EYES WIDE OPEN/ PETER LA. JULIAN/WELCOME 2014

 
     The church bell tolls several minutes after six in the afternoon. There is a night mass at the Oscariz Roman Catholic Church. But I forego the ritual and let the time pass.
     The blogger and 8-year old grandson Henry are in the front sala, he playing a game on my I-Pad. 
     Customers make a beeline at Raul's Lechon Manok stand that sells roast chicken, roast pork liempo and sisig

and grilled bangus wrapped in tin foil. The stand, in front of the house, opened early this morning anticipating customers buying food for their last evening meal in 2013. Mama is the cashier this time. She is inside an enclosure, actually the front of the gym for women which is closed for the holiday.
     The blogger is sleepy, his eyes painful. Could be the ill-fitting eyeglasses and I must have it fixed in January 2014.
     The night is getting cold--it's 8:30 PM on my Fossil watch bought three years ago in California-- and I put on a bonnet. Suddenly, I want to drink hard liquor, perhaps to warm my old body and not entertaining the idea of going to bed. My eldest son Jonathan and brother-in-law Chito are taking shots of Emperador brandy near the lechon manok stand. I go to the place and pour wine in the tea cup, sip, the liquid going down my throat and I feel a little hot.
     Customers arrive in trickles now, on motorcycles or motor bikes until past 10:30PM. The store closes shop at past 10:30PM. The kid and I go inside the house to watch TV with the  networks having their own programs focusing on celebrations on the great wait for 2014. There are concerts at Eastwood city and at Resorts World, all in the Metro Manila area. A special coverage is made on Tondo people waiting for 2014. It seems there will be fireworks in these places when the countdown stops and 2014 comes in like a conquering hero.
     The year comes with a little fanfare in the neighborhood--firecrackers are banned in the entire country-- but a few escape the ban and explode the crackers  a few minutes before the onset of the year and some luces went up the sky in our neighborhood. A few souls riding in tandem on their motorcycles roar past us--Henry, Jonathan and I-- on the roadside while watching the night sky lights up with fireworks.
      And so ends 2013. Let the 2013 pains and heartaches inflicted by supposed writer-friends be buried forever and the sweetness and joy of life in the same period remembered with fondness.
      I thank the Almighty God for giving me a bonus, another life to live fully and useful to others in need of comfort and material things,  this the blogger swears. I say, thank you, Lord, for all the blessings you have bestowed on the blogger for many years and for many years yet to come.

NO. 1 COMMANDMENT FOR WRITERS

 

  Stephen Vizinczey, author of "Truth and Lies on Literature," has come out with his version of his Ten Commandments for writers. On top of the list is the following: 1. Thou shall not drink, smoke or take drugs. To be a writer, you need all the brains you've got.  
     One of the best writers in literature (short story and poems) is American Edgar Allan, who was said to have written his best writings under the influence of liquor. In the Philippines, the great Nick Joaquin, author of the memorable "May Day Eve" was a beer drinker, and chain-smoking Blas Ople, a Labor secretary during the reign of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was considered one of the country's best writers.
     But these writers are exceptional because of what probably were God-given talents. Vizinczey's advice, of course, is practical guide that should not taken for granted. For one, it's good for the health. 

ARISE, A POET-KNIGHT

ARISE, A POET-KNIGHT


A surfeit of vermin,
half-truths, half lies.
A heavy mental baggage 
Before the ancient
vineyard miles
and miles away.

But arise, a poet-knight,
And slay snakes walking
Upright
In your pen.

Arise, a poet-knight,
Redeem them
From the impostor king.

All have been forgiven, comrade. 
Arise, a poet-knight.

     In the year of the snake, the blogger watched in disbelief as four supposedly well-mannered writers in the language created a pit for themselves and expelled their "enemy" without due process.
     To this day, the subject of their ire is still waiting for explanation for their collective act on a Sunday in Tribu Paraiso in Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya.
     But long before they made the decision,  the blogger has already informed the esteemed ML that he was walking away from them.   

