Posted on April 16, 2013
This is my nth try in starting my journal about Jack and Sally, my parents. Somehow, though I have finished almost final drafts of the first ever blog, these disappear into cyber- heaven. Meanwhile, a second blog written painfully about my father’s death makes it to print without a hitch.
My father’s name was Bernardo and in his Coron family, he was always known as “Dading”. My mother called him “Ding”. I always thought it was a shortened “Darling” but, of course, it’s a shortened Dading. I knew my father mainly as Jack, a name that he took on as a student at MIT in Boston when he was a government scholar in the 30’s. It is the name that he used in his professional career.
At anytime, even today, my father’s journey can only be considered remarkable. Born of humble means in remote Busuanga in Palawan, his parents were dignified, educated, of some status in their small town. Basilio, a fisherman, founded the town of Concepcion, after he and his community left Culion as it became the country’s leper colony. He eventually became the “inscritor” of the parish priest, taking copious notes of the goings on of the community. Josefa, his mother, was known as “maestra”, a 4th grade graduate but, at that time, educated enough to teach others to read and write. Josefa was driven about schooling. She moved her family to Cuyo to stay with her relatives to make sure they had better education. As family funds could only support the elder kids, Basilio and Josefa agreed for her youngest 2 sons to move to Iloilo with the Thomasite teachers. Her 5 sons all graduated from college in Manila and pursued professional careers.
Bernardo was always special. He graduated valedictorian of his grade school and high school classes, went to Silliman University for an Associate Degree, moved to U.P. where he completed his college degree in engineering. He pursued marine engineering and naval architecture at MIT in Boston, graduating with enough distinction that MIT would often request him to represent the university in several academic events in Manila. Years later, he got Outstanding Alumnus Awards from both Silliman and UP.
I did not know much of my father’s government career, I was born at its peak, but have enjoyed my mother’s studious clippings of that time. I have snippets of memory – of the motortug trips to Mariveles, Bataan, summer vacations in cooler Baguio, and travels with family to Camarines Norte, Iligan and even Tawi-Tawi.
My Father's Gifts 
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