Recto: The elder Angara left the nation with a better Angara

The “elder” Angara has passed away, but he left the nation with a “better” Angara.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto noted this on Wednesday in his eulogy at the Senate’s necrological service for the late Senate President Edgardo J. Angara.

“Every time we meet, I would tease him as the elder Angara, and refer to his son, Sonny, as the better Angara,” Recto said.

Recto recalled how the elder Angara would break into a smile every time he would report “how the better Angara had been faring great in his old haunts.”

It could “only mean father pride,” the senator said.

Recto expressed his admiration for the late senator’s belief in diversity of views and his own ability to make his arguments heard sans bombastic speeches.

“At a time when winner-take-all seems to be the norm, he conceded when he was wrong and sought consensus to break stalemates, for he believed that progress was a product of give-and-take,” he said.

He added: “He knew when to stand ground and when to seek common ground.”

The senate leader underscored Angara’s courage “to defy the wisdom of the crowd with views which may not be popular but right” as trolls force politicians to merely say what everybody believes.

“There is another facet of the man worth remembering and emulating, and that is to respect divergence in beliefs, value the contribution of the opposition, and harness contrarian views in improving policy,” he said. /ee