REFLEXES, RESPONSES

Made an unscheduled visit to Marinduque on the last day of April after receiving a text message that ‘Bahaghari had been intruded by strangers’ and that my friends and neighbors were concerned for my mother who now lives alone (marginalized me have to find some work elsewhere outside the island to ensure rice in the plastic ‘bayong’ for her). Going there, my thoughts were about how in the early 90’s she and I slept at night in our newly-built beach house with doors and windows open to always let the breeze in. Marinduque was a place so peaceful, so peaceful almost to the point of lethargy.

I remember one time, arriving from Manila early in the morning I took a jeepney that would take me to Amoingon, loading several boxes of goods. Later in the day, I realized that one box full of grocery items was missing. Before sundown, I traced the jeepney that was ready for the garage – in Buenavista, about 20 kilometers away. The box was still inside the vehicle, with not a single item missing. The driver said they’d made several round-trips already; no one apparently took interest in the ‘abandoned’ box that even he did not notice. Time has obviously changed now.

What could it be this time? There’s nothing that could be of value in Bahaghari. Art? Documents? It was almost embarrassing to find out what happened. My old mother, apparently, forgot to close the kitchen window (a must in recent years), where from outside it was easy to take anything from the dining table beside that window. She did not pay so much attention to the incident, but had related it to someone in the neighborhood, who had told somebody, who again told someone, who again told someone. In fact the episode was three weeks old, and she had earlier told me about it! Oh, well, I am used to that, but one forgets how people love to talk, nga pala! LINK

Nevertheless it was always good to come home. I had an opportunity to follow up the requested certificate from the Coast Guard. Result? The Cawit Coast Guard as claimed by the officer-in-charge was instructed by the Lucena HQ not to issue any certificate on the complaint lodged by my friend, Nick, but to try to persuade Nick not to pursue the case anymore. “Mabait naman siya dahil maganda namang kausap si Nick”, he said. Exasperated me, very politely responded that there was even stronger reason now for Nick to pursue the case since they did not want to cooperate.

“Kailan baga ang balik mo sa Maynila?”, he asked.
“Mamaya”, I answered.
“Dumaan ka dito mamaya. Abigyan na laang kita ng ‘passes’ sa barko. Hindi ka naman nila kilala doon”, he then said and I, amused, was left wondering what the last statement really meant.

As of today the matter has been brought by Nick to the halls of Congress - instead of sulking or going to the hills (mamundok!). “May magagawa pa, remember?”

There are congressional committees there, you see, who could put forward matters of special concern to the appropriate departments in the executive branch for prompt action. Sometimes, failure by such departments to act accordingly could result in anything – from so-so media censure to more serious budget cuts. We’ll see!