My father's stirring tribute to his eldest brother as published in the first
Manoy (Bicol word for an older brother as ‘kuya’ is to Tagalog), as we fondly called our eldest brother Sime, was the second in a brood of nine children of Simeon and Constancia Hidalgo. While he was a generation removed from me -- being the youngest of the flock -- I knew enough about him through the many tales told to me by our father, from reading my brother Sime’s book, The Japanese Occupation (The Way I Saw It), and from many treasured moments of chatting with him during our visits to the Philippines. While our parents tried to show equality in loving their children, there was no doubt that Manoy was their favorite. None of the siblings were jealous of this for we all knew that he earned this special designation -- one born out of the trying challenges of growing up during the Japanese occupation.
Not yet 11 years old at the outbreak of WWII, Manoy found himself depended on heavily by our family as a surrogate father. Early during the war, my father had to go into hiding to avoid capture by a Japanese undercover operative-turned Imperial Army colonel who had a grudge against my father. Fortunately, family friends spread rumors that my father had perished in a motor boat disaster during a local fiesta. That ended the manhunt for my father. Following a guerrilla raid in Naga, Manoy bravely walked alone several miles to the next town to procure an animal-drawn cart from our relatives in order for our family to evacuate from Naga to escape brutal Japanese reprisals against the local population. He sold odd items and wares in the marketplace, and worked as a shoe shine boy.
While on an errand, he witnessed the sudden grisly death of a woman sitting in front of him in a market café during an inexplicable American air raid in the busy Naga City marketplace then teeming with Filipino shoppers. And once when our father took ill and had to be hospitalized, it was my brother Sime who rode his bicycle – although still too large for him -- bringing lunch in a piambrera so that my father could savor home cooking. And even after the war, Manoy would wake up very early in the morning to count and distribute pan de sal and other types of bread baked in the family bakery business to peddlers. It was through this crucible of hard times and difficult living that my brother was transformed from the playful boy that he was at the outbreak of the war to the young man steeled in the ways of the world, enriched with a pragmatic business sense that would help shape his future.
Manoy always aimed to improve himself. Not satisfied with being a lawyer, he gained a business degree and became a CPA while working full time. Later, he would become a Philippine commercial attaché, a position that brought him to faraway assignments abroad. Finally, he joined the Philippine diplomatic service after passing the tough foreign affairs officer exam. His penchant for reading and learning served him well in these endeavors. He rose to the rank of ambassador and later became the director general of the ASEAN. And after many years of loyal service to his government, he decided to take an early retirement so he could concentrate on the burgeoning family business. He and his wife invested and prospered in real estate, co-founding the Rural Bank of Pola. One thing that he proudly told his children: Every single cent he had was earned the old fashioned honest way.
His wife Nene best described him as a “Boy Scout” for his straight shooting ways. This was a trait he had learned during the war and from the constant admonitions especially by our mother that “honesty is the best policy.” He loved his wife and family very dearly. Even while he was mostly bedridden in the last years of his life, the faces or the voices of his children and grandchildren would bring out a smile. His wife lay by his side, the two holding hands, each one comforted and reassured by each other’s loving presence. And when hospitalization from the illness of his wife Nene deprived him of her company, he must have sensed that his love had gone ahead of him.
It was time for him to finish his earthly journey and move on to the next world where our mother and father are now at heavenly peace. He died quietly in his sleep. We who are left behind know that he will be rooting for us and paving the way to a peaceful transition into the afterlife when our time comes, much in the same way that he helped our family along in its most trying times.
(Parting words to my eldest brother, Ambassador Sime D. Hidalgo, who passed away on June 19, 2015, at the age of 84. He was born in Sto. Domingo, Albay and grew up in Naga City. He graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Law and later became a CPA. He held the position of director general of the ASEAN, became the first Philippine Ambassador to Cuba, later Philippine Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. He and his wife of 59 years Leonor “Nene” Larracas Hidalgo co-founded the Rural Bank of Pola which has over 10 branches in Oriental Mindoro, Camarines Sur and Albay. The couple has four children and 10 grandchildren.)
About the author: Dr. Cesar Hidalgo is a practicing neurologist in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He is board certified in neurology, vascular neurology and neuromuscular medicine. He is a clinical associate professor in neurology at Wayne State U School of Medicine. He works at Crittenton and Troy, Beaumont Hospitals