A Day in a Life in Olongapo, Part 2
In just a matter of minutes, after that quick anesthesia-less operation and humiliation inside the operating room, I was in a wheelchair being pushed by that UP volunteer all the way to the x-ray room and unto my assigned room, which was the orthopedic ward.
Weird. I don’t think I had any broken bone or whatever that needed me to be confined to that section. Unless some doctor thought a broken skull would be enough to be categorized as orthopedic. I saw some empty rooms and wards along the way so I asked the guy why I was being put here. He said he got no idea but we both think it would be safer for me since it’s almost full and lots of people would see me, just in case.
There were other patients in the room, albeit with more different injuries than mine. At that time, I think I was already regaining my strength. I thought about my friends who were left behind and decided to go find them. I needed to get out of the hospital, doesn’t matter if my head looked like a mummy.
When I looked outside the door, I knew.
I saw uniformed and non-uniformed men looking at me suspiciously. The reason they brought me at this ward was so they could easily monitor my movement. There’s no way I could get out the door. I looked out the window, there were flashing lights. I noticed a few cop cars sitting idly. I surrendered the idea that I can escape.
There’s no way but pray. Pray that my friends were alright. I tried to put the weight of my whole body behind my back. Suddenly, I felt the bed move. I was being transferred to a different room. I finally ended up alone, in a 12-bed public ward.
After a few minutes, they brought another guy with the same injury on his head, obviously a hit by a baseball bat as well. I asked him if he was from the same rally as mine. He looked at me like he saw a ghost. And then he was out of there.
A few days later I got the information that he was actually the one who hit me. And that since those mobs don’t know each other, one of them hit him accidentally in the head. Karma, you got the same thing you gave.
Troy and Emy came to visit me. Finally I was relieved, I got friendly company. I immediately tasked them to have me moved to a private room for protection. When we got there, we noticed the seemingly endless minor errands of medical personnel. Somebody needs to clean the bathroom, change the sheets, and change something. They in fact had the trash removed several times in a span of thirty minutes. My phone was bugged. I called several apolitical friends to visit ASAP for more security. They were eventually harassed and weren’t allowed to visit.
After a few hours, my friends came. Ghie, Sheila, Ameth, the late Judge Dela Llana from the ombudsman, and the late Dr. Lipumano, former mayor of Olongapo. For my security, I needed to get out of the hospital. Since they would not discharge me because of my condition, Dr. Lipumano signed my charge sheet, and Judge Dela Llana signed as my legal custodian.
I was informed that everybody was safe except for John who was sitting in a local jail. Apparently, right after I got hit, he was chased by the same mob. Armed with clubs and fan knives, men chased him down a side street. He tumbled. He was about to get stabbed and clobbered when luckily, a local cop who knew him intervened and saved his ass. He put him in jail instead, which was better than ending up in a morgue.
The reunion at the hospital was a happy and an emotional moment. Happy that even though the plans to do a rally did not push through, everybody was safe. And emotional that we almost died trying. Hopefully at the very least, the national media might catch it. Now they would know that we DO exist.
We all looked at each other and at that moment I we saw in our eyes that we have proven something. And in my own little way I have proven something.
I have earned everybody’s respect.
(To be concluded)
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BURAOT is your quintessential skeptic but a not-yet-so-hopeless pessimist. Impatient most of the time, hence the name, he yearns to discover the magnanimity of the universe and the infinite folly of human stupidity (yep, that was Einstein's). And yes, oo.. he also want world peace. You can stalk him out at Anak ni Kulapo and I Am Buraot.
Grabe! reminds me of martial law years! That is why I am not rooting for this man. I could not remember me voting for him for the senate seat
that’s how it works in Olongapo back then. but then again, things have changed a bit because they’re power is no longer absolute. remember Erap kicked Gordon out of SBMA. then Dick’s husband lost Congress to a Magsaysay.
Dick’s “husband”? hehehe i know this must be a typo, natawa lang ako hehe
wahahahha! typo lang po. sowee. hahahah!
could be worse than marcos, if ever…?!
not sure. but could be.
grabe talaga and politika. tingin ko ganito sa lahat ng lugar. kahit sa tikbuktu at tralala, malas lang ng mga taga-maguindanao dahil pumutok ang baho nila pero kung tutuusin, soft pa ‘yun kesa sa mga alam ko. kaso lang syempre, mahirap nang magsalita. di naman ako sing-tapang mo.
napilitan lang ako lumaban. no choice. hehehehe.
this is like CSI: Olongapo City hehehe! in bicol, you’re one hell of an “Uragon” hahaha
… this kind of ‘character’ was hidden from a lot of people and he was able to put up a clean image from us who are outsiders… thanks for sharing… no wonder it was easy for him to convince another ruthless like him to be his partner in this coming election. yuck!
