LIGHT INSIDE THE CAN

My mother told me that during the Japanese occupation (l94l-l944), many unarmed residents throughout the country had many ways to evade the enemy.

While Filipino soldiers and guerilla fighters had their guns to protect themselves or fought the enemies, there were civilians who were neither fighters nor members of the armed forces.

One of them was my father.  My mother told us that he was a business man selling different items in the market like ‘panutsa’ (locally known as ‘sangkaka’).  She told us further that our residential house was at the side of the national high way, where the Japanese soldiers and cars passed by.  It was also in front of a secondary school.  Also, because classes were suspended during the war, the front of the school were tall grasses.

We were told that when ever news reached them that Japanese soldiers were approaching, my father ran to the school compound and hid behind the tall grasses. The Japanese ‘captured’   able bodied men to work for the.  (forced labor and under the threat of the bayonets).

My Uncle Manuel (whom I called Daddy) worked as a checker when the Pili Air Port was constructed.  He was fair-skinned and a teacher.  Perhaps it was because of this reason that he was not a common worker but a checker.

At home, almost all the houses extinguished their lights (gas) so that they could not be seen by the passing Japanese soldiers.  But, for mothers who have small children (like Manoy Velino and Totoy) they found it very difficult to search for something in the dark.

They placed their crude gas or oil lamps inside a kerosene can or others with similar shapes.  Thus light did not scatter to the whole house.  Light went upward.  They could also control lights going up by covering a part of the can.

The Japanese could not see the light the light as they passed by.  Many lives were saved by this practice.  My family was one of them.

THE TALE OF TWO MARRIAGES

MARRIAGE NO. 1:

FLYING KITE

Marriage is likened to playing kite.  How the comparison was told, the following are the stories:

My brother and I received a wedding invitation.  It was from our cousin, Imelda Francia Ferandez Salcedo.  Imelda’s mother was the youngest sister of my deceased father.

The marriage ceremony was officiated in my home town.  It was attended by relatives and friends of both the bride and the groom.  Reception was held lavishly.  There was a dozen of sponsors.  Three priests officiated the wedding ceremony and the church bells continued ringing for several minutes.  In my hometown, the continuous ringing of the church bell was called ‘repeke’ and denotes big celebration.  It was indeed a big reception.

The church was filled and not all people had a seat.  The rented auditorium was also filled that the space outside the building was occupied.

Before serving the meals, some of the sponsors were asked to deliver their words of wisdom.  The bride and the groom listened ardently.  One of the sponsors’’ talk caught my attention.  He said that during the Japanese occupation (1941-1944).  He lived in La Opinion, Nabua, Camarines Sur, were the bride also grew.  During the said period, he learned how to fly a kite.  He learned that flying kite was likened to a married life.

He said that in flying kite (boradol, bicol dialect), one has to study the significance of ‘toros’ and ‘kawikaw’.  According to the speaker, ‘toros’ means loosening of the kite while ‘kawikaw’ meant holding it back.  Both the bride and the groom should know the art of ‘toros’ and ‘kawikaw’.  For failure to loosen and holding back the kite, it will drop to the ground.

In other words, both the bride and the groom should not be too possessive or too loose in their relationship.  The success of their marriage will depend upon the ‘toros’ and ‘kawikaw’.

The words of wisdom.

January 2015

MARRIAGE NO. TWO:

FISHING

I am now retired from my gainful employment.  But, I can still remember the days of my youth.  I still remember that after graduation from the elementary grades, we skipped schooling (this was applicable to us, three elder brothers) to help financially our parents.

During the school days, we helped our parents in tending our ‘sari-sari’ store.  But, we spent our free days (Saturdays and Sundays) enjoying fishing.  We lived in a residential area fronting or town’s secondary school.  At the back of the school building were ‘gabi’ plantation (bil-ang in Nabua dialect or ‘lin-sa’ in Bicol – Naga).  In between the gabi plantation were shallow canals.  The place had plenty of fresh water like ‘pampano’ and ‘atas’ (Puyo in Bicol-Naga).  We caught by hand (we called process as ‘upog’) the boundaries between the gabi plantation were wide and deeper bodies of water.

The story is focused on this wide bodies of water which were abundant with fish of various species.  There were plenty of ‘atas’ or ‘puyo’.

