MEDIUM RARE

When President BBM announced his appointees to the executive team, he declared, “I have an Ople in my cabinet.”
 

(Quite like bragging, “I have a Bentley Rolls in my garage.”)

After that mention of “Ople,” we have not heard any other name presaging a presidential appointment.  

  
Susan “Toots” Ople deserved every word of her boss’ introduction. Ferdinand E. Marcos had the legendary Labor Secretary Blas Ople in his cabinet, and now Ferdinand Jr. had Ople’s daughter in his. But all too soon Toots has left us, after a short stint during which she accomplished much more than some deadwood would have in their sorry offices in a hundred years.

It would’ve been easy to describe Toots as the child of her father who was also the father of the OFW movement, but where Blas was a blast of authority every time his stentorian voice sailed across a room, Toots was the type who stayed away from speeches and mics. Blas loved the power of words, Toots did most of her work away from a public that she served with such dedication. Yet her job of looking after Filipino expats was more than a labor of love. Proof of her global reach was that among the first to mourn her loss were the ambassadors of many countries that thousands of Filipino workers call their base, or second home.

Many years ago when Toots found herself as a senatorial candidate and we had lunch at Larry Cruz’ café, I asked why I couldn’t see any of her leaflets and tarps coloring the landscape. When I asked for a sample ballot, she would’ve laughed in my face if she could. Instead, she simply shrugged her shoulders in a “que sera, sera” way. I did not have the heart to ask if there was, indeed, an OFW vote.

In my mind, then as now, I want to think that overseas workers and their families did not want to share Ms. Ople with 23 other senators in a forum where sponsorship and privilege speeches, debates and interpellations, endless hours of committee work, etc., etc. was run of the mill, when they could have her, body and soul, all to themselves, for themselves, 24/7, anytime anywhere in the world.