Let her be

BENCHWARMER
Ramon Dacawi

Her boss and I had wished her name wasn’t published by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. But the news is out that Baguio girl Ana Codley just won P1 million in the “Premyo sa Resibo” raffle draw of the BIR.

To be credible, which is what many government agencies need today, the raffle winner’s name had to be published. Her identification may trigger a fall-out far more serious than having a sudden increase in relatives and friends she never knew she had before she won.

We were in that predicament many years back. But the pressure then dissipated three ways, after Willy Cacdac, Freddie Mayo and I were identified as trying to split three ways the 10 shares of the P1 million first prize ticket in the weekly draws of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Willy was then secretary to the mayor. Freddie and I were glorified clerks helping Willy compose and type orders, letters and speeches for mayor Luis Lardizabal, together with application and recommendation letters for people needing and wanting to work anywhere a vacancy fits them.

Suddenly, we were awkwardly enjoying unsolicited attention. Fellow city workers, even those we hardly knew from Adam, started greeting us on the hallways. Two officemates lugging overnight bags knocked on Freddie’s door early one evening, telling his wife Tess they were due to travel with him for an official mission to Manila.

While the two waited for him, Freddie and another officemate were downing a bottle of gin at second Kayang St. to toast our instant celebrity status

Later, we learned that some of those closest to us, those who never showed up but believed the rumor about our winning was true, were most hurting.

“Ammo da met nga tallo nga agmirmiraut ti tao, dida pay met uray maysa nga umay agpasyar (All three know I’m hard up yet not even one showed up),” a boyhood friend quoted an elder friend as ruing.

Lakay Balbino, a fellow worker whose Ibaloi surname I forgot, actually hit the second prize worth half a million pesos during one lottery draw. Two seasoned police investigators got wind of his change of fortune and offered to secure him and his drawing the cash at the PCSO office in Quezon City.

The three came home safe and happy. Two weeks after he returned to office, Manong Balbino approached me and offered a P50 bill as my “balato”.

“Pasansya kan ta dayta laeng ti nabati,” he said. “Narigat gayam ti mangabak. Hanak makaturog ta nagadu ti agtuktuk idiay balay, dumawat ti balato.”

That was when P1 million was worth P1 million, when half-million was really half a million pesos. In Ana’s case, the seven-digit figure no longer really represent its value 20 or 30 years ago.

To be sure that Ana the raffle draw winner is the same public servant I know, I called up her lady boss. She confirmed she’s the one .referred to as the 43-year old housewife who won in the BIR’s electronic receipt raffle draw last Aug. 31 at SM San Lazaro in Manila.

I’ve read Ana’s names several times over the years, mostly in social case study reports she prepares for the sick and destitute, to validate their need for help from charity agencies such as the PCSO. She’s into social work. It’s one of the most stressful and demanding careers. Despite the meager pay, it’s also one of the most fulfilling.

I found this out during a wake for one of the numerous people Ana and her office had reached out to over the years. The vigil was for Anthony, one of two kids of a laundrywoman whose husband abandoned them when the children were still too young to have a memory of their father.

Anthony and her sister Kate learned to work early. He married early and tried to raise a family as a construction laborer. He was walking home from work one night when a still unidentified gunman shot him in the spine. Rendering him bed-ridden for life.

Later, he said his wife abandoned him and their daughter. She came back and took their daughter with her. That really broke his heart, he told me.

Hardly was there anyone at the wake, except for Anthony’s mother, his sister and several brothers reunited by his death. Having lost my cell phone and with it his number, I couldn’t contact Mr. Marasigan, a Samaritan from Caloocan who once gave Anthony a brand new television set. I opened the visitors’ roster and saw Ana’s name on top of the list.

So let Ana be. She needs to be free from pressure and be able to determine how to make good use the windfall she never thought she’d win. “They shouldn’t have identified her as the winner for her security and peace of mind,” city social welfare and development officer Betty Fangasan said. (e-mail: mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments).