Fast forward to 2011, the former military rebel is now a senator on his third term. The good looks that sent many a lady swooning in the 80’s are still there but they now exude a mellower, more laid-back aura. Senator Honasan came to the interview in a light blue polo and slacks, hair no longer black and long but in a short salt-and-pepper cut. The characteristic disarming smile was still very evident and so was the firm, very firm, handshake. The once young 38-year old feisty colonel who was to lead 30 men on a commando attack against a 2000-strong Presidential Security Group, was now an amiable soft-spoken legislator who reminds us that he is a senior citizen.
“I often wish I never lost my anonymity. That is one of the tragedies of my life. I want to bring my family as often as I want to go malling, watch movies, browse books but because I am a public figure, I just cannot do these things anymore,”
That is why he cherishes his quiet moments where he usually indulges in a book. His choices are eclectic although one can glean that the books he reads are profound and deep. His bookshelf includes the works of US President Barack Obama, the 48 Laws of Power to the musings of Pope Benedict, but the good senator recommends the set of books he is now reading: The Game of Thrones, a series of epic fantasy novels following the points of views and plotlines of some noble houses.
“It gives you important lessons in life. I am now on my fourth book and about to read the fifth. I’m just waiting until it’s available on paperback,” he smiles.
As for movies, his all-time favorite is the Last Samurai which, to us, is greatly expected. It has all the elements of a macho movie – action, skillful fight choreography, moral dilemma, poetic justice and even a tender love story thrown in to make the wives and girlfriends watch.
But we almost choked on our drink when we learned that the last movie he watched inside a movie house was an Ai-Ai de las Alas and Ann Curtis starrer “Ang Cute Ng Ina Mo“. Apparently, the movie had a scene where they depicted the EDSA People Power and of course, Gringo was spoofed by actor Moises Miclat. Since it was election season, the campaign crew and the senator decided to take a small break inside the movie theatre in Gatewall Mall, Cubao.
Asked if he gets annoyed when he is spoofed, the senator chuckled.
“When I am spoofed, I am flattered. You see, when no one spoofs you, you are rendered irrelevant. Especially if after spoofing you, they say nobody cares what you think,” he quipped.
Honasan answered matter-of-factly without any hint of self-pride even though one could say he definitely had bragging rights.
“They asked if I could do a movie as myself or maybe a story about my life. But I usually say I am not in that category yet where you should do a story of my life. Second, it will be a boring movie because the moral dilemma in my life is more dialogue, not action. It’s not even sex. It’s all dialogue about the decisions we had to make before we can convert it to action, affirmative action.”
With his strong can-do attitude, one wonders what the young teenage Gringo was like. Images of the popular jock with women at his beck and call came to mind until the balloon burst when Senator Gringo said, “I was painfully shy.”
Honasan discloses that as a young man, he was, “very shy, an underachiever even. But whenever something triggered my potential, I could excel, academically, socially in terms of discipline and skills. I always thought even my capabilities are manifest or kept hidden for a purpose. I believe in Divine Providence.”
It was further revealed that an English teacher saw this potential and made him do the declamation piece “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.” He won first prize but retreated back to his shell after that outstanding performance.
The adult Gringo is perhaps a world apart from the shy, introverted teenager whom he speaks of. He is indeed an enigma and continues to be one despite attempts at being a “regular guy.”
Asked if he has ever commuted, the senator quickly said, “I will.”
He goes on to say that “this has been one of my objectives. How can I talk about making laws that will impact on the basic needs of our people if I cannot physically experience what they go through on a daily basis.”
Again, with his enigmatic smile, he also adds that, “having said that, there are also very few people in this country that has gone through what I have gone through. Maybe I will even venture to say that perhaps 7, 8, even 9 out of ten people will not last five minutes in the previous life I went through.”
Honasan recounts, “And it seemed I felt no pain.”
His life as a rebel was excruciatingly painful in both psychological and physical aspects. He was forever on the run, leaving his wife and children so he could go underground. He left when his eldest was 12 or 13 and returned when the eldest was almost 20. He was imprisoned several times and escaped several times, one of which was the dramatic escape from the navy ship where he brought his captors with him and turned them into supporters.
One would think that with all that happened to him, the charismatic rebel soldier-turned-legislator would be all tough as nails. But he grudgingly admits that he cries often out of anger and out of love, “but I try to do this privately.”