Hey, Buraot,
Make this a novel. You are so good at narrating the details! I will again re-publish this in Dyaryo Magdalo, re-tweet this and share to my Facebook friends.
Where’s Part III?
Buraot,
I do not wish to express my opinion on your views as much as I do not want to express my views on your experience. You made your choices and if anything at all, I admire your passion for your ideals.
The only fact I see is that, we can’t directly put this blame on Dick Gordon. He was the SBMA administrator and I think he did a great job as such. He, along with then President Ramos brought the APEC to the country and showcased the potentials that we have as a nation. Here’s the list of the major participants then.
APEC Members Economy Representatives
Australia-John Howard, Prime Minister
Brunei Darussalam-Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan
Canada – Jean Chretien, Prime Minister
Chile – Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, President
China – Jiang Zemin, President
Hong Kong, China – Donald Tsang Yam-kuen,Financial Secretary
Indonesia – Soeharto, President
Japan – Ryutaro Hashimoto, Prime Minister
Korea – Kim Young Sam, President
Malaysia – Mahathir Muhamad, Prime Minister
Mexico – Ernesto Zedillo, President
New Zealand – Jim Bolger, Prime Minister
Papua New Guinea – Julius Chan, Prime Minister
Philippines – Fidel Ramos, President
Singapore – Goh Chok Tong, Prime Minister
Chinese Taipei – Koo Chen-fu, Senior Advisor
Thailand – Banharn Silpa-archa, Prime Minister
United States of America – Bill Clinton, President
Each of these heads of nations have security people who look and approve the security plan put by our authorities before they will even allow their leaders to set foot on our soil. It was not as much of a dictatorial move as it was a show of who’s in charge which is a must if you want to host a summit as big as APEC. Can you imagine the image that we would have shown to the world if the security of the conference was compromised? The security plan was definitely drafted by whoever was in charge at that time – Gordon was the chair of the SBMA, not the head of the security. Although Gordon and Ramos might have approved the plan, it was after the recommendation of whoever was in charge.
Sometimes, we have to step back and look at things from a different lens. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Hello Kutz,
you are absolutely right on that. security measures are necessary. it’s a global event, and of course security preparations and measures would be huge as well. and we, I, do understand it.
i’m not discrediting Ramos nor Gordon for the successful event that was APEC. in fact I am congratulating them for the job well done, as far as promoting Subic Bay and the effective security measures. while this is not about the issue of globalization, i just touched base with it a little bit. that’s another issue to talk about some other time.
i guess the whole issue here is the repression of our rights to self assembly and the use of hooligans to do such deed.
our leaders needs to understand that while they do have police rights, we also have our own rights to self assembly and express our approval or disapproval of certain issues that concerns our people.
they do their thing, and we needed to do what we believe was ours.
Well Buraot, you can look at it as a repression of your rights OR some people can also view it as just a tight security measure – it’s not directed to your organization alone. It only takes a slight hole on the security plan for undesirable elements to take advantage of that. Paano kung may nakalusot na mga over passionate idealistic elements and they become successful in taking down one of the leaders to prove a point? Mismo sa US nangyari yan, JFK, remember? What nation in the world will ever trust the Philippines again as a venue for anything of international significance?
The way I look at it is that, you are pointing the blame on Gordon for something that he may have delegated to a conglomeration of security experts from various nations. While I admire your passion for what you believe in, I think that directly associating your experience (you got hit, you got spit on, etc) to Gordon is like blaming Cory Aquino for the decisions that Kris made. IMHO, there’s no significant relationship between the variables.
sure Kutz,
the JFK is always debatable up to now. heheh. but nothing happens in Olongapo that he did not know. like I said, the presence of Gordon organizations everywhere in Gapo serves him more than just one purpose. it is meant to protect his votes base. and it also serves as his civilian monitoring groups. kaya kapag me hindi pabor sa patakaran nya, alam na agad nila.
being residents of Olongapo, our main issue was Gordon’s, and the APEC issue was just coincidental.
i would understand if the police were the one who repressed our right to assembly, you can say then that it is part of the security of the APEC organizing teams. but in fact no. those who did us harm were Gprdon hooligans who were fanatics working at the palengke. and we had information that they were indeed paid to do it.
the hospital was run by the city government and its administrator was personally picked by Gprdon himself.
not only was it an issue of command responsibility, but political repression in Olongapo is a way of life and a culture of fear prevails. nobody can do anything contrary to what Gordon believes, otherwise, they will be in big trouble.
we can always argue that it was not Gordon nor his family themselves who ordered it, must be the loyal followers who don’t want their “leader” to get compromised. but the presence of city hall and SBMA-owned vehicles to carry these hooligans would have anybody think, “who then ordered it?”
i would write in the future more in this i’m saying the culture of fear. and maybe you would think twice about Gordon.
