Leonora San Agustin, 96

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

TO COME home to her beloved Baguio.

This is perhaps Leonora Paraan San Agustin’s last and dying wish, according to youngest daughter Lorie Ann Damasco. “My sisters and I decided to bring her to Davao where my doctor-sister resides because her pneumonia was acting up. I thought she’d get better there with the warmer weather,” Damasco shared. But Damasco said they started to wonder why their mother wasn’t getting any better. In fact, she was slowly getting weaker and weaker. This was when they decided to bring her to a doctor and do a series of tests. “This was the only time we found out she already had liver cancer, very advanced. She did not show any signs of this. But we decided not to tell her, to let her live the rest of her days without worries.” On the other hand, after only a few weeks in Davao, Damasco received a phone call from her older sister, saying their mother wanted to come.

And so she was brought home.

Greatest lesson learned
Dr. Ron Paraan, son of the late Colonel Francisco “Ping” Paraan and nephew of ma’am Leonie, said the greatest lesson they ever learned from the matriarch is integrity.

‘Never compromise your integrity,’ aunty Leonie always told us,” the doctor recounted. And Paraan was quick to admit he always lived in fear of not being able to live up to the name one of the oldest and most recognized families in Baguio.

“I did not have that problem at all,” Damasco jokingly said. But their lessons in integrity never stopped, not even in adulthood. “Two years ago, I told mom to start teaching me the ropes in the museum. She refused saying it was ‘nepotism’,” the bunso said.

Leonie’s passions
San Agustin spent the best years of her life serving Baguio. She was a teacher of the Baguio Colleges Foundation for 45 years. “She was one of three original witches of BCF, together with Nenita Rico and Corazon Concepcion. They were the ‘terrors’ back then,” shared Doc Paraan.
And upon retirement moved on to become caretaker of the Baguio-Mt. Province Museum where she served for twenty years until her death.  “It was a long and tedious process to revive the museum,” Damasco said.
She first did an inventory on the properties of the museum then started sourcing out for more artifacts. “Imagine her shock when she found precious items piled on one corner of the building. Later on, more and more benefactors were coming to her, donating more items to be housed in the museum. Then the National Commission on Culture and the Arts and Mayor Mauricio Domogan gave her the necessary funding to renovate the building.”  This is San Agustin’s greatest gift to Baguio, according to Damasco.

“Oh, how she loved Baguio,” Paraan said. “She loved our weather, the pine trees.”  But during a trip around the city with Paraan and his wife just recently, San Agustin lamented how the pine trees were fast disappearing. The way Doc Paraan told this story one could almost imagine how this broke the old woman’s heart.

The three witches
San Agustin is more popularly known to be part of what Baguio folk fondly call “The Three Witches,” a trio of ageless women at the forefront of issues concerning the city. Leonie together with former Mayor Gene de Guia and media icon Cecile Afable have proven to stop machinery, politics and sometimes the weather (or at least people think they can). The three good friends were bonded by a love for the city. The three were and are still considered a force to reckon with, even today and in Leony’s death, the city mourns for a person loved and respected even in her passing. It is said if they stood around a tree, no one would dare cut it. A hush goes around when the three witches arrive at any given event, maybe in awe of their achievements and in fear of their wrath, people tend to give all of them space whenever in the room. In social issues the three are always summoned to give courage to a fighting group’s lost cause; a rally’s impact is sometimes gauged if the three would bother to attend. Today, the three take pride in saying they have never let Baguio down; their memory may be hazy but still can tell a hundred stories of triumphant fights, funny anecdotes and the anticipated juicy gossip.

Unforgettable
“When I told her about the tribute the museum was holding for her she said, ‘They should,’” related Damasco. She added her mom always said she was not well-loved but well-respected.  But San Agustin is well loved. And well-respected, too. Her battles will not be forgotten. They will always serve as inspiration to those who love Baguio as she did even in her death.  And as we bid goodbye to one of the city’s long standing pillars, the fervor to save and fight for Baguio burns ever so brightly in our hearts.

(May Anne Cacdac/Malen Catajan)
Published in the Sun.Star Baguio news on December 03, 2011