NITONG'S MEMORIES OF 'PAPA' AND 'MAMA'

(Nitong is the eldest son of Narding and Canding)

A sign of my family's "aristocratic" pretensions is our calling my father Papa and my mother Mama, both with accent on the last syllable. We got this custom from our maternal grandmother's family. However, we called our paternal grandparents "Mamay - Nanay" as most people did at the time.

Papa.- My father Leonardo Ona y Hocbo was born on 6 November 1897. I remember him as a caring but impatient and irascible man, outspoken and fearless even in the face of death. Everybody tasted a bit of his temper, from my mother and us children, to servants, students, tenants, townsmen and patients. However, everybody knew his character and made allowance. He wanted everybody to make good, but in accordance with his standards and in the way he thought best.

He was a physician-surgeon specialist in Eye, Ear, Nose, & Throat, a graduate of the University of the Philippines, who was later a resident Physician at the Philippine General Hospital on Taft Avenue. At the time he was the only eye doctor in the area, and therefore people afflicted with eye ailments came to San Jose from all over the province of Batangas, and even from Laguna, Quezon, and Mindoro.

Up to 8 December 1941 when World War II broke out in the Philippines, he maintained clinics in Batangas, Batangas (now Batangas City) and Lipa, Batangas (now Lipa City) where he received patients twice weekly in the morning in Batangas and twice weekly in the afternoon in Lipa. I don't remember now which days in the week he went to each. A nurse who was very loyal to him until his death and maintained contact with the family was Miss Clanor, who later became a nun.

When war broke out, he gave up his clinics in Lipa and Batangas. By then his practice was already established and he could hardly cope with the patients that came to him in San Jose. Most of these patients came from other towns, which was fortunate for him as for us. His townsfolk paid him very little, sometimes in kind and sometimes nothing at all, especially when he entered politics.

He was a four-term (16 years) municipal councilor, culminating his political career as mayor of San Jose from 1964 to 1968. We were able to prevail upon him not to seek re-election, since we realized it was a thankless job requiring so much energy and resources. Anyway he had realized the political ambition that he had nurtured since he unsuccessfully run against his uncle Fernando Aguila "Mamay Andoy" for mayor in 1934 when I was 3 years old.

The 1934 election was bitterly contested, with passions running high among their supporters. During Papa's final rally, in the middle of his speech, Dr Miguel Ambal, one of Mamay Andoy's supporters, fired his pistol into the air. There was a commotion among the people who rapidly dispersed.

It was therefore sweet revenge when Papa defeated Dr Miguel Ambal, the incumbent mayor, in the 1963 local elections. However, he supported Dr Ambal in the subsequent local elections of 1968 against Lauro Aguila, a millionaire supported by most of our Aguila and Masilungan relatives. Dr Ambal attributed his victory in these elections to the support of Papa. Such is politics!

Papa had an eventful life. Aside from his children, his most outstanding achievement is the establishment of the St Joseph Academy. This was thrust upon him almost by accident because he was not an educator by training although he was by temperament and inclination - he was forever preaching right manners and good conduct, not only to us his children but to everybody within hearing, whether child or adult, whether they liked it or not.

Anyway, before the war there was a private school in San Jose, called the San Jose Institute, founded by the home town educator Dr Concepcion Aguila, who was among the founders of the Centro Escolar in Manila. She was also my brother Leonardo's godmother (her partner was the Apostolic Delegate Monsignor Guglielmo Piani).

After the war, there was so much to do in Manila that Dona Conchita, as she was called in San Jose, could not attend to the rebuilding of the San Jose Institute. A group approached Papa and in exchange for his financial support and in consideration of his reputation as a disciplinarian offered him the position of director. Papa was not expecting this, but he accepted the new challenge and for some time he drew up in his mind the administrative problems to be encountered, the academic policies to be taken and implemented and the ways of getting the needed funds.

Imagine his surprise and anger when at the formal re-organizational meeting of the San Jose Institute, those attending by-passed him in favor of Atty Jose de Villa, his second cousin and Mama's first cousin. "I do not need any of you to establish a new school" he shouted and stormed out of the meeting room.

There were serious difficulties to be overcome. For one, there was the matter of government recognition. It was against government policy to allow the opening of a new school in places where there was already an existing school. Since the San Jose Institute was already recognized by the government, the new school which Papa called the St Joseph Academy would never get recognized by following the normal course. Papa overcame this by pulling strings among his contacts in the national government.

Furthermore he showed that the St Joseph Academy enrolment surpassed by far (5 to 1) that of the San Jose Institute. The reason for this enrolment success is that Mama was immensely popular among the people and students. At the time, she was the principal of the San Jose Elementary School and naturally in touch with the parents. Too, Papa had the reputation of disciplinarian and most of the parents thought this would be beneficial for the intellectual and moral formation of their children.

