HIS ARRIVAL was almost unnoticed. Joining the queue at the registration desk, he was asked by a Synergeia volunteer automatically, ?Your name, please??

?Wash,? he replied. The volunteer wrote the name on the ID card without a clue who he was talking to.

Washington SyCip then quietly took his seat, joined the singing of the National Anthem, and listened to a small group?s plan to pursue the education programs of the Ford Foundation after the closure of its Manila office.

The presentation must have piqued his interest somehow. He invited the group to breakfast the following day.

At 7 a.m., as his guests had a breakfast of coffee, fried rice and scrambled eggs, he listened to how mayors and governors were working to make school children learn better.

Mayors Raul Banias and Jett Rojas from Iloilo talked about children from fishing villages without electricity and decent classrooms.

Governor Josie de la Cruz of Bulacan discussed how parents were organized to help teachers while Gov. Rodolfo Agbayani of Nueva Vizcaya was organizing kindergarten classes for children in upland communities. Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo was reinventing the local school board.

They were totally unprepared when the host asked what help they expected from him.

De la Cruz coyly replied, ?We would be honored if you could join us.?

They nearly fell off their chairs when SyCip said he would extend assistance to their organization, Synergeia, totaling P10 million in the next five years.

Annual gift

Following that breakfast in 2003, SyCip has been sending every year a check for P2 million to the Synergeia office without any fanfare.

Last year, he called me up to apologize for his ?terrible mistake? -- he forgot to send the check.

The next morning, a check for P4 million was promptly delivered, representing his contribution for two years.

And to celebrate his birthday in 2006, he added P5 million to his annual contribution, with P1 million set aside for public school children in Naga City whose classrooms were destroyed by typhoon Reming.

And the Santa Claus of public schools continues his gift-giving even beyond the Christmas season. The gifts are prepared not by elves but by his friends and the corporations with which he is associated.

With chestnuts roasting in an open fire in Aspen, Colorado, SyCip talked financier Richard Blum and his wife United States Senator Diane Feinstein into helping children in Mindanao read better.

The couple started a reading program in Misamis Oriental through the initiative of Gov. Oscar S. Moreno.

The president of the power company Steag, Andreas Rubin, became the ninong of a reading program for public school children in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.

A German ?elf,? Bernhard Krueger-Sprengel of Lufthansa-Teknik, gave the gift of reading to children in Taguig City.

Japanese Ryukichi Kawaguchi of the San Roque Corporation got involved in a project for the children in San Manuel and San Nicolas, Pangasinan, and Itogon, Benguet. Vic Ramos, former Environment secretary, pledged his support for children in Natividad, Pangasinan.

Converting the clueless

At a gathering of Filipinos in New York, SyCip almost scolded a rich Filipino woman who talked about the Philippines? helplessness.

He told her to put her money where her mouth was. ?You will not be remembered for your diamonds and expensive watches. But you will be remembered if you help public school children complete elementary education.?

The encounter so stirred the woman that she visited public schools in Tondo and Bulacan and pledged her support to children in Northern Samar.

SyCip personally chooses the people who help run Synergeia. ?I am too old to be the chair,? he said, when he asked Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, president of Ateneo de Manila University, to head the organization.

He gently pressured Solita Monsod of the University of the Philippines, Ramon del Rosario of Phinma, and Fred Ayala of LiveIt Solutions to join the board.

SyCip wants Synergeia?s leadership to survive any individual person.

Sans the reindeer, SyCip flies to villages in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. A strong typhoon in Manila could not stop him from meeting mayors in Maguindanao to discuss how to help the province?s children.

He hosted a simple dinner for the mayors with pancit as the main dish.

Noting the expensive mobile phone and signature T-shirt of a mayor, he asked, ?How can he be rich and poor??

After dinner, we went to a mall where a bomb had exploded two weeks before. I was almost a nervous wreck but SyCip kept his composure. He looked with wonder at Christmas decorations imported from China. I thought I saw a hint of sadness in his eyes, probably trying to figure out how the Philippines could compete against such cheap imports.

He looked at a beach mat selling for P100. He was disappointed to find out it was P20 cheaper than the mat he bought at Tipanan, a three-day Synergeia fair. But after carefully inspecting the mat, he triumphantly declared, ?It is smaller by two folds!?
SyCip, the multimillionaire, demands value for every peso he spends!

Active participation

SyCip?s biggest gift to Synergeia is his presence. He actively participates in board meetings that are held in the SGV office. He never fails to attend education conferences. He is our best cheerleader, ready to give a ?rah-rah? speech to encourage mayors, teachers and volunteers.

In Intramuros in February, during the annual Tipanan, he spoke to a huge audience from the middle to lower classes. It was a crowd markedly different from the collection of friends who attended the formal dinner to celebrate his 88th birthday on June 30.

But the Tipanan people were his people, too. Like a school boy, he clapped his hands and gamely joined the Kislap Sining Dance Group of the Philippine Normal University in one dance number.

SyCip says a person who cannot drink the water in a community has no right to tell the community what it can and cannot do.

SyCip has certainly earned that right. He will drink without hesitation the water that the poor will offer.

He is with the poor and helpless not only for show, but also in spirit, honoring them with his presence and showing them sincere affection.

SyCip gives the gifts of hope and love in June and every day of the year.

The author, winner of last year?s Gawad Haydee Yorac, is president and chief executive officer of the Synergeia Foundation, a coalition of individuals, institutions and organizations working together to improve basic education. Synergeia works with local governments, the Department of Education, socio-civic groups, schools, teachers, parents, and students.