Modesto Farolan, 1900-1979

First, some thoughts on the anti-terrorism bill.

I have not read the full text of this proposed law. The voices of those opposed to it have been loud and clear. The President should consider their objections seriously, and try to address them in a manner that is fair and just for our people and the nation. Sometimes, the loudest voices are not necessarily the wisest, and the turbulence is a way of covering up the hidden agendas. On the other hand, when politicians practically railroad any legislation, especially in a pandemic situation, you can bet your last peso they have other things on their plate.

The important lesson here is we must all vote wisely during elections. We have chosen Western-style democracy and the only way to make it work is to select leaders who have the wisdom and strength to decide issues in accordance with their conscience and not be distracted by all the noise and static that accompany contentious matters.

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In June 1900, Gen. Arthur MacArthur, father of Douglas MacArthur, had just taken over from Gen. Elwell Otis, as US military commander in the Philippines. Judge William Howard Taft had earlier been appointed by President William McKinley, head of a five-man Philippine Commission tasked with formulating a civilian code for governance. The Philippine-American war was on its second year, with President Emilio Aguinaldo in retreat to the north in the face of rapidly advancing US forces. In the Ilocos region, Father Gregorio Aglipay, founder of the Philippine Independent Church, had established an underground organization with a large irregular military component that carried out attacks on US garrisons in the towns of Batac and Laoag.

It was under these circumstances that my father Modesto Farolan was born on June 12, 1900, the youngest son of Marciano Farolan and Escolastica Racela, middle-class landowners in the humble town of Sarrat, Ilocos Norte. By the time he was ready for school, the Americans had established a public school system in the country providing free elementary and high school education. At an early age, he left home to finish high school in Manila. That was the end of his formal education as he quickly decided that he would rely on his own inner strength and skills to face the challenges of a new order under another foreign power bent on civilizing us in their own image.

With no college degrees in journalism, mass communications, or English literature, he started out as a copy boy (maybe, coffee boy was more like it) in a newspaper, The Manila Daily Bulletin. Through hard work, self-study, and a lot of personal discipline, he rose to become a reporter, eventually reaching the top of his field as editor in chief and publisher of one of the leading dailies of his time, the Philippines Herald. His harrowing personal experience during the Battle for Manila in February 1945 as acting general manager of the Philippine National Red Cross is vividly described in Pulitzer Prize finalist James Scott’s bestselling book “Rampage.”

After the grant of independence in 1946, he became one of the pioneers of an infant Philippine foreign service as the first Philippine consul general to the Territory of Hawaii (not yet a State), home to thousands of Filipinos, mostly Ilocanos, who were the original overseas Filipino workers. Hawaii, with its beaches and lovely natural attractions, exposed him to the potential of tourism as a catalyzing social and economic factor in national development, setting the stage for his next activity.

Along with friends from the private sector including Salvador Peña, a close colleague from their Honolulu days, he organized the Philippine Tourist and Travel Association (PTTA), serving as its first president. The PTTA would be the font from which many initiatives and actions in tourism would arise. In 1954, President Ramon Magsaysay would appoint him the nation’s first commissioner of tourism in recognition of his pioneering effort in this relatively new field of industry. In 1990, the Department of Tourism under Secretary Peter Garrucho Jr., would acknowledge his role as “Father of Philippine Tourism” in a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award.

Modesto Farolan served the first six presidents of the Third Republic. In one of our last conversations before he passed away in 1979, I brought up this distinction. Simply waving his hand, he said, “We serve the nation.”

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