Necrological Services at Batasan, Quezon City Part 3

NECROLOGICAL SERVICES

FOR THE LATE

CONGRESSMAN ERICO B. AUMENTADO

THE SECRETARY GENERAL.Eulogy by the Honorable Eduardo R. Gullas, Representative from the First District of Cebu.

EULOGY OF REP. GULLAS

REP. GULLAS.  Early in my freshman college years at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, I learned from the erudite, learned and holy Reverend Father Angel Blas, professor, writer, author, and Father Rector that man is made up of body and soul.

The body dies but the soul is immortal.  No truer and more valid knowledge and truth than this scholastic philosophy teaching can man find.

Therefore, though the body of my dearest friend dies, his soul lives on.

It would be too much to ask, it would be too unhuman to expect Comadre Greenie and the children, the grandchildren, the brothers and sisters of Compadre Rico not to grieve.  Human as we are, the only recourse we have is to cry.  Tears are our only refuge.  For after all, they are mandated by heaven to fall.

But we must pray as we cry.  We must ask the Lord as we grieve, to receive his soul in God's bosom.

           

I am most aware of my inadequacy to extol Congressman Erico but let me try.  Elected and served as a provincial board member, later on as vice governor.  Elected Congressman in the 9th, the 10th and the 11th Congress and in the middle of the 11th Congress, elected Deputy Speaker.  Elected governor 2001 to 2004, 2004 to 2007 and 2007 to 2010.  Elected RDC Chair and then elected Congressman again last May 2010.

           

Earlier on, he graduated valedictorian in both elementary and high school.  Even as a working student at the University of Bohol, he finished his BA, Magna Cum Laude, his law, Cum Laude. 

           

In all these positions that he occupied--as a student, scholar, despite being a working student, as a lawyer, a trial lawyer, a public servant, Erico did it with the greatest of skill, with utmost devotion and with honor.

           

Time is truly fleeting and swift.  It was only as if yesterday, Compadre Rico and I found ourselves working as fellow workers in the Regional Development Council of Region VII.  I had the honor to serve as Chair and he was one of the province of Bohol's young, brilliant leaders.

           

At the end of the year, we won the star-symbol of excellence.  Among all the RDCs in the country, we crafted the first Regional Development Investment Program.  So impressed, the World Bank adopted RDC-7 and the Central Visayas Regional Project came into being.

           

And then, Congressman Erico went on to conquer more stars--250-kilometer paved circumferential Bohol road; three huge dams to irrigate barren fields in Ubay, his beloved hometown, Pilar and San Miguel; power interconnection thru submarine cable connected from Leyte lighted the whole province of Bohol;  Panglao International Airport; and the last one, he dreamed of a bridge to connect Jetafe town of Bohol to Cordova passing thru the island of Pandanon.

            The kindest words we can muster and the most heartfelt paeans of appreciation we can offer today sound so hollow, and are so ruefully inadequate to honor the memory of this Boholano.

            The people of the whole province of Bohol and the constituents of the Second District, whom Compadre Rico served so humbly yet so honorably and so brilliantly, pause to do honor and homage to a real servant leader.

            I thank you Compadre Rico and the whole family for your friendship.  Indeed you shall be missed.

Your monument need not be erected in marble for it is enshrined in the hearts of each and every Boholono.

And finally, may I conclude with the very inspiring prayer of the great Saint of Assisi,  St. Francis of Assisi.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.  Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.