Musta mga 'Mate

another splendid piece of writing from yayes! uragon sano! payt!

by Yayes Basares


I presume all of you are already in 40’s. I took the presumption because I would enter the 40’ish bracket in two months time and in our class I am the late bloomer. So late perhaps that until this date I continue waiting to bloom.

I never had an occasion to celebrate my birthday, I do not have the taste for it. So my 4oth comes in tell tale signs, indirectly telling me how old I have become since I met me. Regretfully doctors call it the signs of ageing. That’s what I hate in doctors – they always tell the truth. Especially dentists . . . .

I just had this mild stroke thing a week ago. It’s the transient ischemic attack thing. Suddenly I felt severe chest pain and simultaneously my left arm went numb and for a few minutes my jaw locked. It took me three days to live with that damn chest pain. I promised myself to start exercising the next day but I did not set a date for that next day. It is better that way so I can continue reminding myself.

At present I am considering an early retirement from my full time job – as Student Affairs Officer of a private educational institution in this city. I dropped my Sunday subjects and retain only two subjects for Saturdays – Labor Relations and Civil Procedure, both major subjects. The first is my favorite as an HR Practitioner under Atty Alwyn Talde (sano batch 83) whose style suites me best – always absent. In some instances, he is present when I am absent, and absent when I am present, ay ambot.

I continue to write for Erwin newspaper (Sorsogon Now) on a weekly basis for the past three years now. I am happy to report that I managed to make the paper come out on a regular schedule sans my shortcomings and lapses in proofreading. And typical of our classmate Erwin, he has taken care of me. Saen ka nakakita nin empleyado pirmi advance an suweldo – only in Sorsogon City. The opportunity provided by Sorsogon Now and our classmate Erwin opened doors for me to be invited and assist upcoming newspapers in the province. Obviously they have the money but cannot write while I can write but do not have the money. But over and above it, what started out as a mere hobby in college became passion and is slowly evolving into a source of livelihood. Perhaps a career . . . ? ? ? ?

Erwin unselfish as always did not prohibit me from accepting these invitations. So far to date, I have already submitted three articles with one group yet the paper, which is ought to be also on a weekly issue, remains to be seen. With another group who invited me for a monthly news magazine of 20 pages its maiden issue is set to come out this last week of February. Let us see thereafter. I wrote all the articles inside it (although they produce the materials and other data needed) designed and worked the lay-out. I have just finished with it this day and tomorrow it will be submitted to the printing press for production. Let us see where this will lead me.

Meanwhile, one senior citizen in the city made representations and is asking me to write her autobiography. We are still in the thick of negotiations and working out details. I said to myself may urag man palan ako maski nag uurag urag lang.

Truth to tell, from time to time I also try to whip some butts with my pen. Mala ngani iuuragan sako an iba na pulis didi. But where else do you find but here where a school kid out to buy pandesal early morning get held up? And four hold-up/robbery cases in a day, one after another along the same stretch of highway? – only in the city of Sosogon. Anyway that is another story.

Perhaps I should start considering a full time career in local newspapers. But I fear one day I may be blamed for contributing to the mental retardation of some. You see MEDIA IS DANGEROUS TO YOUR MENTAL HEALTH!

Condolences to Yayes' Family

our prayers and deepest condolences to Yayes and family whose dad passed away some days ago.

Belated Happy Bday Yayes!

musta na padi!

sori mga padi nagkarilimutan ko na pagpost san mga bdays.

Atty. Dante Arcos

by Edgar A. Basares Jr.

Aemilianum College of Law newest addition to the legal profession in Sorsogon is ATTY. DANTE L. ARCOS. ATTY. ARCOS made it in last year’s bar examination (released last Sunday March 29) – touted as one of the hardest with but a total passing percentile of only 22.91% of the 5,626 bar examinees. The passing rate would have been an all time low of 5%, had not the Supreme Court adjusted the passing rate from 75% to 70%.

Of course, the community of law students of Aemilianum is happy for Atty. ARCOS. As of this writing, the community is planning for a motorcade around the city. College Dean Atty. Kager Gerona was ecstatic and proud that he intends to bring out the test booklets of Atty. Arcos in his subject to show to the lower years how good he is. Last Sunday, after a thanksgiving mass at Aemilianum Chapel, Atty. Arcos dropped by and showed himself to all law students then taking their final examinations and was greeted with cheers by the community. Immediately he was besieged with the million dollar questions: Are you going to teach? Are you going to immediately go into private practice?

Atty. Dante Arcos is destined to become a lawyer. After finishing his Accountancy course from the Philippine School of Business Administration he worked with the Sandiganbayan as court interpreter at the same time studying law in Manila. Transferring back to the province, he worked as Legal Researcher at RTC Branch 51 and continued his law course at the Aemilianum College of Law. His exposure to court litigations and procedures augmented his classroom instruction; molded his competency in the study of the law and equipped him with confidence to hurdle the bar exams.

Atty. Arcos is also a SANO and belonged to batch 86 of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia Seminary. Known to us simply as Cacoy and Tetet, we, his classmates, were not surprised, and even expected him to pass. He is the second lawyer in the class, next after Atty. Junel Relativo who is now based in Naga City. You see, even during our seminary years, he was already showing signs of becoming a lawyer as he was one of the very few who can transgress seminary rules and get away with it. He covered his tracks well that he was one of the very few who have perfected the art of escaping from the seminary for days without even being noticed. He was the ninja of the class –who operates so silently and subtlety that only he can catch a chicken in the middle of the night without eliciting any sound making the Fr. Rector wonder where the chickens have gone. Even in his academics, Cacoy is devoid of a bang and a fanfare. He would just sit there silently watching an algebraic problem or a latin maxim or a Spanish phrase and before we know it already have the solution or the translation in his mind.

Amidst the euphoric preparation of the community of law students to parade Atty. Dante Arcos around the city, we the Sorsogon based Maelstrom Class (OLPS Batch 86) are silently preparing our own gathering and salutation for Cacoy. We have deliberately cancelled our customary Black Saturday get together this year in anticipation for the bar result of Cacoy.

We were never wrong.

prayers for yayes's dad

let us jumpstart the maelstrom prayer brigade again and offer prayers for yayes's dad's triumph against his difficult medical condition

Happy Birthday Yayes!

belated greets padi. sori medyo superbusy lang hindi ko na-update itong blog

Wounded Warrior

by Yayes Basares

Radiological findings:

A large soft tissue mass density with prominent vasculature, is seen off the left occipito-temporal scalp area. Note the intense but relatively inhomogenous contrast enhancement of the mass.
There is associated lytic erosion of the underlying left occipital bone.
No definite abnormal density change is seen in the brain parenchyma, cerebellum and occipital lobes appear intact.

The gray-white matter interfaces are maintained.

The eventricles and other CSF spaces are within normal.

Midline structures are not displaced.

The sellar, parasellar structures are not remarkable.

Evaluation:
Large intensely enhancing soft tissue mass, left occipito-temporal scalp area. A large soft tissue hemangioma is entertained.

K. Nee-Estuye, M.D. FPCR
Sorsogon Medical Mission Group
Hospital and Health Services Cooprative

There is a big hole in her skull. When you see the picture there is a soft tissue formed like a supot hanging from the back side of her skull and is filled with blood. Both the soft tissue forming like a supot and all its content – come through that hole. This is an inborn physical defect and was already there when I met her in 1994. At that time it was still small in size that was covered and hidden by the length of her hair. To date, its length surpasses her hair length, its size aside from what you can see covers her entire right ear and part of her right face, its weight approximately 5 kilos.

I am not a doctor and neither do I understand medical terms. But I have lived the past 12 years of my life with this woman. She is my wife.

And how I love this woman, whom I am proud to say, tamed me. The past twelve years of our marriage has always been an extreme joy for me to go home to her warm embrace knowing she prepared me a home where I can rest my tired spirit. It is my pride to have three very loving and wonderful kids grown up under the guidance of her maternal love and sacrifices. My wife is a simple woman whose little world revolves around rearing her kids and dutifully attending to her husband. It is her simple and quiet ways that endear her most to me as, best of all, she never competes with me.

How is she? She is, by God's grace, asymptomatic. No seizures, no loss of balance, no incoherent speeches, no nothing. In fact, she was a Technology and Home Economics teacher when I met her and only stopped working after our eldest suffered from bronchial asthma ever since year one. She was also a Lay Minister of the Word in our faith. She does household chores like all other "normal" housewives. It is only her physical defect that separates her from all of us, limiting her exposure as many are shocked to see her condition.

It was upon the prodding of Nono to have her medically checked a day after a pocket reunion we had together with Erwin, Junie, Collins, Henri, Dante, and Peewee last December 30, 2006.
It is this physical condition that we are hoping we could find an answer in the medical world. Mr. and Mrs. Nono Dorotan, by their kindness, indorsed us to their friend Dr. Laly Macindo who had been kind to us in extending assistance and many times going out of her way to do so. A plastic surgeon from UST together with other surgeons from Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital has seen her and hoped that a plastic surgery could resolve the problem. Unfortunately, as my limited medical knowledge understands it, some more tests need to be conducted to determine any complication in her brain. The test is not available in the Bicol Region and, worse, could lead to a major medical operation. (Nono, with his big heart, has the CT Scan film and is coordinating with other radiologists to seek second opinion.)

On a personal note, this is my daily cross to carry. I have tried not to involve you. Yet I could not ignore the kindness of Nono and his wife, your concerted concern, through your text messages, and flood of sympathy all of which could be summed up by this SMS message from Rino: Yayes, I hope you will accept the idea and spirit behind this movement. Bro, with sincere gratitude, I do accept and I am deeply touched and honored to be part of Maelstrom.

My apologies that among our group I am left behind. Much has been said, but for me it is this simple:

I don't dream. Better yet, I have stopped dreaming.
I no longer recall when I lost the will to dream. What I recall is the feeling of emptiness. I cannot recollect the reason why I lost the will to dream, what I remember is the feeling of surrender.
I have stopped dreaming because at night I fear to go to bed and dream never to wake up again.

Pray tell me, how does one fly with broken wings?