Ben Laggui

Between our frantic search for Randy Malayao who was abducted and tortured by the Philippine Army and the shocking death of Ka Crispin Beltran some weeks back I received another sad news.  Our high school chemistry teacher Benito Laggui passed away.

            

I really wanted to attend his wake, moreso that it was held here in Quezon City.  It is to my shame I couldn’t although I really wanted to personally say goodbye to one of my dearest teachers.

          

There’s a tinge of irony in this, remembering my terror at chemistry even then.  I did not like the subject at all and not only because we have to memorize the damned table.  Like all sciences it involved quite a bit of math.  (I flunked my five-unit Chemistry course in college, if you must know.  I sacrificed an entire summer to get past this awful subject.)

            

Sir Ben had the classroom demeanor that justified my fear of the subject.  The class trembled for fear of being called during recitations.  I remember him asking me a question one time and I gave him a tentative answer. He said he wouldn’t say if my answer was correct but I have to find out in the library after class.  It turned out I was right.  I told him the next day and he said, “In science and in math, tentative answers are wrong answers.” 

            

Mr Laggui was special because he was among the pioneers in our high school.  Upon their shoulders that a once barangay high school grew to become a national high school with thousands of students every year.  (These included the late Mrs Rose Alisbo, Mrs Artogue, Dr Dancel, Mrs Panganiban, Dr Butch Gazzingan, and a few others).  It even spawned two other high schools in our town whose key faculty and administrators came from SPVIHS. 

            

Outside the classroom, Sir Ben  was as cool as they come.  He was always the most popular teacher in school.  He was very friendly and unselfish.  His popularity was such that not a few students stayed with him in his rented room after class and followed him around wherever he went.  I witnessed this first hand, being best friends with his nephew Henry Calizo.

            

Throughout the years when village politics was a great distraction to the school, Sir Ben was virtually untouchable because he was the most popular among all the teachers.  If they dared to single him out they’d would’ve tangled with Auitan’s youth. 

            

But he had a temper.  He was not to be crossed, especially when his hypertension kicked in.  But an apology and a lame joke would defuse him instantly.

            

One of my most treasured high school graduation pictures had Sir Ben celebrating with me.  Some years back when I addressed members of the graduating class, Sir Ben was always beside me, reveling in having tutored (at the time) a national teacher leader.  Whenever he saw Pom, he was profuse with his praises for me it was already embarassing.

            

I never grew to like Chemistry as a subject but I came to know and respect its importance in our lives.  Apart from this, the subject’s saving grace for me was my late high school chemistry teacher.