Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Nick Joaquin by on The Sunday Times Magazine

Tony Joaquin discloses the following little-known facts about his uncle Nick Joaquin, National Artist for Literature, who is generally regarded as the greatest Filipino writer in English.

1. The very first edition of his Prose and Poems in 1953 containing Nick Joaquin's short stories and poems were among his best works. The soft cover issue is on its third or fourth re-edition already. (Baby Orosa was then the assistant of Chronicle editor Indalecio Soliongco when he asked me to review Joaquin’s book. The review appeared forthwith under Soliongco’s byline. RLO)

2. Nick’s latent generosity surfaced when he was bumped by a jeepney one night as he was crossing the street. Nick suffered minor bruises and contusions because of that accident and so was brought to the hospital by the people. When the police officer assigned to the case asked Nick whether he was filing charges against the jeepney driver, Nick said no and instead asked to see the driver and when Nick saw the hapless driver, he even offered him some money to take home to his family. The driver was speechless but very grateful for the gesture.

3. When Jose Rizal’s classic Ulitmo Adios was translated into English verse, Nick’s translation was acclaimed to be the best compared to others like that of Sen. Claro Recto who himself thought so.

4. A rare display of defiance and considered a heroic act was Nick’s “negotiating” with the late President Ferdinand Marcos that Nick could agree to being considered Philippine National Artist for Literature only if he released Nick’s buddy Pete Lacaba who was detained at the time. Nick got his wish and the rest is history.

5. Nick was said to be the ONLY writer who ”dared” to look into the lives of so-called Filipino heroes and won accolades for his having written the book A Question of Heroes.

6. Nick’s now classic stage play Portrait of the Artist as Filipino is now translated into two languages (Tagalog, Spanish) and presented as a play and as a movie.

7. Lamberto “Bert” Avellana stated that Nick’s short stories, if one were to read them, looked like professionally written  screenplays that a movie director could easily  shoot the plays outright just reading the book.

 Perroy is one of the most sought-after classical guitarists on the world stage

Sunday, November 20, 2016




Grandfather Balbino, Grandma Carlota, Tio Koko Hernando

------------------

BALBINO KABIGTING Y YUSON

     Balbino had a brother Salvador who were both adopted by a family from Nueva Ecija named Yuson for the boys were complete orphans.  Balbino studied accounting while Salvador banking and finance. Balbino worked as accounting clerk for a government firm and this is where he got to know the government service and people who helped him rise in his chosen career.  Although he admits to being a Catholic, Balbino does not believe in going to Mass but is one of the most honest persons I have ever met. I say this as a young observer of 8 years old when Balbino whom I called Lolo Binong was already in his senior years working as provincial treasurer assigned to Batangas, province where I was spending my vacation, being the oldest grandson at the time. 

     One evening he was taken to the hospital when he collapsed while supervising his staff to double check errors in their accounting reports.  It turned out that he was just looking for centavos that were missing (probably miscounted) in the report and because of this he had to stay after hours working until his blood pressure shot up and had to be hospitalized. Perhaps, I said to myself, that was also how he was able to go up the ranks of the Masonic club he joined.   

     I was often with Lolo Binong as a young boy studying at the Catholic school in San Juan, so much so that he wanted me to almost behave the way he did. One day he brought me to a hat maker in San Juan where he was still the Provincial Treasurer of Rizal and San Juan was the official place he held office.  At the hat maker he ordered them to make a Panama hat that resembled exactly the one he was wearing.  They did and I went around with Lolo wearing this hat wherever he went. I felt like a midget walking beside Lolo both of us wearing the hat. When Lolo decided to let Mama use the main residenial building in San Juan he had another annex built at the back of the property which was a 1000 sq meter lot for him and Lola Carlot. This was connected with a footbridge made of wood from their veranda to our kitchen.  This made coming and going for him and Lola much easier for Lola was already having problems with her asthma which he relieved by having a morning inhaler. I would always get up early to join Lola early in the morning when I would cross the footbridge to try her coffee with milk which she herself made. We would then chat a while until Lolo Binong wakes up and begin his calisthenics using his golf club.  for he was an avid golfer and was good one at that.

     I am not sure how Lolo Binong and Lola Carlota met but when they were married he was still a lowly accounting clerk while Lola was a housewife but with lots of skills.  Over the years with Lolo Binong being assigned in various provinces at a time to be their provincial treasurer, Lolo was able to do some gardening growing all sorts of vegetables.  With the humble salary of Lolo Binong however Lola was able to save enough to purchase a one hectare plot of land which she planted with fruit trees including mangoes lanzones, and all the Filipino fruits available.  When the trees were ready for plucking she would dispatch through her hired tenant farmer managing the land to ship by train basketfuls of all the fruits in season. My family would drive over to the Santa Mesa train station each time a train comes with these produce and we had to hire a truck in order to fit the baskets of fruits which we would consume ourselves and sell the rest to neighbors and friends wanting to buy them.

