Remembering Lolo Monching

Last March 17, 2022 was the 65th death anniversary of the one and only “Guy,” my Lolo, President Ramon Magsaysay. I’ve visited Mt. Manunggal, the site of his plane crash in 1957, several times, even if I’ve never met him, having been born in 1968. He was called “Monching,” by those he was close to. For my dad Ramon Jr. and Tita Mila Magsaysay-Valenzuela, his surviving children, it’s a very different story. For them, it’s always a painful reminder of the time when their father died so unexpectedly, 65 years ago. We go there to that sad and evocative mountain eerie each time to honor his memory. Not many people today know how my grandfather upheld his life as a public servant and a Filipino.

The youth today, especially, should understand that our leaders should be held accountable for their behavior in office. This was a non-negotiable issue for my grandfather, I have been told many times. No one reflected this profile as did Lolo. Since we will have an election in a few months, we should make sure the people we vote for are of a certain moral standing. Lolo, I believe, said it so rightly and timelessly in his Magsaysay Credo: “I believe that government starts at the bottom and moves upward, for government exists for the welfare of the masses of the nation… I believe that he who has less in life should have more in law…I believe that this nation is endowed with a vibrant and stout heart, and possesses untapped capabilities and incredible resiliency… I believe that a high and unwavering sense of morality should pervade all spheres of governmental activity…”

I hope that Lolo would not have died in vein on that chilly mountain top, and that the words of a most extraordinary public servant continue to ring true with the next generation.