The next town we had to visit is Natividad. Nitz had a cousin waiting for us there on that day. But before we could go to Natividad, we have to drop by Tayug to pick up another relative Nenet Tebangin, the wife of Dr. Tebangin an illustrious citizen of this town..According to Nitz, the Tebangin family is one of the rich families of Tayug: they have agricultural lands plus he has also his practice and a government job in the Municipality. Nenet Tebangin, his wife worked at the Penninsula Hotel in Makati as a Department head and sometimes she was sent to Hong Kong to the main office to attend some seminars for professional advancement. Because of her help, we were able to secure a 5 day stay at the Penn for a very good rate..
Anyways, we took some tricycles that brought us to Tayug via Santa Maria. A very fine bridge now spans the river bordering Asingan and Sta. Maria. Upon reaching the Sta Maria side of the bridge, we just turned left to continue to Tayug without passing through the Poblacion of Sta. Maria de Pila. Nitz and I were married in this town on July 4, 1971.
As our ride was coasting thru the streets of Sta. Maria I remembered one of my first visits to this town. .This story happened around Dec. 1970, right during the Christmas break from school..I have 2 close buddies who were still in Asingan: Florante de Vera and Francisco Malala. I love hanging out with those guys because we share common interests:books, jokes and besides Florante had lots of fruit trees in his backyard which we could raid every now and then. It was Christmas vacation, Christmas was over and boredom started setting in..
"Don't your brother have a jeep?" asked Florante.."Yeah, "I said.
"I will provide the gas," he proposed to Belo (Francisco) " we borrow your jeep..Lets go somewhere."
"Okay," I said. At that time, my brother was in Manila. The keys are in the house and I know where they were. "One condition, lets go to Sta. Maria..Wanna check up the house of Miss Hufana."
"Sure," said Flor." I have a close relative there..Atty. Marcos..Maybe we could hit him for an afternoon snack.."
I asked my mom for the keys.."No you cant take it.."
I asked my dad.."You can take it.."
I took it!
Minutes later, we were on our way to Sta. Maria via, Urdaneta, Carmen and Rosales..Soon we were on Sta. Maria town proper. I told him to go to the Poblacion-San Vicente border, the Hufana residence is there. At that time, it was called WHITE HOUSE of Sta. Maria..We slowly passed by the front of the house and we saw a woman standing and leaning against the door..
"So want me to drive in and say HI?.."
"No, no.." I said. ..It was just the start of the school year and at that time, she barely know then I existed. We were working in the same school yes, but she was pretty, popular with her colleagues and she had a boy friend abroad..What were my chances then?..Maybe 1 in a million. Still I wanted to see where she lived and I have seen it. I know she was not there. She hated staying at home because Sta. Maria is a sleepy town and there is not much to do there except housework. So as soon after the last day of school in DWA, she took off for Dagupan to visit her uncle Mariano Hufana, the brother of her dad. Don Mariano, as she called him was a big time businessman and he spoiled Miguelita. They had a nice house in Arellano street and one of her cousins ( named Chita )still lived there at that time. The rest are already in LA. So I know at that time that she was not in Sta. Maria.
So Flor made a U turn and headed back to town straight to the house of Atty Marcos..He was a short chubby guy and he was delighted to see his relative Florante..So we took a seat and chatted while waiting for the coke and cookies to come out. One of my students in DWA before was his daughter, Ofelia Marcos. I used to call him Imelda in the classroom. And she hated it because it is not her real name..Besides at that time not many loved Imelda Marcos..And this was even before Filipinos found out about the 3000 pairs of shoes she owned!
According to Nitz ( Miguelita's nickname aside from Meg, Meggie, Nene ) Atty Marcos had a famous poem..It went something like this:
PUTO PUTO ITI SAN NICOLAS, NABUS BUSSOG, NAIM-IMAS! ( White rice buns of San Nicolas, very plump and very delicious )..The English translation does not give the necessary rhyme, but it is said he would start his poetry declaimation with this short 2 liner! I wonder how many PUTOs he had in mind? Maybe two?
Then after some laughter and other pleasantries, we bade them good-bye and he asked finally what we were doing there in that neck of the woods. He was sure Florante did not miss him that much to warrant a visit. Florante said," oh we are just coming to see a certain Miss Hufana, but I think she is not at home.."
"Oh yeah?," Atty Marcos said.." I know Doming Hufana very well..He has one pretty daughter ready for marriage ( That was Miguelita )..Want me to contact him and arrange her to meet you?" The guy was offering to match Miguelita with Florante..
We all laughed and I thought " Oh shit, this guy is about to destroy my case even before I could start building it.."
Well, the setting sun was already just above the western horizon and pretty soon all the cows would be coming home..So we bade a swift good-bye, went back to the jeep. Asingan was still a hell long way to go from Sta. Maria. We surely would feel easier if we would be traversing that wide KETEGAN area between Urdaneta and Asingan while there was still light. Very scary place, you might say because it is a long solitary stretch of rice fields and bandits would just stop and rob commuters! It is just a case of being in the right place ( or wrong place ) at the right time ( or wrong time ) depending whether you are holding the gun or you are staring at its' muzzle !! ---#
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