The Tagala from Magsingal

by Terry Santos-Robles

Reading up on articles on the website touched us so much and it really brought us back to our fond memories of Magsingal and its people.  I am not originally from Magsingal as my family hailed from Nueva Ecija.  My father, Sgt. Santiago Santos, was the detachment commander stationed in the FACOMA (which is now the Magsingal National High School) for so many years, so we, his family had no choice but to follow him to Magsingal.  I was in 3rd year high school then, and was known as a Tagala when I transferred to SWI.

A hearty empanada in Vigan

 That was where I met people who would become my very good friends - Benita (Nitz) Andallo-Montilla, Edna Vega-Esguerra, our Valedictorian, Consesa Oandasan, and sisters Elena and Grace Luczon.  After high school, Nitz and I went to the same college - Northwestern College in Laoag City, and both Edna and Consesa went to UST.

Nitz and myself were boardmates in Laoag City, until she transferred to St. Louis University in 1971.  It seemed Nitz’s fate and mine are entwined because the year after she left Laoag City, I transferred to UE in Manila.  After graduation, I invited Nitz to Radiowealth where I was working then, so we were together again as officemates, both of us being CPAs.  After a few years, she resigned for a job in the government, National Electrification Administration (NEA), where she became a Director for Audit.

Fast forward to 2003, she availed of the early retirement offer of National Electrification Administration (NEA), and at that time, I have been in the life insurance and investment industry for 5 years.  Guess what?  I invited her to be one of the Unit Managers in our Branch, so we were together again.  She had to resign, though, at the behest of Andy, her husband, to take care of their 3 boys while he is on foreign assignments as a Ship Captain.  We get to see each other regularly and we have remained the best of friends.

Magsingal is my home, having spent my 4 teenage years, and where I would go home to during vacations even after I got married.  I can still speak perfect Ilocano which I learned easily, having a small store along the highway in front of the Urcia's house (Tang Utting, Nang Feling, Manong Magno, and Manang Marlene).  Customers were talking to me in Tagalog, Ilocano, and English, and they translated for me words I could not understand at first, like adda, agawid, didiay, diay ili, biag, nateng, etc, etc.  In SWI, there was no way I could practice my Ilocano because the Sisters were very strict especially Sister Andrew and Sister Delphine.  One had to speak English and had to pay fines for speaking the vernacular.

My parents had since went home to Nueva Ecija, and there was no house to speak of in Magsingal, but I still consider it as my second home, so that last Jan 2007, I went home for the SWI global reunion and to renew ties with friends and neighbours of long time ago.  Nitz was also going home so she asked me to stay with her in the home of her aunt, Nang Ibang in San Ramon.  Her whole clan from around the Philippines and overseas were in town to attend Palmera’s wedding (their youngest sibling).  It was fun, fun, fun, enjoying the beautiful hot Ilocos climate in the company of dear friends while partaking of Ilocano comfort food – empanada, longganisa Vigan, dinengdeng, inabrao nga maruggay ken nagadu nga natnatenng, sadiwa nga ikan, tinubong, bibingka and a lot more. Hmmm! Delicious!  It was 3 glorious days, then back to Manila where work and my family were waiting for me. There will be another SWI global reunion in Jan 2010 so we hope that we can all attend.

For Nitz and me, it seemed that there was always a connection happening, even our extended family’s paths criss-crossing.  Romeo, Benita’s cousin, used to work for PASAR, the only copper smelting plant in the Philippines and he was assigned with his family in Leyte.  My husband, Rading also worked in the Finance Dept. of that company, so he got to meet him when he went to the Leyte plant.

Again, by twist of fate, Maxine, the eldest daughter of Romeo, turned out to be the very good friend of our family friend’s children.  Their parents, Danny and Irene Arroyo, godparents of our son, mentioned in passing that their children visited Japan and stayed at the foster parents of Maxine, who at that time was studying as a scholar at Tokyo University.  When they mentioned the surname, it instantly rang a bell, and true enough, she is the daughter of Romeo.  She came home in time for the debut party of Danny and Irene’s daughter so we got to be introduced.  What a small world indeed!

Nitz and myself represented Batch 70 at the 2007 SWI Global Reunion

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, the world has gotten so small indeed that you can reach people at the touch of a finger – friends whom you have not seen or heard about in ages, and who, might have also been wondering where and how you are now.  Just a month ago, I tried to search for Edna Vega Esguerra, our class valedictorian in SWI.  Voila!  Her name and pictures appeared in the Website of CEMA, an organization in California where she is the President.  I promptly emailed her and got an immediate warm reply.

She, Nitz and I were friends from high school, until the time Edna went abroad to work as a nurse.  We continued to exchange letters for a few years until she left Texas and I, on the other hand, got married and moved to a new place.  That was 30 years and thousands of white hairs and (hopefully) a few wrinkles after, so there’s a lot of catching up to do.  We have been in touch since that first email.

As expected, she is doing well and still works in the healthcare industry.  She and her husband, Bebot, own a homecare facility managed by Bebot.  I will leave it at that because we requested her to write for our website also.

Thanks to our website and to the people behind it.  It’s wonderful and it’s the quickest way to be connected and to renew ties with our dear friends and other “kailian”.  We eagerly await any news from everybody.