I Do Not Seek To Be Remembered

By: Tito Ted Haresco

If the people of Aklan no longer remember that I helped initiate the Kalibo International Airport, the Guadalupe Bridge in Libacao, the Tigayon Bridge, the Kalibo 2 Bridge, and, if it is God’s will, the Northern Panay Economic Corridor Bridge, I will be perfectly content.

Many decades from now, people may no longer remember who first dreamed of these projects. They may forget the economists who justified them, the engineers who designed them, the architects who imagined them, the workers who built them, and the public servants and private citizens who made them possible. Time has a way of erasing names.

But what time cannot erase is the life of a child.

I can already imagine a little girl crossing the Northern Panay Economic Corridor Bridge with a smile, knowing that the journey home to her family is no longer long and difficult. Every day, she gains precious hours—hours to study, to play, to dream, and to be with those she loves. Her parents now have greater opportunities because markets, jobs, schools, hospitals, an international airport, and an international port are within easier reach.

One day she may look across that bridge with pride and say, “I am from Batan. I am from Aklan.” She will grow up in a place no longer limited by geography but connected to the world by opportunity. She may never know the names of those who helped make it possible, but she and her children will inherit the future they chose to build.

For me, that is enough.

Because in the end, God will not ask whether people remembered our names. He will ask whether we used the talents He entrusted to us to make life better for others.

If the laughter of children, the prosperity of families, and the dreams of future generations become the true monuments of these bridges, then that will be the greatest legacy any of us could ever hope to leave.— tth