My faded letter box
What should I write about after all the media focus on Cory’s funeral? What else is newsworthy after the death of one woman from a little island who enthralled both national and international viewers and captured the hearts of Filipinos eternally?
“What can I write about?” I asked my compadre, Bobby Cuenca. “What about the joy of chilling out? How about some contemplation?” he suggested. Still my thoughts came back to the five days of mourning under soggy weather that didn’t keep sympathizers away. Their devotion had me analyzing the behavior of my fellow Filipinos. Was the impact of Ninoy’s death, something that lay dormant in the hearts of millions, unleashed by his wife’s death? It was for me, driving along the same route back in August of 1983, watching the spontaneous tableau of millions who walked in anger following Ninoy’s Luisita 10-wheeler flatbed truck covered in yellow chrysanthemums like Cory’s.
I forgot. I’m supposed to be chilling out. I shall relax with The Secret History of the Mossad, a book about the intelligence service of Israel. I am an espionage buff and reading Gordon Thomas’s book feeds my inquisitiveness about the cunning and patriotic operations of agents, Mossad directors, spies dedicated to make little Israel a feared world power. After the excitement of Thomas’s research about international bloodcurdling exposés I decided to clean my drawers with a slightly wet washcloth. I chanced upon an old box that once held stationery marked “Leaf Dance.” It contained 24 sheets. I had forgotten that box which held treasured letters that carried me back to 1965. Some were from Lynn Illusorio, dated November 20 during her college days in America. Her letter was written on blue stationery. Remember those? One-page letters with an airplane and 11 cents on it, stating “Aerogramme, par avion”? Now air-mailed letters have been overtaken by long-distance calls, Yahoo Mail and Messenger.
“My dearest Tingting” it reads in clear, legible handwriting.
Today it’s a jigsaw puzzle like mine. “Received your cable and sent a cable after – did you get that? Are you or aren’t you on the way?” Once cables were the fastest mode of communication but it required a suspenseful wait of three to five days to reach the addressee. Today it happens instantly on the Internet. To continue with Lynn’s letter: “We are now here in New York at the Hilton with my sister Honey and Malyn Syjuco. Honey has really improved a lot. Her face is loaded with makeup. She looks like a glamorous movie star and makes me look like a maid beside her.” Tony Serrano Parsons used to say the same thing to me. Her daughter Maria was fair-skinned and blond.
“Macky Lopez stood us up yesterday,” Lynn wrote. “After we were two hours late arriving at his apartment for drinks. To let him know we were ‘ticked off’ Malyn, Honey and I left a big note in eyebrow pencil: ‘Macky, we came but you didn’t seem to be in.’ Then we painted his little window peep on the door with pink nail polish and drew a little Chinese face on it. Then stuck chewing gum all over the doorknob and a match in the keyhole. We bought pizzas while waiting for him and got exasperated that we spilled Coke all over the rag in the hallway and slipped pizza pieces under his door to step on. Then we left him the pizza box all wrapped up and tied with a note on it and our garbage inside. Lastly – I took off my nylon stocking and tied it on his doorknob. It was a sight!!! But he’ll never find out who did it. At 12 p.m. we called him to apologize for not having gone to his place because we were tied up at a cocktail party. He sounded so disturbed!”
Being a pen pal of mine, Lynn and I enjoyed trading letters that made us laugh together even if she was studying at Trinity College, Washington, D.C. while I was in San Miguel, Tarlac. “Manila’s one big mouth and the people in it have big, fat lips,” she complained. “Gary Lising and Josie Cruz are in New York too. Joey Leviste’s there and he calls up every so often. He’s planning on a get-together, but every time he asks ‘When are you coming up?’ I answer, ‘When are you coming down?’”
I don’t know why I ended up keeping this letter about Peping’s roosters arriving from Mississippi on April 11, 1965: “Dear Mr. Cojuangco. The roosters have been on tie-out cords and they fly so much that they do not have any excess weight on them. Of course the trip knocked weight off them. Feed them with a little raw liver and they will snap back. I put the shipment on the plane in New Orleans in 16’ x 16’ x 8’ coops, this is the standard coop. I shipped them to you through the Air Expediting Co. of San Francisco. This is the standard procedure. I have possibly 50 or 60 more stags. This year I am not breeding any Jap blood even if Jap grades are very easy to train but you feed them more.” That info Peping undoubtedly shared with Louie Beltran and Eddie Araneta. Every day for 10 years from 1962 to 1972, the proclamation of martial law, roosters woke me up at 5 a.m. Esting Teopaco and Peping had thousands of roosters and hens who perched on top of their V-roofed, tiny house for single occupancy to keep them safe from snakes and lizards.
