The Legacy of Rick Paloma…or Tatang for the PAL Family

The Legacy of Rick Paloma

…or Tatang for the PAL Family

By Apolinario Villalobos

 

 

To say goodbye to a beloved

Is hard enough, how much more

If that beloved has impressed

In our heart everything

That he can impart

Just so, in this world, we can later

Be at our best

As we do our part.

 

He tried his best right from the start

Earning his keeps by honest toil

Firm determination and bold foresight

To be where he would be someday

And he did not fail

As all of us can now say.

 

He will always be a part of our memory –

An inspiration that shall guide us

For what he has left for us to keep

Is a legacy that shall guide us along

While we tread the road towards our destiny.

 

Let us thank him, this man Ric or Ricky to some

But Tatang to most of us who have known him

As a big brother and a doting father;

He whom we see as the perfectionist

He who wants nothing but the best

Making us realize later

That what he really wanted was for us to learn

Though the hard way,

… and that, friends, is his legacy.

 

 

 

For Ric Paloma

For Ric Paloma

By Apolinario Villalobos

To say goodbye to a beloved

Is hard enough, how much more

If that beloved has impressed

In our heart everything

That he can impart

Just so, in this world, we can later

Be at our best

As we do our part.

He tried his best right from the start

Earning his keeps by honest toil

Firm determination and bold foresight

To be where he would be someday

And he did not fail

As all of us can now say.

He will always be a part of our memory –

An inspiration that shall guide us

For what he has left for us to keep

Is a legacy that shall guide us along

While we tread the road towards our destiny.

Let us thank him, this man Ric or Ricky to some

But Tatang to most of us who have known him

As a big brother and a doting father;

He whom we see as the perfectionist

He who wants nothing but the best for us to learn

Though how hard it could be

… and that, friends, is his legacy.

 

(A tribute to the late, Mr. Ric Paloma. Just like most of PALers, who built their career on a humble, yet sturdy foundation of lowly position, Ric started as a porter in Davao station, moving up till he became a VP for Marketing and Sales-Phils., and as SVP-Finance, a job he held until he was 65 He instructed his secretary, Bill Trinidad, to clip my poems and essays that saw print in dailies and magazines, showed them the me, gave me Xerox copies, while we were having coffee, as he packed his things to bid PAL goodbye, as a retiree.)