A Filipino in Sierra Leone (Pastrana)

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

A Filipino in Sierra Leone
Sunday, 10 19, 2008

Last week I was into a state of passive TV watching when a news flash about the opening of the Parliament of Sierra Leone made me sit up and take notice. Sierra Leone is a tiny state in the West African Region which to most Filipinos would have remained foreign and unknown had it not been for the movie Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, the film portrays the struggle between the government soldiers and rebel forces, atrocities committed in that war, including amputation of people’s hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Anyway, from what I gathered in the news, the war had come to an end, and there they were – an emergent new democracy with a full-scale Parliament.

As I scanned the sea of solemn faces gathered at that Parliament opening, I thought I recognized a familiar profile among them. But wait, I asked myself, do I know someone in Sierra Leone? So I looked hard at the screen, and to my astonishment I almost fell off my chair when I established without doubt that the person sitting in the front chamber – just two seats away from the President of Sierra Leone who was delivering his State of the Nation Address – was indeed not only a familiar face but also a close friend. Susmariosep. What was my friend Reginald Pastrana of Odiongan, Romblon doing in Freetown, Sierra Leone? – and in the Parliament at that!

I would not have been surprised had it been a film clip showing Reggie (as most friends call him) in the gallery of our Philippine Senate. For, after all, the Senate is where he used to belong – as director of the Legislative Research Service. I remember he used to cut quite a figure at the Secretariat even during the days in the 1990s when I was deputy secretary for Legislation.

Aside from being the youngest director in the Senate, Reggie possessed a brilliant mind that lay behind that boyish countenance, which on the one hand endeared him to not only a few of the ladies, and on the other, earned him the respect of his male peers because he could give as good as he could take, whether in formal, high-level, academic discussions or during after-office high jinks and boisterous fun, especially when he is with that chum of his, the “juvenile” old man Dan Pinto of the printing service.

Reggie served the Senate well and with great distinction. Not a few senators turned to him when they needed well-researched and documented papers to support a bill or a stand on a current issue. To Reggie’s credit, he never allowed this recognition to get into his head; he remained a very humble person. And to a point of being a pushover for sob stories, he was everybody’s Good Samaritan. Seldom was there anyone who approached him for some help (mostly pecuniary) and came away empty-handed – and on occasions like he would insist on being kept anonymous. To date, nobody really knows how many people, in and out of the Senate, that Reggie has helped, but it is safe to say that his philanthropies extend to aspiring seminarians, charitable organizations, out-of-school youth, and just plain, unfortunate down-and-out losers in society. Not bad for a young man who retired from the Senate at a very young age and went on to manage a couple of corporations in the Philippines as chief executive officer.

Life is full of surprises. Now I learn that Reggie is, in effect, the chief architect of the development of the Parliament of Sierra Leone. He has been selected by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to institute vital institutions reforms to the Parliament of Sierra Leone. Reggie is doing a great job and has already won the hearts and minds of the members of the Parliament. No less than the Parliamentary Service Commission headed by the Speaker of the Parliament gave Reggie a commendation for his study and suggested innovations toward the development of its parliamentary services.

We should be very proud of Reggie’s accomplishments. He is carrying the torch of pride and honor not only for our government but for our country as well, as we have yet no diplomatic relations with the Republic of Sierra Leone. During his interviews with international media, including CNN, Reggie was very proud to emphatically mention that he is a Filipino. Hearing him proudly asserting his nationality, I get prouder still, basking in that inner glow and satisfaction that somehow, as mentor/friend of the quondam Reggie of the Senate, I helped mold the Reggie in futuris of Sierra Leone, who is now at the forefront of the development of that country.

Reggie does not need to work so hard in a far-away land just to earn a living. The guy has already retired from the government service and has formed several thriving businesses in the Philippines. He has written several books of legislative significance and I had the opportunity to be a co-author in two of those books. All he needs, as we often say in the Philippines, is to sire a child and plant a tree! But, given the prominence, prestige and opportunity to serve in the UNDP, as well as the challenge in his present position to be able to impact on change toward the peace and development efforts to post-conflict Sierra Leone, I honestly think he is simply spreading his altruism on a much wider scale, beyond the borders of his beloved Philippines.

The people of Sierra Leone are lucky to have engaged the expertise of a Filipino, in Reggie whom I consider to be one of the best a OFW could ever hope to be.

Kudos to you, Reggie, for a continuing life of quiet professionalism and unwavering generosity!



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