Obits

BENCHWARMER
Ramon S. Dacawi

The local news is now and then found in those framed cards of thanks on the obituary pages of the weeklies. Often we’re the last to know, after the final rites are over for someone we knew, or of his or her son, parent or another relative.

We would have attended the wake, or so we think, if only we had known of the transition earlier. Or we could have, as we had known it before it was over, if only we did not procrastinate, as we were too busy with our own affairs on this mortal plane.

Familiar among last Sunday’s names and photographs were those of educator Stephen Capuyan, police Supt. Joseph Supa Sr. and public school teacher Rebecca Lapayong. I didn’t know Noma Mencio, a mother whose remains were flown in from Texas.

But I do know her son, police officer Paul. Never met old man Calixto Aben Degawan of Sagada and Canlubang, yet I spent part of my seasons in the sun with his son Robert. Robert, or Bruno to the Guisad boys, kept us abreast on the latest Mafia novel. He once lectured three German students who sat on our gin table on Hitler’s autobiographical book “Main Kampf”.

When he was regional director for education in the Cordillera, Manong Stephen (or Steve) smiled when he saw me, as if my appearance reminded him of one of those so-called “Kiangan jokes”. (The “Kiangan” tag, also mistakenly used to refer to any Ifugao, is a misnomer, in the same token that not all who hail from Mt. Province are “Ifontok” or from the capital town.

Ifugao humor is not limited to Kiangan, the old capital town which proclaims itself the seat of Ifugao culture. I trace my roots to Hungduan town and can dish out the latest anecdote with the accompanying diction and inflection – if only somebody cares to listen. I’m only saying this because it’s true, and hoping those who attended last year’s Igorot International Consultation would invite me again next year, this time in Vancouver. Manong Steve motioned me to him and then shared a story that began like an Ifugao joke.

The anecdote left us both misty eyed and smiling, irretrievably magnetized by its beauty, truly inspired by its theme of generosity. It’s about Lakay Mongilit Ligmayo, and unschooled farmer from Barangay Ambasa, Lamut, Ifugao. He had traveled to plead with Manong Steve for help in saving what remained of his cattle herd.

“The moment I heard him about vanishing cow heads, I immediately told him to address his plea to the agriculture department,” Manong Steve recalled. But the man was insistent, and as his story continued to unfold, Manong Steve realized he came to the right place after all.

Lakay Mongilit explained he had been selling his cows to pay for the high school teachers in his barangay. Before all his heads were gone, he pleaded for the education department to bankroll the payroll, initially not covered by a budget, the school being relatively new.

I had the honor of meeting Lakay Mongilit and would have gone to pay my respects during the wake if I only knew then he had passed on. A native of Banaue, he had resettled as a pioneer in Ambasa. Unable to read and write, he was, nonetheless elected barangay chief. As such, he focused on the primary education of the childr4en of farmers who came after him.

He knocked on the education department for the building of the Ambasa Elementary School and, later, the Ambasa National High School . He donated the lots on which they now stand. Years after Kapitan Mongilit died, both schools were named in honor of the diminutive, simple man whose name and achievements are hardly known outside Lamut.

Manong Steve, who started out as supply officer of Mt. Province High in Bontoc, told and retold the old man’s story. Mongilit’s legacy of generosity became his own guidepost as he went on to serve as regional education director of the Cordillera and Region III. (Mongilit’s story, “An Unlettered Farmer’s Legacy”, can be downloaded at sunstar.com.ph,
baguiocity.com and northphiltimes.blogspot.com).

Supt. Supa was still a non-commissioned officer under Lt. Alberto Selga, then chief of the vice squad of the Baguio City police, when I met him. A tough, straight shooting (literally and otherwise) officer worth his salt, Manong Berting often had to personally bankroll missions to track down the most wanted crime suspects during those years I was on the police beat. Joseph took on his superior’s no-nonsense leadership and dedication in his own rise from the ranks.

Teacher Lapayong fought cancer for 10 years. She continued teaching even when her health was already failing. Her rage against the dying light drew Samaritans, among them the University of Baguio Alumni Association , through Manong Swanny Dicang.

(Manong Swanny just had his bladder stone removed in surgery last Sunday, a day before his birthday. Now that I’m at it, UBAA president Joris Dacawi is calling on all alumni of the university to their homecoming on August 23 at the UB gym.)

Also last week was a memorial card celebrating the life of Soledad Eslava, former barangay captain of Rock Quarry who passed on on August 12 last year. She had also served as PTA president of Aguinaldo Elementary School and was a life-time members of the Baguio Californians.

The Californians are now headed by here daughter Dinah Villanueva. Dinah, who worked as secretary to former UB president and Jaycees prime mover Reinaldo Bautista St . , continues to give substance to the sisterhood ties between Baguio and Vallejo , California , as chair of the Vallejo Sister-city Commission. She and her brother Warlito work with fellow expats the likes of Pete and Velma Ferrer, Joel and Emily Aliping, Conrad and Pilar Marzan and BIBAK Northern California president Art Bulayo in projects for Baguio and the Cordillera homeland.

His children likewise memorialized last Sunday Willaim Macwes, a friend from Guina-ang, Bontoc, on the third year to the day of his moving on. (e-mail: mondaxbench@yahoo.com / ecowalkmondax@gmail.com for comments.).