Former village ‘maestra’ rears two generals SINDANGAN, Zamboanga del Norte—Gloria Bandong-Yano, 86, of Barangay Disod in this coastal town, started as a classroom teacher in an adjacent village grade school, and is perhaps the only former educator in the country who produced two sons who both later became Army generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Incidentally, Yano—who retired as public elementary school principal at age 63—is also the current chairman of the Office of Senior Citizens Affair (Osca) of Sindangan, a post she has been occupying for the past five years. As Osca municipal chief, which carries a salary grade 16 amounting to P16,000 a month, the octogenarian former school administrator volunteered to receive a reduced monthly honorarium of P10,000 “just to serve my fellow elderly constituents.” Previously, she was the longest-serving president of the over 8,000-strong Sindangan Senior Citizens Association (SCA). Yano’s oldest son—with her late spouse Iñigo Yano (who died as a municipal councilor)—was former commanding general of the Philippine Army. Lt. Gen. Alexander B. Yano later rose to become a five-star general as AFP Chief of Staff, the first Mindanaoan to reach the AFP’s highest post. After his retirement in 2009,Yano was appointed by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as ambassador to Brunei Darussdam. Alexander, married to Ilocana military nurse Estela Aragon whom he met during his stint as 1st Lieutenant in Tarlac, was commander of Task Force Zamboanga during the November 27 and 28, 2002, Cabatangan, Zamboanga City, crisis, a serious military problem, which he ably resolved through commendable diplomatic means that resulted in the safe release of 35 women, 15 children and 60 males held hostage by heavily armed Moro National Liberation Front rebels. Yano’s second son, Maj. Gen. Cesar B. Yano, followed the footsteps of his older sibling. Cesar was previously deployed to various field assignments in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao before he was sent to the US as “Defense Attaché” in Washington. He reached the military compulsory retirement age of 56 in May 2013. Yano said her two older sons were both graduates of the prestigious Philippine Military Academy at Fort Pilar in Baguio City where they also excelled in athletics. Gideon C. Vidal, incumbent president of Sindangan SCA, described Yano as “one of the most respected elders not only in the first class town of Sindangan but also in the entire province of Zamboanga del Norte,” Western Mindanao’s biggest and most populous province. Vidal said Yano, whose “sunset age” has never dampened her passion for tending to the needs and problems of her elderly-citizen colleagues, “is a mother worth emulating for having played an extraordinary role in molding her five children into successful professionals.” Her three other children are Iñigo Yano Jr., a civil engineer; Ophelia B. Yano-Martinez, a physician, and Marcelo B. Yano, a prominent businessman-town councilor. Yano, whose recent birthday was a grand family reunion attended by all her five children, their spouses and her 14 grandkids, now lives alone with some domestic helpers in the family’s ancestral home at barangay Disod. She told the BusinessMirror during her birthday celebration late last month, “I want to leave this wonderful world happily serving other people.”
Posted on: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 23:29:56 +0000
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