‘Sense shines with a
double huster
When it is set in
humility.
An able humble man is
a
Jewel worth a
kingdom.’
-William Penn
When Uncle Esko died on June 15,
2011 it was a shock to the whole family.
He was a resident of la Opinion, Nabua, Camarines Sur. Two days before he died I visited him in the
hospital. He was still very lively and
there was no sign of his foreboding demise.
I was finishing our souvenir
program, an album regarding our 2010 family reunion. Uncle Esko sat by the side of his hospital
bed and he identified all persons in the picture. His mind was very active.
A week later, after he died and
after several of the children arrived from abroad, his remains were brought to
the church for the final rites.
Interestingly, the church was full of relatives and friends. They were all there to pay their last
respect.
The officiating priest of the
mass, Msgr. Raul S. Pan, retold a story about 2nd Lt. Francisco
Salcedo. It was the first time that I learned
about it. The story was also known to
Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi who called an account of an incident. Uncle Esko was not very fond of telling stories
about his life. He was a very humble
man.
The story started when the
replica of the Holy Cross was stolen from the main church of the town
proper. It was a metallic cross with the
Lord nailed to it. According to the
church record, it happened in December of 1968.
But, the cross was recovered but already broken into pieces. The fingers of the Lord were already
separated from his hand.
Accordingly, Uncle Esko, still a
sergeant at that time saw two men. They
were carrying a bag which was bulging.
They were asking where the rail road station in Nabua was. He doubted the man because there was no
station in Nabua. The station was in the
next town. He doubted that the two were
thieves. He apprehended one of them but
the other one escaped. His captive still
attempted to run away too. But, Lt.
Salcedo got hold of him. He placed his
gun near the fellow’s ear and pulled the trigger. His captive no longer attempted to escape.
There were two military officers,
but the other officer did not go after the escaping thief. He was stunned.
Uncle Esko belonged to a special
force of the defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC), the central intelligence
service. That’s why, when he was buried,
it was with full military honors. Being
a CIS man, he was buried at high noon.
When he was still alive, he was the eyes and ears of the military … of
the government. But, I never saw him in
uniform. He acted like a simple
‘estanbay’ sitting by the store. He
gambled, in truth, he was listening to their talks.
When he was still young, he told
me that he was able to cause the construction of his old wooden house by accepting
for every jump with a parachute from an airplane. It was a military training. According to him, they were paid P100.00 for
every successful jump. The value of the
peso in the 50’s was still high. He
jumped 14 times. He belonged to a
parachute brigade.
Going back to the story, he
learned that the stolen cross was brought to several places, looking for a
buyer and the two finally reached La Opinion, Nabua. Uncle Esko was very instrumental in
recovering the stolen cross and the apprehension of the thief. My cousin, William, confided to me that there
were two thieves, instead of one as Msgr. Pan told the church goers.
His wife even informed me that
when the Archbishop called for a meeting for a new cross to be blessed. It did not start until Uncle Esko
arrive. According to the Archbishop, the
recovered cross with its broken fingers were deposited in the church museum for
public viewing.
Uncle Esko was survived by his
wife, Patricia Ferandez Salcedo and seven (7) children.
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