Lambent Laoag

Lambent , adj., glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance.

Anyone who has been to Laoag would understand why the place deserves to be labelled the lambent light of the north. This city in Ilocos Norte is a fairly hot place where sun rays are more than abundant. People there also do their share in making the city glow. Ate Mercy, a 34-year old mother who works in the city hall, does her part by focusing the lambent spotlight on the historical places in Laoag City.

She works as an administrative staff in the city hall and is mainly in-charge of accepting and guiding educational tours, or as she called it, “lakbay-aral”. To always be in time, she wakes up at 6 a.m. daily and has her breakfast at home before heading to the city hall. If there are no booked educational tours, she spends her day in the public information office, transcribing news from different radio stations. These news are spread to the locals in Laoag to have them enlightened on the current happenings in their city.

Ate Mercy works 8 hours a day from Monday to Saturday. At night, off from work, she cooks for her only daughter and spends the rest of the day with the little one. She can only spend a whole day with her daughter during Sundays when they attend mass together in the Laoag Church. Out of all the tourist spots she brings students to, this particular church is on top of her list. Why? It’s because this is the place where she can relax, embrace her cherished one, and at the same time connect with the Lord. With a very busy work schedule, she only gets to rest during Sundays. The church, for her, has become a place of respite and refuge.

On Rizal: A Hero and an Inspiration

Adamancy is one of the core values that Ate Mercy has learned through life’s adversities. As a single mother, she is solely responsible for securing green and safe pastures for her daughter. Like the churches in Laoag, she has to remain unshakeable. Personally, she considers this value as epitomized in the life of Dr. Jose Rizal whom she referred to as Bayani ng Bayan. Her reasons for calling him such transcend his literary works and life sacrifice for the country. What makes him more of a hero, aside from the things he is already famous for, are the values and ideologies that were immortalized posthumous. Ate Mercy is on the same side with Rizal when the latter claimed that the youth is the hope of the motherland, or more commonly known as “Ang kabataan ay ang pag-asa ng bayan.” This is because they have more years, compared to the older ones, to do their utmost effort in alleviating the country’s state. With this, she urges the youth to take their studies seriously, especially since not everyone is given the opportunity to do so.

Rizal resonates to her until today mainly on how she treats her family. As the seventh child and the youngest boy in the family, he received so much love both from his parents as well as his eight sisters and only brother. Even amidst hectic schedules of juggling between being a revolutionist and a loverboy, Rizal never failed to make time for his mother, Doña Teodora, and to recompense her for all that she has done. Ate Mercy wants to translate the same degree of devotion to her current family. She dreams of providing and sustaining her daughter’s needs so that the latter may grow up well. Being a single mom, this quite a tough job for her but she doesn’t buckle down. Like the moth from Rizal’s childhood, Ate Mercy carries the value of pursuing one’s dream and not treating the hardships in life as reasons to chicken out.

Gratitude is what she feels towards Rizal, and “thank you” would be the first words she would utter if given a chance to have a face-to-face encounter with her Bayani ng Bayan. Reasons being that she owes a lot of her current values to him and that he is one of the catalysts of the country’s independence. The deeds of Rizal are so unique to him that Ate Mercy considers no other person deserving to be called “Modern Rizal.” For her, Rizal is natatangi or exceptional. However, she also believes that anyone can also become a hero just like Rizal.

#hero