THERE.
Dom Martin de Jesus: Chants Encounter
He used to be the darling of Manila's fashion glitterati. Now Eduardo 'Gang' Gomez would rather spend his days in contemplation. Gomez, who now goes by the moniker Dom Martin de Jesus, joined the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Bukidnon several years ago to fill a void in his life. These days, Dom Martin attends Matins at three a.m. -- around the time his former self would just be getting into bed.
Gomez, 47, is currently in a period of 'deepening,' where his contact with the outside world is gradually diminishing. He has two more years to go before he has to decide whether or not he wants to take the vow of 'poverty, obedience, celibacy and stability.' For the son of one of the biggest land-owning families in Pampanga, it would mean relinquishing his considerable wealth in order to become a full-fledged monk.
Florence Tadiar: Lady's Choice
Dr. Florence Tadiar's allies call her a lady. But her foes call her an abortionist. Either way, Tadiar doesn't waver in her fight for women's reproductive rights. Simply put, she believes in a woman's right to control her own body. Of particular interest to her is the right of women to choose.
Tadiar took up medicine to help her mother, who was La Union's first woman doctor. In 1966 the United Council of Churches in the Philippines sent her to Singapore to train in family planning. The UCCP also sent her to Haiti to study family planning programs there. Tadiar, who also has a master's in public health from Harvard, eventually set up -- together with her husband -- the La Union chapter of the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines.
'I am not pro-abortion; it's just that I respect the choice,' Tadiar explains. 'Sino ba sila na magsasabi, `Enjoy ka ba sa pag-abort (Who has the right to ask whether you enjoyed going through an abortion)?''
Tadiar knows that the issues she espouses are controversial, and that her stand leaves her vulnerable to religious backlash. But she has no regrets.
'Basta 'yung kailangan, 'yun ang pupuntahan (I go where I am needed),' she says.
Albert Gamos: Tell-Tale Works
If a picture paints a thousand words, then Albert Gamos's illustrations never stop speaking to the hearts of children. As the illustrator of such children's books as Pandaguan: Bakit Namamatay and Tao and the retelling of The Love of Lam-Ang, Gamos has helped transform children's book illustrations from mere space-fillers to unique art forms that tell the story almost as well as the text.
After a stint in film production, Gamos came to children's illustrations via the publishing firm Adarna House in 1980. His ability to make his drawings work with the text has met with acclaim, earning him an honorable mention in the 1983 Biennale of Illustration in Bratislava, Slovakia and the runner-up award in picture-book illustration in the 1992 Noma Concours in Tokyo, Japan.
Gloria Tan Climaco: Plaudits for Audits
Gloria Tan Climaco has always blazed trails in her life. During her stint as chairperson and managing partner of SGV, the biggest auditing firm in the Philippines, she led the company in new directions, expanding into such ventures as revolving trade facility arrangements, capital structuring and debt-to-equity swaps. Recently, she left SGV to blaze another trail by forming her own firm.
Climaco graduated magna cum laude from the Ateneo de Zamboanga with a degree in business administration and went on to graduate work as an SGV scholar at the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Northwestern University. Education is still important to her, judging from her involvement with student groups and the activities of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports.
Climaco's drive and expertise has not gone unnoticed. She was one of 100 young leaders worldwide selected to participate in the 1994 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She was also a 1995 recipient of The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service (TOWNS) Award in the field of business management.
Photo (Albert Gamos)
