Gry and the State of Philippine Music (Second of 3 Parts)

Part II. Angry. Root word: anger

Here is the story of a man on the brink. Forty two years gets bitter by the day, each one a reminder of things better did differently in the past. It's not exactly hardship that compose the pill to swallow, but rather a hopeless sense of irreverisibility. Cannot close the sale; no one wants to buy home water purifiers from a sales rep with curiously only one ear -- the right one. The left Agapito lost in torturous 1960's when his unit was captured in an encounter with the PC (Philippine Constabulary) in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental. Now he goes to the same municipalities (that never changed much except an obvious proliferation of small Coca-cola billboards), knocking on doors and explains in detail how the beer brewery is causing sea water contamination of the tap, thereby the need to "invest" in a P799 health-ensurance product.

What gets Agapito by each month is his per-issue fee from the provincial magazine. He writes essays or sometimes runs a 5-part series (when he's lucky on a roll). His wife, Linda, lives in a separate hut because they've both agreed to be financially independent of each other. She won't tolerate Agapito's drinking binges when he's on a dry spell. He, on the other hand, could not forgive each time she squanders his commissions in a game of mah jong. Ana and Agapito Jr. have been forcedly married to their spouses because of unwanted pregnancies while little Leebord lived with Linda. It was a convenient set-up: seven years of a mutual cold treatment marriage.

There were years when he burned in anger. Marcos' second term ushered in random assassinations and abductions, billions of foreign debt, massive corruption, and sweeping poverty in the countryside. Agapito was in his college sophomore year studying Finance (after which he planned to take Law), when he first attended a clandestine CPP-NPA meeting. It became the turning point of the most brilliant kid to have ever studied in La Carlota High School -- a fact that most of Agapito's mentors would attest to this day.

Agapito's experience of the dictatorship was first-hand. After all, they were the ones being chased. Kept under tight surveillance by the military, he was lucky enough to elude four "casuals" in a Ceres Liner trip to Isabela. Agapito, whose intuition was keen on imminent danger, stepped off the bus as soon as he recognized rectangular bulges on the four men's waists. In another occasion, he killed two army officers who were trying to rape a farmer's daughter; the kidnapping of whom happened only because it would lure Ka Pito to the enemy camp. He was the favored suitor of Belinda, the most beautiful girl in Isabela. Agapito would later learn that Rene, Belinda's father, had compromised with the PC to provide grains and poultry in return for protection and maintaining the peace. The military agreed and took Belinda as a grand prize bonus. Rene is said to have done nothing but cry in his angry man's chair.

Ka Linda became the karelas of Ka Pito. They roamed the mountains and slept in riverbanks, put up campfires, and killed military men. In one encounter, she saved his life when he caught a bullet on his right shoulder and fell off the Pulang Tubig Falls. Belinda, an excellent swimmer, dove from the 50-foot cliff and rescued Agapito to safety.


To be concluded.

To view timeline of the EDSA uprising, click here.