In 1924, an incident in school affairs caused an abrupt change in the young couple’s plans. Father had not really told clearly what the issue was, but bit by bit, it was a demotion in position. He once told it this way. “I asked the Supervisor if the assignment was final and he said ‘yes!’ In that case I answered, ‘I am resigning right now.’ I went to another table, wrote my resignation letter and handed it to him."
The couple left Subic and Father retired as a school teacher with a monthly pension of P24.00. Father chose to become a farmer thereafter; The couple and their two daughters moved to start a new life in San Marcelino, the hometown where they built their family home.
By that time, the families of Father and Mother had cooled off from the expected ire of parents when their children elope and get married without their blessing. The couple was given a lot opposite of the lot of the rest of the family besides a farm north of the town.
Father cultivated the farm intensely, made it productive with coconuts, pineapples, caimitos (star apple), mangoes and a fishpond with dalag, ar-aro (climbing fish), paltat (catfish).
To augment his measly pension and farm production, Father sold sweepstakes tickets and insurance plans.
Much later he discovered that making soft lasa brooms was a viable industry. He would buy lasa (boyboy) from the Negritoes and make them into long-handled soft brooms. Being a naturally skilled and creative craftsman, Father made more durable and more attractive brooms with different weaving and sewing works. His “special” brooms were really special and were invariably ordered for Manila housekeepers as gifts although they were priced higher than those in the market.
Broom making was a family affair. After super Mother and the older kids would strip the flower stems from the main stem until sleeping time. Actually, Father did his home industry during his supposed leisure time, when it was too hot to work in the farm. Mother did the marketing.
When there is no cash, she would carry two or three brooms to market and come home with supplies of grocery, and viands enough to last for the next market day. Although a secondary activity, broom making was to be big source of funds for our education.
The 20's
The 30's
In the early 30s when Mely was not even schooling, Mother had a stroke which left one side of her body paralyzed. With the elder girls studying in Manila and Iba, Father had to manage the home wit two kids and a helpless mother.
Adding to the already heavy burden, a strong typhoon swept over the entire province in 1937 causing floods and extensive destruction. The family had to stay in the granary for several days. Sometimes, mice would run across the granary floor and we would chase them away or try to catch them.
The 40's (War-time)
Mother had a slow recovery. Medical healthcare did not seem to be effective and she had to resort to herbal medicine and therapy. When war broke up in December 1941, she was strong enough to sit and take a slow walk.
In the surprise start of the Japanese-American War, the airport in Iba was one of the first targets of Japanese bombers. When people realized the danger from bomb attacks, they left their homes in the towns and evacuated to safer places. The family together with the other relatives went to the farm north of the town and built cottages for shelter and storage of belongings. Food was not a problem then for Father could go to town and load his cart with rice and other supplies.
To us young people, life seemed to be a camping experience with much time for leisure together. No one expected the war to last. We were sure the Americans would easily conquer the enemy. The United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) was based just east of the town.
Suddenly, on Christmas Eve of 1942, word reached elders that Japanese troops had landed in San Felipe, shooting civilians, burning towns and raping women. All families in town left for Santa Fe that night.
Father packed clothes and other belongings, made a soft place for mother and the two kids in the cart, and we left. All those able walked ahead of the carts, crossing short-cuts through rice fields. Fortunately, it was a moonlight night, but then walking in the open and be spotted by bomber planes was avoided.
After spending the night in Santa Fe, the elders heard that the Japanese were advancing; they could follow the road and find Santa Fe, so everyone must move, go up farther to the mountains. In Matiques, along a creek hidden by clumps of bamboos, huts were built. For survival, shelter and food are essential. At the time, fear for life made us strong.
Life in the evacuation sites kindled strong bonds among the families. Rice, meat, salt could be shared with those whose supplies run out. Elders also organized a look-out warning system from the able-bodied men. Our rice supply was running low so only mother and the two young children had full meals.
Fighting between the US and the Japanese forces was becoming intense. Cannons were firm Bataan and Corregidor.
Cooking and drying clothes in the open were forbidden as these would signal habitation and make us target for the bombers. Another fear came from the rumored attacks of Negritoes who were after supplies and the carabaos for meat. To the evacuees the carabaos were indispensable for pulling the carts. Defense system had to be set up.
In 1943, this life of privation and fear was ended when news of Japanese victory reached people in hiding. Sounds of bombardment had ceased and government was restored. Japanese forces had occupied the public buildings and soldiers had set up their barracks.
Stories of tortures and other atrocities were told. However, people were directed to return to their homes or they were suspected as guerillas and be arrested. So, Father and the other family heads decided to return, but to the old evacuation site north of the town. They thought that if the Japanese become violent and kill civilians, everyone could run and go up in the forest nearby Vega Hill.
Life under this Japanese Occupation period was fun and carefree for the children. Schools were open and Japanese songs and customs were taught. There were even attempts at fraternization between the soldiers and young women. While there were whispered news of guerilla activities and harboring of American soldiers in the mountains, we never talked about these happenings in the family. We did not imagine that Father was active in that movement, involved in procurement of supplies and intelligence service.
Mother had become stronger and was now her former self, managing the housework, even going to the market. The older and bigger girls in the families would go up Vega Hill and gather bamboo shoots. Mother would slice them finely, sell in the market and come home with salt, sugar and canned goods.
