THE FARMERETTE

by: Norberto Betita

She walked approximately 10 kilometers back and forth each day from her home in Sitio Tumanday, Surigao City during school days. There were no easy rides during those days. It was be very seldom for her to be able to take a jeepney ride. Her parents’ farm had been destroyed and had not yet recovered from the devastation of Typhoon Louise in 1964 and life had been too hard for the family.

However, SNNHS ‘69er ADORA GOLIAT tried to take the pains of a long walk each day if only to be educated and attain her bright youthful vision to cross the chasm of poverty. Her brilliance was tested through a mental ability test required of all first year students and despite her rural educational background she qualified to be in the elite section. She maintained to have a seat in the special class during the next four years of her high school life. Her family’s very difficult circumstances was never a deterrent for her to pursue with eagerness her desires to finish high school with hopes to one day acquire a college degree. She’s a very good and kind young woman that many of our prominent classmates loved her and were close friends to her. She was among the few who took and passed the scholarship examinations of the Marawi State University. With such achievement the future looks bright for her.

She moved off the gateway of the Surigao del Norte National High School full of hope that she would be able to pursue her academic dreams. During vacation she helped work in the farm and assisted her parents in whatever that she can do. Her enthusiasm for advancement remained aglow and burning together with youthful hopes. Then the delightful reverie and aspirations crushed before her as she was informed by her parents that they could not support her desired college education. She was deflated and disheartened. Her optimism disappeared and the bridge to cross the chasm of poverty collapsed. She was left dejected and discouraged. She lost every single desire to find other avenues upon which to pursue her college education. She initially blamed her parents for their unsupportive disposition, but she later realized and understood their predicaments for she has been a witness of their difficulties. Since then she had been working and living in the farm.

The farmerette married at an early age of 22 to a farmer which gave her the name of Cato. Together they settled in the farming community where she was raised. They existed and survived with the little subsistence that their little farm could provide. She felt no regret about her poverty stricken life. Forgotten are her youthful dreams for herself and the bright prospects that should have been realized through her intellectual brilliance. As five children were born, her perspective and direction were concentrated and strongly focused on her family. Her goals and plans changed and were structured towards the future of her children. In her thoughts are lessons learned from the pangs of poverty which she wanted her children to overcome and defeat. From early childhood she motivated her children to study and obtain the highest education that they possibly can attain. She gave all her support to them. When resources failed she finds relatives who can help. She wanted to do the things which her parents failed to do for her to make sure that her life’s failed journey may not be repeated in her posterity. 

Her daughter struggled through thick and thin and made it through a nursing course with the help of her brother Ronnie Goliat. Her daughter is now a registered nurse. Another child was able to find an opportunity to work abroad. The three other children were so drowned in difficulties that no matter her motivation they just forbear and desist. They seemed to have been strongly resistant and immune to poverty.

Now she remained to be a very humble farmerette in a little farming community of Tumanday, Surigao City. Her life is a wonderful lesson in its entirety, typical of a resilient poor Filipino woman. She wanted her story to be told to teach the younger generations, including her posterity that failures should not be taken as an end but a new beginning; that frustrations should not be a deterrent to move ahead but should be treated as a bridge that will connect both ends of the wide crevasse of trials towards the expansive open plateau of success.

She was very happy to have met me and she intends to attend our 2019 SNNHS ‘69ers golden jubilee reunion.

HER NAME MEANS “EXALTED ONE”

By: Norberto Betita

She accidentally dropped her ball pen during our English class. Then she requested the young man at her back to pick it up, but she was refused. He was the boy who had been teased and kidded as her teenage crush although there was no truth about it. Like most teenagers he was afraid to be booed and jeered by friends, so he said, “You dropped it, you have to take it back.” And all the more that our classmates applauded and cheered. Those were some of the happy memoirs of her high school life.

She is SNNHS ‘69er DELIA CORTES a white complexioned; long-haired; fair and beautiful small young woman. At first glance one would suspect her to be of Chinese descent. However, her looks was attributed to the prominent Cortes clan in Surigao City although she denied having any closer bloodline with the family. Her name Delia is a feminine for Delius and has its origin from the Greek moon goddess Artemis whose known birthplace was in the tiny island of Delos or Delius. Delia was also used as an English rendering of an Irish name Brighid or Brid which means “exalted one” (www.Google.com.) The dignified, glorious and noble meaning of her name had perhaps given her the enthusiasm to remain in the elite class and having a lofty goal to achieve. Like all others she left the threshold of the Surigao del Norte National High School with deep gratitude to find her way up the challenging journey to success.