One Saturday, we went fishing.  Our cousins told us that there were plenty of ‘atas’ in the fishing grounds.  We got our fishing rods and sinker and plenty of earth worms for our bait.  But to our surprise, we already spent at least two hours fishing and we caught nothing.  For several times, the fish seemed to pull our bait but when we pull up the rod, there was no fish.

Meanwhile, several meters away from us, there was an elderly woman.  She, too, was fishing.  To our surprise, whenever she pulled up the rod, there was fish.  She had a basket attached to her waist and there was already a number of fish inside.  We asked her of any technique on fishing.  We even asked her if there was a magic.  She told us that she had a long experience in fishing and told us that she learned many lessons.  These are:

1.      Be calm.  Don’t get too excited.  Treat fishing as a hobby.  Make your fishing your happy experience.

2.      Do not raise your pole quickly or you lose your fish.  If your sinker or bait goes to the right, let it be.  If your sinker goes to the left, or away from you or near you, let it be.  If you feel that the bait goes to any of these direction, it meant that the fish had already swallowed your bait and you can raise the pole.  Presto, you had your fish.

3.      Fishing is just like the relationship of husband and wife.  If any of the two felt that there is something wrong in their relationship, do not raise hell immediately.  Give yourself the time to discuss the matter with your partner.

4.      If after your friendly dialogue, your partner does not stop, raise the wall.

Remember that there was a saying that went this way:

‘It would be a fine world if all

man showed as much patience

All the time as they do

while they’re waiting for a

Fish to bite.’

END

IS THERE AN ‘ASWANG’?

Old folks believed that ‘aswang’ was real.  They said that there are two kinds of ‘aswang’.  One files which they call as ‘kakak’.  The other walks, they call them as ‘para-asot’.  Sometimes, they would appear as a big dog or a pig, etc.  nevertheless, the two are allegedly ‘aswang’.

When I was still employed with the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) in 1971, I used to prepare my lesson plans a night before.  I had seven subjects, so I need to prepare seven lesson plans.  I spent most of the night preparing my lesson plans for the class the next day.

It was then around 11:00pm and I heard a score of dogs barking at the road.  When dog barks, one reason is that somebody is around.

I went out of the house and saw an old woman of about sixty years old and she was surrounded by at least ten loose dogs.  They were barking but could not come close to the woman.  The old woman wore a colored but faded dress locally called ‘bata’ with a white shawl made of ‘katsa’, white cloth used in bagging salt.  The woman was with a bamboo cane which was taller than her.

The old woman could not walk ahead with so many dogs around her so I drove them away and went back to the house.

The next day, Tinong, the brother of my sister-on-law, slept in the house.  He said that at around 4:00 am, he went to the comfort room.  Inside was a small window where he could see the things outside.  He incidentally saw the same woman, standing by the road and facing a house where a dying man lives.  The house was some one hundred meter from the house.

In the morning, he told us the story.  And how he described the woman coincided with the woman we saw before.

When our neighbors learned of this, they told us the woman used to pass their houses for one week already.

The next night, my brother Edgar and his friend Elyo, who just lived in front of us decided to wait for the woman to appear.  At 11:00pm, they saw her at the distance under the street light.  She saw them also so she did not proceed.  Reportedly, they were suddenly afraid and their hair stood straight.  They managed to run away.  My brother went to his friend’s house while the latter wen to our house.

The old woman was never reported to pass by our house again.  Reportedly, she passed through the other road but stood no longer in front but behind the house, where ‘gabi’ plants abound.  There was no road.  It was also swampy.

Several months passed and we learned that the woman lived near the cathedral.  Her main means of livelihood was candle vending, leading ‘novena’, bathing and changing the clothes of the dead before burial.  He was observed to enjoy smelling the dead.

Question:

What do an old woman for more than a weeks and during an unholy hours stand infront or at the back of the residence of a sick man some five kilometres away from her house?

THE THREE SAINTS

When I was young, my grandmother, who was a devoted catholic, told us that for many times, in the evening, the image of St. Michael (San Miguel), the Archangel would disappear from his chapel only to be seen moving just like any human beings, with another patron saint. Santiago.

Both images rode in a horse.  She said that her old folks believed that the two (San Miguel and Santiago) would roam around the town with another patron saint, San Esteban.

