Rufino Morales
December 9, 1944 – August 17, 2010

I first came to know Rufino Morales(only in name) who was then a school principal at St. Louis High School, Solano, Nueva Vizcaya in the early ‘80’s. It was not easy to be appointed principal in a school run by CICM (Belgian and Dutch)fathers. One has to be vetted very well and strictly screened. This was one in a lifetime achievement for him.

As one of the faculty members of the Saint Mary's University then, our financial help was solicited by the Faculty and employees association president who passed a note exhorting the rank and file (350 of us) to help contribute to the expenses of his kidney transplant. At the time, he was in a lot of pain and undergoing dialysis ..But he was able to overcome his ailment, and a brother’s donor kidney was put in place. The transplant was a success but because of the anti-rejection drugs, his face had a tendency to appear bloated and puffed up. I never met him in person in the Philippines even if his wife, Virginia was a co-teacher..St, Louis was run by the CICM (Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of Mary). Until one day...

As a judge in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya in 1983, I presided over a case of homicide through reckless imprudence in my sala. In my court was a husband and wife in tears who remained nonetheless dignified in their grief. When I took a look, it was Ruffy and Virgie. It was because of their late son, Warren that they were in court for. Warren was playing with other kids in a repair shop behind a funeral car. The driver, unbeknownst that a child was playing at the rear of his vehicle, backed out. The poor boy was crushed to death. He was nine years old. At the time also I was three months grieving and already a widower, my late first wife, Concepcion, a faculty member of St. Mary’s College, having died from a vehicular accident. Our respective families, the Moraleses and the Europas were in the same terrible tidal wave length, in the throes of grief at that very moment, but as a judge I had to cast away my emotions or suppress them and be objective about the whole thing. I had to place in a compartment my private life and let my public life prevail and take root: as they say, to maintain the cold neutrality of an impartial judge. I knew first hand what it felt to come across reckless drivers and how to deal with them. But the emotions can be so overwhelming as to make one irrational and inconsolable.

And again in Canada, (after my second wife, Lettie sponsored me and our daughter Rochelle), our paths crossed when one day in 1986 when I boarded a Finch bus going to the subway I saw Virgie at 6:00am, going to work riding on the same bus as I had, with myself going to my parking attendant job. We started to chat and ask questions why and wherefore she and I was here.. She said Ruffy was still in the Philippines (at the time and was to arrive much later in 1994). When he arrived I was told he had landed a job as a cook at the Eaton Centre in a Japanese restaurant. Life proceeded very eventfully for them, and he finally took a job at the Ryerson University as a utility person. This enabled him to send his three children, Brian, Rubi and Tenten to nursing school as they enjoyed the same thing we enjoyed at SMU—free tuition for our kids who pursue their education there. One day in Toronto as Lettie and I were driving, we saw Ruffy seemingly in a daze crossing the street pedestrian lane to their house at Confederation Avenue. The reason he was in stupor, we surmised, was because of his graveyard shift thereby losing sleep everyday. He strutted like a zombie. We called out his name, but he didn’t hear us obviously. But he had sacrificed a lot for his family and saw them through.

We, together with Lettie, Wilfred Fabroa and Melchor Ambatali organized the SMU alumni Association Ruffy was always active and present in every meeting and offered his house many times to host the gathering of alumni. As a friend and colleague, what sticks in my mind is that Ruffy was a simple and unassuming man, humble to a fault and very helpful towards his fellowmen. He remains forever our role model for what defines a father, husband and citizen. He was a humorous person too. When he backed out of his garage, his car hit a post and sustained some dents, he said, “Mahirap palang magbackout na pa-atras.”

May our good friend rest in peace and may he find his company with God the best thing that ever happened to him.

Delano Europa
SMHS Class '61