Once Upon a Time, part 2

 

Once Upon a Time in Asingan,

part 2

The early Asingan I knew had a few places etched into my 6-year old mind.  These are still with me 60 years later...

CROSSING - This is the intersection of the road going to  Binalonan  and the road going to Urdaneta. All jeeps from Urdaneta most of the time stop here, in front of a huge Spanish type house owned by the Salcedo family. I usually get down on this spot coming from Urdaneta or Dagupan and would walk for a few meters into our house..When I was small, my Mom always advised me : "always take the left side of the road..so you will avoid crossing the busy intersection .." That intersection, during market days could get really busy..Jeeps, Pantranco buses, private vehicles, carabao pulled carts, carromatas ( horse pulled buggies ),  people on foot, etc.

At that time, the Salcedo building was used as a temporary classroom ( or might even be a building ) for the Rizal Junior College. I heard that the present site of this school ( now the Colegio, owned by Susan Delmendo ) was constructed by the Eleazar family when the Department of Education made it mandatory for school owners to have their own buildings..Thus the present site of the Colegio was born.

There were several large classrooms in the Salcedo building before when it was still the RJC. Two other buildings in Asingan were also rented . One is the Dancel building, which is located next door to the Bautista residence. Here was found the RJC Library. I think another building owned by the Diaz family was also used as a classroom ( I am not so sure ) . But this was the set up of the RJC during those days. Students have to go to one building to another in their pursuit for higher education..

ABAGATAN - Ilocano word for south. When we were kids, an aunt ( my Dad's only sister ) lived in the southern end of town. But when my grandma was still alive, our cousins from ABAGATAN ( my aunt's family ) would come and visit us and we would spend the whole day playing. 

My Aunt's name is Filomena Costes, who was married to Dr. Regalado Tendero. Their eldest daughter was Evelina, then Zorayda, Arnulfo, Corazon then Armando. There were 5 of them, there were also five of us. We played various kid's games like Hide and Seek, climbing trees in our backyard, or kicking the can..Yes, there were no Computer games yet at that time..heck there was even no electricity  in town.

Aftermy grandmother died, my aunt decided to live beside us. She constructed a house next door. We were all happy because by then we saw each other everyday and we could just communicate with each other through our house windows...

Evelina was the prettiest of them all and she finished her elementary years in Asingan. She also went to RJC. Many of the local boys fell for her then. You know, puppy love. Boys would be following her like puppies.

But she managed to survive those juvenile crushes from the local yokels. She finished her high school in Manila.  Then she took nursing studies at the UP Diliman. Ocassionally, she would come and visit Asingan especially when she was working at the St. Luke's Hospital and it was always a bright day for me and my sister Aurora when she came to see us. Then we heard that she married Ray Punongbayan, who one day would become the Chief Volcanologist in the Philippines..

 

It was really a big surprise when I met her youngest son in the Internet. And this is Stauro. My eldest sister Aurora was very close to Billy ( this was Evelina's nickname to us ) . I phoned her upon receiving the long e-mail from Stauro.  She informed me that he must have been a baby when his Mom died.

She told me she visited the Punongbayan family also when they were still in Colorado ( my sis was also in Pueblo doing some studies in medical Technology ) and she visited them very often, for old time's sake.

Here are some parts of Stauro's last e-mail to me...

*****

Uncle Vic,

Hi thank you very much for accomodating the pictures. The pictures of mom and dad and lulu will be great. Since im on the planning stages for the coffee table book that im trying to make about dad. and pictures of him with mom and lulu in colorado will be a welcome edition to the collection. I'm hoping that thru the book we will be able to preserve the values and hard work that dad put in during his government working days. To also show to the next generation that government service has its rewards.

Me and my wife lynne are staying here in asingan. most of my taekwondo chapters in quezoncity i have already given away. so you can say that we are already asingan residents. but sometimes my students and their parents from my quezon city teams keep in touch and ask me to visit them from time to time. I feel that my work will be more productive here that in quezon city. In the short time that i've been teaching here, taekwondo and sports have made a huge impact to the kids and their parents. The team is training here in the danggay builiding of sen. leticia ramos shahani's danggay ti pangasinan foundation. auntie esther and auntie grace were instrumental in having us get the building and use it for the gym. The gym is located just beside the sports center and public auditorium.

So far the kids are doing ok. Last summer they were able to experience so many things, they were able to participate in 3 tournaments 2 here in region 1 and 1 at alabang town center, as of now the kids took home a total of 12 gold, 12 silver, and 3 bronze medals. Now we are getting ready to join a tournament in baguio city on aug. 19. hopefully the kids do well. the building is really ideal since it has a big enough space for the training, and it is near the sports center and public auditorium. from time to time i let the kids watch some taekwondo videos that i was able to buy from the internet or from relatives in the states particularly from uncle boy mabesa and uncle manding tendero. the taekwondo videos and instructional videos help a lot but the viewing is limited to a few students since im only using the portable dvd player that uncle boy gave. but the kids do love watching. im also teaching taekwondo as a pe subject at rizal academy and im trying to have the students take up the sport so that in the future they could avail of scholarships in universities in manila and in urdaneta city university where im working also as a pe teacher. they have a 100% scholarship and since im proposing that taekwondo be a varsity sport in ucu i can get some of my asingan students to try out when they reach college. there are so many doors that taekwondo can open to the youth of asingan, thats why im planning on seeing this program thru to the end. but aside from taekwondo me and my wife are planning on opening up a public library in danggay building that will help the kids develop interest in books. i've checked out the national bookstore foundation and they have a program which the call buklat aklat leave behind program. the program includes 500 books and some materials that will be donated for a price of 95,000 pesos which could come from sponsors, they usually give it to certainschools but im thinking that danggay building is the perfect place since the 1st floor is idle and can be used asa study center for the town.

other plans include having a holloween trick or treat activity during november here in asingan where the whole community will be open to the kids for trick or treat and the houses will be decorated for the occasion and the best decorated house will win a prize and the best holloween costume will be awarded a prize as well. then come december we plan to organize a lantern parade where the town offices and establishment will have their own lantern and parade it around the town just like how they do it in up diliman. hopefully it materializes. then on summer im planning on organzing a slow pitch softball tournament for all age brackets including youth, teens, adult, and senior citizens for both male, female, and mixed. wouldnt that be a treat?

but right now things are on the planning stages, don't really know who to turn to. me and my wife are really eager to help and make a difference here and we think that danggay foundation thru the centro sports and recreation program can help the town if only we could find the support and funding. who knows this might just help the kids find a better future since sports has so much potential in terms of opportunity, thru scholarships and work opportunities for the out of school youths. instead of playing computer games in shops and join gangs and fraternites, they could use all that anxiety, angst, and energy for better things.

Sorry for the long letter, i'm just excited at the thought of the kids enjoying sports and learning. things that could help the community. hope to hear from you soon and god bless uncle.

stauro

( photos to follow...)