USING THE MAGIC OF GRATITUDE

     
     The blogger purchased the run-away best-seller, "The Secret", in one of the stores in New York when we were visiting the family of our nephew in New Jersey. Authored by Australian writer Rhonda Byrne, the book is about the law of attraction, a sort of a guide that that would get you anything you want. Meaning, you have to be positive, think and feel that what you wished for is there and on the way. That book was circa 2007 and the writer has produced two other inspirational books since then--"The Power" and "The Magic". The last one was given as a gift by my son and his wife, who at present are working in different countries-- he in Singapore, and she in Toronto.
     The book advises that if you want things done, you have to express gratitude before embarking on an undertaking. The writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton used gratitude before he goes to work for the realization of his dream and desire. As cited by Byrne, here is what he says before he does things: "You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and give grace before the play and the pantomime, and grace before I open a book and grace before before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, before I dip the pen in the ink."

     The Oscariz Roman Catholic Church in Oscariz, Ramon, Isabela bounces back after being closed for almost one year by the town's parish priest, a certain Fr. Michael, with the consent of his Isabela priestly superior, a puzzling act. (The first time that a church is closed in Philippine history?) 
     With no church to attend on Sundays and other holy days, some of the members bolted their Catholic faith and joined other congregations in the village which was considered a town during the Spanish times. An intact Catholic community broken up by a Catholic priest because of greed and other indiscretions? 
     What says the eminent Cardinal Tagle? Anyway, it's all water under the bridge but the Philippine Catholic Church should learn from this sad experience and adopt more strict measures to ensure that those assigned to the priestly post must meet the requirements in the altar of sacrifice.

THE HEART OF OUR MORAL CONSTRUCT

     The illegal numbers game is at the heart of our moral construct. The beneficiaries are mostly Philippine government officials led allegedly by the top honcho in the Palace  and high-ranking police officers. 
     In the same moral vein run the scandalous fat salaries and obscene allowances of Government Service and Insurance System and Social Security System officials amid the widespread poverty and misery of our people.
     Not to mention the "legal" robbery committed by our lawmakers in the name of Development Assistance Program and Presidential Development Assistance Fund. Imagine P10-billion lining their pockets and their cohorts in the local government units and other influential individuals.
     Think again, Sergio, of your "peanuts" in millions of pesos when you see the squatters in the esteros of Metro Manila, who eat only once or twice a day, while you splurge in parties and other bacchanalian feasts.            Will your heart break if you see dirty children and frail adults begging for alms in Quiapo and on the pavements of Cubao? 
     Of course, you will not see the downtrodden, the scums of the land, because you live in towering condominiums and mansions and gated subdivisions in expensive real estate in the suburbs, away from the filth and squalor of the cities.
     

HERO'S FAMILY WAITS FOR JUSTICE*

*Originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer with the blogger's by-line

     There is a nondescript tomb in the cemetery along the national highway in Barangay Lingsat in San Fernando City, La Union, Philippines. It pales in comparison with the other tombs with their garish paint and expensive marble lapida (tombstone).
     Few in the city know that the nondescript tomb contains the remains of Jose Nisperos, a soldier.
     In fact, Nisperos is a hero, the first Filipino to win the United States congressional medal of honor, the highest military award given by the American people. 
     Nisperos was a member of the 34th Company of the Philippine Scouts in the US Army that saw action in several skirmishes with Moro rebels in Mindanao.
     In one of those fights, he showed extraordinary courage and bravery that earned him the respect of the Americans and eventually won for him the most coveted medal.
    
Basilan Battle

     It was on Sept. 24, 1911, in Basilan, where Nisperos and the Americans had just landed and were closing in on the rebels who were actually Yakan tribesmen.
     The bandit leader and his group were inside a cluster of huts and other armed rebels were hiding in the surrounding cogon grasses. Then they attacked the small band of lawmen.
     Many of the Scouts, including Nisperos, were badly wounded. The Ilocano soldier's left arm was broken by a Yakan sword and was shot above the elbow. He was weakened by continuous bleeding.
     But planting his wounded arm in the ground and using his other arm, he continued to fire back at the rebels until reinforcement arrived and the Yakans fled into the forested area in the interior.
     Nisperos' gallant stand prevented what could have been a humiliating defeat for the Americans. Many of them would have died and their bodies would have been mutilated by the Yakans as was their practice in their time.
    Twenty-one fully armed men participated in the battle. The dangerous mission was led by Navy Ensign Charles Hovey who was the lone casualty.
     It took sometime for the Americans to recognize the extraordinary bravery of Nisperos.
     On Feb. 3, 1913, a military parade in review was held in his honor at the Luneta Park. For his gallantry in action, Maj. Gen. Franklin Bell, then chief of the US Army in the Philippines, presented Nisperos the award.
     It was a moment of glory for the Ilocano soldier. No other Filipino has been lionized by the Americans.
     Nisperos' left arm was eventually amputated at the shoulder joint and with his other wounds, he was rendered unfit for military service and given a pension of $55 a month by the American government.
     Nisperos enlisted in the Philippine Scouts as corporal and left it as a sergeant.
     The wounds that Nisperos suffered in the Basilan battle and the amputated arm told on his health.  In 1922, he died in his hometown of San Fernando. No records show he was given a hero's burial. He left behind his wife Potenciana and three young daughters.

