa or simply Urbana at Felisa which set the socially acceptable norms of behavior of the time, much like what Emily Post did in her columns. The book was first printed in 1864 and reprinted and translated many times.
The huge square bell tower still uses 3 of the 4 bells in the church, and what used to be a lookout for marauders from the sea is still an impressive promontory from which to view the slower-paced parade of life in the town and surrounding areas. La Casa Hacienda de Naic, beside the church, now houses the Naic Elementary School.

5. La Asuncion Church, Maragondon

Miguel de Loarca in 1582 wrote about the indigenous people living in Maragondon, who enjoyed a distinct culture and social organization, in what used to be known as “Cavite Viejo”. When the Franciscan missionaries arrived in 1585, Maragondon was a visita of Silang, together with Indang. It was turned over in 1611 to the Jesuits who described in a report in 1618 that the town had a church and an image of the Virgen procured with contributions from the townspeople amounting to seventy pesos (PHP 70.00). When it became a parish in 1627 it was placed under the patronage of Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion.

The first stone church was built in 1633 but ordered destroyed during the Spanish-Dutch war in 1646-1649. The Jesuits rebuilt the stone church in 1650 and constructed a wooden convent beside it. The Recollects came and put up the stained glass window with the symbol of San Nicolas de Tolentino; a pigeon on a plate surrounded with 7 stars.

Although not as huge as the one in Naic, the church as it stands today more than makes up for its deficiency in size with its excellence in workmanship. The wooden doors of the principal entrance are intricately carved with designs of flowers, towers and galleons at sea. Inside, an even more elaborate pulpit matches the main retablo and its two side altars with wood carvings polychromed in gold, blue and red. Not content, the craftsmen even carved Latin verses on the ceiling beams: “Dignareme laudarete Virgo sacrata da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos”, imploring the Holy Virgin for strength against the enemies.

The Somoza family have a place reserved for their remains in this church especially mandated by the Archdiocese of Manila. The most illustrious of the clan is Don Vicente Cua-Peco Somoza, who was one of the 92 signatories of the Malolos Constitution and who, in 1903, founded the Camara de Commercio Filipino.

6. Sto. Nino de Ternate

Three things impressed me on my visit to the much smaller church of Ternate: the Merdicas, Chavacano, and the Santo Nino.
The Merdicas or Mardicas were a tribe of Malays of Ternate in the Moluccas which was a small Portuguese colony before it passed on to the Spaniards. Mardicas, meant "People of the Sea" and were called the spiritual children of St. Francis Xavier. There were originally seven families, whose family names were De Leon, Ramos, De la Cruz, Estibar, Pereira, and Nigoza. In 1574, the Merdicas volunteered to come to Cavite to support the Spanish against the threat of invasion of the Chinese pirate, Limahong. The invasion did not occur but the community of Merdicas settled in a place known as "Barra de Maragondon", a sandbar at the mouth of the Maragondon River in 1663. Today, the place is called Ternate, after their place of origin.
The community of Merdicas continues to use broken Spanish which came to be called Ternateño or Ternateño Chavacano. The older Ternatenos will still venture into conversations in Chavacano but they are a dying breed. The younger generation prefers to use Tagalog or English.
The image of the Sto. Nino was allegedly brought into the county by the Merdicas but it stayed in the Maragondon church since 1663 until Ternate acquired its own church in 1863. The image is renowned in the Tagalog region and devotees from as far as Laguna and Batangas flock to this church on December 31 each year to attend the ritual of bathing the image before his feast on January 3. The bath water is used as a cure for various illnesses and the Sto. Nino has also been known to help infertile couples find a solution to their problem.
7. St. Gregory the Great Church, Indang
Back on the road, I was thinking about the Spaniards and the Dutch, when my reverie was broken by a road sign pointing to, what do you know, London! We had come to Indang, where the British International School and the Indang British Village are located. After some more twists and turns in this upland town we got to the parish church in the center of town. It was a jewel to behold! Both from the outside as from the inside it looked like the quintessential Spanish iglesia, spacious and with tall windows. The altars were serene with fewer embellishments. The ceiling, however, proved to be the piece de resistance. Painted in the chiaroscuro style of San Agustin church in Intramuros, the bright peach and darker grey colors bathed the interior of the church with a light that was clean and pure. Naturally, I lifted my head up high, bent my knees, and was transfixed into a sense of awe before the divine presence. This is the experience churches intend to create. This particular church, dedicated to the memory of a great pope, created the effect with little effort.
The parish was established in 1625 but the church was built from 1672 and completed in 1710. In 1768 it was passed on to the secular clergy and in 1891 to the Dominicans.
8. Our Lady of Candelaria Church, Silang
Night had fallen when we reached Silang, on the highway to Tagaytay City. With good fortune and the blessings of the parish priest, Fr. Temmy Lumandas, we were allowed into the precincts of the church.
The Franciscans began evangelizing Silang in 1585 but it was not established as a parish until ten years later, in 1595, with jurisdiction over the whole of southern Cavite from Carmona to Ternate including Marinduque. The Jesuits took over in 1599 and built the stone church from 1637-1639.
In 1640 the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin “La Anunciata” was found and today many miracles are attributed to her intercession. Her feast is known as the Feast of Our Lady of Candles or “La Candelaria”, and the whole town comes alive with many devotees from nearby towns and cities from February 1-3. During this feast, candles are blessed during a procession, then taken home to protect the house and land against danger.
The parish was successively administered by the secular clergy (1769), the Recoletos (1853), the CICM missionaries, the Columbans and reverted to the diocesan priests in 1978.
What is remarkable about the main retablo is the profusion of images of the Virgin and the saints depicted in intricate tableaus. It is in effect an educational tool used to instruct the faithful, at the same time sacred and beautiful. Legend has it that the church simply miraculously appeared overnight (“sumilang”) during Spanish times. Others claim that it was created through forced labor.
Religion never escapes controversy but in the end it is always about what you believe in and what makes you whole again. Well, in the case of the old churches of Cavite, I am hooked and I shall be back time and again, for the quest for wholeness never ends.

-end-

*On weekdays Richard works as the Head of Guest Relations at Enchanted Kingdom. On weekends he organizes tours to benefit Bahay Tuluyan, an NGO that promotes the rights of children.

**On weekdays Stanley is a network engineer. On weekends he is a photographer of old stone churches and a collector of rare Philippine beetles.