One of the things that I truly love about WBF is that it has truly been international since the day the site opened with members in countries all over the world. When we went live in April 2010 all of the members who joined on opening day became Founding Members. One in particular that day stood out. He was young, bubbly, full of excitement and emotion and wanted to moderate our "World Music" forum. He knew more about music and stereo than most everyone here. He can light up a room with his presence. He always has kind things to say about everyone and never was offensive to anyone. He came from the Philippines. JackD201 helped transform WBF into the forum it is today. Jack and I became instant friends and have had a wonderful relationship since 2010 when WBF opened. I had the pleasure of hosting Jack and his brother Jim in 2011 and we have been great friends ever since
Why am I mentioning all of this and why am I opening this thread to pay tribute to my good friend Jack? Plain and simple. I wanted to recognize Jack for more than the person we know here at WBF . Jack is a humanitarian in every sense of the word and I wanted to offer not only my personal congratulations to Jack but also that of the membership as Jack was re-elected to the Philippine House Of Congress after having termed out after 9 years in office from 2001-2009.
For those who don't know Jack let me give a short synopsis of his public life which IMO is something that we should all strive to equal for Jack and his family are humanitarians in every sense of the word.
He was the representative of the 1st District of Rizal Province from 2001 to 2010. In the Philippines terms are 3 years with a limit of 3 said terms. He entered at the age of 31. Within 3 years he was the whip of his party which happens to be the second largest party in the Philippine Congress. He left politics in 2010 to be able to spend time with his growing children. Despite the 6 year absence he continued to serve in a private capacity through his family foundation that specs, builds and donates turnkey computer and speech labs to educational institutions. He also served as a Regent for their State University. He enjoyed private life until he was called up to serve by his party once again. He filed my candidacy in October and was proclaimed the winner yesterday after the complete results were turned in and verified. Jack won by an unprecedented margin of over 200,000 votes thanks to the overwhelming support of not just his party but all the other political parties in his district. Opposing parties did not field candidates against him because of good relationships he had with them in the past in turn based on his reputation of always being firm but fair in all matters. The warmth with which Jack was received by his province mates was extremely heart warming and serves to really motivate Jack to do the best he can and then some. It's a responsibility Jack took very seriously then and still does now. If anything has been added it would be an increased sense of urgency that Jack says stems from being older and hopefully wiser. His primary advocacies remain Education, manpower development, international trade and the environment with a particular focus on responsible waste disposal.
Jack my friend, I laud you and your public crusade. You wear many hats in life but none are so important as helping your impoverished constituents. They are in good hands under your watch Jack. You are always full of energy with a smile from ear to ear. You make people feel good when they are around you Jack. In short people know and understand how much you care.I am so looking forward to Cathy and I visiting you in August and hear your wonderful sound system as well as brother Jim's, Philip's, Jerry's and Sam's. There is such an abundance of world class systems to hear that I continue to mark my calendar.
In summary Jack I want to extend my biggest congratulations to you on your landslide election victory. There was never any doubt in my mind that you would be re-elected and I wanted to give you a big shout out here as members need to know the public character behind just a screen name here.
I'm proud of you Jack and even more proud to be your friend. Hopefully you will still find time to drop in here at WBF and share your knowledge of the hobby with us and let us know how you are doing
Why am I mentioning all of this and why am I opening this thread to pay tribute to my good friend Jack? Plain and simple. I wanted to recognize Jack for more than the person we know here at WBF . Jack is a humanitarian in every sense of the word and I wanted to offer not only my personal congratulations to Jack but also that of the membership as Jack was re-elected to the Philippine House Of Congress after having termed out after 9 years in office from 2001-2009.
For those who don't know Jack let me give a short synopsis of his public life which IMO is something that we should all strive to equal for Jack and his family are humanitarians in every sense of the word.
He was the representative of the 1st District of Rizal Province from 2001 to 2010. In the Philippines terms are 3 years with a limit of 3 said terms. He entered at the age of 31. Within 3 years he was the whip of his party which happens to be the second largest party in the Philippine Congress. He left politics in 2010 to be able to spend time with his growing children. Despite the 6 year absence he continued to serve in a private capacity through his family foundation that specs, builds and donates turnkey computer and speech labs to educational institutions. He also served as a Regent for their State University. He enjoyed private life until he was called up to serve by his party once again. He filed my candidacy in October and was proclaimed the winner yesterday after the complete results were turned in and verified. Jack won by an unprecedented margin of over 200,000 votes thanks to the overwhelming support of not just his party but all the other political parties in his district. Opposing parties did not field candidates against him because of good relationships he had with them in the past in turn based on his reputation of always being firm but fair in all matters. The warmth with which Jack was received by his province mates was extremely heart warming and serves to really motivate Jack to do the best he can and then some. It's a responsibility Jack took very seriously then and still does now. If anything has been added it would be an increased sense of urgency that Jack says stems from being older and hopefully wiser. His primary advocacies remain Education, manpower development, international trade and the environment with a particular focus on responsible waste disposal.
Jack my friend, I laud you and your public crusade. You wear many hats in life but none are so important as helping your impoverished constituents. They are in good hands under your watch Jack. You are always full of energy with a smile from ear to ear. You make people feel good when they are around you Jack. In short people know and understand how much you care.I am so looking forward to Cathy and I visiting you in August and hear your wonderful sound system as well as brother Jim's, Philip's, Jerry's and Sam's. There is such an abundance of world class systems to hear that I continue to mark my calendar.
In summary Jack I want to extend my biggest congratulations to you on your landslide election victory. There was never any doubt in my mind that you would be re-elected and I wanted to give you a big shout out here as members need to know the public character behind just a screen name here.
I'm proud of you Jack and even more proud to be your friend. Hopefully you will still find time to drop in here at WBF and share your knowledge of the hobby with us and let us know how you are doing