Sad Postscript

     With his death, everything would have been forgotten about him, including his heroic act. But there is a sad postscript concerning his heirs that cannot be written off.
     Until now his three daughters, now in their late 70s, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are still wondering whether they (including his widow who failed in her lifetime to get any compensation despite the special US Congress Act to the effect) are still entitled to benefits and claims as surviving relatives of the hero. 
     The story started in 1952 when Dr. Gilbert Perez, then chief of the vocational educational division of the Bureau of Public Schools, came to La Union on an inspection tour of public schools.
     Perez met Nisperos' widow and was informed of her plight. She told that since 1922, she and her daughters have been depending on relatives for support beside doing laundry and other odd jobs.
     It would have been a different life had she succeeded in getting the money due her as a result of her husband's death.
     A special act of the US Congress entitled her to receive a lifetime pension of $55, the same amount her husband was receiving when he was alive.
     But the widow could not prove that her husband's death was a result of military service. Her claim was not approved. And when she lost the metal which she believed was necessary to support her claim, she lost heart to pursue the case.
     "Actually, the medal was taken sometime in 1922 by a certain Dr. Jose Bantug, a former professor from Manila and former director of what was then Philippine Museum," said Virginia Viduya, a granddaughter of Nisperos.
     Virginia is the daughter of Nisperos' eldest daughter, Esperanza, who died in 1990.
     Vuduya, a retired government employee, said Bantug took the medal to support the pension claim of Potenciana, but nothing came out of the promise and the medal was never returned.
     At any rate, Perez took the matter with the United States Veterans Administration in Manila  
and the agency promised to take action.
     In 1957, Dr. Perez deplored the fact that Washington never responded to him. He died soon after.
     Potenciana died in 1969. Concepcion and Leonila are still alive and living with the family of Viduya in a rundown house on Padre Burgos Street in San Fernando City.
     Since 1960, they have tried several times to get compensation benfits as surviving heirs of Nisperos. All failed. Last year, they sought assistance from influential people but to no avail.

US Appeal       

     A Chicago-based Filipino journalist wrote Viduya, informing her that he had contacted a lawyer who would handle the case with the Board of Veterans Appeal in Washington, D.C.
     This was in response to Viduya's letter to the journalist that she was planning to file an appeal for compensation claims to the board.
     "But I don't have the kind of money that the journalist said would be needed to handle the case," Viduya said. The amount included a $5,000 acceptance fee, if there is a case.
     The journalist listed several options to generate the needed money, including a possible movie project about Nisperos' exploits and his role in the Basilan battle.
     Viduya has yet to respond to the journalist. But perhaps she never will.
     Last April, she received a letter from the Manila office of the Department of Veterans Affairs, telling her the heirs of Nisperos were no longer eligible for compensation claims having reached the majority age.
     But we can never go back in time and file the claims in the 1920s. Fact is no one helped my grandmother and her children then and no one told them the right thing to do," Viduya said.
     She admitted the letter crushed all their hopes but she believed that they should be entitled to certain benefits.
     "My grandfather served the Americans, served some of them and eventually died for them," she said.     Nisperos' daughters, Concepcion and Leonila, are still hoping that the American dollars which their late mother never received would arrive before they die.
     Leonila, who never married, recalled the hard life with their mother. "Perhaps it would have been different had our mother  received the pension claim," she said in Ilocano.
     Nisperos' daughters, now in their 70s, would die without knowing whether the United States did justice to the penniless widow of the man who received what was the first and highest award America could give to its citizens.  And Nisperos was not even an American.