Very good point Kutz !!!
You have a point Kutz on the kind of tight security measures that must be carried on for those global leaders. How it turned out however was very ironic, violent to be precise, that we do our best to protect foreign leaders at the expense of mangling our own tribe. Hosting a global summit such as APEC was indeed a feat, if not sanitizing our image as a backward country compared say with South Korea. But for all the claims of grandiosity and glory of globalization that APEC preaches, the global field remains unequal, and conditionally, will always be, if we cannot hold our ground for example from being import-dependent while exporting cheap labor, a honey for EPZAs and what Buraot and Sanlakas had fought for. It was as simple as “do-no-harm” to one of our own. It starts from there, the negative side of the call to embrace the Pinoy in us – firmly and with pride.
dFish, we understand that they need to exercise police powers. but they need to understand that there will always gonna be opposition to all issues.
so i guess the best thing to do, as far as I see it, is to put up place where people can freely exercise their rights. but suppress it?
What I cannot find though is the linkage – the direct association between Dick Gordon and what happened to you. Sanlakas is against globalization, I get that. I am all for free expression. It was unfortunate what happened to you. It could have been dealt with differently. But the security plans and measures were announced waaayyyy before the actual event. You chose to ignore them. You chose to hold your rally without permit. You chose to go ahead and defy the authorities. You chose to confront the angry mob that were equally passionate in their belief that APEC was good for Olongapo. I thought it was a clash of beliefs that you chose to face and you paid the price. This is why I said, I admire your passion but I cannot comment on your beliefs because that would be futile.
Kutz, one do not need to have a permit to organize a rally. it is inherent in our right to free expression. this was again proven when the court later dismissed their case against us for illegal assembly. the court’s decision? there is no such thing as illegal assembly. it’s pretty much a case of vagrancy. police use it, but it has no legal bearings.
there was no angry mob. like I said there were hundred of cops. and we are peaceful. in fact we never even got our rally. they (the mob) were waiting for us in the shadows. we didn;t know we were about to get ambushed.
besides, it was in the vicinity of the olongapo public market, way way further from the vicinity of the SBMA. and you know what, the APEC meet was being held somewhere in Triboa Bay, in the mountainous area inside SBMA. SBMA itself has gates where nobody can pass through. and the gate is way way too far from where we are.
dFish-
That’s the sad part of being a manager. That’s the sad part of being an administrator of a center as big as the Subic Bay Freeport. You want to generate employment opportunities therefore you have to make hard decisions. Some of these decisions may benefit some and be detrimental to others. But a good manager will not lose focus of the very reason of his office. As manager your task is to find the best option for your people and the business. It may not satisfy every single sector of the society (nothing ever does) but a decision has to be made.
Gordon was the manager at that time and as such, it was his duty to make those hard decisions – hold the APEC because Subic Bay Freeport was ready and able to go global with or without the American servicemen. From his point of view, perhaps he just wanted to take the effort of the people of Olongapo to a higher level. I think he knows that not everybody will agree. But that’s why I admire Gordon. Because he was not afraid to make hard decisions. Mahirap sa leaders natin yung gustong i please ang every sector of the society kaya in the end walang nagagawa. Status quo is not an option in a nation as divided as ours.
dFish he did have excellent management skills i tell you that. i was not disputing it. like the rest of us, a “change in men” is necessary for us to move forward. we need discipline. we need an iron hand to do that.
but his skills was also used to promote and advance his own family and friends interests. during his tenure sa SBMA chairman, a voter’s ID was required for application of employment. why? non supporters cannot advance their business. most business owners in Gapo are either relatives or relatives of politicians allied with him.
he used his position so he could control everybody more than just the votes. if you voted for another candidate other than his, you will be disenfranchised and be cast out of the city government’s services. it would only stop until you can vouch that you will be one of them.
here’s one thing: if I voted for FPJ and GMA wins, does that mean GMA is not my president anymore?
Gee…
Baseball bat on the head. Baka siguro kung ako yan, amnesia ang inabot ko. Ugh.
Nice part 2 buraot.
Looking forward to part 3 before I try to make my full comment.
[...] Click here for Part 2 [...]
@buraot
your story reminds me of the movie HOTFUZZ. hehe
hotfuzz? wahahah! batet naman?
diba yung mga ayaw sumunod sa kanila pinapatay! wahaha
well… no comment.