Chapter 1 - Remembering My Grandfather

In 1986, the 20-year dictatorial regime of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was toppled by the People Power revolution spearheaded by then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and AFP Vice-Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos with the backing of the influential Catholic Church headed by Jaime Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila. The mantle of national leadership fell on the shoulders of a plain housewife named Corazon Aquino. President Aquino declared a revolutionary government thus enabling her to replace all elected local officials with appointed ones until the next election is held. For Davao City’s vice mayoral post, she wanted to appoint a public-school teacher named Soledad Roa Duterte who belonged to her inner circle when they were fighting the dictatorship. But Soledad declined the appointment for the reason that she is already old. She advised President Aquino to appoint her son Rodrigo instead. That was how lawyer Rodrigo Duterte, who was then a prosecutor at the Justice De...

  After finishing college, my brother Joey joined his older brother Chito in Davao City where they both worked in Radio Station DXMF, popularly known as Radyo Bombo.   Chito was assigned in radio patrol roaming the city streets reporting the news as they saw it happened. Joey, on the other hand was some kind of anchorman in charge of news analysis and broadcast commentaries.     As I wrote in another piece titled TooYoung To Die , about that era, “… in the mid 80’s, Davao was a city in turmoil. The entire city became the battleground of a typical urban guerrilla warfare that you see on TV in other parts of the world. There was a semblance of normalcy during the day. By dusk, commercial establishments were already closed. At night, under the cover of darkness, armed communist forces roamed the streets ready to eliminate any perceived enemies. The government forces returned in kind. Dozens of killings perpetrated by both sides happened during the night w...

In my earlier piece, Too Young To Die , I wrote ,“… in the mid 80’s, Davao was a city in turmoil. The entire city became the battleground of a typical urban guerrilla warfare like what you see on TV in other parts of the world. There was a semblance of normalcy during the day. After sunset, commercial establishments were already closed. At night, under the cover of darkness, armed communist forces roam the streets ready to eliminate any perceived enemies. The government forces returned in kind. Dozens of killings perpetrated by both sides happened during the night while some occurred even in broad daylight. ”                                            This was the situation my brothers Chito and Joey were into. My brothers were working as radio broadcasters of Radio Bombo. Chito was in Radyo Patrol with a codename of Apollo Uno roaming around the city reporting ...

April 25, 2021 - During the early 80s, my colleagues in the university established a computer consulting firm in Iligan City. Computrade Philippines, Incorporated was the first and the only computer firm in Iligan at that time. Upon my return in 1985, after completing my masteral studies in Manila, I was invited to join them as member of the board in-charge of software development projects. One of our clients is Mr. Henry T. Siao, a big-time businessman owning several establishments in the city. That is how I first met him. Our business relationship gradually blossomed into a personal friendship up to a point where I am almost considered a member of his family. I could come to his house anytime on short notice and share a meal with them. He even reserved me a guest room so that I could spend a night there if I wanted to. During my wedding in March 1992, he was one of my principal sponsors. Henry is an active member of the Rotary Club of Iligan. At one time, he was the club president...

  April 2001 . - It was a perfect combination. She has a driver’s license and a car but could not drive. Being new i n California, I don’t have a California license, but I can drive. What I have is a temporary permit to drive but only whe n accompanied by a person with a valid license. I have only a vague idea of some of the places we were to visit and don’t know one street from another. She has memorized the geography of Loma Linda and nearby cities. That’s how we got teamed up last Sunday for a day’s gallivanting and doing the errands she could not do alone. I met Mercy Joy Corpuz way back in the early 80s at the Solijons’ residence more popularly known as 737 Constancia in Sampaloc. That place was then a regular hangout of people like Godfrey Calleja, Roger Saldia, Girlie Flores, myself, and others. In fact, Girlie eventually found her Romeo among those Alvin-Patrimonio wannabes playing basketball on that vacant lot across the street. They are now residing in Mountain View Co...