She took the first lap of her race through life by enrolling at the San Nicolas College (now St. Paul University-Surigao) for a course leading to a degree of Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Accounting. During those times this is one of the most popular courses aside from teaching, considering that the only easy chance for employment in Surigao is with the government. Considering her talents, she must have other plans, but family circumstances might have deprived her of other options. Yet she is prepared to take whatever is the only available route to be able to reach the door of opportunities. She knew as George S. Clason has said that, “Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared.” Therefore, having no other choice she diligently took the challenge and pains of enduring the four years of college schooling. Like Abraham Lincoln she pledged: “I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” Indeed her chance did come and her eventual collegiate triumph slowly opened doors for career development and progress.

She started as a secretary at Eduhome Enterprises, a private Motorcycle dealership in Surigao City. After a year and a half, she transferred to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to be able to fully utilize her theoretical knowledge in accounting. She was appointed as Internal Audit Clerk for four years. Aiming to find better avenues for career growth, she took with her the five and a half years of preparation to take a crack at greater opportunities in Metropolitan Manila. “Not knowing when the dawn will come [she open[ed] every door (Emily Dickinson)” and with her talents and beauty was met with another opportunity to be employed as Confidential Secretary at the Department of Health. But she found no satisfaction and contentment which her youthful energy and vigour ever desired. Her vision of the future opens even brighter as she looks forward with greater anticipation for an ameliorated and exalted [which her name implies] career break . She wished and prayed that a wider door of opportunity will be opened. Then the break dawned upon her when she was requested to accompany her friend for an overseas employment interview, after which she was introduced to the interviewer as an accountant. She was met by the hospital owner himself--- Dr. Fakeeh---who then required her to fill up the necessary papers. Never in her wildest dreams neither in her youthful fantasies that she would one day be heading for overseas employment. What she ever desired was simply for her to find career advancement in her homeland. But the door of development and progression was wide opened before her view. Henceforward, she joined the throng of the Filipino Diaspora and took her chance of being employed overseas. She faced every difficulty and challenge required of overseas employment believing that obstacles and impediments will eventually provide better opportunity. Indeed, her positivity and preparations were met with good fortune and she was employed as an Accountant at the Dr. Soliman Fakeeh's Hospital in Jedddah, Saudi Arabia. She was still single then and she felt that her chance had finally come and complete satisfaction and exaltation filled her heart. She stayed in such position for 20 years unto retirement.

Alongside her career path she almost had forgotten one most important component of her life---love and marriage. Her youthful attractiveness and beauty was hidden and obscured behind her career concentration and absorption. Her eyes were blurred by the excitement she got out of her wondrous opportunities that she failed to see the men which were within her view and reach. Yet she could not hide her attractiveness from the multitude of men surrounding her. One day her gleaming beauty was caught by the eyes of an honest searching man---LUCIANO S. MARTICIO---also an Accounting Analyst of an International Airport Project in Jeddah. Their common interest in accounting became the link that hold their feelings together. Then she seemed to hear the words of Socrates: “By all means marry; if you get a good [husband], you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.” After three years in a relationship they decided to tie the knot together in solemn matrimonial vows.

She married on October 5, 1987 at about age 35 to the same man that opened her heart---Luciano S. Marticio. Her marriage was likely a very happy one as may be evidenced by the fact that she got 3 children within the remaining short safe period of conception and pregnancy which is from 35 to 40 years old. Her eldest son Mark Gerard was born in 1989, followed by her only daughter Laida Isabel in 1991, and finally the youngest son Marc Adrian in 1993, when she was about 41 years old. All children were born in Jeddah. Within the marital union she found a much better perspective and purpose of her career even with her paramount responsibility as a wife and mother. But married life is not all joy. Together with the union come happiness and disappointments, serenity and storms, sunshine and shadows. Marriage is no Garden of Eden but in all the telestial experiences are drawn real joy and gladness, and satisfying contentment. This is best expressed by Mark Twain when he said: “After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.” (The Diaries of Adam & Eve.) She realized that she had to be adjusted to her married life and to enjoy whatever it brings. She believed that, “A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.” (Dave Meurer.)

As her eldest child was aged 5 years, she and her husband made a very crucial decision to transfer their children to Surigao City while still young for them to be nurtured the Filipino way. To both spouses that was such a heartrending choice, living their three little angels under the care of their grandparents, uncles and aunts with only a month each year for them to visit. Delia was turned between two very imperative preferences---her husband and three children. Yet after prayerful considerations, she and her husband decided to continue their labors in Jeddah with hopes to best prepare the future of their children. Technology somehow filled the voids of being away from her beloved children, and their contacts and yearly visits made the family feel that they were in one shelter of home. However, the heart of a mother is ever overpoweringly occupied with deep concern especially as children are exposed to the the vulnerability of youth. Se eventually retired in 2004 as her eldest child enters college. Family bond was even strengthened and the future of each child assured. Her eldest son earned a college degree in nursing at St,. Paul University in 2010; her daughter graduated from the Cebu Doctor's University with a BS in Radiologic Technology degree in 2011; and the youngest is now a BS in Business Administration student at San Carlos University.