“When you are special forces, scout ranger/ airborne and you carry bullet wounds on your body — including physical, mental, psychological wounds – you avoid crying because it might affect your re-election,” he joked.
In fact, he does this so privately that only his wife has seen him cry and yet, she has never called his attention to it.
Mrs. Honasan is also the reason why, we learned, the senator has personally never experienced a heartbreak.
“All other women I have dealt with were passing objects in my life. I realize the woman I am with is the only woman I truly love. I have frustrations borne out of errors in judgment but it does not translate into what you’d call heartbreak.”
It was also a revelation that a gunshot wound is not nearly as painful as seen on TV.
He opines that a heartbreak would probably hurt more than a gunshot because when a bullet hits you and severs your nerves, there is no pain. He says though that he can offer no basis for comparison between a heartbreak and a gunshot but having said that “I can feel instinctively among people I love, if they are going through a break-up. In that sense, that hurts more than a gunshot. I’m willing to get shot over and over again than watch them go through a heartbreak.”
Over the course of the interview, you can sense how protective the senator is about his family, friends and loved ones. Even more protective than of his own persona. To this end, we were curious how he handles sensitive, personal topics which sometimes border on intrusion. Just how personal could these questions have been?
He thinks long and hard and answers tentatively that, “the fact that I can’t remember any intrusive personal questions probably means I haven’t been subjected to such intense questioning.
I have always been open about my life. What you see is what you get. I get asked about my sexual preferences, my fidelity to my wife but… if it is relevant to what we are doing I don’t mind answering those questions again. But if it’s an attempt to get me agitated or make me lose composure — I can see it coming anyway – so I’m normally prepared and I don’t really mind.”
Talking about sexual preferences, we gamely asked him what he thought of gay people and we were happy we asked him that.
“Gay people? I like them,” he emphasized. “I have this feeling they like me also. Our view of gender and sexual preferences, if you want to push the envelope, should not diminish our humanity, our compassion and our capacity to understand and to love. And to have friends. I have many gay friends and I think we love each other. In fact my wife and I talk endlessly in the wee hours of the morning about — suppose God grants us a gay grandchild? I will probably love my gay grandchild more knowing that the world may be against him or her. And I probably will do the same for any gay person — young or old.
I even remember way back in 1995 or ’96, one of my first legislation was equal rights for employing gays with the late Congressman Calalay of Quezon City. Opportunities, no discrimination. That prejudice has to end. You look at a person and instead of asking what this person is capable of doing or contributing to your company or organization, you will immediately discriminate just because the rest of society is doing it. But now I’m happy that a fresh wind is blowing across the social landscape and I think this is positive.”
Alright now, time for slum book questions! Hobbies, favorite song, favorite restaurant, favorite food, … ladida.
“My hobby is collecting. Right now I have a collection of bladed weapons and cannons- muscle-loading cannons about 5 centuries old. Well, not really a collection since I have a few pieces but I like looking at them and imagining how warfare was because I was a soldier in a previous life. I wonder, how many ships did this cannon sink, how many galleons did it damage, how many men did it kill. But I look at this in a simple historical perspective. In fact, they adorn my home. I also have a bonsai collection. It is the “antidote” to my tendency to collect weapons. I have to complete the picture into what I was and what I am now. So bonsai is the “act of contrition.” (lets out a hearty laugh)
Song? Ray Price‘s “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” and John Lennon‘s “Imagine” – (says lines of best thing that ever happened to me)… “I dedicate this to my wife, children and those who stood by me during good and bad times. And, Imagine is a reflection of my incurable idealism and romanticism. I am forced to wear this temporary costume of a senator for practical reasons. I cannot go on trying to change the world unsuccessfully. My record as a rebel is untarnished by victory (grins). But I have been successful as a soldier comparatively and I think I have done the Filipino people who entrusted me with a senatorial mandate proud. They have nothing to regret. Their votes were not squandered or wasted.”
Favorite food/comfort food? “Strawberries. My grandson also acquired a taste for strawberries. I like cereals. I know it is bad for me but I also like crispy pata and kare-kare and chicharon but when I am confronted with a prospective situation, I back off and go to my strawberries and cereals. I like soup, hot soup.”
Restaurants? “Hap Chan. It’s a cross between pedestrian cuisine, Chinese food, and soup.”
We wondered how the grandson acquired a taste for strawberries until we learned that the Senator’s grandchildren are “delivered” to him at six o’clock every morning. Barring his senatorial and other national duties, he ends and starts his day with a prayer and some play time with the grandkids.
