His work mates were not able to lend him money and so he decided to just go back home to Cavite. Since he did not have any fare money with him, he was planning to walk all the way to Walter Mart (which was two rides away from Ayala) where the FX shuttles are, and somehow beg one of the drivers there to let him ride for free. How did you get here in Makati in the first place? I asked him. Turned out he was able to hitch a ride on a truck that was transporting vegetables from Cavite to Guadalupe. From Guadalupe, he walked all the way to Makati Ave.
He really was a pitiful sight, an old man in his 60's or 70's walking alone in the streets of Makati at that late hour. And since leaving him there seemed like a criminal thing to do, we offered to accompany him to Walter Mart and pay for his fare. During the bus ride, we learned that his name was Manual Ibanez Sr. and that he was a widower with two children aged 14 and 10, apart from his 12-year old son who just died. They were children from his second marriage, which accounted for their young age. His son was already 8 days at the funeral home and he was told that he should pay the bill and get the body already, else it will start to rot and smell. Being poor and unemployed, he went to seek the help of various local government officials but was turned down. He even went to the ABS-CBN and GMA Kapuso Foundations, but learned that help would be granted only after his story was aired in TV and donations came in. By the time the funds would be available, his son's body would already have started to rapidly decompose. His last resort was to seek the help of his former work mates which, likewise, did not turn out to be successful. On top of this dilemma, Tatay Manuel was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer and all he wanted was to take his children with him to his hometown in Tacloban, Leyte, so he could die there in peace, and have his relatives take care of his children. He seemed like an educated man because he was able to utter phrases in fluent English while he was narrating his life story. He never asked us for money or pleaded that we help him out with anything.
Dan took his cellphone number and details of where he lived and the name of the funeral parlor where his son was laid. We gave him a little extra cash so he can pay for the FX ride to Cavite and maybe buy some food for himself and his kids when he gets home. I don't know, call me naive but there's just something about old people that moves me. Surely old men won't resort to lying. They're wise souls, aren't they? His story seemed genuine to me.
After we got off at the Pasong Tamo-Buendia crossing, we flagged down a jeepney going to Walter Mart for Tatay Manuel and bid goodbye to him. Dan and I can only look at each other and shake our heads in dismay at that sad encounter.
But then something came up. After arriving home, Dan texted me that Tatay Manuel's story was on the internet. He forwarded me a link to a Facebook page and I saw this:
Note that this Facebook post was made last October 2011. I googled some more and even found one dating back to 2010.
Like what I said earlier in this post, I don't know how to react to this. Should I be enraged because I was scammed and "victimized" by this old man? I cannot bring myself to say "Beware This Man" because in the first place, he never asked us for help, and if we gave him some money, we did it out of our own free will. He never should have made up those stories, yes, he was at fault with that, but can we really blame him for what he did? What with the neglect our government is showing to the poor in this country? Tatay Manuel probably deserved that money more than I did. I would have probably just spent it on greasy, unhealthy food or on a fancy item at the mall that I don't need. I do not regret being scammed.
I remember sa wali sa pari taga cathedral. It goes like this:
ReplyDeleteIya dawng buotan na high school (or childhood?) friend met a man who passed out didto sa Metro Mandaue. Ang mga tawo kay giagiagian ra tong lalakiha. Sa iyang kaluoy, iyang giadto ang lalaki ug ang giingon mao na gikan daw sya adtong usa ka layo na probinsya sa South ug nahutdan na sya ug kwarta para pauli ug pagkaon. Naglagot ang babaye sa nahitabo nga bisag nagkalisud na ang tiguwang, siya ra ang nipansin ani. So ang iyang gibuhat, iyang gi-announce didto sa dalan ang kahimtang sa lalaki. Dako kau sya ug tingog nga murag nag preach daw na sa mga tawo. Iyang gipasapasa ang usa ka plastic sa mga naminaw para mangayo ug donation para matabangan ug uli ang tawo. So mao to dako ang na raise nila na kwarta. After adto, iyang gidala ang tiguwang para gipakaon ug pagkahuman iyang gihatud ni sa taxi padulong sa south bus terminal, gihatag tong tanang donation ug gipasakay sa bus.
After several days daw, nakit-an napud daw niya ang tigulang sa siudad.
Ang pangutana: kanus-a ug hangtud asa man magpakita ug kaayo ang tawo sa isig ka tawo? Or magpabilin lang ba ta na mangihatagon regardless kung unsa ang kahimtang sa imong pagtabang?