As life reached her highest level of maturity, even at retirement, she discovered that atop the many years of vast experiences in life she still encountered blunders in her decisions. Like Delia, I myself, and many others, we learned and are taught that failures and mistakes are not sheltered and filtered by underlying successes we attained. Trials and tribulations follow even at the nearest step to the end of our life’s race. More than all the she has labored for, her best consolation in the coming years of twilight lies not in the hope of added abundance but in the most glorious and exalted experiences of family life. Her real happiness and glory is now centered on her three righteous children and a good and loving husband.

She will surely be attending the SNNHS ‘69ers golden jubilee reunion comes the year 2019.

BECOMING A POLICE GENERAL

by. Norberto Betita

She’s tall compared to the ordinary Filipina women. To her that is an advantage. She’s kind of brave and physically athletic and strong. But there had been no manly inclinations in her countenance neither in her character and actions. She’s a woman in every way. 

SNNHS ‘69er Merlyn Centural was sort of ‘come what may’ or ‘no matter what’ kind of a student. She’s best satisfied to receive passing grades. To her that’s all there is in it. She just wanted to do what she thought is best for herself. She knew that the honors are already taken, reserved and occupied. However, she determined to endure the rigors of high school by consistency of purpose, while at the same time enjoying her teenage life. True to her desires she moved forward with undiminished willpower and so together with the 1969 batch of the Surigao del Norte National High School she marched gracefully to receive her graduation diploma.

In college she was given the favour by her elder brothers to study at San Nicolas College one of the best and the only sectarian college in the locality. Accordingly she tried her best to change, the way she wanted her siblings to see how she appreciated the special treatment given her. She understood along the way that “No one can make [her] feel inferior without [her] consent (Eleanor Roosevelt).” Her college life was never easy but as it was in her high school days she determined herself to endure her scholastic battles. Provisions and requirements were never easily laid, but hardly provided in continuity. In her difficult circumstances and under the pressures of meeting academic challenges, she felt like personally being told, Merlyn, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...” (Dr. Seuss, Oh. The Places You'll Go!). She consequently graduated with a degree in business.

Perhaps even in her own imaginations, never did she think that she would one day be carried into the military arena. That was one difficult choice for a woman. Not many Filipina women during those times were inclined to be a part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). However she found no other direction considering the difficulty in finding employment in the locality. She therefore tried and passed the police qualifying examinations. Her height and physical built added worth to her eventual employment in the Philippine National Police (PNP). Her business degree gave her the opportunity to be assigned in the office.

While it was never in her wildest dream to be a policewoman, she learned later to love the career. She realized that the door of opportunity which she wanted to enter was closed, while she discovered that the door for military service was wide open for her. Hence, she tried to take every door for promotion by accepting the grueling military trainings as requirements. She trained as if she was ready to be at the battlefront, only to find herself back to the office. While in the military she was touched by the heart of another policeman and their relationship was eventually tied by a marriage covenant giving her the family name of Escañan. Still she didn’t want to remain an enlisted man for the rest of her military career. She wanted to prove her worth. Her earlier attributes of consistency of purpose and undiminished willpower drove her to move forward in marching rank. The honors which in high school are reserved and occupied only by a few are now opened before her view and were never taken. The measure is only for her to learn, to train, and to act. She seemed to take the challenge as did Mahatma Gandhi: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” With every desired promotion she qualified through competitive examinations and continued military trainings as if she was going to war and to die for her country and fellowmen. 

She endured every step of the way up the high climb into the six levels of officer’s position in the PNP for which she was honored to achieve. Although she prepared hard and made herself ready for actual battle, yet she was blessed to have been permanently assigned as Police Finance Officer, and therefore had the opportunity to make use of what she had studied in college. She retired with the full-fledged rank of Police Colonel. The privilege of one rank higher at retirement gave her the title of Brigadier General. A rank attained by only very few Filipina women.

Now she enjoys a peaceful life with her family, freed from the anxieties of being called at any time to battle. As she looks back to that 45 years of her journey from high school graduation and those seemingly easy going high school life, she declares as did Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Edison with faith and persistence eventually lighted the whole world. Merlyn after her battles with great challenges and struggles finally was given the honors of becoming a Police General. She is earnestly waiting to join with the SNNHS ‘69ers in its golden jubilee reunion on 2019.