Bert Lina’s legacy of love
Alberto “Bert” David Lina may have passed to the Eternal Kingdom, but his legacy of love for his family, for his work, and for God will pervade this eulogy (that I edited and abridged to fit my limited space here).
LET ME BEGIN WITH HIS LOVE FOR HIS FAMILY. Bert loved his wife Sylvia endearingly, tenderly, and eternally. She was the light of his life and the apple and mango of his eyes. Though already in his 70s, he was always Sylvia’s swain of 20, singing ballads, composing poems, and crafting love letters of undying affection.
Bert had given Sylvia unusual gifts on her birthdays, like a brand-new Jaguar car, brand-new Bosendorfer piano, and a special gumamela flower variety which he asked the University of the Philippines in Los Baños to breed in pink, Sylvia’s favorite color. Years ago, he donated the auditorium at the De La Salle Zobel in Alabang and christened it the Sylvia P. Lina Theater. Let us guess what he, if still alive, would give Sylvia on her next birthday. A helicopter? A spaceship to fly her to the moon? A new baby boy? Well, the difficult, Bert could do immediately. But the impossible would take him a little while.
Bert loved his four daughters, April Rose, Donna May, Sheila, and Bertha Ann. He sent them roses on Valentine’s and never forgot to profess aloud his love for them day and night, even if he prohibited them from having boyfriends till after finishing college.
Bert loved his four grandchildren, Andrea Rose or Andy, Alberto Wynn or Alwyn, Aurelia Joule, and Aurora Jane. He loved to play hide-and-seek with them. They were the only people who could countermand his orders.
LET ME PROCEED TO BERT’S SECOND LOVE—his work. He loved to create, to innovate, to reinvent, to think out of the box. He loved challenges. He worked his brain and brawn to solve them. He saw problems as opportunities, not obstacles, to success.
Bert loved all his 21 companies including those he recently sold to the Ayala Group. He wanted to make them grow, develop, and attain his vision for them. They are involved in diverse fields, including logistics, outsourcing, communications, connectivity, films, creative designs, sports, entertainment, land transportation, solar power, and even in waste management, the polite name of the portalet system he originated.
Bert loved his 2,800 employees scattered all over the country and abroad. He called them his partners and collaborators, not “alalays.” Each one got a free meal every day, with healthy brown rice. All—regardless of rank—participated in production bonuses and profit sharing.
Bert loved our country, warts and all, passionately, ardently, and single-mindedly. He talked to his daughters all the time about how to rid it of corruption and misgovernance, and how to propel it to first world status. For this reason, against my advice, he accepted the tough job of being commissioner of customs twice, once under former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and another, under former president Benigno Aquino III.
Bert loved golf and golfers. He held tournaments during his companies’ anniversaries and his birthday celebrations; he fed them breakfast and lunch and gifted them with tee shirts, golf balls, towels, and other souvenirs.
Bert loved classical and popular music. He was the indefatigable funder of the Manila Symphony Orchestra and a logistics sponsor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra, as well as a patron of concerts and musicals.
LET ME NOW SPEAK OF BERT’S THIRD LOVE—the Almighty God. He credited the Lord with everything he was and everything he possessed. He was merely the steward of God who directed him to use his wealth prudently to spread His word and reign. That is why, at my request, he donated the ultramodern, computerized Carillons in the Manila Cathedral, the St. James Church in Alabang, as well as in Naga City, in Pila, Laguna, and in Mandaue, Cebu. He told me they reminded him of his mortality every time they chimed.
Bert loved the poor and the dispossessed. He never forgot his roots and his struggles against destitution and dispossession. That is why he held medical-surgical-dental missions for them and literally shed his blood during annual company bloodletting. He supported several charities, especially the Red Cross and the little-known Guiding Light Ministries of Aklan.
I have known Bert since 1969 when he was a young audit team member of L.C. Diaz and Company. He intensified our relationship when he asked me to be his and Sylvia’s wedding sponsor. Since then, I considered the couple and their four lovely daughters as integral parts of my family. In fact, I call Donna May my “daughter by choice” and she calls me “Dad CJ.”
And since those halcyon peso-and-centavo days when we first met, Bert—the poor boy born in Tondo, Manila with roots in Laguna—had risen to be a Filipino taipan with an authentic rags-to-riches story.
As I contemplate his grit, his inexhaustible energy, his exemplary rise in life’s ladder, I keep remembering the one word that unravels the secret of his gargantuan success. And that one word is LOVE, his enormous, googolplex love for his family, for his work, and for our Almighty Lord. Truly, to God be the glory!
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