The late Blas F. Ople, who served as senator and labor and foreign secretary.
My sister, lawyer Dalisay Ople-San Jose, recalls Sunday masses with our parents, and hearing my father’s tuneless rendition of “Ama Namin.” After every Sunday mass came lunch with the grandchildren at the Kamayan branch on EDSA. There, the troubadours would play his oft-requested songs: “La Cucaracha” and “Spanish Eyes.” Yes, my father loved that Spanish song about a cockroach. When we rode in his car, we had to push away piles of books in the backseat. He read books with ease, tucking away facts and phrases in his photographic memory.