     When my father and mother separated in 1946, I felt that this led to the great disappointment of Lola Carlota which caused her sudden death for Lola loved Papa Ping and beside Lola was a very healthy woman (in fact her teeth were so healthy she had no need for dentures until her death). Before Lola died they had a maid who helped her with many things and upon her death Lolo developed an affair with this maid which produced one child who carried Lolo Binong’s family name and who lived with him and the maid until Lolo’s death.

     During town fiestas Lolo Binong, the provincial treasurer, was among the joyful officials who would lead the dancing and singing. He also enjoyed drinking alcoholic beverage but never misbehaved for he knew how to hold his liquor.

LOLA CARLOTA CARLOS KABIGTING

     As a young wife, she managed to live on the small salary of her husband just learning the ropes of being an accounting in a government setting. Because her husband Balbino Kabigting was later groomed for higher position in the Philippine government service she had to adjust to living in different provinces in the Philippines especially when Balbino was already one of the bright provincial treasurer and with ample salary and perks which allowed her to live in houses that had big yards where she could indulge in her hobby of planting vegetable trellises and flowers like champaca jazmin and the like.  In the early nineties they had their first child Balthasar (shortened to Sarah by the daughter herself). However, when other pregnancy followed it was discovered that Lola Carlota was suffering from the sourge at the time known as Rhesus factor – which produced fetuses that never matured and died before it came to term. So, after Sarah it took six dead fetuses before Manuela came around.  Manuela was the eight pregnancy and she was a lovely and fair complexioned child.  Sarah was of the Filipino complexion known as Kayumanggi. 

      Sarah completed her finishing school course at an exclusive Manila school known as Centro Escolar de Senoritas and after that she went to pursue her college degree at the University of the Philippines with a major in Psychology.  However, right after graduation she opted to teach college at a school called Jose Rizal College. It was while she was teaching in this school that she met her husband to be Porfirio Marquez Joaquin who was a professional piano player in the Jazz idiom. He was playing piano and even band leading in several cities abroad like Hongkong, Shanghai or Java, Indonesia. Ping as everyone close to him called him was a likable personable guy with a charming mien. So attractive was he that even his mother in law loved him and often asked him to accompany her when she visited their farm in Laguna.

FRANCISCO KOKO HERNANDO, MD.

     During those moments in my boyhood life I was discovered to have a talent which cost nothing – to walk as ring bearer at a wedding.  When I did this and succeeded Mama was deluged with lots of request to allow me to walk in their weddings and I counted a total of eleven before I outgrew that role. One of the weddings was that of Francisco Hernando and Manuela Kabigting.  Manuela completed her college also at Centro Escolar de Senoritas with a Pharmacy degree.  She did not get to practice it despite the fact that she wanted to but Koko had other plans.  As a doctor, Francisco Hernando worked with the government for a while with the military.  Later he was appointed to several different clinics in Great Manila districts. In the meantime, Manuela who answered to the name of Nene enjoyed playing mahjongg very much that she did it almost everyday, even after the couple had produced several children namely Eugenio, Marita, Benny, and much later Aurea who was almost a menopause baby.   When the war broke out the Hernando family and ours were together in the evacuation exodus to a neighboring province thinking that the place we were in would not be bombed by the Japanese bomber planes.  Koko was very nervous whenever there was an air raid while we huddled in the first glory of our San Juan residence. I remember

     Papa Ping liked to smoke and Tito Koko would admonish him to douse the cigarette lest it can be seen by the Japanese pilots flying thousands of feet above.  Another uncle we had at the time was one who always brandished a Kris (a double bladed sword made by Muslims that had a wavy pattern) at the time as if he could use it to fight the enemy. But during the war years when almost everyone had to switch to horse drawn vehicles I discovered the real love of Tito Koko which were horses.  He had two at home and the way he took care of them brushing  washing  and feeding them was something to behold.  Aunt Nene remarked that he should not have taken medicine but animal husbandry which fitted his desire. But as it was in the past when one’s father strongly suggests that his son will be a doctor, the son has no choice left but to be one even if he did not want to be one. But Tito Koko also likes gadgets and cars. Once he fitted his car with a loud muffler that he would turn on when we were taking long trips. Of course, we kids enjoyed that loud roaring noise and so did Tito Koko.