Tesay Glinoga

In her small niche in her office, Bilancia, and even before that, she prefers to work quietly in an almost semi-hermitic life for the past years, modest as not to announce her little achievements, and chooses to be forgotten. With so much of humility to stay in the sidelines, Tesay now finds it difficult to advertise herself in her political battle against the perceived political giants who have learned the art and skill of making noise and empty promises during election season.

Her aching soul dictates that she took her fight to a higher level against the ills of the city. Maria Teresita “Tesay” Glinoga-Hizon, by a twist of fate, might suddenly find herself on center stage if and when she becomes the first woman Mayor of the City of Manila.

Tesay Glinoga sat quietly and very unassumingly for the interview with Manila Times. It was not until she started discussing her passion through advocacies centered around street children to drug users; from women’s rights to youth empowerment; from her projects “March Na! An Ode to Women” to “Men for Women Movement;” from “Kulay Malaya” to “Lambong” that Tesay proved that she is not only tough, but she has compassion for the poor and the abused.


She is a combination of a spritely spirit and a heart of steel. Most people would not expect that she is definitely made of tougher stuff than most that have gone through similar experience she had underneath her quiet and simple façade. The dark nights of her soul catapulted her spirit to the service of God through her advocacies for the rights of women and children, the poor and the oppressed.


Thus, she summarizes her Mission-Vision in a poem she wrote:




Tesay, after a long process of discernment, decided to step up to the challenge of undoing at least 25 years of neglect of the city that rendered its progress paralyzed. Easily and expectedly, Manila has been overtaken by its more progressive and competitive neighboring cities in Manila and its counterpart in Asia.

“Neither do I have the delusion nor illusion that the task can be done overnight. The least I can promise is I will not dip my fingers in any money that is not mine; and I shall do the spadework for others to follow,” Tesay says with conviction..

Tesay feels that the city of Manila has become virtually unlivable; it has made life tremendously difficult for women and children to protect themselves from the dangers of urban living. Its present state has reinforced evil to lurk in every nook and cranny, easy bait for hungry stomachs to slip into criminal activities. She says, foreboding, “The good is being overtaken by massive evil; the good must get out of their comfort zones if we want to win the war. We do not have the right to make other people’s lives miserable.”

Tesay had literally shielded women with her own body to protect them from their tormentors: their pimps, lovers, husbands, boyfriends regardless of the place and hour of day or night. It is almost instinctive; she would not think twice to rescue them unmindful of her own safety. In her small businesses, Tesay would hire out of school youth with past criminal activities while others would avoid them like plague; and she would offer them another chance to reform themselves.

“Jesus left ninety nine of His flock to look for just one lost sheep. We cannot turn away those we perceive as sinful or immoral. We cannot alienate them and discriminate against them. Society must be kinder. We cannot cast judgment on others.”

Tesay’s deep compassion is not without its stories from her early awareness of inequality and injustice in her midst as a young girl. Those experiences developed her keen sense of justice in treating children, women, the poor, the oppressed, OFWs, the disabled, the sick, the dying, and the old.


A Jack-of-all trades; Tesay acknowledges that, “God has been so kind to bless me with so many talents that have in fact been subject of envy by some. He had given me so many dark nights; and He has opened my eyes to see injustice where others cannot; and feel true compassion while others have become apathetic. I have shortchanged God by not maximizing the use of my talents. Now is the time to use and share my gifts to the optimum.”


Tesay was five years old when her father suffered a serious stroke. It used to be that the family lived a life of comfort; and how she dreaded those American shoes her father brought her from his travels abroad. But when he was out of job for a long time, she experienced extreme poverty. She would go to school in worn-out pair of shoes; her big toe protruded through a big hole. Tesay learned her lesson the hard way to value everything that is achieved from hard work. But she also observed that the change in status was never an issue in the family. Her mother used her talents and skills in arts and crafts to earn for the family while her father was sick and out of job. She got employed and was still able to do her charity work. So Tesay learned to value industry; and that there should always be dignity despite one’s status in life.


Her grandmother, Rita, was very loving to her. She forbade any one to scold Tesay when she was naughty or when she made a mistake. In her sickbed, she would call Tesay to her side twice a day, summoned all the cousins to be the captive audience, and prodded Tesay to dance, sing, recite a poem and sing for her. Tesay lives with the memory that she had made her grandmother happy in her final days; and that it is important how we should be kind, respectful, and loving to the elders.


When she was eight years old, Tesay recalls her first initiation to the reality of the disparity between the rich and the poor.

There was an incident in their home province in Lucena, Quezon. Their ancestral house was situated on a sprawling compound. Just across is the hospital of the sister of her grandmother, Dr. Milagros Correa, the first woman who topped the Medical Board Exam. Children in the neighborhood were not allowed to play in the hospital zone. One morning, Tesay and her best cousin, Pilar, were sent on an errand to town. They were met by a dozen boys aged between seven and twelve at the boundary of their private road and the public road. They all carried rocks the size of a child’s fist. Sensing danger, Tesay felt it was her duty to protect Pilar since she was two years older than she. The boys started throwing stones at them. The boys were actually preventing them from crossing the boundary. So, it was a matter of survival to cross the threshold as fast as they could.

