After a couple of days alone in Asingan ( my wife was in Trinidad ), the wanderlust bug bit me and I wanted to go elsewhere. I packed a small knapsack with clothes for a 2-day trip. Then my 2 sisters asked me where I was going.
"Pampanga.." I answered. "Pampanga??" they asked with arched eyebrows.. "We do not know anybody in Pampanga.."
"You dont, but I do..I know some people there.."
"How did you met them?"
"Through the Internet.."
If I was a 16-year old then telling this to my parents, shit would surely had hit the ceiling. But I was a 63 year old person. Seen all, been there, done that! How can they refuse to let me go..
"Arent you afraid?." they asked me.
"No " I said. "Besides my wife knew about this trip"..My sisters were a bit concerned because I was about to enter unknown territory . But I love going into the unknown. There is a little adrenalin flow.."What if..?" my 2 concerned sisters said ennumerating a number of "what if " factors. To hell with the what ifs..I murmured..A few minutes later, I went out of the house with my digicam, knapsack and my NOKIA cell phone.
So at 7:30 am, I was already in front of the Municipio, waiting for the Viron Bus bound for Manila. A few other people were there. One was. Amado Benito, a retired Army Colonel whose wife was going to Manila. Amado was my classmate since Elementary, and nobody would expect he would retire as a Colonel because he was then very shy. But as he grew up, his personality turned about 180 degrees from a shy guy to a dashing Army Officer.
Two Balikbayan trips ago, we visited his camp in Binmaley. "We" included the late Gregorio Velasco Jr., Johnny Sindayen, the late Butch Agtarap, and some others. We talked up to the wee hours in the morning beside the waters of Lingayen Gulf with the sea breezes blowing into our ears.When I felt sleepy, Amado lent me his room and they continued their talkathon further until they fell asleep in the seaside picnic table. When I saw them when I woke up, I heard that Junior ( his actual name aside from BOLOG) had already jogged along the coastline and he was able to reach Lingayen and back.
That morning in 2003, Amado was already retired, looking leaner than the last time I saw him. His asthma started to bother him, he said. But the gleam in his eyes was still there and he was always active.A retired person MUST always be active. "In fact," he said " we just celebrated a reunion with some AFP retirees."
The ubiquitous cell phone was my sole guide to my destination. Every now and then it would chime, and our text messages would appear something like these:
Were r u now?
Am still weting 4 d bus
IC..wat time s 8 arriving?
MeB 8:30..wont B long..
Call again F U are close to Pampanga
OK
I do not think texting would be helpful for the Filipino youth in mastering Spelling, Grammar, Writing a good paragraph, etc. Every new technology has its downside. But one can not deny how helpful this gadget is..In Toronto, we seldom text each other..Either we talk live or leave voice mails..But some friends in the Philippines are so afraid of displaying their cell phones esp. in jeeps or buses in Manila..Or maybe using it in some forlorn alley. Snatchers never rest; they are always on the look out for a prey with a cell phone to pounce on.Here in the US/Canada , if a cell phone is lost and is found by anybody else aside from the owner, that's it. It could not be used anymore. It could be unlocked, I guess but cell phones here are so cheap that one would just buy a new one rather than paying much money to the techie who would open up the cell phone to change the chip inside.Besides you will still have to buy a charger..
But not in the Philippines. Many Filipinos are such geniuses in doing things, especially stealing. In Asingan I am not afraid of using it in public or walk around pressing the keys to communicate with some one. Although one time I almost fell from the stairs while pressing the keys of that f...g cell phone. But it is a good way to pass the hours if you are bored stiff and there is nothing else to do.
****
On the way, I saw some new landmarks in Tarlac, particularly in the Hacienda Luisita, owned by the Cojuancos. There is a big shopping mall in the Villa Luisita with theatres and all the works. Too bad the bus could not stop inside the area. Instead it stationed in a rinky-dinky eatery just outside Tarlac, Tarlac just before Bamban. I got down to use the bathroom which was not an improvement over the ones in Trinidad. I saw some snacks there but it seemed that the flies had already beaten me to it. Some vendors were waving some TUPIG ( a delicacy of sticky rice and sugar wrapped with Banana leaves ) at my face but I did not budge. Those TUPIGS in bus stations are just plenty of banana leaves wrapped around a bite size TUPIG. Basically you are just paying good money on a whole wad of dried banana leaves.
The regular route to Manila before used to pass through this scenic area in Bamban. It consisted of some low mountain ranges and on one of these elevated peaks is a grotto of the Virgin Mary. We went up to this grotto one time with Fr. Jose V. Ferrer and the church choir of Asingan. It is a beautiful wooded area which reminded me of the Virgin Mary's Shrine in Baguio City. In both places, you have to walk a very long flight of steps, not very good if your knees are already wobbly.
Many years ago, a Hollywood movie was shot in these parts: it was entitled MERRILL'S MARAUDERS the last film of the 50s Superstar Jeff Chandler.It was also one of the only 2 Hollywood movies in which the popular Filipino star Pancho Magalona appeared ( The other one is THE HOOK where he starred with Kirk Douglas.). Both movies are of the war-action genre. (Samuel Fuller who made THE BIG RED ONE was the producer of MERRILL'S, Pearlberg-Seaton, a top movie producer team did THE HOOK) Pancho was married with another superstar of the '50s, Tita Duran. One of their children, I heard is one of the current Filipino rappers. Pancho has a good voice and his English diction is very good inspite of the inborn Filipino accent. There was a hoopla then that he might become popular in Hollywood with these two new films. Unfortunately, in the second movie THE HOOK ( rarely shown on TV or even in video ) he played a Korean prisoner and he did not have even a single line of dialogue. That was the end of that dream, but he remained popular as a star, singer and a dancer during those days when Sampaguita Pictures was still one of the big movie studios in Manila. But back to my original story...
The eruption of Mount Pinatubo with its Lahar aftermaths messed up the route to Manila. It does not pass thru Bamban anymore. Instead, it takes a very round about way to avoid the Lahar covered roads and fields. The bus goes thru unseen barrios of Tarlac winding through very narrow roads before reaching the Tarlac-Pampanga border. And before I knew it, it was already close to the provincial border where I was supposed to get down. My cell phone began chiming like crazy, reminding me that my disembarkation point might already be close at hand!---#
( to be continued )
