Three Magsingalenos

by Ronnie Tolentino
(as published 4 years ago in MVP)

We are in the age group 30 – 50 years old and located everywhere. Name a profession and a country and a Magsingaleno can be found and most importantly, within reach.

So putting this to the test last April,  I went looking and here’s what happened. I googled  ‘Magsingal’ and found this wonderful website. I didn’t realize that it was fairly new. I gave up long time ago trying to find a site dedicated to Magsingal containing new, relevant information. But I gave it one last try and hit paydirt. Browsing thru, I found a lot of familiar surnames but probably being a graduate of Divine Word in Vigan, I didn’t seem to know anyone. I have a suspicion most if not all of the contributors were from SWI. It’s unfair I thought. I studied in TMI for two years before moving on to Vigan so it’s fair to say  TMI is now finally represented.

I went to the columnists and there’s this guy on a suit looking all too serious under the banner ‘DOWN UNDER’ Hmmnnn… Tinubong = Magsingal, Down Under = Australia?? It’s instantly a ‘Eureka moment’. By this equation I finally solved a 6-year old riddle ‘Is there another Magsingaleno in Sydney?’ I beat that other great riddle ‘is there another life in the universe?’

I am from Sydney as well and happy to find Vic. He makes so much sense and I wondered no more when I found out his SWI history. His columns are thought-provoking as many among you have probably found already. To the unconvinced, read his columns again.

I sent a comment to his column and he promptly responded.  We corresponded after that and I asked him about the one and only familiar name I found there which was Dole Tomaneng. Vic put us in touch together and he was the ‘ Dole’ I knew from my Boy Scouting days camping in Tamag, Bacarra, Quirino Stadium North Central etc.

While Vic is is quite reserved (who knows?? He might turn-out to be a wild man in a suit), Dole is the Dole of  yore. He knows everyone  and related to them too. All my cousins on both sides are his cousins.  It was amazing the people and places Dole went to. He got to meet Magsingalenos in countries where our townmates are. He mentioned eating in one of the food stores run by a Namalpalan  lady in Rome.

A seaman’s life fascinate me and I suggested to Vic we make Dole a regular contributor chronicling his travels but did you read his article???? He just went thru his entire travels!!I would have preferred one country at a time with a lot of photos thrown in. I am an armchair traveler and a huge fan of the show ‘Lonely Planet’ and Dole would be perfect for the role. Great adventure.

Not to say Vic is not having his own adventures here. He is now a corporate big shot working with the biggest telecommunication firms here. Meanwhile I am what the Aussies call a ‘Battler’. I work two jobs 7 nights a week.  But more about me on succeeding columns if I will still be allowed after this senseless ramblings.

Vic has been here for 10 years and guaranteed to be already wealthy. Readers, I will chronicle Vic’s life for you. All will be revealed.  We had an aborted get-together with Dole. We were communicating with him while he was in-transit from Singapore to New Zealand. They could have stopped by Sydney if the refueling cost was cheaper but no luck on that. Now he is  being taken to another route. Our chance to meet is now nearly NIL unless we get to meet him in Magsingal or overseas. Probably, we could have met in Singapore when we were there last January.

I will soon meet Vic. The only problem is we live on opposite sides of Sydney. In between us are a maze of traffic, tunnels and tollways. And frankly I am terrified to drive here in the city. We do defensive driving in the Philippines while we do offensive driving here. Meaning, in the Philippines we use all our senses and limbs to look and signal our intentions while here it’s about just flicking your signal light and proceeding. My wife is the better driver anyway so I will let her do it.

Speaking of my wife, her name is Ruby and she met Vic more than 15 years ago. They were kind of officemate in the San Miguel conglomerate and they were in a training/seminar together.Vic was in Finance and my wife in IT. When Ruby heard Vic's name, she dug thru our old photos and voila! Vic in his ‘fresh-from-the-college’ look. So preppy Vic was. There was a link between Vic and me after all.