Tenth Birthdays

An innocent is not innocent but a drug runner. A chase is not a chase but a clash. A gunning down not a gunning down but a gunfight. A boy played too close to one such gunfight, so close he caught pneumonia and died.

Unable to cough up sixteen thousand pesos, his parents couldn’t buy him a death other than the prescribed bronchopneumonia. (For a lesser fee, maybe something like sepsis?) The boy would have celebrated his birthday in three days, the birthday money now going to his funeral.

With the help of new and well-meaning friends, a wound began to form, to sink into the boy, but it was a slow, painstaking process, a few millimeters a month of sinking to a puncture. After almost ten years of constant friendship and well-meaning, a fully fatal gunshot wound emerged.

At long last, a celebration is not a celebration but a death.
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SIPI: Sumilip si Damian habang nirerebisa ang draft na ito. Medyo iniiwas ko sana dahil nagkataong ginagamot din namin ang kanyang pneumonia (at nagkataong 9 years old din siya). Kaso mabilis siyang magbasa.

“Daddy.”
“O.”
“Bakit ang lungkot ng stories ninyo?”
“Kasi totoo.”

Pinakita ko sa kanya ang reference ko rito. (Naipakilala na rin si Macli-ing Dulag dahil nasipat din niya ang isa pang burador. Saka na ito ibabahagi ha? Baka sa 24th.)
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1. Daily Guardian: The death certificate of nine-year-old Lenin Baylon... 
2. Reuters: Philippine family allowed to correct death certificate of son killed in drugs war 
3. Reuters: A pathologist, a priest and a hunt for justice in the Philippines 

Loyalty Day 2024

On Thursday we’ll celebrate Loyalty Day in UPLB. This year we began early, Friday, October 4. Before noon the Trade Fair was open.

We now interpret October 10 as the commitment of constituents to the university, hence the parade of units and offices which we mounted a couple of days ago, on a rainy Sunday morning. Like the second semester’s Feb Fair, Loyalty Day is an occasion for alumni to pay a visit and initiate reunions. I understood these during my first year in service. Historical awareness will come later, not immediately.

Today I find the logical link between then (World War I volunteerism) and now (general mirth, pledges of loyalty and unity) best voiced by a post from the Business Affairs Office. 

Well and good, then yes? Our commitment to the university feeds into the university’s service to the nation and the world. Problems arise when we look into the grounds of this commitment, the nature of the service, and the direction of our loyalties. Who decides the nobility of a cause? Who benefits from this public act of volunteerism? Who gains more power, curries greater favor and from which hegemon? Salient questions as certificates of candidacy are filed, our ruling blocs carry the banners (though sometimes veiled, sheathed, or temporarily denied) of their choice foreign patrons (US or China) as they continue to court their favor and vie for domestic popularity. 

On October 13, 2012, Prof. Elmer Ordoñez published “Under the Stacks: Retrieving the forgotten past” an article for the Manila Times and a review of Saul Hofileña Jr.’s book. To illustrate Filipino subservience to the U.S. after 1916, Ordoñez mentions UPLB: “The Faculty and students of the University of the Philippines (Los Baños) volunteered to a man to enlist in the US Army at the start of the First World War. For decades, UP Los Baños celebrated this event as Loyalty Day. They had since come to their senses and called it Arbor Day.” 

While correct, Ordoñez missed two marks. Arbor Day—Tree Planting Day, an acknowledgement of our dependence and need for trees and ecological balance—was pegged at June 25 since 2012. 

1918, 2012, or 2024... 106 years, and we have yet to come to our senses.

Renegades of Funk

D) Magaan ba? May mas modelo pa rito.

A) May pake naman ako sa results.

D) E sa ayaw na sa atin.

A) What if nauna tayong umayaw, tas pinaramdam natin yun?

D) Malay mo walang pananabotahe? 

A) Ang galing nyan ha. Tripartite. Idol ko yung trabaho nya, lalo nung pandemya. Didn’t think that level of activity possible.

D) Inaabisuhan nga siya. Malabo ring makakausad doon. “Bhe, pahihirapan ka lang dyan.” 

A) Gusto ko lang sure na hindi pinahirapan dito. Natin. Prior to. Ng side glances. Etc. 

D) Sobra ka naman. Sino bang hindi? Lahat naman.

A) Hindi no. Yung pinaka-success in my book, kaso wala na. Early, at deserve, dasurv, so we said. In chorus. Pero never a Marites. Or sinubukan nyang pigilan. Yun ang hindi natin kaya sa ngayon. None of us.

D) Teka ha. Saan mo naman nakuhang pinahirapan siya?

A) Feeling nya mag-isa, kamo. O revise?

D) Ambot. May pamilya na nga e. May dalawa na siya agad!

A) At joyous activity, mind you. Mga ten percent lang ang nakaya kong i-emulate! Tas proud pa ako nun.

D) Siya naman, magaling talaga. Grabe mag-organisa. Sunod-sunod ang banat.

A) So? Bakit nangasim?

D) Bakit naman siya sisiraan? Di ba kung ayaw sa kanya, mas pabor kung hahayaan?

A) Sa ganun e, bastang uupo ang aso sa dayami. Enemies, closer.

D) . . .

A) Seguruhin lang sana na pinapantay yung trato no? May lalaki rin sa equation na walang punitive measures. Overt o subtle.

D) Lalo lang siyang lilimitahan doon, kahit bigyan pa ng sariling mandato. Patibong lang, o para may paglagyan.

A) Pake naman natin dun? Naging maayos ba tayo rito? Basta panatag ka na walang masamang hangin, walang talsik ng laway...

D) Susginoo, ay. Bakit naman iisiping tulog ang nakapikit?

A) Side glances.

D) Alangan namang manahimik.

A) Tayo, sa sariling mantika. Kaya lahat kung makaaalis, aalis.

D) Samantala, ang layo-layo na natin.

A) Kaya nga congrats. You, and yours.

D) Salamat. Hiyang ka rito.

Home Arrangement

the artistry

working Pardon

embracing—cur

noses—respects

touch—provision

 

formal—damage

hogging—mark

open—lock

combat—hog

share—gram

dig—fish

earn—partners

rest—hand

rev—farm

share—ceremony

provide—con