CALASIAO– “It’s a relief,” Maureen Roy-Yson,37 says of the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
But this survivor of the terroristic attack on the World Trade Center because of a “forgotten basket of apples,” said “we cannot be complacent as his (Bin Laden) followers could be lurking just around the corner, ready to attack again.”
“There is plenty of celebration on the streets of New York now. Everyone is happy. I hope it is really the end of terrorism. But I know that everyone knows we cannot really be completely sure of our security,” she told the Inquirer through a telephone interview.
Her father Manuel Roy, 60, said the terrorists’ leader’s death brought justice to the victims of the terroristic act on September 11, 2001.
“Even those whose family members who survived the attack are happy. They won’t fear anymore that similar tragedies could occur. But America should still be careful as some of his successor may retaliate,” Manuel Roy, 60, said.
Roy-Yson , who worked for a law firm owned by Filipino lawyers at the 18th floor of one of the twin towers, was saved by basket of apple which she forgot and for which she returned to her house, in the early morning of Monday, more than ten years ago.
The day before the attack, the family went apple picking in an orchard and she said decided to bring some fruits for her workmates. She put them in a basket ready for the following day.
But the rush of the morning made her forget the basket. She was already near the bus stop when she realized she left it home in New Jersey.
“So I went back to get the basket, and missed the bus that I took every morning. I had to wait for the next bus going to the subway station. I missed my train so I delayed in going to the office,” she told the Inquirer in a telephone interview.
Roy-Yson usually arrived before her workmates every morning do, getting there at quarter to eight in the morning. If not for the forgotten basket of apples, she would have been at her office when the world’s tallest buildings were attacked. A co-worker, a Filipino lawyer, who also used to come early, was also late that morning and was also spared from death.
But ten years after the tragedy, Roy Yson have not completely shaken off the “ashes” off her memory and refused to go at Ground Zero or nearby.
She recalled that when she emerged from the subway, “everyone was screaming.”
“I was about three blocks away from the World Trade Center when the second attack came. I saw the plane attacking, the bodies flying off the windows. I heard people screaming. It was all dusty around. It was really scary.The people started walking and we walked about 50 blocks, from 9th street to 67th street, until a bus fetched us and brought us to a hospital. My mind was blank. I was praying and thinking of was my one- year old daughter Martina. I had to be safe for her. I asked God to please let me survive or what would happen to her? ”
Her aunt worked at that hospital as a nurse, but in her confusion she was not able to recall her name.
“But I was lucky. Most of us brought to the hospital were wounded. My body was full of ashes but that was all,” Roy-Yson said.
The victims lined up for the pay telephones and she was able to call up her crying mother Aurora, to tell her she was alive.
It was a different matter for her father who was in the Philippines who had to endure for almost a day not knowing if her eldest daughter had died or not.
He said his brother, who saw the news on CNN, called him up, informing him of the tragedy. “I turned on the tv set and I was so worried because I had no idea on what happened to Maureen. I really thought she was gone. Communication lines were cut and there was no way for me to reach her and my wife. ”
When he finally was able to connect to his family, Roy said he could not contain his happiness.
Her daughter could not still bear going back to Ground Zero where memories of the fateful day flash back “like a movie on my mind.”
“When relatives and friends from the Philippines come here and ask to visit Ground Zero, I refuse to accompany them. I ask others to guide them,” she said.
But that experience taught her some lessons to “stay close to God.”
“I am not very religious but I have close relationship with God. I also keep close with my family because nobody knows when I will go. (America) is a very busy country and everyone is focused on their jobs. I think that should not be the case. We should spend more time with the family,” the mother of three said.
Author: Yolly Sotelo Fuertes
snow white dream
Last night I dreamed about gathering plants in a snowy field. That was in the morning.
The following day (sa dream ko ito) I dreamed about howling winds in the field. I said I would go, just to experience the movie scenes I saw. But I forgot which movies.
In the dream I was in a hotel, attending a seminar, and just outside the window I could see the snow-white fields but there were still plants protruding from the snow.
A bridge built by time and elements
Somewhere in the Camagsilangan village in this town is an unusual bridge – about four meter high and five meter long. It is surrounded by trees and accessible only by a trail with a thick wall of thicket.
When I saw it, what came first to my mind was the Stonehenge of England – those hefty standing stones that could have been used (historians say) by pre-historic Englishmen for religious purposes or as an astronomical observatory.
But the Stonehenge was manmade, archeologist Willy Ronquillo of the National Museum said. This one is a natural geologic formation, which makes it more wonderful. At least for me.
Indeed, the bridge, short as it is, evoked awes in those of us who saw it one late afternoon last week. The sun was just about to set and walking along trails that led from one cave to another left us perspiring and tired.
We did not want to go and see the bridge anymore. But our "guide" – Rizaldo Cabrito, was insistent. "It’s just about 20 meters away," he convinced us while some of us tried to enter a cave which the residents described as "having a second floor with many rooms."