By the way, the San Jose Institute became San Jose College and later Dra Concepcion Aguila Memorial College. Its enrolment was minimal and its continued survival despite the poor enrolment, poor quality of students, scandalous behavior of its teachers, a matter of wonder for everybody. Of course, that is no longer the case today. Tio Pepe and his sister Isabel "Tia Sabel" de Villa did not last long with the Institute. They were kicked out by the majority stockholders, but a result of the fight over the directorship of the Institute was the lifelong enmity between the de Villas and their cousins. This enmity lasted until the death of Pedro de Villa, Papa, and Tio Pepe.

Luckily it did not spill over to the next generation. In fact, my brother Leonardo, the chief surgeon of the United Doctors Medical Center in Quezon City, took care of Tio Pepe in his last days. Mama had spent very happy childhood days with her cousins when their grandparents Salvador Aguila and Alejandra Masilungan were living, so it was just natural for her to be reconciled with them after Papa died.

Papa was active in many civic and religious associations and was elected to head many of them. He was a 3rd degree Knight of Columbus and was at one time Grand Knight therof. He was a member of the Philippine Medical Association and was President of its Batangas chapter. He was President of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines' Batangas chapter, also of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines' Batangas chapter. He was appointed to the Parish Council of San Jose as well as the Diocesan Council of Lipa. He was President of the Batangas Athletic Association and Governor of the Southern Tagalog Athletic Association. He was President of the Private Schools Association's Batangas chapter.

Mama.- My mother is Candelaria Aguila y de Jesus. Her father was Paterno Aguila, mayor (1917-18) under the American regime. Paterno was the son of Salvador Aguila, mayor (1892-94) of San Jose under the Spanish regime, and Alejandra Masilungan a Chinese mestiza belonging to the prominent Masilungan clan. Her mother was Petra de Jesus, daughter of Florentino de Jesus, mayor (1890-92) of Batangas City, and of Justina Madlangbayan, heiress daughter of the rich Roman Catholic priest Martin Madlangbayan.

A few years ago, I was rummaging among the manuscripts of the National Archives. I came upon bundles lumped together under the title of Eleccion de Gobernadorcillos de la Provincia de Batangas. I examined them and found the proceedings of the election both of Salvador Aguila as mayor of San Jose and Florentino de Jesus as mayor of Batangas City. I have translated these papers from Spanish and made them available to their descendants.

Going back to Mama, she chose to be a teacher. In her old age, she repeated over and over to me that her father wanted her to be a pharmacist because he knew how hard it was to be a teacher. In fact, he sent her to Manila to enrol in the University of the Philippines School of Pharmacy. Instead she enrolled in the School of Education. When trembling, she later confessed to her father what she had done, he was silent for quite some time and then slowly told her that he wanted only what was good for her. Since against his wishes, she chose to be a teacher, she should see to it that she made good in the career that she had chosen.

From U.P. which at that time was in the Ermita area, she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Education (BSE) degree, major in biology. During her time, very few teachers had a bachelor's degree. As a matter of fact, most were just elementary school graduates. She therefore advanced steadily in her career. Her promotions were incontestable because none were more qualified. She began teaching in the intermediate grades (Grade 4) on 18 June 1928 at the annual salary of P840.00. On 1 February 1930 she obtained a maternity leave without pay to give birth to my sister Lydia, born 14 February 1931. This, the first of her six maternity leaves, lasted until 16 July 1930 when she was reinstated. Her second maternity leave without pay began on 1 October 1931 to give birth to me on 9 November and ended on 6 June 1932 with the beginning of the new school year.

She was known in town as "Maestrang Canding". Many of her pupils told me that she was the most respected of all the teachers in the San Jose Elementary School. She did not punish or raise her voice, but a kind but authoritative glance from her was enough to make her pupils toe the line. I can believe this because that is how I know her. She was my writing teacher in Grade 4.

On 1 May 1945, immediately after the war, she was promoted to acting Principal. She became a regular Principal on 1 July 1947. Consistently obtaining the Ourstanding rating of her superiors, she was appointed District Supervisor by Secretary of Education Jose E. Romero on 1 January 1961 at the annual salary of P3196.80. She was recommended to such a position by her superior and second cousin Division Superintendent of Batangas Province Jose Aguila, but her appointment paper clearly states that "Merit and seniority rules have been observed."

As district supervisor, she had jurisdiction over all the public schools in the town of San Jose and the neighboring town of Ibaan. She was always on the move, inspecting schools even in remote barangays. Everywhere she went she was lionized by the people. She held the position until her retirement at the age of 65 in 1969.

I do not really know how my parents and especially my mother managed to rear six children! There we were, the eldest born in 1930, the youngest in 1938, all requiring food, clothing and shelter. They managed to send us all to college. All of us obtained at least a bachelor's degree. All of us eventually had families of our own, but only one had 6 children like my parents.