"Remarkable" is how Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana sees his late mom Juanita Napeñas Negrillo-Lorenzana.
On Sunday, May 9, Lorenzana honored his mother in celebration of Mother's Day as he recalled how she persevered to give quality education to all her sons and daughters despite their poor living condition in Cotabato in Mindanao.
Born in Midsayap, Cotabato, on October 28, 1948, Lorenzana said that his mother was a housewife to his father, Teodoro, a farmer.
"Sa anim niyang anak (apat ang lalaki), isa daw doon ang walang magandang kinabukasan dahil tamad sa pagtulong sa bukid. Lagi lang nagbabasa ng kung anong mahagilap na libro. Ako 'yon (Among her six children, four of whom are boys, one allegedly has no bright future ahead of him since he was too lazy to help in the farm. He usually read whatever book he found. That's me)," Lorenzana wrote in a social media post.
Lorenzana shared that her mom was born to a sharecropper family, which means that hers was a family of tenant farmers who gave a part of each crop as rent.
"She never went to a formal school due to her father’s misplaced belief that girls do not need education. But she’s a remarkable woman. Nagpursige siya na matutong magbasa at magsulat sa Ilocano (She persevered to learn how to read and write in Ilocano)," Lorenzana stated.
The Defense Chief said her mother had promised to herself that her children would never experience the hardships she had to endure as a child, hence, she did her best to keep them in school.
Luckily, five of the six siblings in the family finished college.
Lorenzana finished his primary and secondary schooling in Parang, Cotabato. After high school, he spent two years at the Notre Dame University in Cobatato City and entered the Philippine Military Academy in 1969 where graduated four years later.
"She passed away 39 years ago but those years had not lessened my longing to see her and to thank her for her guidance and love. How I wish she lived long enough to see me succeed," Lorenzana said.
"Agyamannak unay kenka, Mamang! (Thank you very much, mama!) Happy Mother’s Day!" he added.