When it rains in California

BENCHWARMER
Ramon S. Dacawi

Former folksinger Estoy Aglit has performed in concerts-for-a-cause here in Baguio and in Northern California too many times he can’t count them. He doesn’t’ know and has never met most of those he sang ballads for, mostly indigent patients here. Even if he did, they were too many for him to recall their names or their afflictions.

It was different when his fellow expatriates in the West Coast mounted “With a Little Help From My Friends” last Aug.8, at the redwood cove of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Vallejo, Baguio’s sister-city in California. This time, the shoe was on the other foot. The concert had Baguio boy Joel Aliping welcoming those who came from as far down as San Diego and thanking Fr. Bayani Rico, the church rector who offered the venue.

“Fr. Rico then brought Myra Aglit onstage and said prayers for a wonderful evening of music and for the continuing healing of Myra, for whom the concert was played,” wrote Dorothy Pucay, a teacher and granddaughter of the late Ibaloi patriarch Eugene Pucay Sr. of Guisad here. Myra is undergoing treatment for cancer. She is Estoy’s wife.

“It was about music and people getting together outside on a pleasant evening in a space under the shade of redwoods”, Dorothy wrote. Her article was e-mailed here by former newsman Jorge Pawid who also sent photos of the performance.

Estoy fetched me from the Aliping home and drove me to the airport for my return home four years ago. He gave me his lighter. He was crying when I started towards the boarding gate without looking back. Nurse Pilar Manno, Conrad Marzan’s wife, told me later she ordered him coffee and talked to him.

The Aglits are good friends of Richard Arandia, Conrad Marzan, Janus and Felix Tayaotao who, together with drummer Nick, call themselves the “Uncle Experience” folk and country band.
The Uncles (a euphemism for the vernacular and less gentle “tatang” address in deference and reference to aging) belted out original pieces written and sang by Felix, Dorothy said, aside from plaintive “King of Hearts” by Conrad, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” and “Achy Breaky Heart” by Neil. The band found itself complete when Marzan, who used to mount concerts-for-a-cause here, resettled in California three years ago to follow his heart.

Retired navyman Miguel Meru, whose last performance in Baguio was before inmates of the city jail, did solos and then duets with Yasmine. He drove all the way from San Diego with Pawid, Harry Basing-at of bibaknets, Linda Laoyan, Marion Maslian and Gerry Malona.

Joel Aliping and wife Emily provided orchids, woven cloth and other adornments for the stage and the backdrop. Joel,.Dorothy said, also made sure there was more than enough water and drinks to go with the “pansit” and barbecue prepared by the family of Estoy and Myra.

After the concert, Joel and Emily opened their home in El Sobrante so the bands and guests can relax and let the substance of the cooperative effort at coping and helping sink in. Hosting and even housing guests, mostly visiting fellow Cordillerans who find their way to the San Francisco Bay Area, has always been part of the couple’s way of reconnecting to their roots.

Lee Torrijos hopes to come out with a digital video disc of the concert, even as the bands are setting their eyes on another concert on Oct., 3 in Fresno, to help out Arlene Sagayo Malafu and her young family, Dorothy wrote. Arlene, a BIBAK member, was also diagnosed with cancer. (Pictures of the concert can be downloaded on this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14032917@N08/sets/72157622014683182/)