"It was there I met the love of my life."
I am saddened by reports that a bomb exploded at the entrance of the South Sea Mall in Cotabato City. Two people were killed and over 30 were injured. The blast is being attributed to the Islamic State-inspired terror group called the Daulah Islamiyah, a splinter of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters which is itself a terror group.
Santa Banana, this can only mean that terrorism has infiltrated Cotabato itself, the seat of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao!
First, Cotabato City was plagued with kidnapping to the extent that Muslim bandits and kidnap-for-ransom gangs were telling residents that their family members would be kidnapped unless they paid ransom.
After a while, members of the Armed Forces got stationed at the city proper, making residents sigh with relief. But now with IS-inspired groups operating in the city, this is most certainly not the place to go. I can only commisserate with its residents.
Cotabato City is nearest to my heart. I got my feet wet in journalism here when an Oblate priest named Cuttbert Billman went to Ateneo to ask for volunteers to operate the newspaper The Mindanao Cross.
Fr. Billman said he wanted graduates with some experience in newspaper publication. Rudy Tupas, my good friend, used to be editor-in-chief of The Guidon, and it was he who first volunteered. He asked me if I wanted to go—I used to be his associate editor.
I said yes for two reasons. First was my sense of adventure—imagine, faraway and foreign Mindanao! Second, the Jesuits taught us that Ateneans must have a mission in life. In fact, at that time I was considering becoming a priest.
But God had other plans. In Cotabato, I met the love of my life. Five years later, I married her.
But that’s getting ahead of the story.
The love of my life walked past me in the aisle as she received the Holy Communion. I thought I had seen an angel!
One morning after Mass I mustered enough courage to catch up with her as she was walking back home. I asked: “May I walk with you?” and she said yes.
I started visiting her at her mother’s drug store, and she told me she was just vacationing from Philippine Women’s University and had plans of transferring to the University of the Philippines.
After a month, she returned to Manila.
A year or two hence, I was also back in Manila to continue my law studies. I got a job as a high school instructor at Ateneo High School. I heard through the grapevine that there was a certain Miss Trinidad Capistrano, a pharmacy student, who was the talk of the university. She was living at one of the dormitories in UP.
I started taking my lunch at the South Dorm of UP after spending my mornings teaching at Ateneo. I was hoping to see Miss Capistrano again.
One day, a friend, Rudy Olivarez, told me that a certain Flory Aristomenas, who was dorming with Miss Capistrano, had arranged a double date for the four of us.
When the love of my life saw me, she said: “So, it’s you!” The rest is history as they say.
I proposed to her to the tune of Love Letters and Autumn Leaves by the great Serafin Payawal, a 21-man orchestra at the Skyroom Jai Alai, when I invited her there for her birthday, January 8.
And, Santa Banana, she accepted!
We got married in Cotabato City on May 14, 1955.
* * *
Going back to my experience with the Mindanao Cross, Cotabato was then a whole province before it was divided into Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, South Cotabato, General Santos and Sarangani.
During the wars, Cotabato was ruled by the Sinsuat family. There was Duma Sinsuat, the governor, Blah Sinsuat, the congressman, Mando Sinsuat, mayor, and Mana Sinsuat, who became a cabinet member of the Marcos administration. Odin Sinsuat was mayor of Dinaig.
Strangely, all the Sinsuats married Christian women.
All of them were my friends from whom I learned a great deal.
I have only gone back twice. First was to speak before a Rotary meeting—but left in a huff because I received a letter warning me that I would be kidnapped.
Another instance was when we visited friends. I had to seek the help of National Security Adviser Joe Almonte.
It’s a sad development, what is happening now in my beloved Cotabato City.
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