Godspeed, Sonny Alvarez!

It is with great sadness that I learned of the demise of my good friend, former Senator Heherson T. Alvarez, who passed away this morning. Together with his wife Cecile Guidote Alvarez, they have been confined at the Manila Doctors Hospital for more than three weeks now. I was looking forward for Sonny and I to do our projects like building his Library and Museum in his hometown in Isabela. He also asked me to write his Biography because he said I am the one who knows him well. We have been friends for 30 years since 1990. I became his Consultant in the Senate on Energy & Environment after I gave him two briefings as Executive Director of the Environmental Network Center, Inc. (ENCI) that I founded. His asking me to be his Adviser even without a referral showed that he believed in Meritocracy or Merit System.

We had dinner last February 27 with retired Justice Antonio T. Carpio after his Lecture at the Ateneo de Manila University. It was a lovely dinner with great food and ambiance. I arranged the meeting with my two friends. The agenda of Sonny that evening, which I knew beforehand, was to convince J. Tony to seek the highest public office. It was an Enchanted Evening. I did not know that it would the last time we will see each other.

Sonny Alvarez was the Last of our Freedom Fighters against the Marcos Regime. He was the 'The Last of the Mohicans.' He fled to America where he sought political asylum in 1973 when Marcos wanted to have him arrested. He was against the Constitution that Marcos wanted to perpetuate himself in power. His brother was later tortured and killed. Sonny was one the youngest delegate to 1971 Constitutional Convention (ConCon). The other young and brilliant delegate was Adolf Azcuna from Zamboanga, who would later become Supreme Court Justice and Chancellor of PHILJA. Adolf is also a dear old friend and were "comrade-in-arms" in MANINDIGAN!

While in exile for 13 years, Sonny Alvarez lobbied in the US Congress and the State Department to withdraw its support to the Marcos regime. In between, he managed to obtain his Masters degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University. In 1985,He initiated the expose of the Marcos Hidden Wealth in America through the Mercury Post that was later published in the major national newspapers in the US. The Mercury Post won the prestigious Pulitzer Award for Journalism for its series of articles on the Hidden Wealth of President and Mrs. Marcos.