Their purpose was unknown but the religious believers said that they were on guard of their respective communities.

The old folks were heard that sometimes, San Miguel and Santiago would be seen with another patron saint, a woman, the Carmelite, whose image was taken care of by a family.

San Miguel, the Archangel was known to be the leader of the three.

2nd Lt. Francisco L. Salcedo - A Humble Man

‘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 2^nd 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.

THE BELIEF TO BE WISE

I was in the first grade when my Uncle Manuel died.  He was the brother of my mother.  The whole family was in grief.  At that time, there was no funeral parlor.  There was not even electricity yet.

I was affected so much with his death.  I was his favourite nephew.  He did not marry so regarded me as his son.   I even call him ‘daddy’.

The old folks in my small community had a very unique belief.  It is said that to be wise, books used in school be placed in the pillow of the dead.  I went to school for three days without books.

There was no embalming of the dead before, so he was buried after three days.  The funeral procession was long as he was a teacher English in a local Chinese school.  My books was taken out only in time for the burial.

Today, after several decades, this practice will be too unbelievable.  Nobody perhaps will believe this anymore.

THE MAN IS …. DETERMINED

“Progress is inevitable only

When we have the will and

Determination to make it so.”

-          Author, unknown

His four daughters are now married and all of them have their own families.  But, what I am to write are things they do not know.  All daughters were not yet born when these happened.  In fact, the subject of this story began when he was still young.

He was born on January 31, 1939.  Their parents were poor.  His father was a bus conductor.  His job was not stable.  His mother was a plain house wife, but tended a small variety or ‘sari-sari’ store.  Also, this was not stable.  He was the eldest of six children … all male.  The six and their parents ‘crowded’ in one mosquito net.  Their house was a one-room nipa hut.  Their kitchen, called dirty kitchen, which was also an annex was also made of nipa shingles.  Their roof, most always leaked and it was normal that you see thick papers, known as ‘karton’, to prevent rain water from dropping inside the house.  The walls of the house was also made of ‘salsag’, bamboo made like a flat lumber through a very sharp bolo.  It looked like a wood board called ‘tabla’.  The floor was also made of bamboo splits and tied securely by ‘rattan.’  You can see the ground through the splits of the bamboo.  Young men used to go under the house, termed in bicol dialect as ‘naninirip’ and look mischievously at any young girls above.  The floor was at least a meter or more distance from the ground.  Sometimes, it was there that they took care of their chickens.

He was born two years before the Japanese Imperial forces launched a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii.  Since the Americans had bases in the Philippines, the country was occupied by the Japanese on December 7, 1941.  Other Asian countries had also the same fate.

Though poor, he was in good health.  He was full of humor.  And, he was full of smile.  He was at least two years old when the Japanese occupied the country.  He was already seven years old when the Japanese forces surrendered to the Americans.  But, when he reached the age of nine or ten, he found out that he could not stand or walk.

His right leg could no longer bend.  He felt excruciating pain in his right leg.  A physician, Dr. Nemecio Belmonte, who lived in his hospital-residence, and just a stone throw distance from where our subject lived diagnosed him and he said that the veins of his right leg tightened and had to be operated.  But they were poor.  They could not afford hospitalization.  And, Dr. Belmonte could not operate.  It was not his specialization.  He also lacked the necessary tools.  But, he said he could be operated at the Camarines Sur Provincial Hospital.  The hospital was at least one hour ride by public transportation.  By that time, transportation was still difficult.  There were fewer cars then.

He was not a polio victim.  Though, at that time, there was polio out-break in Samar Island, in the Visayas.  Transportation by sea was at least three to four hours.  The last province in Bicol is Sorsogon.  His father was a bus conductor for Naga, Legaspi City and Sorsogon.  It was a wonder that he was not a victim.

He suffered too much pain.  His uncle, Tiburcio or Tiboy, was an enlisted man of the AFP.  He found out that his nephew was suffering too much pain.  It was he who convinced his parents that his nephew be brought to the hospital.  It was he who paid the hospital.  The doctors at the CSPH operated on him.  They took at least two or three inches of veins from his buttocks and transferred the same to his legs.

