My father

I thought of writing this while my father is still alive and to have something to share with my family and friends. He will be 94 years old this May 15, 2010. My own children and their cousins, mostly adults now know not much about him. He was born in barangay Kaytitinga, Alfonso, Cavite and lives in the same house where we were all born (5 boys) in the town proper of Alfonso. Our mother Leny Dominguez passed away couple of years ago followed by our eldest brother less than a year later. Both of them died from diabetes complications. I can feel that the loss of my mother and eldest brother really took a toll on his well being. He now walks with a cane but still very well for his age.

It is very amazing that his memory is better than mine because he can still recall the street names and the stores he frequented while visiting us in 1983 (USA) and that was 27 years ago. He was only there for 3 weeks and got bored after seeing "America the Beautiful" in Disneyland. He said, "I've seen America and I'm going home". Once in a while, I even hear him quote from Shakespeare. I don't even know one.

All his working life was being a civil servant although he and my mother I vividly remember owning a bakery before he worked for the Central Bank in Manila and only came home during weekends. He became the Municipal Treasurer of Alfonso for a long time until he rose to become the Provincial Treasurer of Cavite in the early 80s until his retirement in 1982. I migrated to the USA before then (1973).

My father is a very honest man and very well respected in our town. Almost all his working life was managing money and could have been very tempting especially being the Provincial Treasurer. He had the opportunity to amass a fortune and got away with it He loves to tell us those missed opportunities and the people who took advantage of them and I believe him knowing how corrupt our leaders are. The one thing he is very proud of is never having fed us with stolen money. I remember when I was growing up seeing a huge quote poster on his office wall about "If at the end of the day you do not feel guilty putting in your day's worth..then." I don't remember the exact words but it was inspirational.

He is a very quiet and mild mannered man. I can't recall a time he raised his voice in anger although he was a disciplinarian He had his share of midlife crisis when he started losing his hair. A few years after I migrated with my family to the States, I received a registered big brown envelope from him and inside was some flattened newspaper with masking tapes all over it. It had with it a note if I could get him a toupee. It turned out that the crumpled newspaper was what he molded over his head and taped over to keep the shape of his head. Me and my wife laughed all the way home imagining how and where we can find someone to make it and keep a straight face. I wrote back my father to send me his head...just kidding. Seriously, I told him that it will be difficult to do what he wanted.

My father was an impeccable dresser during his working years from head to toe. His work clothes were made to order barongs, gabardine pants, expensive shoes or always neatly pressed white long sleeved shirts always with cuff links. I saw his old shark skin suits and even owned tuxedos. My mother adored him and took care of him dearly.

If you look closely at his picture above, he had his facial age spots removed by that famous Vicky Belo.I was jealous , I had one too but a different doctor for half the price.

I got more to say but I'm getting sleepy...

Old Tradition

My sister in law's brother Eddie died from diabetes complications almost 2 weeks ago. He was also a childhood friend of mine and the funeral wake was held at the compound where I stay here in Alfonso which lasted for 5 days. I suddenly realized how little I knew about old traditions here in Alfonso having been away for more than 30 years living in the USA and experiencing a funeral wake within the family. I've seen wakes before but never really witnessed the entire practice - not even for my own mother and elder brother who died couple of years ago.

I was amazed at the amount of praying held by the "manangs"(some kind of a religious group of elderly women)who come to the place where the wake is held and pray loudly for about an hour every morning at 6:30 am. I'm not sure if they are reciting the rosary because I never really paid attention and watched from afar. After the prayer, they are served a nice breakfast and I'm not sure if they go to the next wake for lunch and so on. I don't remember who I was with one morning that she told me that this particular group of manangs are divided into 2 factions because of some personal conflict. It was quite funny that each group ate at separate tables and were not talking to each other although they pray together as one group. I assume that the prayers are for asking the forgiveness of the dead person's sins that he may go to heaven. May he rest in peace.

The fourth day is something more important because the prayers lasted longer and the prepared food was for lunch and much better. The funeral was held on the 5th day. The night before the funeral is called the "big night" where more people came all day and thru the night which was like an all day all night party. People playing mahjong and card games for money. Nobody seemed to be grieving for the dead..or should I say celebrant? And more prayers till the 9th day which is called "pasiyam". This day is also a big day with lots of food from morning till evening. Prayers by the manangs lasted all day and nobody seems to know what was the origin of this old tradition and the symbolism it stands for. 40 days is getting near and another commemoration for Eddie's death is coming. I don't need to write more on this.

Old traditions in Alfonso never die. Most of them I try to comprehend with respect but a lot of them just don't make sense. Some of them I believe are the causes of why the Philippines is still a third world country. One of them is the "compadre" system where people ignore and bypass the normal order of systems where equality and fairness for all should be the way of life. People vote not because the candidate possesses the right credentials but rather because he is my "compadre". Some best friends I know support a corrupt politician because he is their "compadre" who allows them to not pay their fair share of taxes. So sad for my country.

Philippine Politics

Feb. 21, 2010

4:30 am - I had a good sleep last night and getting adjusted to my new time zone. Since my arrival, I’ve been holed up in the compound and haven’t set foot outside. My father who will be 94 this coming May has been keeping me company every day and he too seems to be enjoying the flow of people in and out of this place. Boredom doesn’t seem to exist here (for older people at least) even in the absence of Starbucks, malls, theaters and all those hangout places people normally go – at least for the time being.

