Storybooks for technocrats

I JOINED the thousands who downloaded “The Conjugal Dictatorship” from the Ateneo de Manila library’s website. I wondered if there are gaps in the history I know, as a cranky few accused the young during the last election.

For example, why did I read Edgar Jopson’s biography (“UG: An Underground Tale” by Inquirer.net’s Benjamin Pimentel) only years after I graduated from the late student leader’s alma mater, the Ateneo Management Engineering program? But the gaps that worry me go beyond martial law.

My neighbor Rolly Vinluan gave me a personally dedicated copy of “Accra and the Post-Bellum Bar,” our legal profession’s story from the perspective of a law firm that became an institution. Vinluan is listed as the first associate in a 1972 photo of the firm’s first stationery, before he taught decades of UP and Ateneo lawyers. Of less historical merit, the book’s alumni roster credits my seven-month stint, just long enough to be assigned to write (and be reprimanded over) a prayer for his congregation by Teddy Regala and have Joe Concepcion publish in the Philippine Law Journal (PLJ) that he was comfortable ordering me around (page 221, Vol. 81 [2006]).

I lament how the world of “Post-Bellum Bar” is alien to me. I thumbed through its photos of prewar Manila, imagining American and British expats in white shirts changed twice a day, and in felt or straw hats. I finally read how American firms dominated the fledgling profession, and how Don Alfonso Ponce Enrile led aspiring Filipino lawyers taking the reins of these firms, even threatening to quit when his American partners tried to bring a new American partner despite an agreement requiring all new partners to be Filipinos. This set the stage for Angara, Abello, Concepcion, Regala and Cruz to dream of founding an institutional firm with truly Filipino roots, a story I previously heard only in snippets.

How much do I truly know about Vinluan and the pillars of my profession? I met Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, for example, as the new justice who spoke at my graduation and always made time for PLJ talks. When Marites Vitug gave me “Endless Journey,” her biography of former national security adviser Joe Almonte, only then did I read how Carpio deregulated telecommunications while in the Ramos Cabinet. He would later pen the 2011 decision on foreign ownership of these companies. This is the backdrop of the antitrust debate brewing in that sector today.

I regret being too naive as a student to ask for the stories of grand old men. The late Sen. Jovito Salonga, by then in his 80s, inducted me as PLJ chair. Like Carpio, he would always make time for UP law students. Before that ceremony, I only saw him speak at the Supreme Court hearing of the 2003 Francisco case, on then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.’s proposed impeachment.

Salonga stood up just before the hearing began. Such was his gravitas that surprised justices froze in wary silence. But he only wanted to ask for advance permission to go to the bathroom during the hearing, given his age. The acting chief justice granted this after a few stunned seconds.

I wish I had asked him then about his jokes with senators about martial law being declared, as retold in “The Conjugal Dictatorship,” his triumphant rally photos in the Accra book, or that iconic 1973 photo of him beside the Senate’s locked door.

Fortunately, other storybooks started conversations in time. When retired senator Edgardo Angara gave me his biography “In the Grand Manner,” beyond Accra, he recounted to me in his own words how his political career began when he ran in the 1970 constitutional convention and how he shepherded martial law UP.

Businessman Joey Leviste gave me his “If the Philippines had a Lee Kuan Yew” and shared how he compiled these essays. I now better understand why Filipino perceptions of Singapore fixed in the 1980s differ dramatically from accounts of young Filipinos who encountered the Singapore of the 2010s under Lee’s son.

I feel blessed to have the autographed thoughts of friends and mentors on my shelf, from Dean Pacifico Agabin’s “Mestizo: The Story of the Philippine Legal System” to the compiled essays of Justice Edward Contreras and Assistant Justice Secretary Geronimo Sy. I received Dr. Caroline Hau’s “The Chinese Question” through Deloitte’s Greg Navarro, and read in cerebral detail how the Chinese-Filipino has been perceived over the decades. We corresponded after the controversy over a national artist’s racist statements some months ago.

The sad reality is that Filipinos are more likely to have read a book by US President Barack Obama than a book by a Filipino statesman, or watched US Supreme Court battles as dramatized in films about Muhammad Ali and Larry Flynt than the dissected nuances of our own intellectual clashes. Some commented that appointees to the new Cabinet held posts in past administrations, but one wonders how many are truly familiar with the policies of those times, such as deregulation under Ramos. I vaguely remember my school history books ending just shortly after World War II, leaving me to discover for myself how we built roads, airports and power plants over the last 50 years.

Perhaps our schools should encourage students to read storybooks for technocrats. Perhaps Ateneo should make sure every student reads “UG” and UP should make sure every student reads Lean Alejandro’s essays. Perhaps our law students should be able to picture firms before Don Alfonso Ponce Enrile and Edgardo Angara dreamt of starting a law firm or Vinluan as a fresh graduate, and realize that there is hope for today’s young, idealistic fools yet.

*** React: oscarfranklin.tan@yahoo.com.ph, Twitter @oscarfbtan, facebook.com/OscarFranklinTan.