Of Hatred And History (2/4)

Of Hatred and History

(Two of Four)

The next time I met his eldest daughter was when again, she was a guest of our department for a 'gender sensitivity, role of women in development' themed symposium in Agoo, La Union. The venue was a hotel resort built by the Department of Tourism, sequestered for a while, then was assigned back to the toursim department for management. At the time, the resort was just beginning to function again after EDSA, and the place was quite lovely. I received her by the lobby, waited for her to alight from one of those big SUVs which fad was just starting to pick up at that time. She came out of the back-up ambulance. She was wearing this deep red blouse in soft fabric, with a feminine necktie. I wanted her blouse. She said hello, and asked where the 'banyo' was. I took her there, waited, and when she came out she started stories of them, her siblings, and their friends, Bong Daza, etc. spending time there before. 

The hall was in the second floor, and while we were making our way up, she asked how many people were waiting. I said, about two hundred. She replied, 'There better be two hundred there, Christianne, because I left a Budget Hearing for this.' I smiled. So she was introduced, she spoke on the topic expertly, her talk peppered with statistics and excerpts from studies made on women and their role in rural development. She had no cue cards, nothing in her hands to indicate she was reading from some source. I thought to myself, well, maybe she was just taking for a ride. It was her presence, really. She simply had it, other from her eloquence, she just had it. For all I know, she was just saying BS and we all took it in. 

So after her talk, all requested for pictures. Everyone wanted a picture with her, individually. All two hundred. I asked her if that was ok, she said, why not? And so there she stood, had photos taken one at a time, two hundred times. Midway, she gestured to me and I thought she would tell me, 'enough'. She whispered, 'Uy, pati yata butas ng ilong ko, napipicture-an.' I just smiled.

Pictures done, she said her goodbyes, shook hands and walked her way to the stairs. I asked her, 'How on earth did you know all the stuff you said back there?'. She replied, 'Christianne, there is this thing called the internet.' Oh ok. She told me, 'Hey, DAR is getting killed out there at the Budget Hearing ha. Just wanted you to know.' I said, 'Lagi naman, ma'am.' She said thank you, and rode, the SUV this time.