My Journey

One of my favorite subjects way back in college was business law.  I had three law subjects and modesty aside, the marks I earned for myself will not go below 90%.  Atty. Bacatan and Atty. Ruiz were my professors then.  Both are brilliant but Atty. Bacatan is one of the few teachers who made an impact in my life……

I appreciated Law the first time i took it because of him.  I remember him  with his beret  and attache  case.  He has his button down shirt neatly tucked-in in a pair of slacks that had been pressed well.  That "get-up" is really his’.  He radiated in him the passion for teaching because he was never absent nor late for our class.  He has a way of illustrating any provision in the article that made it easy for us to understand. As for the exams he gives, it’s one of the few I appreciate.  I always love answering them.  The items call for applying everything that has been taught to us in our Law class.  There’s no dull moment from the start of the exam until the end. 

Atty. Bacatan’s "impact" in my life, however, goes beyond his being the reason for my liking of Law.  During my senior year, there was an opportunity when I got to visit him in his class. If I remember it right, I was asked to bring a note to him and there he asked me if I’m graduating with any academic award.  I was not sure yet that time if I am but he congratulated me nevertheless.  I took that as a manifestation of a very personal teacher.  Someone who cares about his students and does not come to school simply to earn a living.  That simple "act" is so great that it has allowed me to recognize and appreciate the person in me…that after all, I’ve got the stuff…that I am significant….I didn’t get the chance to tell him that he’s one of those few people who helped me earn my self-esteem…

We became collegues in the academe but not for long as he has stopped teaching already.  Since then I have not seen him…..and never will I because he has returned to our Creator..When I recall how he was back in ATeneo the memories are as colorful was when he was still alive.  Immortality, yes, Atty. Bacatan has achieved that through the way he lived his life….the way he touched people’s lives…the way he touched mine….

Thank you Sir…that’s what I could have told him if he were here.