What bothers me the most is my indignation about the Philippine justice system and what happened to my brother’s protest case. I do not understand why the Supreme Court Justice can be so incredibly swift in reversing the Lower Court and the Commission on Election judgments that seated my brother back to office. The case took more that 2 years to deliberate but the SC reversal of the judgment only took them less than a month. How can a SC hand down a “status quo” ruling that was so vague that they had to issue a second ruling (7 – 8 vote) favoring the other party. It is common knowledge how corrupt the Philippine politics is but this one I believe is the pits. I also heard there was a PHP8 million dirty money injected to swing the SC order to their favor. They know who they are. I won’t be surprised if the Ampatuan massacre in Maguindanao goes to the dogs the way it is going.

I also have a gripe about our senators whom I sent email letters about Gov. Maliksi’s military takeover several weeks ago. Not even one acknowledged at least receiving them for courtesy purposes. I guess it is election time that they are too busy preparing for their political survival.

Alfonso Election 2010

It's Saturday afternoon and I am in Alfonso for 3 days now adjusting my bio clock(16 hrs ahead). I finally set up my internet access the reason why I can write this blog and hopefully write something interesting in the next 3 months.

I'm here to help out in my brother's mayoral campaign which I've done for the 3rd time since 2001. It is a hectic and stressful experience and for sure, this one will be most difficult but there's no turning back now. The campaign here in Alfonso is getting dirtier and I've already seen black propaganda from our opponent even though the official start date of the campaign has not yet started. I have to admit they are really good at it.

I just learned yesterday that our province of Cavite now has 7 congressional districts from 3 districts since 2007 election; meaning we will now have 4 more new congressmen having millions in pork barrel each. I think the Philippines is really going to the dogs considering how our politicans squander taxpayers money.

Since this morning, I have seen 4 people came in to my brothers compound asking for favors such as help getting someone out of the hospital, a father with her little sick daughter needing medical help, a young mother asking for recommendation to find a job, someone who asked for transportation fare. These go on everyday with people coming in and out of the compound.

The highlight of my day is a woman asking for advice when her husband was hit by a car and died. She settled for PHP50,000.00 because the driver of the car was poor and can only afford that much. Life here is so cheap actually it was about PHP4000.00 some years ago. I was told that it is cheaper if the victim died instead of being disabled.

In Retrospect 'cont'd..

As I mentioned in the previous blog, the above is the 2nd page of the ACF brochure laying out the list of priorities of our vision for the town. Looking back, my brother's admininistration did a very impressive record of accomplishments. Regretfully, these are not enough for the people of Alfonso and perhaps true for most part of the country. I have always believed that there is hope for the Philippines and making a difference no matter how small matters. I'm getting older and I now believe I will not see this happen for the country during my remaining years. I can only hope that we can make this happen for Alfonso and sow the seeds for our youth for them to achieve a better future. My own children are not better off today than my generation even though they all have college education. It makes me sad to think about those who are less fortunate that their opportunities for a better future are being limited by some corrupt leaders who only think for themselves.

The May 2010 election is coming and we will give our vision for Alfonso another breath of hope.

Till my next blog....

In Restrospect 'cont'd..

This is the original ACF brochure (front page) I developed stating our vision for Alfonso.

These pictures I took in 2004 were 3 major post war bridges in Alfonso.

If seeing is believing, one only has to cross these bridges today. The Pajo bridge was unpassable for more than one year. All these bridges were built under Mayor Joy Penano's 3 year term.

In addition, the infrastructure projects such as Kaytitinga/Amuyong road concreting, Luksuhin Market Renovation, and almost everything on the list were completed and the rest could have been on the way to realization.

We are not perfect people but we challenge anyone to bring out any charges of corruption against us. Our father was a civil servant who resisted every opportunity and temptation to enrich himself during his term as Provincial Treasurer of Cavite instilled in us to, "Never feed your family with stolen money". It always amazed us to listen to his stories about those so called "missed"opportunities and the people who took advantage of them.

The 2nd page of the brochure is shown on the next blog. I beg to apologize for the way this blog is structured but I'm having difficulty arranging them the way it should be because the draft comes out differently than the final layout when I hit the publish button. I promise to get better when I get familiar with this "blogger" site.

In Retrospect

February 6, 2010

I'm writing this with a heavy heart. It's 5:00 am, I am losing sleep and my stomach churning over what's going on in Alfonso. My head is swirling with thoughts that I'm having difficulty putting them into words. One of the hardest thing in writing for me is to sit down and start doing it

I'm also having a lot of thoughts about the Charitable Foundation I created in the sense that it was put "on hold" due to personal setbacks my family had to attend to for the past several years which will be another story (click here). It took a tremendous toll on our emotional and financial well being and disrupted my family temporarily.

Unfortunately, the Foundation also lost its website which took me months to develop on my own to save expenses. I spent hundreds of hours learning to create a website since I am not a computer expert. After the AT&T/SBC Global merger and unmerger, the foundation domain name got lost in the transition and ended up being sold to some domain peddler in Australia. I tried to recover the domain but they now want to charge me again for something we already paid for. In principle, I figured it will be easier to start all over.

The Foundation "on hold" quit soliciting personal donations last May 2007 and was left with about $2300.00 in its account. I decided to re-direct fundraising not from individual donors from Alfonso but instead focus on other charitable groups and other generous friends and individuals who are truly supportive and believe in my integrity without question. It is a "lesson learned" in this experience that I decided to take a different path in continuing my mission.

I went thru my files this morning and and found some stuff which in the absence of the original website, provided some background information where I started. See the next blog.