But then again, there are those who come back and wholeheartedly give back.

Lawyer Francis Papica is one good news to counter the disheartening Philippine diaspora. At 37, Papica has chosen to do well and do good in the here and now, not waiting until he has grown grey hair or has built immeasurable, disposable wealth to start reaching out to his countrymen.

Two decades of stay in the United States erased nothing of Papica’s Filipino-ness.

A true-blooded Bicolano from Goa, Camarines Sur, Papica has made it his personal mission to empower the youth in Bicol through his foundation that is guided by its commitment to leadership, scholarship and community service.

‘’I come here at least seven times a year to work on the different projects of the foundation. Coming home and buckling down to work is always something I look forward to,’’ says Papica, a junior partner at the Los Angeles, California - based law offices of Nordstrom, Steele, Nicolette, Blythe and Jefferson.

Papica’s spirit to help had been honed way back as a young boy in Camarines Sur. He graduated at the top of his class at St. Paul Academy in Goa, Camarines Sur where he was an all-around student leader. He went to the University of California, LA (UCLA) for college and graduated cum laude, and then on to the Syracuse University in New York where he also finished on top of the class.

In 1997, Papica, with a lot of help from his family and friends, decided to put up a foundation that will primarily give scholarships to deserving students in this province, acknowledge and inspire future leaders, go on medical missions, and of late, promote literacy through active reading. The Francis Padua Papica Foundation to date has graduated six students from Bicol region.

‘’I personally believe that one cannot get thru life without reading. It is even in the Bible, where you must read to live. Reading is something that the Filipino children need to improve their lives,’’ explains Papica during the launch of the Read to Live program.

The program aims to distribute books, mostly brand new, to various public schools in the country. Thousands had already been farmed out to schools in Sampaloc and Pasig, Batangas, the Bicol Region, Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro. Exhausting his resourcefulness and using his connections, Papica intends to gather more to benefit more Filipino children in the remote provinces.

‘’I just do not tire of writing people to ask for donations,’’ Papica smilingly reveals. ‘’Laway lang ang kapital sabi nga.’’

His relentlessness is paying off. Giant publishing firms like Random House and Simon & Schuster had donated crates and crates of books. About 8,000 copies of the Little Golden Books have also been solicited for distribution to elementary schoolchildren.

Papica also sees to it that he networks with the right people so that the books get to the right hands. In Naga City, for instance, he linked up with the city’s first lady Leny Robredo who personally saw to it that the books went straight to schools and public libraries. In Cagayan de Oro, he coursed the program through Senator Nene Pimentel.

This young legal eagle know the power of reading too well. Away from his legal tomes, Papica likes to be taken to places that he has never been to before, to the elaborate kingdoms of kings and queens, and the mystic lairs of extraordinary creatures like dragons. All these through reading of course.

‘’I am into fantasy books, the type which can take me anywhere just with the use of my imagination,’’ Papica shares.

He digs the fantasy works penned by young author Christopher Paolini such as ‘’Eragon’’ and ‘’Eldest’’, two in the ongoing Inheritance Trilogy. Of course, he admits he can’t run away from the legal thrillers of John Grisham.

Why is he doing all these when he could just be sitting comfortably at his posh office room in California, and living a stress-free life away from the troubles of his birth country? Many cynics are even very well imagining a political agenda in the offing.

Papica just smiles. ‘’We have been doing this for years now. I just know in my heart that I want to give back and help. Before anything else, before a person becomes a scholar or a leader, he first has to be an intellectual. I am a believe of that. Reading will make him one and that is the reason why we are going into this now.’’

In 1999, for going beyond what was expected of him, for not hesitating to lend a hand to better the lives of Filipinos here and abroad, and for being one of the ordinary individuals who took it upon themselves to help the society by being of service to their fellowmen, Papica was honored a Gawad Geny Lopez Jr. Bayaning Pilipino Award.

Indeed for the selfless work that he continues to do in and out of the Philippines, Papica couldn’t be more deserving to be called a modern-day Filipino hero.