(We were not able to enter that cave because we did not have flashlights or anything to light the way inside, but we were shown photos that stalactites and stalagmites created rooms where persons can stand.)
What will I lose, I said to myself as I followed the group of archeologists and residents to the bridge. When I saw it, I said "Wow! This is a wonderful creation of God!"
It could have been formed thousands of years ago, built by time and elements, and could be where children of the historic period could have played.
Dionisio Edrolosa, 52, the owner of the property where the bridge is located, said the bridge has always been there. He lived in the property which he inherited from his parents ever since he got married in 1975.
I was not able to ask him if he spent his childhood there, but he must have and the bridge must have been a part of his playground.
His wife and a daughter were at the bridge when we got there. Come up here, the wife told me. A very friendly lady, she held my hand as I climbed up the stone. "Can you pull me up?" I said doubtfully. She very skillfully and strongly did.
Up the bridge, one can see tomorrow. Well, almost. Around are green fields, and towering trees, and a sort of dam. "That part is Alaminos already," Manong Diony, who joined us at the bridge, said, pointing to a place full of buildings
I did pose for the camera – standing, sitting, whatever. When I looked down, I felt dizzy so I refrained from looking down again. I crossed to the other side where Manong Diony said there was a short cut to where we started off.
Some plants were full of big ants, as if guarding the place from intruders like us. Some plants were really matinik (full of thorns) that one has to be very careful in touching them. I made a mistake of holding on to a vine as I was getting down the bridge and I pricked by its thorns. Nothing serious, but I need to learn dos and donts on mountain (or hill) climbing.
Why was I at the place? Because of an invitation of Ate Bell (Arabella Arcinue, wife of kuya Bing and mother of Sual Mayor John) to have a look at the cave where supposed treasure hunters found pre-historic relics such as stone tools and potteries. A burial ground, the archeologists said.
We were not able to enter the "inner chamber" of that cave either because of a massive stone that covered its door. Maybe when the team from the National Museum comes for survey and exploration, and when the stonewall is broken down, I will be invited to have a look-see of what’s inside.
This cave is at one side of the limestone hill at the property Manong Diony who said he never thought that inside the hills covered by thick vegetation, is a part of history that stayed undisturbed for many years.
Just imagine, in that village, two caves and a bridge were there for the residents to explore and enjoy for many years. Now, curious people from other places may go to the village for them to see these wonders of nature, too.
I just hope they will preserve the beauty and sacredness of the place.
Critiquing the critic
LINGAYEN — Is "America is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan an authobiography or a fiction? The book describes Bulosan's childhood as a son of a small farmer Binalonan, Pangasinam, his voyage to America and his years of hardships and despair as an itinerant laborer in the rural American West.
Cecilia Daranciang, in her book "Defending Carlos Bulosan and Providing Cultural Context" used "content analysis" to prove that America is in the Heart is indeed an authobiography as told by Bulosan himself, debunking claims of two Filipino-American writers — Greg Castilla and P.C. Morante — that "some portions of Bulosan's autobiography have been either fictionalized, exaggerated or untrue."
Daranciang is a retired teacher of the Seattle School District of Washington State who lives now in her hometown Mangatarem.
Castilla's "America in in the Heart: An Autobiographical Fiction," as quoted by Daranciang, said Bulosan claimed as his own the experiences of others, that he fictionalized some people and conditions, and that he had the tendency to exaggerate certain realities to drive his point.
He cited that the "little grass hut" where Bulosan lived was actually a huge wooden house and that if his family were poor, his brother could not have been a mayor as money played a decisive role in winning elections.
Morantte on the other hand, published "Remembering Carlos Bulosan" which claimed that Bulosan's book was "30 percent autobiography, 40 percent case history of Pinoy life in America and 30 percent fiction."
Among others, he said the Bulosans had big landholdings and owed a mansion, that they were rich because they had a leg of lamb which only the rich can afford, that the mother sold beans and salted fish was untrue, that the family had enough resources to send all children to school, that Bulosan was an exaggerator, and that he lied when he said he could not speak English.
Daranciang interviewed relatives of Bulosan and residents of Binalonan who provided her with information about his past.
She was led to the former five-hectare farm where the Bulosans lived, and the exact location where the "little grass hut" was located. A conceptual framework of the hut, as described by Bulosan's relatives, was included in the book. Called "alolong" in Pangasinan and "kalapaw" in Ilocano, it is made of bamboo, cogon grass and palm leaves.
As to Bulosan's brother Luciano becoming a mayor despite his poverty, Daranciang said Luciano became a mayor through succession. "He ran for election for vice mayor and he did not need much money to win as (he) was carried by votes for mayor of same party," she explained. Also, at that time, money "did not talk much during election time."