  It was a typical summer morning in Iligan City, Philippines. The year was 1985. When I arrived in the office, our secretary handed me a telegram. The message was brief but crystal clear: “NOY, COME IMMEDIATELY, LOLOY KILLED.” It was from my younger brother, Joey, who, together with his older brother Chito, was working as a radio broadcaster in Davao City. “Noy” is a contraction of “Manoy” --- a title of respect usually accorded to the eldest brother in the family. I am the eldest in the family and all my eight siblings call me Manoy. “Loloy” was the pet name of our youngest brother, Joseph. It took me some time before the whole message sank in. My brother, gone. He did not die…he was killed. While on our way to Davao with my wife, I had the luxury of time to reminisce and to reflect on the events in the past that led to the current situation. While I was growing up and started to understand the harsh realities of life in the farm where we were born and raised, I promised to mys...

  Our house in the village of Calaitan lies alongside the road that connects the city of Bayugan to some towns of Surigao del Sur due east traversing through a lumber-rich mountainous forest. It is a proposed national highway but during the mid 80s, it was still a private road owned and maintained by the logging company that operated in the area. During this time, I was teaching at the state university in Marawi and my two brothers were working as radio broadcasters in Davao City. Only my younger sisters, a nephew and a niece were in the house with my parents. Let me quote what I have written earlier titled ‘Mother’s Day Musings:’ “ In those days, no public transport reached our place. But the mobility problem of the farmer residents was somehow eased by the generosity of the company drivers who gave rides to people they pass by hiking on the side of the road or waiting at some designated areas. On many instances you can see a comical but scary sight of dozens of people sitting o...

The year was nineteen eighty-four. It was a typical day in our farming village in Calaitan. The sun was just peeping over the eastern horizon and the sky was crystal blue interspersed with wisplike strands of cirrus clouds. My mother and our youngest sister, Lilet, who was then 12 years old, rose up early to make the necessary preparations in going to the market to sell their vegetables. Our village is situated along the route of a timber company that cut forest trees into logs and haul them to the lowlands for processing and export. In those days, no public transport reached our place for the road was owned by the timber company and only company vehicles were allowed to use it. But the mobility problem of the farmer residents was somehow eased by the generosity of the company drivers who gave rides to people they pass by hiking on the side of the road or waiting at some designated areas. On many instances you can see a comical but scary sight of dozens of people sitting on top of logs...

After I completed elementary grades, my father left farming and worked at a timber company in Bayugan, some 60 kilometers south of Cabadbaran. The timber company provided free housing for its employees and soon my mother and my siblings moved to Bayugan to be with my father. I was left behind to pursue my high school education in Cabadbaran. I stayed with my aunt who owned a store in the public market. We agreed that when I’m not in school, I have to help her tend the store in exchange for board and lodging.                                                                                  A few years later, when I was already in college, my father got wind of a farm lot for sale in the vicinity of the company’s housing compound. My father got interested and bought that piece of l...

Not long ago I received a snail mail with a New York postmark from a man named James Jacob. The name was new to me but the handwriting was very familiar. It was a penmanship I can always recognize anywhere in the world for my association with this man started way back 31 years ago when we were still high school freshmen in NMSAT. How the name evolved from being Jaime Egpan Ondoy to James Jacob must have something to do with his change of allegiance from being a true-bloodied pinoy to a newly-minted American. My relationship with James in high school was friendly but adversarial because of our healthy competition of being the top in the class. He was a diligent student and a voracious reader while my interests were in something else. He drowned me in World History subject under Mr. Ernesto Tapales which almost cost me the top honors. Our school remembers him as that student who wrote to then US Ambassador to the Philippines Henry Byrode which resulted to a donation of several crates o...

  Emmanuel S. Bacleon, an ardent Filipino nationalist and a passionate student activist in his time, died peacefully in his home in Arleta, California last April 7, 2010. He was 58.  Manny's unassuming personality, humility and sincerity endeared him to his friends. He was a dutiful son to his parents and a caring brother to his siblings.   He was born on August 20, 1951 in Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte, Philippines, the fifth child among the nine children of Melencio Alaan Bacleon and Irene Josefa Antiga Sarita. His father was a tailor and his mother was a full-time housewife. After finishing his elementary education at Candelaria Institute in Cabadbaran, he entered the Sacred Heart Seminary in Lawaan, Talisay, Cebu. His high school classmates Celestino Mausisa and Mercurio Montenegro fondly remember him as small in stature with a big heart and very approachable especially when it came to helping them in their Latin subject where Manny excelled. He was the valedictori...