Tay sin-o si Francis?

a tribute to Francis Cagampang [last modified: 24 June 2021]

A Filipino child grows up having many titos, for tito or angkol is an encompassing term that refers to older men regardless of blood or kinship ties. Once in a while, whether it be in Kalibo or in Iloilo, my father would bump into his batch mates (I call all of them titos) from UPV. And just like that, these worried middle-aged men are transformed into the youth that they were 30 years ago — exploding in jubilation and lively conversations that would last for hours. I would listen to these conversations attentively, and whenever they would reminisce their college days — talking about their inuman sessions at Melly’s or their escapades in “Miami” — I would often wonder how they could retain such memories from 20–30 years ago as if it had just happened yesterday. Now, if it was not about some recent news about their former batch mate, they would go on talking about Tia Melly, Professor Ted Ledesma, or tito Francis. So that after those meetings, when my father and I would drive around town at night or drink at Papa Dan’s during the weekends, I would ask him “Tay sin-o si Francis, mauno to si Francis tay?”

Yes, for the readers whose student numbers fall around 86-XXXXX, it’s that Francis, THE Francis Cagampang. I know that nothing that I will write can describe fully who tito Francis was, but how can I not write about such a man? He is still remembered, with awe and admiration, up until this day. I hear about him through the stories of my father and his friends, from old time profs in the Division of Social Sciences…that even nong Damer in BD speaks fondly of him.

For one, he was a master chess player as tatay would say when he would recount stories about how Francis would play chess with his opponent (who had the chessboard in his possession) in a different room, with only a blank wall to look at, and a walkie-talkie to call out his moves. Tatay also remembers him as a veracious reader, an intellectual in every sense…a “dalom nga tawo” type of person. And in writing? Well tatay would always describe it so vividly — Francis puffing a Camel cigarette while sitting in front of his typewriter (so cool by the way). Though, tatay would proudly claim that tito Francis did worse in Math 11 than he did.

And then we have his master status in campus: he was a well-known student leader and an activist, not only in practice but most especially in theory. Hearing from these stories, I guess he was that kind of tibak who really read the manifesto, and other works of philosophers and social scientists from both ends of the political spectrum for that matter.

Then there was the tragedy of their times; the news that shocked the campus. His untimely death was an unfortunate turn of events marked by foul play and conspiracies. Such is the paradox of life — that those who lead such promising lives, those who burn their light the brightest, are the ones extinguished first. Now all I know about tito Francis is from their old sepia pictures and by the countless stories about him, both by his contemporaries and his mentors. Perhaps there are those people in our lives who we never get to see grow old, those who will live in our memories as immortally infused with youthfulness, with greatness. In our entire lifespan people come and go, but there are those who have beautiful minds, who are outliers or positive deviants. Such is tito Francis and his legacy.

He reminds me why we are really here — that like him we should have that thirst for knowledge, that we must imbibe the motto of our university, of honor and excellence. That we may be committed and passionate in everything we do; and that in the choices we make, here inside this campus, must always be of service for the people.

Treading college life is never easy, regardless of what generation we belong to. And stories like that of tito Francis reminds us just how fragile our lives are. Nevertheless, despite the fragility and unpredictability of life, may we commit what little time we have, just as tito Francis did, to the enrichment of the mind and towards nobler purposes that transcends the individual.

I know little about him, but based on what I have heard, and his contemporaries will surely attest to this:

There was no one like him.