{"id":252608,"date":"2017-05-19T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T20:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=252608"},"modified":"2017-05-19T06:00:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T20:00:52","slug":"ninong-alegre-basks-childrens-successes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ninong-alegre-basks-childrens-successes\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ninong\u2019 Alegre basks in his children\u2019s successes"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Monday, Anthony \u201cNinong\u201d Alegre will watch his daughter take her oath as a new lawyer. Alegre takes pride in his children\u2019s accomplishments. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday, Anthony \u201cNinong\u201d Alegre will stand alongside other parents to watch as new lawyers in the Philippines take their oaths. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am going home to wear a barong and see my daughter grasp her dream,\u201d said Alegre.<\/p>\n

Alegre has been on Saipan since 1985, starting work as a projectionist technician and then becoming an amusement center technician. Right now, he is a company messenger with TanHoldings. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t get rich working on Saipan but if you work hard and persevere, you have a place here. I told myself that if there is any job opportunity that will come my way, I will grab it. <\/p>\n

\u201cYour attitude becomes gutsy. That\u2019s how you become if you have people who are depending on you. That\u2019s how you become when you have a family to take care of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alegre left behind his wife, Nelda, and their four children in the Philippines to work on Saipan to give them a good life. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the goal and it was also inevitable that there were drawbacks. My children were practically still babies when I left them. I would see them every two years when I got the chance to go home. They didn\u2019t know me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up, Alegre\u2019s children only knew him because of a picture their mother would show them every time they talk about \u201cPapa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I am home, I make them laugh. I tell jokes. I become the fun dad. I make everything light. I use laughter to hide the years that were lost while I was away. But no matter how loud the laughter gets, I know I cannot catch up.\u201d <\/p>\n

The time and miles apart did not prevent Alegre and his wife from being guides to their children. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them had ambition. When they were still kids, I would ask them what they wanted to become when they grow up. My firstborn Tonette was a sickly kid and that made her want to become a doctor. My second, Joan, was the talkative one. She knows how to argue and justify her actions. She wanted to be a lawyer. My third, Jasper, wanted to be an architect and my youngest, who took after me when it comes to tinkering with equipment, wanted to [pursue information technology].\u201d<\/p>\n

The ambitions of Alegre\u2019s children became his. There were times that he would work 10 to 12 hours a day and not feel tired. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe path was not perfect. There were many deviations on their way to reach their ambitions. Last year, my son Jasper passed away due to asthma complications. It was a hard time for the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

When faced with trials and adversities, Alegre would find solace in asking himself why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always go back to my whys. When my kids were growing up, I would find myself alone crying at night, dreaming of a life with them but I am miles away. I go back to my why and think I am here on Saipan because of them. I go back to my why and think I promised my family I will never let go. I go back to my why and think my children and I have ambitions. I go back to my why and think that when we reach our ambitions, I will go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

His firstborn, Tonette, is now a physician and his youngest son, Francis, is now an I.T. expert. <\/p>\n

This time, Alegre\u2019s trip to attend his daughter\u2019s oath taking as a lawyer is another answer to one of his whys. <\/p>\n

\u201cI come from a small [village] in Iloilo. I have nothing. I work as a company messenger but my pride is my children. With the Lord\u2019s mercy, my wife and I were able to send them to school and even if I was not there in their growing-up years, they turned out to be good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alegre\u2019s nickname, ninong, means godfather in Tagalog. On Saipan, he is ninong to 30 godchildren, so much so that co-workers and friends picked up on that and began calling him that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I\u2019ve come full circle. I may stand as a godfather to many children here on Saipan but my being a father to my children in the Philippines never left my mind and heart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, Anthony \u201cNinong\u201d Alegre will stand alongside other parents to watch as new lawyers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":252609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16857,21,67,63],"class_list":["post-252608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-anthony-ninong-alegre","tag-life","tag-people","tag-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}