Good Morning Judge: A tribute to greatness

RAMON H. FELIPE, JR. has crossed the Great Beyond and his remains lay in state at the Imperial Funeral Parlor along Penafrancia Avenue, this city. He died at the age of 97. During his lifetime he was among the leading private practitioners in Naga City and in the process he has touched so many lives including this writer who worked at his law firm as his messenger-clerk while studying pre-law at the Ateneo de Naga University. Years later after this writer passed the Bar, he was taken in as Associate Attorney at the law office where he learned the rough and tumble of private law practice. Sometime in l984, Felipe was appointed associate member of the Commission on Elections and thereafter Chairman of the Commission. I recall that when then President Ferdinand E. Marcos appointed him to the Comelec he was a leading member of the Liberal Party and Chairman of the Party in Camarines as the then incumbent Congressman of the 1st District of Camarines Sur. Marcos, under pressure from the opposition, nonetheless appointed him to the position and reportedly asked him to just be fair. Despite his prominence in Naga City and the Province of Camarines, the late Ramon H. Felipe, Jr. remained humble, approachable and can easily relate with the poor and those who have less in life. That could be the reason why he easily won both the mayoralty race in Naga and after two years he was tapped by the then President Diosdado Macapagal to join the congressional race in the 1st District of Camarines Sur (Camarines Sur has only two congressional districts then) which he handily won. My spouse Minda recalls an incident when, while I was still an associate at the law office and I was out in Court, she called up the law office to ask me to drive my sick daughter to a doctor. Minda related that right there and then, Atty. Felipe asked his driver Jimmy to drive Minda and my sick daughter to the doctor using his own car. Through this column therefore, in my own behalf and that of my spouse Minda and the rest of my family, I wish to extend our utmost and sincere condolences to the bereaved family of the late Commissioner Ramon H. Felipe, Jr. TRIVIA: Birthday greetings to our daughter Ginny who will be celebrating her Nth birth anniversary this coming Sunday, June 25. She is presently on assignment by her office in Minnesota, USA.. QUOTATION OF THE WEEK: NEARLY ALL MEN CAN STAND ADVERSITY BUT IF YOU WANT TO TEST A MAN’S CHARACTERGIVE HIM POWER” ABRAHAM LINCOLN FOR OUR WORD OF LIFE “For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. “ 2 Cor 13:4