Peaceful Country Living

I chose to live in the country so I could get away from the drama of city life. One morning Ana, my helper, companion, sidekick and co-witch, tells me, "Mang Pedro (our part-time gardener) is in trouble again. The caretakers of the house down the street filed a complaint against him. They claim he asked their young daughter to stroke him. They don’t want conciliation, they say they’re taking Mang Pedro to court."

"Did he do it?" I asked.

"He denies it. He says those children follow him around and he treats them like his grandchildren, but really I can’t say. I was not there." This is what I like about Ana. She generally has her wits about her.

"This is child abuse, serious business. If he doesn’t get good defense, he’s in jail. Is this the girl who goes around the village with her younger brother and sister? They follow me around when I walk..." I remember this girl because she gives me the creeps, something disturbing about her. Every time she follows me I cut my walk short and go home hating myself for having such a strong negative feeling about this child.

"What’s this about?" I asked Pedro, who told me that months before the child’s father (who is cross-eyed so they call him Duling, Filipino word for the affliction, that’s how country people are) sidled up to him and asked if it was true that Mang Pedro had been hired as caretaker for yet another house. When Mang Pedro confirmed this, Duling asked to have this new assignment passed on to him. Mang Pedro explained that he could not recommend Duling, who, as caretaker of another house before this one, had almost caused a fire in the village. Also, he really could not be trusted. Without asking for permission, he would harvest bananas from the trees that Mang Pedro had planted around the village. Unpleasant words were exchanged ending with Duling’s threat, "I’m gonna get you." Was this complaint Duling’s revenge?

I know I left lots of room for Mang Pedro to be wrong. I have this weird philosophy, however, that I must take care of people thrust into my care. Without a doubt, Mang Pedro was one of them. I had already helped him once when he got into an altercation with nuns. Now, they are on good terms. He no longer lives in the hut near their house, but he wasn’t excommunicated from the subdivision. In fact, we see that he has more work. This says much for Mang Pedro. "You are accused of a serious crime. If you lose your temper or take the point of view that because you are innocent you don’t have to defend yourself, you will land in jail. You need a lawyer. Go see if the local government will give you free legal aid."

All my lawyer friends said Mang Pedro should be given legal aid. Locally they shrugged it off. No, free legal aid. You have to pay. No, my friends said, he is entitled to free legal aid. Insist on it. Life has taught me you can insist all you want but if they’re not giving, you’re not getting. Through his own efforts and a lot of help from everyone, Mang Pedro found a local lawyer who charged him P15,000 acceptance fee. He had to borrow money from all his employers. "You have to learn to defend yourself even if it means spending money. Maybe this is better because if you’re paying him, then he will work well for your interest. Learn that. It’s a you-get-what-you-pay-for world," I told him and to his credit, he listened well.

The complainants didn’t show at the first hearing. After New Year, Duling’s family left to attend a fiesta up north and they have not returned. They told some neighbors they could not raise the money they needed for a lawyer. Duling’s employer is supposed to be very upset that he has gone AWOL.

From the very beginning, I watched the complainant’s behavior closely. Let me tell you that if I were mother to a child who had been subjected to what they claim, rage would take over me. I would be just out of my mind with anger. I would raise hell and high water left and right in this small community. I would talk to his family, talk to his employers and ask, "How can you protect a man who could do such a thing to my child?" I expected this to happen, kept wondering how I would explain to an understandably irate woman that I wasn’t defending Mang Pedro’s behavior, just making sure that he had as much legal aid as her child was likely to get under the law. I did not expect that her child would not be given free legal aid.

The case has not been dismissed and all the names I’ve used are fictitious even in their deformities. While I always thought that free legal aid should be extended to the poor, I now see that there is wisdom in withholding it. Pedro, keen on defending his innocence, raised the money for his defense. His family had a miserable Christmas, I know, because two-thirds of his monthly income went to amortizing the loan he took out for his lawyer’s acceptance fee. Every time he would have to go to town to meet with his lawyer, he would sell bananas to raise the transportation money.

Duling, who I thought had a more compelling reason for raising the money if the charges were true, decided to walk away without much of a fight. It makes you think. I think about this a lot as I sit and stare at Mount Makiling from my window. In the end, I guess justice has been served.

I chose to live in the country so I could get away from the drama of city life. What do I get? The drama of country life. I’m not complaining.