Roco in search of Camelot

``THINK back,’’ the late Raul Roco had mused, seemingly swallowed up in a fog of memories. ``Think back on all the tales that you remember of Camelot.’’

The words from the 1960s Lerner-Loewe musical often cascaded from Roco’s lips, as he thought back on how King Arthur sang about that ``fleeting wisp of glory, called Camelot.’’

Roco, former congressman, senator, education secretary and presidential aspirant, died of cancer Aug. 5. He was 63. He will be buried today in Naga City. Roco and another 2004 presidential contender, Fernando Poe Jr., died within eight months of each other.

``We were the Camelot boys,’’ Roco recalled when I interviewed him in his Antipolo hillside retreat named An Maogmang Lugar (Bicol for ``the happy place’’) famous for its tropical blooms that became the signature design of his campaign get-up.

The dream--how far back did it go, when first did the glimmer of the presidency come into view?

It was in 1961, Roco said, when he was president of the National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP), that something stirred in him. ``Those were the Kennedy years. Pres. Kennedy spoke of Camelot. `Right is might.’ When he said, `Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,’ it was as if he was addressing me.



`` I was popular in campuses. People would say, continue on and run for president. That is the Filipino dream, like the American dream that every one could be president. As a student leader you start thinking of it, but you don’t really dream of it.’’

In Nov. 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. ``All of a sudden Camelot vanished,’’ Roco recalled. ``But dreams never die, never die.’’ And being a student leader then, he saw the value of politics, that ``power can serve.’’

The tragedies that stalked those he idolized were not lost on Roco. He remembered the day Pres. Ramon Magsaysay died in a plane crash in 1957, the people weeping, lining up to buy newspapers. Here was someone he had not even met but for whom he, like so many people, shed tears.

Roco was chosen one of the 10 Outstanding Students of the Philippines of 1964. He would later marry the most outstanding student of that batch, Sonia Malasarte, with whom he has six children

Roco finished law, magna cum laude, at the Benedictine-run San Beda College. He finished his masters degree in comparative law at the University of Pennsylvania.

After he passed the bar in 1965, Roco lobbied for the holding of the Constitutional Convention. With the ConCon law passed in 1967, Roco campaigned for a seat to represent his district in Camarines Sur. He won.

He later joined the staff of Sen. Benigno ``Ninoy’’ Aquino Jr. He drafted the study-now-pay-later bill which was part of Aquino’s campaign promise. Then Pres. Marcos declared martial law.

Roco moved on to corporate law and joined the ACCRA law office that produced several national politicians. As a legislator and self-styled ``honorary woman’’, Roco authored pro-women laws. He was also known for authoring laws reforming the Central Bank.

Aksyon Demokratico, Roco’s fledgling party, pushed his 1998 and 2004 presidential bids. In 2004, Aksyon linked up with Promdi and Reporma, the party machines of two 1998 also-rans Lito Osmena and Renato de Villa, to form the Alyansa ng Pag-asa (Alliance of Hope). Roco had an incomplete senatorial slate composed of political virgins. He ran on the ``agenda of hope’’ that stood for major reforms in the government.

Roco rated high in pre-election surveys and was considered a strong presidential contender in 2004. But halfway through the campaign, illness forced him out of the campaign trail. He was back soon enough to rally the Roco die-hards but by then his chances had greatly diminished.

Roco was arguably the most intellectually prepared among the presidential aspirants. One could easily imagine him taking his place among world leaders, or steering the ship of state through rough waters.

Roco was a great public speaker, using just the right decibel, inflection and cadence in his words. He often quoted from poetry and put human faces on his data. He spoke not only to inform but to inspire. His spiels were punctuated with Pinoy witticisms and truisms. He could even sing.

He described himself as a follower of Peter Drucker, management guru and author. Management is like conducting a symphony orchestra, Roco said. His management style gave the people in the education department, which he headed briefly, a culture shock.

Roco proudly said that the department was stricken off the corrupt list after seven months. Over a year later, Roco resigned in a huff. He resigned on a point of honor, he said.

To An Maogmang Lugar, Roco often hied off to smell the flowers. Great world leaders, Roco often reminded, needed solitary moments to find the strength within themselves.

His idea of God? Roco laughed while recalling a story. ``The ant was asked what its idea of God was and it answered, `I have one sting, God has two.’ God is an eternal presence. One could believe in a supreme deity, or in creation or in extreme patriotism to serve. As a Christian I believe that Christ is God. The Christian tenets were what kept us fairly civilized.’’

Faith and politics, Roco believed, could mix, if both could translate into good works.

Roco dreamed of a Philippine image before the world--that of a nation striving to be honest and honorable. ``Filipinos are honorable,’’ he told the Inquirer. ``It’s our leaders who are not. There is no nation that has grown without a sense of honor.’’

Raul Roco was ever in search of Camelot. He passed on during this very tumultuous time in Philippine politics.#