The operation was successful.  After recuperation, he returned to school as if nothing happened except that his leg was one-half inch shorter and smaller compared to the other leg.  But he was strong.  He was very energetic.  He was very good in class.  His stamina showed no trace of his operation.  This stamina was shown in many ways such as the following:

1.       When he was still young, he and his companions, composed of his two younger brothers, Virgilio and Romeo using two sticks to produce sound; cousin William and close relatives Jose ‘JoeFer’ Ferandez and Mario Ferandez Obrero, with harmonica formed themselves into a singing group called ‘combancheros’ and sung songs in the neighboring barrio of San Nicholas.

He was determined to have a close relationship, even at his young age, among young relatives.

2.       When he was more than twenty years old, he and his neighbor and close relatives, JoeFer, for several times, the two climbed the ceiling of the Nabua High School.  They used no ladder but the over-sized ‘kabilla’ or round bar which were protruding at the sides of the building.  The height of the ceiling was about more or less 30 feet or as high as a full grown coconut tree.  The two gathered piles of ‘ipot sa guano’ or the wastes of the bats, which lived in the ceiling of the school.  These droppings were considered first class fertilizers.  No wonder our vegetable gardens were producing healthy vegetables.  He was determined to show that if others could do it, he also can.

3.       In the 50’s, there was a very strong typhoon and flood. Flood water was waist-line deep.  He discovered a big snake sleeping in our wooden box of old shoes.  It was at least 3 to 4 feet long and 4 inches in diameter.  Then the snake woke up.  It swam toward us.  My brother saw the danger.  The snake must have been from the Nabua High school which was just in front of us.

With a long and sharp bolo, my brother killed the snake.  It was also during the typhoon when his forefinger was wounded … slicing it into two.  He just tied the fingers with a clean white cloth.  He was trying to open a can of black peas for our lunch.  We have no viand at the time.  Our uncle gave us two canned black peas.  He was a sales agent of black peas in the region.

4.      When he was strong enough to go on mountain climbing, he and a close relative, Epifanio Soliven Raynera went to the hills of Balatan Town to a place called ‘langtad’.  The place was heavily forested and there was no road … not even a foot path or a trail were usually a carabao pass.

To reach the place, they had to hold trunks and branches of trees or even tall grasses.  They had to climbed stiff cliffs, even if with his right foot operated and his right leg shorter than the other.  The healthy Epifanio was behind him grasping for his breath.

He was determined to show to everybody that he can do it.

5.      When his younger brother saw how poor they were, he decided not to enrol in high school.  Instead, he convinced his mother to buy ‘kuskusan’ or ice grater and they would sell halo-halo.  He also stopped schooling for one year and helped their mother.

His younger brother took upon himself to apply in the US Navy.  Our survey at that time showed that 9 out of ten houses, have their sons enlisted in the US Navy.  He accompanied him to Cavite City.  He was never weary waiting for his brother at the gate of the base.  He had only few pesos in his pocket.  He also told us later that for several times he skipped taking a snack.

He told us that the longer an applicant gets out of the base … the better.  It meant that one passed the examination and was now a step ahead.  He never complained the whole day even he was under the scourging heat of the sun.

Meanwhile, the folks in Nabua lighted candles in practically all barrio chapels in the poblacion or town center and prayed that the applicant pass the examinations.

Accordingly, when my brother came out of the gate very late afternoon, he had his hair cut very short and already with a big smile.  It meant he passed all the examinations and was ready to take oath as an enlisted man of the United States Navy.

Until the end, he was ready to assist any brother towards the family’s welfare.

6.      Long before his death in 1993 (of heart attack), he talked earnestly with his cousins notably Diogenes Mesola (US army retired) about gathering all relatives, a family reunion, in San Ramon, Nabua, Camarines Sur.  He never saw it realized.

But, in the year 2000, more than 200 relatives came.  Some did not even know they were relatives and saw each other for the first time.  It was considered their first Family Reunion.

Even those who were living abroad came.  From then on, the clan gathers every three years, in the place where their known elders originated.  It’s now the 6th Grand Family Reunion and they look forward to the next family gathering.

My birthday is January 28.  His was January 31.  We both love to celebrate our birthdays together on either birthdates, depending if either is available to both of us.

He was determined, to his last breath, to realize the success of her daughters.

My brother, Avelino.

July, 2014