Embedded Files
Mario Marigomen Taguiwalo
PSHS Batch '69
Birth: 1951
Place of Birth:
Death: April 22, 2012
Mario Taguiwalo's laughter - and unbearable grief
Rappler Article by Judy Taguiwalo, April 24, 2012
Excerpt:
"Nonoy was barely 13 years old in 1964 when he was accepted as a member of the first batch of Philippine Science High School (PSHS) scholars. Already enrolled as a first year student of the Negros Occidental High School (NOHS), he hastily left for Quezon City. Our first cousin Ann Marigomen, who was his classmate in NOHS, would always say it was a good thing that Nonoy went to PSHS because this made it possible for her to become valedictorian of their class.
He would be the first in the family to study in Manila. I would follow him the next year when I entered UP Diliman. I think we started our involvement in student activism at around the same time but in different settings.
Even before the First Quarter Storm of 1970, his PSHS batch held rallies in Malacañang to demand for a permanent location for the high school which at that time was renting the Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA) in the compound where the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines is now located. By the time he enrolled in UP, he already had a good grasp of the history of nationalism, and in his first semester he also became a member of SDK, my own mass organization.
SDK, which stands for Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan, resonated with us as our father was named Democrito. That was not the real reason why we both ended up as SDK members, but our father was not unhappy with our choice of organization.
We both returned to Negros in 1971 to continue our political work. But even before martial law was imposed in September 1972, he had become politically inactive. He got married and went back to school.
Even then, he was not spared by the military. He got arrested and spent several months in a Philippine Constabulary prison which was just then 10 minutes from our home in Bacolod. After his release, he enrolled in La Salle, Bacolod, where his acting skills were honed under the tutelage of Peque Gallaga. I believe his role as the Mad Hatter in a production of Alice in Wonderland was his first theater role."
Photos
Other links
scanned from the PSHS Batch 1969 yearbook
Documents
Essay: Remembering the father in the season of the son
by Mario Taguiwalo, GMA News Online, published August 21, 2010
Obituary: Mario Taguiwalo, leading thinker in the Cory Aquino administration
GMA News Online Article by Howie Severino, April 23, 2012
Excerpt:
"When Mario T. Taguiwalo was a 34-year-old Undersecretary of Health in the early "revolutionary" years of the Cory Aquino administration, he would say that behind his back, the Department of Health's civil servants would nervously call him "Taga-walis." Then he would erupt in that signature guffaw of his, seemingly proud of the moniker.
He could ghost-write eloquent speeches quickly in both English and Filipino, he argued persuasively, he thought strategically, he cracked jokes at just the right time, breaking any tension with that exuberant laugh. His stamina for work was legendary.
He was the right-hand man of the equally brilliant Bengzon in nearly every major health initiative of that era, including the ground-breaking Generics Act that changed the way doctors prescribed medicines, and the Milk Code, which promoted breastfeeding and introduced reforms in the distribution of infant formula.
But Taguiwalo's analytical skills were employed by the government on non-health concerns as well, as he was involved in peace strategies and civil service reforms.
His idealism was already evident as a young man, having been a political detainee during Martial Law. His sister Judy spent even more years as a detainee in Camp Crame. He belonged to the generation of professionals fired up by the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983, leading to his service in the government of Ninoy's wife Cory.
Beyond his reputation as one of the most versatile intellectuals of his time, Taguiwalo also had an artistic side, appearing in character roles in movies directed by his good friend Peque Gallaga, a fellow Negros native, with whom he conceptualized the classic period film "Oro, Plata, Mata." Taguiwalo was a witty writer, contributing in the mid-1970s a famously prophetic essay about EDSA in the literary magazine, Ermita."
Our memories of Mario Taguiwalo
Inquirer Article by Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, October 21, 2012
Mario Taguiwalo in the Internet Movie Database:
Mario Taguiwalo was born in 1951. He was an actor and writer, known for Unfaithful Wife (1986), Misteryo sa Tuwa (1984) and Hinugot sa Langit (1985). He died on April 22, 2012.
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