To say that Mark Mayo is a cat with nine lives is not hyperbole.
It can even be an understatement.
From surviving a drug-infested village where he grew up to a mysterious scrape with lung cancer to getting into Law School to passing the Bar exams, Mark seems to have passed life’s speed bumps, sometimes with flying colors. (READ also: Little Man, Big Miracles)
Now a certified counselor with his dream prefix “A T T Y” to his name, Mark is constantly searching for ways to give back to his fellowmen.
Even on his birthday, yesterday, his 27th.
One can say that a newly-minted lawyer like Mark who now walks the corridors of power will have a lavish party, with sparkling wine and roasted cow or lechon baboy at least.
His 27th birthday, however, the first after he passed the Philippine Bar ran smack into a pandemic and fell a day after a tragedy.
Not for him or his family, actually but for at least 10 others who lost their homes.
On the day before his birthday.
What Mark did was to celebrate his birthday in Village 12 to give at the very least, a pause in the gloomy situatiin of residents from the sun-village ironically called Malipayon or “happiness” in Hiligaynon.
“In celebration sang akon 27th birthday kag bilang pagpasalamat man sa kaayo sang Ginoo sa akon kabuhi, nag share kita sang aton blessings sa mga pumuluyo nga naapektuhan sang sunog sa Brgy. 12. Kabay pa damo pa gid ang mabulig sa ila. Keep safe and God bless Bacolod!
In celebration of my 27th birthday and as a way of saying thanks to God for all the goodnes He has bestowed on me, I am sharing it with those affected by the fire in Village 12. I hope many others would help them. Keep safe and God bless Bacolod!” Mark wrote on his Facebook account.
Sought by DNX on why he had recently been active helpung fire victims, Mark admits to having a “soft spot for them.”
It turns out that Mark and his family know the pain of losing a house to flames.
“We were also victims of a fire in Village 22 in 2001,” Mark says about the incident in his former home where his father is now the village chief.
Some people, most of them friends, are urging or teasing Mark to run in the coming polls.
It remains to be known if he will.
What is known is that this kid from one of the Bronx in Bacolod will continue to pay it forward.