Tesay asked her cousin if she knew the boys. Pilar said it was her first encounter with them. So, who are those boys and why are they stoning us with so much anger?


But the more difficult task was to come back home. Tesay ordered Pilar to pick up as many stones as she could; and prepare for the fight ahead. True enough, the boys were waiting for them at the boundary. As the boys started to throw stones at them, Tesay counter attacked. Tesay seldom missed her mark. As soon as they passed the boundary, the boys stopped their attacks. Pilar asked if they should tell the elders about the incident. Tesay said no, there was no need; they were safe home.

That was and is Tesay. She never buckles from any battle in life. She does not even have to ask her parents for help to fight for her own war.

The following morning, they were again sent on an errand. This time, Tesay was prepared with more stones and more courage to take the war. She walked right in the middle of the street and waited for the first volley. She could see the volleys of the stones and she ducked at the right moment to avoid being hit; but she had more agility and precision to hit her mark. Deep inside, she cringed every time she hit her target; but she had to face the battle and win, otherwise, they would be bullied. When they came home from the errand, nobody was waiting by the boundary; the street was empty.


Tesay remembers that every afternoon she would climb an Iba tree which she discovered led to the rooftop of the house. She then made the rooftop her playground her secret recluse. It was the highest point she could reach the skies and search for God and Angels among the clouds; and she would perform for them in case they watched. She would shout at the top of her voice reciting poems or dance ballet; or sing songs from the “Sound of Music.” She remembers the eyes of children from the ground below; she performed for them as well as they listened and watched her mini one-girl-concert. Could they be the same boys who hurled stones at her and envied her position of privilege to be allowed to make so much noise in a hospital zone; while they were driven away by the security guard for just making the sound of shrill fun laughter?

Tesay could only make certain deductions from what had transpired in those fateful mornings. The scene was like it was lifted from the movie: Sa’yo ang Cavite, Sa Akin ang Tundo. The children were protecting their turf as they must have interpreted the situation as inequality between the rich and poor.

Several years later in one summer vacation in Lucena in the 70’s, Tesay would be serenaded at least once a night by teenagers she didn’t know. Could they be the same boys at the boundary hurling stones at her, now serenading her to apologize, ‘We’re sorry?’


Every summer in the mornings, Tesay spent time in the Nursery of the hospital to take care of the abandoned children. But she also witnessed how the children when they grew a little older were abused and maltreated by their adoptive families. Her heart ached for the injustice done on the children. They were her joys and it gladdened her heart every time she came to the nursery to play with them. Their laughter had been replaced by cries every time they received beatings for petty mistakes. There were no more smiles on their faces but deep traces of anguish.

In Manila, almost every weekend, she would sleep at an orphanage with her nurse-aunt. Every mealtime, Tesay noticed she had special food different from the rest of the orphans. Before going to bed, Tesay would be treated to soft boiled egg and a glass of warm milk. She virtually forced herself to eat. For how could she swallow the food when the children she had been playing with all day were peeking through the door, watching in self pity?

Tesay would take her afternoon nap after class, and then taught catechism to their neighborhood kids in Tondo. Her mother would prepare snacks to attract attendance.


At the time, Tesay’s world was genderless: What the boys could do, she could do better. Everyone was equal. But her perspective changed when she was in Grade 4.

There were a couple of boys in class who were teasing her during class hours because one of the boys had a crush on her. During recess, the boys were still having fun at her expense. She was determined to make the teasing stop. She accosted the group and asked them to stop teasing her; but they just laughed. A squabble ensued because the boys would not apologize. The nun was called and reprimanded them. Tesay recalls in hindsight that she was rather aggressive to engage in a fistfight; “But that showed I have always been fearless. I fight for my rights. Although I faced the consequence of my actions— I was disallowed to be a member of the Eucharistic Crusade for conduct unbecoming of a girl. “Girls should not fight with the boys,” the nun said. But the boys were never punished for the unkindly teasing and were even allowed to become members of the Knights of the Altar.”

This opened Tesay’s consciousness on the disparity in treatment between boys and girls. Boys are allowed to behave in certain manners even if girls are aggrieved in the process. As the boys grew to become men, this manner of behavior has been tolerated by family and society and in fact been accepted as part of their masculine traits to exhibit burly behavior. Thus, this culture has become deeply ingrained in the psyche of people making life lopsided in favor of men in many aspects of society.

They are tolerated to whistle and study the contours of the physical anatomy of women’s body as they salivate in lust as women walk by; while women have been indoctrinated to passively accept that behavior as part of the growing culture of machismo: Just ignore them; the girls were told. Women were taught early on how to suffer in silence. Women’s freedom to express their feminine nature had been stifled or they run the risk of being preyed upon by men. “That is inequality in sexes. That is injustice.”