“I don’t want to sound cliché but I really do start with a prayer and end with a prayer. I ask God for forgiveness for my weaknesses. To protect those I love my wife children, officemates, friends…”
“And then I spend time with my grandchildren. They render me invincible. When I hug my children and grandchildren (smile) I feel I can take on anything. I laugh out loud when my grandchildren do their antics. I am amazed that they can communicate verbally and non-verbally quite proficiently. When they are hungry they point to that thing. If they don’t get it they cry, when they do they laugh and giggle. And they say some of the funniest things from left field.
After prayer they start and end my day.”
So do you also change their diapers? “I read somewhere that for some public officials, it would be demeaning for them to change diapers. Not for me and in fact, I go further. I wash my own socks and underwear. I also wash dishes from time to time because it is therapeutic.”
We could not have imagined an honorable senator washing his socks and underwear but we get reminded by the fact that he was once a soldier — and a rebel. From rebel to senator was a grueling path for Senator Honasan but despite all he has been through he has little regrets. In fact, he has, “No regrets. My core values and advocacies, my dreams and visions for the country, for the future of my children… are intact. At this stage in my life I do not have the luxury of regret. Maybe I could have done some things better or prepared myself for something better. I could’ve exhausted communication with those I have dealt with negatively or positively but no major regrets.”
No regrets? Not even in what you have achieved? Would you have wanted to do more?
The senator gives an impish grin and says, “If I were a taxi, bus or jeepney driver, I would have reached my boundary. Everything else from hereon is already a blessing. If God allows it I want to see my grandchildren grown up and see their families but the probability of that is low because I know in my heart that I have more yesterdays than tomorrows.”
When we asked him about his biggest achievement, we expected him to mouth a long list of bills or even the most impactful legislation he passed as a senator, perhaps the Clean Air Act or the Disaster Risk Management Act.
But we were taken aback when he regarded his biggest achievement as “Reflected in the fact that I am just an ordinary soldier who has been thrust by quirks of history and providence into extraordinary circumstances. In all instances, I stood up and responded according to my best lights. And I responded not simply by talking but by acting for the future.”
It is often disconcerting when you have a mental picture and prejudice about a person before you meet him then find out he is nothing you imagined him to be.
We were prepared for a tough-talking soldier who could be mouthing clichés or memorized prepared answers or perhaps even a morphed soldier/politician taught to say the right things at the right time making everything about him seem contrived.
Gregorio Honasan was indeed everything we were NOT expecting. He was a kind person whose firm handshake left an imprint (physically) on us and whose candidness and eloquence both surprised and pleased us.
He gave us simple tips on choosing a president: Willing to make difficult decisions every minute on the hour, day to day. Must be willing to be unpopular so that this person can make wise and visionary decisions. Of course for practical reasons this person must be willing to be assassinated because this person will have to face narrow, selfish vested interests.
Honasan made us realize how important family is to a person and how they should never be taken for granted.
That God should always be above everything and everyone else.
That things aren’t always what they seem to be.
And that ugly ducklings CAN become swans.
“We have to continue praying hard and working hard not only for God, country or ourselves and our families but also for others. Our situation is very dynamic, it’s very fluid. Time does not stop, time does not wait for any man but I guess life is too short to spend getting angry.
I prescribe this although I regret that sometimes I do not practice. We do not have the luxury of anger, of envy, of violence. So what will keep us on high moral ground is when we continue to advocate peaceful, non-confrontational means.
Ironically, the quote that comes to mind is exactly the reverse of what I just said.
This is from Michael Collins, the founder of the Irish Republican Army, which is a success story in Northern Ireland for the peace process – “I hate the British not for what they are or what they pretend to be. I hate them for making violence necessary.”
Honasan added “So, keep ourselves on high moral ground, advocate the peaceful legal constitutional means but when somebody asks for it you give it to him/her full blast so that it will be decisive. Either you win or you lose. End of story, there is closure. Because, to make it protracted at the expense of innocent lives, civilians, destruction of lives and property is I think immoral. It’s criminal.”
To know more about Senator Gregorio Honasan, visit his official website or LIKE him at his official Facebook Page.
——————————————————————————————————-
Cover Feature / Article by PIU and the Orange Magazine TV team.
Cover Photo by Joser Dumbrique
Additional Photos courtesy of Senator Gregorio Honasan’s office
