By JOHN SILVA
It will be very hard to replace Ambassador Sta. Romana in the great halls of Beijing. He passed away just when we needed him the most.
At La Salle College, around 1969, a time of much student tumult, our student body had college senior Chito Sta. Romana as our poster boy in the protests against increasing police brutality.
There were student activist leaders like Gerry Barican, Nelson Navarro, and many others from the University of the Philippines, the fount of radical thinking, but we, from a private men’s college, deemed the lair of elite sons, had, surprisingly, a Chito Sta Romana.
Despite his activist renown, Chito had the bearing of a Christian gentleman. He was not fiery in oration, but still swayed an audience with his thoughtful, organized and convincing arguments.
I wrote articles about the triumvirate Chito, Gerry, and Nelson, about the times we prepared for the rallies. I wanted to get into the before and after of the speech makings, of the temperaments, of the nervous pauses and the ability of our leaders in finding more courage to go against the formidable Marcos dictatorship.
The situation on campus was increasingly fearful. Once the police invaded our college during a rally and a burning of rubber tires outside on Taft Avenue to stop traffic. They started to fire at our direction and along with classmates dove on to the football ground with bullets whistling pass and rustling the grass, Chito with other student radicals traveled to China and got stuck there with the government out to arrest them if they returned. Meanwhile I traveled to the United States, began with other students an anti-Marcos newspaper which got the government’s ire and earned me a warrant of arrest.
Chito and I managed to write each other sharing our fate as exiles. He was learning Chinese, was sent to the countryside to help pick apples and endured bitter Beijing winters. All his letters were upbeat, probably to please the censors or that was Chito’s usual cheery style.
We kept in touch intermittently and the next time I saw him again was back home at an Ortigas Library program on the West Philippine Sea and he one of the speakers. He had just ended a long career with an American TV network based in China. He had become a Sinophile, fluent in the language, having married with two boys born there. He had loved the country of his birth and the other country of his youth and adulthood.
At the program he skirted the more contentious part of who had the right to the islands. Instead he delved into history, explaining China at one time being divided up by the Western powers and, now, asserting itself on the world stage. He may not have given a direct answer but in his rehash of history, it became apparent to the audience what China had become today and how to fend off its imperialistic tendencies.
I was delighted to hear of Chito’s announcement as ambassador to the People’s Republic of China but had trepidations on how he would handle a foul-mouthed President who has insulted other world leaders, bared a despicable misogyny and known far and wide as having gone on a lawless killing spree of drug addicts, pushers and civilians. We had lost our standing and self-respect just as Chito took his new position in China.
Several years later when I saw him in Beijing, it was to discuss an exhibition on the history of Chinese-Philippine relations before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors. Chito was quite excited at the prospect and the embassy’s huge auditorium would fit the exhibition handily and the grounds perfect for the reception and the events surrounding it.
For several days, there was an opportunity, aside from the radical school days, to speak with him about being the representative of a government obeisant to China, indifferent at times to Chinese intrusion in Philippine waters and seemed the weakest of all southeast countries in safeguarding their territorial integrity.
Culture and diplomacy
Chito’s perspectives on the matter were kept close to his vest. He was after all, the Philippine ambassador with the tacit allegiance to his employer, the President and serving at his pleasure. There were moments when he revealed his own notions about the country’s diplomacy, its strengths and failings. In matters about China, he was more reticent, understandably so, given his position and aware that I was an occasional journalist. But Chito would reveal a nugget here and there and given Big Brother, the assumed bugging of the embassy and the provided Chinese chauffeur, his remarks would be in near whispers.
The sum of his revelations were indicative of Chito’s style. He measured his comments so as not to be controversial to the listener. He though affirmed Chinese expansionism and rolled his eyes on the latest gaffes from the homeland but that’s as much one could expect from a diplomat.
Where Chito shone, as he did in many settings where he was an asset to his country, was in his presence at Chinese-Philippine cultural events. I witnessed one such event at the Manila Symphony Orchestra’s performance in Shenyang, China, in the summer of 2019. The orchestra performed in the city’s new cultural center with Ambassador Santa Romana gracing the event. His adroitness in blending linguistically with Chinese officials and Shenyang music enthusiasts enthralled with the Symphony’s musical performance, sealed a lovefest between audience and orchestra that day.
Chito, the ‘70s radical student in exile, once lived in an impoverished China torn apart by the Cultural Revolution. Two generations later, we are driven on an endless eight lane highway, skyscrapers on both sides, malls abound, to a posh restaurant serving the best Peking Duck. He lived through China’s transformation and his compatriots, including myself, cannot help but be awed and inspired having desired the same living standards for our still impoverished country. He imbibed China’s recent history, made a comfortable life for himself and his family and developed a devotion to both countries.
The duality in Chito’s affection allowed him to successfully bridge the cultural and political divide of the two countries thereby foster communication, mitigate the bullying tendencies and the pathetic subservience and instead, reassert the decorum, the diplomatic dignity we imbue each other in today’s tense region.
It will be very hard to replace Ambassador Sta. Romana in the great halls of Beijing. His Chinese counterparts knew fully well they had met their match and likely kept questionable intentions at bay. But now, current events are more precarious than when Chito began in 2016. He passed away just when we needed him the most.