Search for a Sec. Jessie

I instantly asked why bad things happen to good people.

Faulty the logic of this notion maybe, this is the first that popped out of my head after I heard the breaking news about the plane crash involving DILG Sec Jessie and 2 other companions.  

I had the privilege of meeting this amazing public servant personally during the 2010 Election and had a surprising greeting from him on my 21^st birthday on my facebook wall (though I doubt if it was really him who wrote it) which made this confusing and difficult event more personal. Above from these unexpected specks of personal encounters with a powerful man, my personal admiration for him draws from his persona of simplicity. I see him, as mush of the public does, as the living testament that hey, there can be a local public servant who can make real and tangible the principles and ideals of good and progressive governance in the community level (his reforms instituted in Naga City when he was mayor). That is why I feel that his immense multi-sectoral search and rescue operation headed by no less than the President of the Republic shows he is too “matino” of a guy, too exceptional of a public servant to be lost forever. He can do so much more for this nation in his capacity as the Interior minister and we embrace all hope that he can still return.

I hope that whatever the outcome is, the massive search that has paused the nation becomes a torrent of search for a Sec. Jessie in our own localities and communities, a search for better local leaders whose character of simplicity stands intact. This is the kind that empowers and the search of Sec Jessie continues.