After a long period of time without a job due to his stroke, her father soon found a job as Administration Manager of one company in Saigon, Vietnam at the height of war. One day, Tesay heard her father telling a few relatives that he would ride in a helicopter to deliver millions of dollars in salaries for the staff to far flung areas in Vietnam. He would be geared in a parachute, and would be ready to jump any time in case the helicopter was shot at.

The danger her father faced was just too much to bear; Tesay decided to talk to her father and pleaded him “to tell his boss that he dropped the millions of dollars from the helicopter, take the money home, and come back home.” Her father nipped the bud at a crucial time to drive home the importance of values. In a language that a child would understand, her father looked her in the eyes and patiently and firmly processed her thoughts, “Those men are fathers too, like me. They have children like you. If I take the money, they will not be able to send their children to school. They will have no food to eat and they will grow hungry and get sick.”

Because Tesay understood sickness; she understood how to go hungry; she understood poverty; what her father said left an imprint in her heart and mind the value of hard work and integrity. Poverty can never be an excuse to steal. But Tesay also understood how to live a life of comfort and one cannot use money to oppress other people.


Her father found a job as Consultant in Lagos, Nigeria; and he would later build his own manufacturing company of sewing machines and other appliance. Tesay as a teenager saw the great injustice done to the African slaves.

One morning, in their kitchen, the steward dropped a Pyrex dish of newly baked custard pie. The steward was so afraid; he fell to his knees before Tesay and started kissing her feet begging for forgiveness, at the same time preparing his body to receive beatings yet pleading to be spared of punishment. Tesay screamed in disbelief and horror. Her mother came in the kitchen and instantly ordered the steward to stand up from the floor. The steward, a muscled tall man, was reduced to tears until her mother assured him that there would be no beatings. “How can they be subjected to such debasement? It’s inhuman. We can only be slaves if we allow it. They can control our bodies but not our spirits.”


It helped in the spiritual formation of Tesay to have nuns and priests in her family. The hospital had a chapel; and a chaplain, Fr. Obsulio, was assigned. Tesay thought as a child that they had a private chapel and a priest under her grandmother’s payroll. Fr. Obsulio would always be available for her and Pilar for confessions, even if he knew that sometimes it was all part of their routine children’s play; but he ministered to them dutifully. Unknowingly, Tesay has slowly developed the habits of weekly Confessions, everyday Eucharist, everyday mass, three mysteries of the rosary each day, Angelus, and novenas. This led to her serious desire to enter the convent when she was in high school.

But the nun advised her that she was too young to decide and she must learn the ways of the world and perhaps have a boyfriend. But her heart was really for the religious vocation. However, this dream of becoming a nun was shelved when her father suffered six strokes in a year that rendered his left side of the body paralyzed. Tesay had to work odd jobs from being an account executive, to sales clerk, to appearing on television and selling encyclopedia, while pursuing her pre-med course in Psychology. She scrimped on buying books to save money; and buried herself in the library to research. She was consistently in the Dean’s list.


On top of these, during martial rule, while most of the teenagers took advantage of the curfew to hold their pot sessions in stay-in parties, Tesay co-founded a theater group comprising drug users, out-of-school youth, and juvenile delinquents who had committed various crimes from petty theft to murder. The foundation helped the youth to stay out of drugs and trouble; and offered them better things to do and focus on something more productive. Her mother was worried for her safety, but her father was supportive, “Let her learn.”

Tesay would later undergo a drug rehabilitation program that can be applied to any form of addiction like smoking, shopping, gambling, sex, etc. It is an attitudinal training designed for self-discipleship.

Naturally a curious mind, Tesay’s world has been colorful and happy. Tesay thought she already knew about life—that man is intrinsically good because no harm came her way. She would realize much later that life would offer more lessons to learn the hard way.


In 1997, the end of the 15 years of marriage was forthcoming. Tesay believed that the marriage was long over when her husband remained uncommunicative, “How can there be marriage when there is no any form of communication?” But Tesay did not expect that she would be deprived of her children who are much part of the reason for her living. It’s been over 12 years now that Tesay have not been with her three sons, “I tried hard, according to our mission as parents, to raise them properly with all the love we can offer. I have to let go and I have surrendered them completely into God’s loving Hands. They have to take the journey where God leads them. The time will come when we will all be united.”

“My separation from my children is the darkest of all dark nights of my soul. I never questioned God. I asked Him what I should do with all the experience He allowed to happen in my life”

Dark night is when you face situations one perceives as having no solution. One can go through state of depression or even suicide. God allows this for man’s purification. It is a gift to suffer with Christ in His Passion and to be humble before Him. It is a Dark Night when one is able to rise from his situation and has developed an intimate relationship with God in the process. It is a Dark Night when one is able to use one’s “woundedness” to heal others in theirs.