Life under this situation seemed to last for years and years. Everyone was growing older and more aware of events around us. Cang Beb had graduated from the Philippine Normal School under the three year combined curriculum of regular and home economics like mother and taught in the elementary school at San Miguel a barrio in San Antonio.
I was caught by the outbreak of the war on December 1941 while in my senior year at PNC. Due to finish in 1942, our batch was declared automatically graduated. With that qualification, I went to apply for a teaching position in Subic. It turned out that Mr. Bada, the supervisor knew Father who accompanied me.
I was accepted and began teaching immediately, Japanese language and writing. Katakana and Hiragana were taught in schools. Opening ceremonies were held facing the direction of the Imperial Palace, bowing from the waist to, the Japanese flag and singing the Japanese anthem, Kimigayo. Relative normality of commerce was established locally and nationally under what was called a “puppet government”.
Food and other basic commodities were getting scarce. Japanese money replaced the Philippine currency and prices soared with the valueless paper money. Guerillas became more active causing more intensive hunt of members, and tempting informers with rewards of rice and canned foods. Thus started betrayal and reprisals among countrymen. Another period of fear persuaded. Anyone pointed at by a hooded informer was arrested, tortured and executed in public.
Father, like most male citizens, avoided venturing into town. Instead, we elder girls were sent to clean the house and yard in town. A neglected house was the home of a guerilla and therefore set on fire. When Japanese soldiers patrol the neighborhood however, we would go and lie down beside Apong Cando, cover our selves with ill-smelling clothes and trembled all over to fake an attack of malaria.
This life of false security and privation went on for about two years. In the middle of 1944, secret radios were catching news of American forces conquering Pacific Islands, the dropping of atomic bombs on cities in Japan. Suddenly, the Japanese were nowhere in town. They had left to join their forces probably for a strong last stand. American forces had indeed landed in Philippine soil. They landed on the shores of San Felipe and in a matter if hours they were coming, tanks ready with firearms while waving at all the civilians waving the V-sign shouting “Victory Joe”.
The Liberation War did not last long. Government was restored, prisoners of war were sent home. American soldiers who had been harbored by guerilla groups in the mountains were rescued by their countrymen. Among the survivors of the war were our cousins, Niceno Dinoso, who was concentrated in Capas, Tarlac, and Joaquin Corpuz who was caught in Visayas.
The 50s-60s (Post-War)
When the country was liberated completely and government, education and other activities were normal. Father began to tell us of his guerilla activities, that he was an officer and would receive a Lieutenant’s pay. We did not believe and even made of his calculated back pay as regular active army officer. He had his turn at mocking us when his official appointment came. He was indeed an officer in the guerilla forces and was awarded all rights remuneration and benefits of his rank.
Then we knew why he was so confident of Mely’s going to U.P.- he would avail of the Educational Benefits of Veterans. He got his back pay and received his paycheck regularly until his death. At his funeral his coffin was draped with a big American flag.
The guerilla forces in San Marcelino surfaced as soon as American victory was declared. There were about two battalions and the now regular U.S. Army soldiers marched in formation wearing their khaki and perishing caps proudly. One of them was Lt. Meliton C. Ordillas.
Rehabilitation of lives and homes began. Our families left the cramped huts and returned to the comfortable homes which luckily did not suffer the brunt of war enemy occupation.
After the war, the family resumed its ordinary peaceful life. Sylvia and Mely continued their studies. Aurea, Juliana and Sylvia got their Elementary teacher’s Certificate and joined the teaching force of the town.
The Family House THEN
The family started a new phase of life in the high second floor of the old house built of strong hard lumber. It had wooden walls and sliding capiz shell windows which had replaced those made of boho (a smaller variety of bamboo taken only from the mountains) some years before the war. Walls and windows were uniquely beautiful and neat and lasted for about 8 years. Repairs were usually done in preparation for the town fiesta in February. Finally to fend against the rain and winds of the next rainy season.
Fronting the street was a wide veranda with supports all around to hold Mother’s potted champaca plants with orange flowers. Later, those were changed with begonia with large leaves and drooping branches. Going up the second floor, were a front and a back stairs with wood steps which had concrete landings halfway up to the veranda and to the kitchen.
On the ground floor, Father raised goats. These goats were let out every morning and returned late afternoon. The smell was awful. Due to the lack of grass for the goats to feed on, goat raising was becoming difficult. Mother then took over with pig-raising. She raised sows for their piglets then fattened them. Call it survival food production.
A lift pump supplied water for drinking, cooking and bath. Throughout our lives that pump never ran dry even during summer. When water levels were very low, wells in the town would dry up; our pump however would only be poured a pail of water and the supply would start to com e up. For laundry, garden and flushing the toilet behind the granary there was a surface deep well which we shared with our neighbors, the Corpuses.
This house was sturdy with its strong foundation but when strong winds and heavy rains came during the rainy seasons, rain came halfway into the sala from leaks on the roof. The three of us elder daughters were already teachers and wanted the house reconstructed into a lower better built one. We were afraid a strong storm would blow it down. But Father could not be convinced. He insisted, “When I am gone you can do whatever you want”.
His wish was respected. Father passed away August 1, 1969 at the age of 84. After 3 years, the old house was razed and a concrete bungalow was built, planned and constructed by Cela and Meliton. The new family home was finished. Mother and Cela occupied the house and eventually with Oscar, Sylvia and their 3 young children.