about Bobby Lagman
daring God to prove He exists...

Yesterday I had breakfast at Red Ribbon with Veronica.

Two uniformed men, armed with shotguns, came in, did not eat, just sat down at a nearby table, pretended to read the dailies, and kept on glancing at us. Only at us.

“Look at the uniformed men behind you,” I told Veronica, “Is anyone after you?” No, she said. Neither the right, nor the left, I insisted. No, she said, smiled, and continued talking, unconcerned.

But deep within me I thought she should be concerned, for her brother, edgar jopson, was mercilessly gunned down in davao.

And her husband, popoy lagman, was also gunned down in the University of the Philippines.

And the armed men kept on glancing at us.

Veronica is Maria Lourdes Veronica Jopson Lagman, more popularly known as Bobby Lagman, referred to by her enemies as a former communist amazon.

But our breakfast meeting at Red Ribbon was strictly about metanoia.

The uniformed men needn’t have worried. Or be suspicious.

Nothing treasonous, nothing revolutionary about metanoia. Not in feudalistic, or fascistic terms.
Metanoia is merely a conversion. But a total conversion. To God.

God? And Bobby Lagman? In the same breath? In the same Red Ribbon? How did that ever happen?


Well, actually, this is what happened. A couple of months back I was having coffee with Estela j. in Kopi Roti…something arranged by Marvi F., all the way in Vancouver. I was telling Estela, “I am writing a book. About heroes. Heroes of God.”

“I know a hero,” she said…”Bobby..Bobby Lagman… the sister of Edgar Jopson, and the widow of Popoy Lagman.

She is now a member of my cell. My cell in my church..the Victory Fellowship Church. Bobby Lagman is now working with the poor in Leyte, but I can arrange for you to meet her.”

And that is how I came to eat breakfast yesterday with Veronica-Bobby in Red Ribbon, with two uniformed men hovering in the vicinity, doing what seemed like a clumsy surveillance job , and Peter T. at the next table, presiding over a group of blue-blooded Ateneo Grade 7 parents.

“After Popoy was killed,” Bobby was saying, “I volunteered to work with operation compassion for the victims of the flood and mudslides in Infanta, Quezon.”

“I had been an atheist. One day I said to God, ‘GOD, IF YOU REALLY EXIST, PROVE IT !!’

And God accepted the dare. He proved it. Embraced Bobby Lagman in His strong and loving hands. Allowed her to feel His presence. Listened to her. Talked to her. Explained everything to her. Just spent time with her, like a doting father and mother with their searching child…for two years.
…

And God said, “Enough. Now it is time to work .. with my people. All your ideals. And all my ideals. Blended together. All that you are. And all that I am. Together. We have a lot to do. For the future world of your daughter Le-ann.”