During the night of our enneagram workshop on Independence Day, the senior KKP volunteers and I had the privilege to visit the wake of agrarian reform activist “Ka Rene” in the Immaculate Concepcion Chapel of Xavier University. Over a span of an hour, I listened to a series of speeches given by several people close to him. There was also a video tribute for him chronicling the highlights of his march and victory for the 144 hectares Sumilao lands. Aside from the feeling of dread and loss over this heroic man, the one thing I wish to share is the simplicity of leadership embodied in his story. He proves to me that great leadership is something polished not just from books, lectures, seminars, workshops, project management and the like. It is safe to assume that this man never attended an enneagram workshop, never got to know his number and appropriate it to himself, never got to know what examination of consciousness is, never got to know what the “theories of development” is. What he had is a vision, born out from his lifetime experience of tilling the land which he marched for more than a thousand kilometers just to own. And from this, it changed everything in his life. This is I believe, how leadership is formed. It is born out of vision from experience – skills and following will just naturally follow. His story validated my personal belief that leadership is trully a way of life. It is not just something for the educated and the people in position; it is a gift and a call for all.
Even though i never got to know him personally, the life he lived is enough for me to know who he trully is. His body may be gone, but as what the Sumilao farmers always cry, the spirit of the struggle for genuine land reform which he embodied will live on! Mabuhay ka “Ka Rene”!
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