NY: The universe still never fails to terrify me. Before I went to get my NBI Clearance 1030 this morning nagkarenderya ko. Nay nangayog pagkaon nga tiguwang, I never asked her age, forgot now her name, she had no slippers. Ako siya gipakaon, she came from Mindanao and got here by a bus through barge. Blank talk. I feel almost indifferent, probably because of the meds. But what I remember now is the feeling of just giving her the meal she wanted and of having the David Foster Wallace dilemma of being actually a selfish person by helping someone, i.e. you're selfish still even if you help others because you're technically, albeit forcefully unintentional and denied, still probably doing it to elevate the idea that hey you might not actually be a bad person at all. That you're right. That your wrong acts could probably be justified because you're not all fully bad news. But these are thoughts that never really felt like true to what I felt that time, because the feeling I had that I remember now is just sheer amorality and just probably double-bond good-bad blank free-flowing i-actually-don't-think-I-care-anymore-what-it-is state. Is that entropy?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that woman was probably a scam, but I think I'm in the position now (and I'm comfortable saying this because I don't think I'm still self-conscious enough to self-loathe)to say that what mostly happens around you is self-perception. Selective truth or truth as you define it, as scary as it, is sometimes the only way to like survive another day, to evolve Charles Darwin style, or heck even Gangnam Style. :-) You make your own definition of is, as the cliche goes.
Oppanam Gangnam Style baby!
Fine points from both of you. I will especially comment on the David Foster Wallace dilemma because tinood na, the selfish gene is in everyone. I'll be damned if I say that my help was a hundred percent done out of pure charity. Although nalooy ko sa tiguwang--which is tinood, if you'd seen him you'd probably be moved as well, or maybe he's just a good actor or whatever--there's this voice at the back of my head that says "that's the right thing to do" which is not right, because helping someone out should not be a "right thing to do" or a "moral obligation", it should be simply because we care. And care, personally, is something we only genuinely feel towards those closest to us or we've known all our lives, like family.
ReplyDeleteWith a stranger, it's probably 50% care and 50% all others which can be a hundred or so selfish and semi-selfish reasons. And I'm ranting here because I'm guilty of the fact that if my officemate hadn't kept on looking back at him, I would have probably ignored the old man completely.
Ug ang pangutana ni gmazeroom: Hantud kanus-a ta magpabiling manggihatagon? I say, let's give before it becomes selfish. Samtang pure pa ang atong intentions and when nobody else is looking. I believe that the whole show last night was a scam, but what the hell, dili sa panghinambog but at least I have a job and I can still buy my favorite mango pudding and I don't have to humiliate myself by playing the part of a stage 4 liver cancer patient. He can have that money.
I hope I didn't scare you :)
ReplyDeleteKorek!
ReplyDeleteOr we can put emotions aside and think as logical and rational as possible. No to mendicancy and donate to charitable institutions. Although if through charitable institutions, we worry on corruption. Then for private foundations, really now, how much is heartfelt and how much is tax shield? Hahaha. Beat that for pessimism!
I do not believe in private foundations, especially those run by the elite. I believe in volunteerism though. And definitely not the company-sponsored type where after you've haphazardly painted the walls of newly-constructed houses a bright pink or orange, you pose in front of the camera holding the edges of a banner with your company's logo, then have the photo published in your online company bulletin. Palihug lang!
ReplyDeleteAnd I forgot to comment on selective truth. Naka remember lang ko sa akong weird "theory" on perception. The theory goes like this: Each of us is unique, and each of us view the world differently. For example: I am seeing the shape of a flower. It has a red color and I call it "rose". Then another person sees the same shape. But he does not see a flower. He sees a water jug and calls it "baseball bat". When person 2 communicates this to person 1, person 1 will not hear that person 2 said "baseball bat", but rather she will perceive it as "rose". And so there seems to be an understanding going on, but in truth, both of them are talking, seeing, hearing, and smelling entirely different things. There is an auto-translator in the universe which transforms everything into how we are meant to experience them.
Wala lang.
The auto-translator thing nails it and reminds me of Tyra Banks' "Modelland". There's a descriptive phrase there that compares something with a gargantuan mood ring. And the self-conscious part of me is saying, oh my god, are you comparing a living poet to a model turned supposedly "wannabe writer" Tyra Banks who wrote a book that the media and the part of you thinks to be supposedly bad, which you also think isn't true because you know even the most immediately banal writing could have the most moving things if you know how and where not to look? Wala lang.
ReplyDeleteNanoWrimo Hullabaloo ta Hannilou ! Remember Denise my writer friend in College? She's in it. Make an account now!
ReplyDeleteTip No. 2 from NanoWrimo staff:
3) Tell everyone you know that you’re writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who’ve had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.
Somebody's being popular. I hope she doesn't let fame get into her:http://www.flickr.com/photos/malenmoalboal/8143605085/in/photostream
ReplyDeleteHaha! I'm can't promise you that. The fame is just too tempting!
ReplyDeleteNaNoWriMo - 50,000 words in a month is just so...oh my. I can't even imagine where to begin. Maglisod na man gani ko just thinking of a good premise for a story. Precisely the reason I have never tried my hand at a full-length novel. I don't think I have the courage for that yet.
Modelland - Dying to know how it moved you. Please do share.
I'm can't promise you that -> I wonder what I was about to say after writing "I'm".
ReplyDeleteI actually never read Modelland but just opened the book in random and found the line. Also, read Crossline today and discover Cindy Velasquez. She is a familiar face in an ocean of nameless bodies sa San Carlos, and I dig her blog. Why this pattern of interest in introspective photography and poetry among those who write sad but powerful work?
ReplyDelete