by Ludwig Bon Quirog
“I bet he has an office in his dreams so he can work even in his sleep,” joked one of Edgar’s cousins at the welcome lunch of a family reunion nearly ten years ago. This event was missed by our man because of a function he needed to attend in an interior town somewhere in Bohol.
“Kasab-i uroy to, Mommy (scold him, Mommy),” another cousin jested, addressing the statement to Edgar’s late mother, Victoria Migriño-Chatto, the clan’s legendary tiger lady, who decided to put all jokes to rest with her response. “Ayaw laman gud (Let’s not). All he does, he does for Bohol.”
This was in July of 2013, barely two months after he emerged victorious from what was probably the most utterly blistering gubernatorial race he participated in. Perhaps there was some form of rest after all the brouhaha of the election season but largely unnoticed by anybody but his absolute nearest and dearest.
By the time he had hit the ground again shortly thereafter, he was already running. Finally, there was metaphorical use for those old Looney Tunes cartoon characters. There – or rather not there – was a man whose dedication to the people he committed to serve was worth the risk of getting teased by those familiar and comfortable enough with him to do it. A small price to pay to be able to keep one’s word of honor.
Happily, the rest of the time during that three-day affair, he kept his words to the family and stayed. Rarely had he been seen, even by his closest staff, so unreservedly enjoying himself in the presence of many people. This was not the Gov Edgar who had to try to sit straight in spite of difficulty in order to set an example of fortitude to the many eyes watching him. This was Eddie – beloved father, husband, uncle, cousin, nephew, and son. This was Eddie not only giving love but freely allowing himself to receive it.
When Cong. Edgar comes to mind, many things come to mind for many people who have respect for him, but perhaps the most prevalent would be along the lines of “hard-working transformational servant leader.” Perhaps “lawyer” would be a small slice of the pie. Even smaller yet would be “educator” and “economist.” But he is truly all these things – not in varying levels of priority but rather all at the same time. He is also an adoring husband, father and faithful family man.
In the governance chronicle, Lawig sa Pagdumala, published in 2019, we were afforded a sneak peak into Edgar’s life through a short but sweet biography chapter for which his wife, Pureza, fondly recalled for us their love story, beginning with how he won her over at the newly opened Bohol Beach Club and well into their marriage with Sunday nights spent watching what she described so succinctly as no-need-to-think-very-much Tagalog films. It’s stories like hers that make observers realize they only know a minuscule part of a person.
In this very same brief biographical chapter, we are also offered glimpses of Edgar’s what-ifs along with an agonizing brush with fate that set him on the course for what and where he is today. In May 1984, after having resolved to leave public service in favor of his pursuit of the legal profession, the universe said no. Armed with his resignation letter in a briefcase, ready to be handed to then Gov Rolly Butalid, he boarded a car for Tagbilaran City. The vehicle flipped over, violently catapulting our future governor and congressman to the back and causing severe injuries to his leg, as well as a concussion that gave him mild amnesia and made him forget his own briefcase’s combination code, causing the letter he had penned never to reach its intended destination.
The subsequent harrowing episode that ensued can be found in Lawig sa Pagdumala if you get yourself a copy, which is freely available online. But the point of this blurb is that this is why Edgar is perhaps one of the more extreme living examples of selflessness in public service – one with an indomitable and unwavering will to keep going despite the sacrifices that have had to be made in terms of the fulfilment of personal ambitions.
“Man proposes, God disposes,” he said. “I had an entirely different plan for my legal career. I only tried to please my father who really wanted me to go for public service. I tried to resist and follow my own dreams, but I later realized that God simply had to put me where I should be. Thy will be done, Lord.”
Fast forward to 2023, close to 39 years after what for Edgar was perhaps the most physically unfortunate of days, he has gone on to become mayor of his hometown, Balilihan, become a lawyer after single-striking the bar exams, get married and have a daughter, obtain a master’s degree in government management, serve as provincial vice-governor, study at Harvard through a scholarship, take the helm as governor of Bohol, build bridges and roads while keeping the people strong and leading Bohol back up from the ashes and rubble after a series of disasters that were arguably the worst that the province has had to endure in modern history, and then subsequently become twice over a congressman.
Along the way, he bagged an enormous number of prestigious awards like the insurmountable National Centennial Lingkod Bayan Award, the National Dangal ng Bayan Award, and the Regional Pagasa award – the top honor awards of the Civil Service Commission. To date, he is the only official in the Philippines to have received all three. But maybe a list of these tokens of recognition would not be of much interest to this paper’s dear readers. It was done before. A quick Google search and it will easily come flooding on your screen – Governor Chatto this, Congressman Chatto that. Far-flung Edgar representing the country in the US, Europe, Iran, Japan, and a long list of places many would hardly even dream of seeing. Lists and achievements are not what make up Edgar Chatto.
Consider that day in 2013 when he missed the opening of the family reunion to be with people he selflessly served and cared for. Think of the people in the command center of TaRSIER 117 the morning of October 15, immediately after Bohol was struck by a that ground-shattering 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Think of the people in Inabanga whom he visited barely hours after the attempted incursion of the Abu Sayyaf Group in 2017. In celebration of the day he turns another year older, consider the people he rubbed elbows and shared smiles with in those places and during those times, whether in daunting or joyous hours. Edgar’s most important stories live in the hearts and minds of those people and only through them might we truly be allowed to make whole this already great but still partial picture of Edgar Chatto. Perhaps in those stories, in the legacy we may unearth from the tales of those touched and moved by his sacrifices and selfless acts of service, we may one day be able to piece together a gift to give Edgar. But for now, the work continues – ours and his. For now, all we really have to offer are our sincerest and warmest thoughts of gratitude – to him for his service and to God for that beautiful day in 1960, the 21st of February, when Edgar was given to the world.