On December 1, 1965, Peping received a letter from Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company at 44 Wall Street, New York, NY 10015 where he banked as a student. They were partners of his dad at the Cojuangco’s Philippine Bank of Commerce. “I wish to add my good wishes to the others that you must be receiving after your long and hard struggle. It must be a great relief to know that the long campaign is over and that you have won.” Peping had won again as congressman. Although I hate to remember it, as our family faced a major political upheaval of first cousins against each other, someone had to win. We did, in spite of scary black jeeps with a red line painted on their hoods roaming the town of Paniqui, Tarlac. Goons were hired for protection, ready to intimidate, airplanes delivered money and armored vehicles were constantly on the move to pacify the shifting of political alliances. Election victory was a very difficult feat.
We received a congratulatory letter as well on our success from my mother-in-law’s sister, Consul Belen Sumulong-Bautista. She was assigned in New York, Kobe, Japan and Madrid. She and Tito Manny wrote, “May your recent success add to future real happiness.” Her note says, “Ting, did you get the girdle. I sent it through Itoy Ticson?” I remembered the minute I left the hospital after giving birth I wore a girdle. It paid off: just wearing that tight elastic firming aid from high up on the waist down to my thighs kept me packed and firm. When my children grew old enough to criticize me they said, “We couldn’t endure the heat you went through.” “Well, see my flat tummy?” is what I answer now!
All the letters say, “Kiss Liaa for me.” She obviously was my only child then, for whom we waited three years!
“Dear Uncle Joe, congratulations on being re-elected congressman. We were overjoyed when the long-distance call came in. Aside from (that) we received a cable from Auntie Terry (Lopa) about your victory.” Terry was Peping’s elder sister and Cory’s campaign companion in 1986; he passed away four years ago. “Fr. Hoskins, the Loyola School headmaster, often talks about Uncle Joe.” Post-war 1946 to 1948 brought the family to America. My husband, 12 years old then, went to Loyola High School, a Jesuit school in New York. Passy Teopaco went to Raven Hill Academy at the age of eight. So did Cory and Terry. “You were so remembered in Loyola that they even had a column on you in the school newspaper. It said that you, a graduate from Loyola school, came back to the Philippines and is trying to give the Filipino farmer the pay that he deserves… Affections, J. Reyes.”
Peping became a member of the committee that drafted the Land Reform Code. “There were many great minds involved, many good ideas, and many good thoughts,” Peping wrote in 1988. And it’s still applicable today!
Excerpts from a speech by Peping: “Unfortunately, people consider agrarian reform as merely land reform, meaning the transfer of ownership. The trans
fer of ownership or land reform is only a segment, a small portion of agrarian reform. The framers of the Constitution used both terms — ‘agrarian reform’ and ‘land reform’ in order to make sure we were understood.
“There are areas where three hectares will do for land reform. I witnessed, in Israel, food available to the recipients of these three hectares. But again, like I said, different fields, different crops, different conditions, require different approaches. That is why we are quarrelling in the House of Representatives, or in the Senate, because each of us is trying to defend and protect our own constituency. The conditions of our constituencies are different from those of the others. It is difficult to come up with a general policy for the entire nation without sacrificing one group in favor of another.”
I have two very heart-warming letters I’ve kept, one from General Ruben Ciron and the other from Cristina C. Ponce-Enrile. Daughter number four Josephine was sick and General Ciron gave her a Thompson Chain Bible on Feb. 1, 1997. “Join our Bible group for worship services at Shangri-La Makati.” We were so worried about Josephine as cancer runs in our family — from breast to brain — and we thank God we are all healthy today.
The other begins: “Deos Doxas… Thank you so much for the yellow lilies. Yellow, being one of my favorite colors... We missed you!! Que lastima, sayang, c’est dommage... Anyway it was very kind of you, for your thoughts. Regards to Peping, love to your Mom!! Yours in Christ, Christina Ponce-Enrile.”
I’m going to end with a quote from Fr. Ronnie Arong of Pampanga, Philippine National Police sky diver and chaplain assigned at Camp Crame: “Find time today to smile at your memories, laugh at your mistakes, celebrate moments and dance in the dreams you hold closest to your heart. Take care always and God bless!”
