Edcel Lagman: His mother’s son

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

This first appeared in “Follow the Leader,” a book honoring reproductive health champions, published by the author and Chi Laygo-Vallido in 2016. Albay Representative Edcel Lagman passed away on January 30.

Edcel Lagman’s first name came from the names of his parents, Pedro Eduardo Diaz  Lagman and Cecilia Castelar.

Today, his name would be considered “baduy.” But in those years before World War II, a mother naming her son as such was very unusual. At the time, children were named after the calendar saints dedicated to the day of their births or were “Juniors,” as Edcel’s father — also a teacher but who went on to become a fiscal in Pampanga — originally wanted.

“My mother had a rebellious spirit in her. My mother was a feminist,” Edcel said of his mother, who was an elementary school teacher in the town of Tabaco, Albay.

Edcel said that the families of both her parents were very religious but his mother went with what she thought was right, even if it wasn’t the religious thing to do.

Edcel is the eldest and Cecilia, who was teaching Grade V and VI students, decided to teach in Grade I so she could supervise the education of her son.

Edcel was an outstanding pupil even then but it turned out that he was not really doing well in school.

“I don’t really know how to read. I just memorized the books of my mother,” he said.

The school learned that he was just faking it so when the principal asked him to spell 20 words, he didn’t get any word right.  

But after that, Edcel began learning and reading in earnest. He became so good in school that some people accused him of cheating.

“From a non-reader, I soon frequently perfected the tests so they thought I was cheating,” he said.

Edcel also decided to help their family (he would eventually have six siblings) by becoming a newspaper and lottery seller.

“I was so competitive that I would run for two kilometers from the terminal to the town so I would not lose out to my competitors,” he remembered.

“I wanted to help my parents with the small amount I earned,” he said.

Other than learning journalism at a young age, Edcel also learned compassion from the other newspaper sellers and readers he met.

Eventually, he would become a model student in high school and college at the University of the Philippines where he would become an editor of the Philippine Collegian and a cum laude graduate in 1962. Eventually, he took up law also at UP and graduated in 1966.

“I really like the practice of law,” he said. He interned with a Supreme Court justice who taught him the finer points of administering justice.

When he became a lawyer, he set out to be a corporate lawyer but he later transferred to becoming a labor lawyer because his compassion was with the common workers. He also defended workers if their human rights were trampled upon.

When Martial Law was declared in 1972, he tried to be less vocal in his assistance to workers but his younger brother, Hermon, who followed him and their father in lawyering, became a desaparecido (among the disappeared) because of his compassion for the masses. Hermon was now honored as a hero. Another brother, Filemon, who was more popularly known as “Ka Popoy,” went on to become an underground commander but was later killed when he returned to a normal life.

Edcel decided to tread a safer route as a leader by going into politics. After President Ferdinand E. Marcos left for Hawaii as an exile, Lagman ran for congressman in his hometown and served for three terms from 1987 to 1998, and again in 2004. Two of his children also followed him in politics and they were as committed as their father.

He was known for initiating the laws for land reform and cheaper medicine as well as against enforced and involuntary disappearance, which was what happened to his brother, and against the death penalty.

But he was now known for supporting the reproductive health bills through the years.  He said that he supported an RH bill because it would help Filipinos get out of misery and poverty.

Edcel said that he was at times frustrated about the opposition but felt that he had to fight it out. He wasn’t a pesky competitor for nothing, he said.

“You have to accept some things and people cannot be changed and so you have to work on the other things and people,” he said.

He advised young students faced with a formidable task to be industrious. “There is no substitute for industry. You have to be industrious and hardworking at all times to succeed.”

“You may have the talent but if you have no dedication and industry to harness it, it would come to nothing,” he added.

Lagman also said that honesty is a trait you need to be a good leader as well. “You have to be honest to yourself and others.”

While other people were peddling lies against him and his allies, he said that he never lost his cool and wanted the issues debated with all honesty. “I took pains to explain the facts and only the facts about what the bill is all about and what it is not,” he said.

Lagman said that he even had to resign from his other committees just to concentrate on pursuing the RH bill.

“I woke up early and slept late. I attended forums everywhere, even in seminaries,” he said.

Of course, it also helped that you really have to read through all the sides. And no faking it.

For all that he has done, his mother must be so proud to include her name in his son. – Rappler.com