tagabungtod

After the war, as young pioneers from different parts of the country settled in Nabunturan to seek their fortune, mainly in logging and agriculture--- particularly abaca--- another group of money-smelling entrepreneurs would follow them in this settlement: the chinese.

When I was visiting with my insikon friend Caesar Echavez last year, we would spend many late nights in his home talking about these chinese pioneers. We had fun recalling how their establishments were positioned from the crossing down to the palengke as there were not so many of them. Our family was once a neighbor to some of these families. The little knowledge I have about them helped me a bit in those nocturnal name-that-chink game that we played.

Ping Atilano was the only insik who was on the western side of the highway or "Crossing" (as we erroneously called it because the roads did not actually intersect). He had a restaurant which, if I recall right, was named Ping's Restaurant. It stood right beside Victoria's Theatre. Ping and his family would later leave town after he was involved in a scandal inside the theater (that's another story which, unfortunately, I could not share in this blog). Another one who was isolated from the rest was Inting Insik, owner of the short-lived Star Theatre, then operating at the corner across Bagaipo's Inn, tagabungtod's only version of a 5-star hotel at the time. Inting was the only chinese I remember who was a heavy drinker. (Another moviehouse was right across our first house near the sapa. It stood between the Aranetas and the Espinosas. It was called the Celis Theater.)

In front of Victorias was Lee Hang's Canton Bakery and right beside him in the corner was the beanpole Insoy (Lu Ng Tian/Rufano Store) together with his business partner, the double-visioned Okling. Our botica, which we acquired in 1961 from the Vegafrias who moved to Trento, was sandwiched between Insoy and Alex Ling (Superior Trading). Alex, an excellent cook, was one very good-natured and amiable chinese. My parents admired him so much. After Alex were the Resmas and after them was Pabling Lim who specialized in repairing petromax and shoes.

After a long stretch of pinoy establishments along our side of the street, the next insik would be Mrs. Pahate, who was married to a retired pinoy merchant marine. She rarely ventured out because she was a pakha. I learned later that she was once a teacher in Shanghai. The Pahates lived above the Relos Store. Cho's Sanitary Restaurant was beside Relos in the mid-'60s. Tabok sa karsada sa simbahan was Sta. Teresita Drugstore of the Lacsamana sisters followed again by chinese Tan Sing, Yu Diet, and Shanghai Bakery (whose owner's name I never knew.)


Pua's (Yee) Restaurant was right before Mayfair Tailoring & Memang's Beauty Parlor owned by the Yees and New Look, which was also a tailoring owned by another Chan. Excellency Tailoring was somewhere here but the exact place and the name of the owner escapes me now. The Arabejos resided upstairs in one of these establishments. You pass by the Floreses and across the street was Botica Herrera, followed by Peace Trading owned by Ngo Peng which was beside another hardware owned by Hong. Then Day Kim Kiat Store and the last was another store owned by another Te.

There was only one barrio resident chinese family I know: the Labradors who ran a cornmill in Cabidianan.

I do not know where Amad Insik's original pwesto was but I remember him as one of the only two Chinese who was selling tuba in the street corner where Narciso Nalangan, the painter, used to stay. The other was Inting Insik after nahapay ang iyang sinehan ug tindahan sa sobrang inom ug sugal.

Did I miss anybody?

By the way, Ping, Lee Hang, Cho, Pua, Te Pek, and the owner of Shanghai who all focused on the food business, were insik-makaw. They hardly mingled with the other chinese because the macao dialect was quite different from fookien or mandarin. (Guess what: the most prominent makaw in our town right now is Mayor Humol. His first name is Macario. You guessed it right, his friends call him Makaw!)

Most of the second generation chinese would become our classmates, playmates, neighbors and friends. Some left but most would stay for good and become tagabungtod, too.

My recollection of the actual facts, like names and places, may not be accurate. Any omission is a product of uncertain, aging and/or faulty memory.

/tgt