Daranciang also debunked Morantte's allegations that Bulosan's father owned big landholdings. She interviewed Raymundo Bulosan Jr., a close relative of Carlos, who affirmed the ownership of only five hectare land which was not productive because it was stony, sandy and criss-crossed by huge roots of trees extended from the forested area that bounded the eastern part of the propery.
As to the leg of lamb, she said in Pangasinan province, it is either given by a neighbor or relatives for free or from the herd raised by the family. Lamb meat was never sold in Pangasinan markets but lambs were raised only for family consumption and parties.
Daranciang said she hoped that the readers are convinced that Bulosan will not be branded "well-off because of a leg of lamb."
She also interviewed relatives who confirmed that Bulosan's mother sold beans and bagoong, and that affirmed that the Bulosans afforded schools as elementary education was free.
In a review of Daranciang's book, Margarita Ventenilla-Hamada said the povery, deprivation and degradation Bulosan describes in his book was so much that they could not believe it was his autobiography.
She said, "They could not believe that he could have been that poor and was not ashamed to tell the whole world about it. Most people, as we all know, prefer to forget their humble beginnings and even lie about them. They couldn't believe that he, with only three years of sporadic formal schooling, could, by private reading, forge himself into a writer of caliber. They therefore dismissed his opus as fiction."
Hamada, the founder-driectoress of Harvent Schools here and in Dagupan City, said in dismantling the allegations of Morantte and Castillo that the book is a fiction, Daranciang used facts only as a true blooded Pangasinense like her can know.
"She hit two birds with one, masterful stroke: First, she was able to show that the Filipino race has produced another Jose Rizal, albeit from the opposite side of the social spectrum –in talent and degree of maturity– a man whose spirit enabled him to transmute the clay of pain and degradation into insights of gold. Second, the facts (she) presented in her rebuttal are historical gems that may have gone down the path of oblivion had she had not recorded them in her book."
Priests to marry, er, solemnize marriage again
(Late last year, 30 priests from Pangasinan decided not to renew their license to kill, er.. to solemnize marriages. Things have changed, after the NSO decided to withdraw its order telling the priests to undergo a training on marriage laws. Where will all those wanted to marry go? The Catholic ones I mean? There are judges and mayors…but some of course think that being married by a priest is more romantic. And Godly?)
DAGUPAN CITY — Now the priests here whose license to marry has expired will solemnize marriages again.
The National Statistics Office has revoked its administrative order requiring priests, religious ministers and other solemnizing officers to attend a full-course orientation seminars before they will be issued a certificates of registration and authority to solemize the sacrament of matrimony.
NSO Administrator and Civil Registrar General Camelita Ericta issued memorandum circular 2008-001 revoking Administrative Order (AO) No. 1 series of 2007 which called for the solemnizing officers to undergo orientation-seminars which sought to ensure that they are "knowlegeable about marriage laws and other related laws, marriage registration procedures and the registration procedures of (their) authority to solemnize marriage."
Ericta told NSO regional directors and provincial statistics officers that the the "requirement of the proof of attendance in the orientation-seminars has been revoked (and) all schedules for (seminars) shall be cancelled effective immediately."
She also said the guidelines for the seminars and other related instructions are likewise rendered ineffective.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz gave a copy of the revocation order dated January 9, 2008 to the Inquirer but refused to comment on it. Cruz has earlier questioned the legality of the conduct of the orientation-seminars and his office did not renew the expired licenses of 23 priests from the archdiocese. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines also asked the NSO to cancel the program.
A staff of the archdiocese said papers for the renewal of the licenses are already being prepared for submission to the NSO.
Cruz ealier asked lawyer Romulo Macalintal about his opinion regarding the NSO's AO which he described as "causing unnecessary friction between the CBCP and the Civil Registrar General who acted beyond her executive competence."
Macalintal said the order "constitutes an amendment or expansion of the law which defines the qualifications of persons authorized to solemnize marriage in the Philippines. The NSO has no power to amend the law, its function not being legislative."
He explained that the only requirement to be complied with by solemnizing officers is that they are "duly authorized by (their) church or religious sect and registered with the civil registrar general."
"There is nothing in the (Family Code) requiring (them) to attend a two-day orientation-seminar or refresher course or marraige laws and other related laws and/or marriage registration procedures," he added.
Macalintal also questioned the NSO why it did not require judges, ship captains, airplane chiefs, military commanders and consul-generals, consuls, vice consuls and mayors who are also authorized to solemnize marriages, to undergo the orientation-seminars.
The AO "discriminates against the bishops, priests, etc, because they are the only ones covered. It is unconstitutional because the persons authorized to solemnize marriage are not similarly treated," he said.
Macalintal pointed out that there was no consulation with the church leaders before issuing the order.
The problem sought to be solved by the AO can be addressed by a simple memorandum by the NSO to the heads of churches or ministries to be more careful or accurate in the preparation of documents required for the registration of marriages, he said.
"I do not believe that marriage laws and other related laws can be learned in two-days time," he added.