Gatub Years

Gatub was a barrio concealed between two huge rocky forrests placed almost invisible from the buses that were coming in from the Pagadian side. Pagadian was the largest city in Zamboanga del Sur, and you pass Gatub on your way to Zamboanga City. Literally, a huge rock covered the view of the first big house as the buses would negotiate the curve coming from a large rock formation into its stop site of Gatub proper. When a bus came in from the direction of Pagadian, you could hear the labored motor but you could not see the bus because of the curve and because of the huge rock. It looked like a huge live animal made out of wood and metal suddenly appearing from a hole. The bus would always stop in front of the house of Cita and Basilio Dulugin and suddenly it gets swamped around by vendors whose voices rise and fall in a sing-song style, drowning the idling motor. "Orange!" "Eggs!" "Bread!" Pepsi!" the vendors invites the passengers to buy. The bus stops to unload passengers and cargoes for about thirty minutes or so and then takes off, leaving the vendors still pursuing those that haven't paid. In a little while, quietness takes over again, only to be punctuated by the sound of the birds in the trees nearby.

It was always a hilly landscape of land, high from one side and sloping down into a little creek, and also high from the other side also descending into the same creek. My father's land began from the road on the left hand side of Cita's house and ranging all the way to a mountain on a plateau, past the house of Manoy Bosyo. My father planted the land with corn and camote with papaya trees decorating the hills and the crows loved to hover around to look for chicken chicks. These birds were such a very good hunter that they can swiftly dive down to pick up their prey with their sharp claws leaving the mother hen helpless. The crows fly away to the top of the trees around and you could hear the sound of the chicks fade away. Opposite the house of Manoy Bosyo was our house situated on the hillside overlooking the creek. This was our second house. The first was near the cockpit which we used only on Sundays where my father had his small restaurant. I learned to sell cigarrettes too during the cockfight.

Manoy Alfredo also moved to Gatub with his wife, Rosa. They have just gotten married in Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental, Rosa's hometown. They managed to build a house on the other side of my father's land, not very far from the house of Manoy Bosyo. His oldest, who were twins, were born in this house. Aside from Manang Conchita's firsborn, who were in Lugait, Misamis Oriental at that time, the twins of Manoy Fredo and Manang Rosa were my first nephew who were near to us. I frequented their house to see the twins. It was me who noticed a big snake curled around the pole on the cogon roof with its head swinging back and forth like a pendulum about to fall on the crib of the newborn child. "Look at the snake!" I screamed. Virgilio, who happened to be there, and was never afraid of anything, took a stick and whacked the snake away. It fell on the floor writhing. When it finally got killed they measured it to be almost six feet long.

My father knew how to do everything. He was a farmer, a carpenter, a cook, a tobacco vendor, a dynamite maker, and he knew how to make soap and salt. He was a family provider and was always on the go. When he finally got the license to cut trees for timber, he wasted no time to go to the forrest along with able-bodied men. I tag along. I watched them build a platform around a very huge tree and hacked the tree with their huge axes until the tree falls on the ground. A massive sound ensued just after my father hollered "Guarda bajo!" which means watchout. I followed the falling tree with my eyes and when it laid still on the ground I would jump from my feet and run to the very end of the tree to look for birds and orchids. Along with my find, I also saw my barefeet filled with leeches sucking my blood. I then find a place to sit down and gingerly plug out the leeches off between the fingers of my feet looking at them and saying to myself, "You suckers!"

In less than a week, my father and his men would turn the big tree into pieces of lumber carefully cut according to the desired sizes. My brother Titing and I carried hundreds of pieces to the side of the road to be loaded to a truck. We made money because my father paid us for our work. A hundred pieces was five pesos, and that amount was already very big during that time. My brother Titing and I became self-supporting in our schooling. Whenever I find out that my father was going to the forrest to cut a tree, I never missed coming along. The joy of catching a bird or finding an orchid when the tree falls on the ground created an enequalled excitement and joy in my young life.