BACOLOD- 6:00 am.  I took an early morning stroll in the neighborhood and passed by a simple two storey house.  It is the Bacolod address of an alleged Jose Pidal.  The property is simple.  The property is rented.  Quite out of sync to the personality of a person who stepped out to claim that he posseses oodles and oodles of money and owns various properties in the US.  It is all the more out of sync with the Negrense decadence I last wrote about.

When Jose Pidal came out in 2003 claiming he was so, the planters in Negros were laughing.  It was so unbelievable.  There were even some comments about actually doing a backtrack on Jose Pidal's previous income tax returns.

So, may we please ask the real Jose Pidal to step forward?

A few months ago, over a round of golf, I had this interesting discussion with investment banker, Richard Dalao, who told the story of their family's "reverse migration" from Negros to Manila.  It was the mid 1960's and Richard's dad opted to move back to Manila as in Richard's words, "my dad couldn't take the lifestyle in Negros.  Being an Ilocano, he found the life too decadent.  So back to Manila it was".

The same impression lives on until today.  For those who are not familiar with the inner trappings of the sugar culture, the flamboyance displayed is easily misconstrued as outright arrogance.

How did it get to this point?  What triggered such behavior?  If you still have these lingering questions, allow me to take the first step in breaking apart the mystery.

There is a saying that the people from Davao spend yesterday's money today, the people from Cebu spend today's money today, but the people from Bacolod spend ...well, tomorrow's money today.

Spending versus one's future earnings comes naturally to the Negrense.  This was triggered before the turn of the 20th century when sugar as a product was picking up in terms of price in the world market.  Demand was beginning to grow among the Commonwealth domains in South East Asia including Australia and New Zealand.

The principal catalyst in this little "Story of Sugar" is a man by the name of Nicholas Loney.  He was the son of a British admiral, born in the naval town of Plymouth, and well-educated.  He left England at the age of 24 to seek his fortune and travelled to South America, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and finally to the Philippines in 1852.  He became a clerk in Manila of the British firm Ker & Co.

In 1856, Loney was assigned to Iloilo and became a vice-consul and eventually opened the firm of Loney & Ker & Co.  In those days, British ships came to the Negros and Panay region to be loaded up with sugar for export to Australia and the other states in the region under the British flag.  Once docked in the ports of Negros and Iloilo, the ships would be stationed for some time until it was fully loaded with sugar for export.  Precious days were lost in this exercise.

To arrest the situation, sugar crops and produce were paid for in advance the year before so as not to hamper the loading of sugar on British vessels.  This is where the practice of receiving money against standing crops began in the Philippines.  From those days, the crop loan had entrenched its way into Negrense lifestyle.  This was further fortified by the sugar quota system under the Jones-Costigan Act of 1934 wherein year on year, the Philippines had a great quota to fill, not only for the British but for the almighty US of A.

Imagine receiving the bumper reward of money months before the crops were to be harvested!  Loney even convinced the American financial house of Russel & Sturgis to open a branch in the Negros-Panay region in order give crop loans to planters.

Now with cash on hand to spend long before the harvest has actually come, I guess I need not elaborate how Negrense decadence came about and how the phenomenon has become legendary.

More about Negros soon ;-)

The invitation read, "Dress up in tropical gear, bright colors, Hawaiian shirts, surf shorts, sarongs and even swimsuits for those who dare to bare".

I just found it so ironic that on the night when UniversalMcCann had its send off for VP, Cookie Bartolome, I was garbed in common work attire.  It was ironic because I usually wander the De la Costa Triangle in shorts and a sports t-shirt.

Coming in super early was a good thing.  There was nothing else to do anyway at nearby Makati Golf Club.  So I popped in at about the time ex-colleagues Carl, Ivy, Andrea, Tammy, Tin, Pam, and Danna were still sprucing up the place.
First to arrive among the invited was McCann CEO, Ricki Arches in her tropical attire.  Andrea surprises and stuns by directing to keep Mother Ricki occupied while waiting for the others to come. 

There was a good twenty minutes till UM head, Venus Navalta and hubby, ex-ASAP President, Egay came.  In a little while, everyone else started trickling in - including the fêted herself, Cookie B. with husband Eric.


Photo shows our media superstars Gie Lansang, long time area buddy, Josette Feliciano, Cookie, and the ever scintillating Junn Diva.

All in all, it was one bang of a UM reunion.

In my mind, the scene was all too familiar...parang kasal ito ni Minnie and Andre sa Boracay a :-)  Unfortunately, Minnie and Andre are halfway around the globe enjoying the Norweigian summer.

Finally, as a parting shot to this post: I  really don't write this way.  Nagpa-practice lang po ako as  I'm thinking, "Hey, one day, when I fully retire in Negros, maybe I could be the society columnist in the local paper".    Of course I do not intend to hop around in outrageous outfits like other publication scions. :-) 

See you later palanggas . ROFL

If there is one stage play which captures the essence of family life in Negros, it will have to be La Casa de Bernarda Alba by the Spanish dramatist, Federico Garcia Lorca.  As if it were not enough that Filipino society is skewed with matriarchal tendencies, this facet of Visayan life is multiplied a hundred times over in the Negros of the century's turn.

Until today, women in traditional DBFs primarily call the shots in terms of domestic, spiritual, and.... financial affairs!  If one were to grab a more recent peg of what I'm talking about, think of Angela Channing in the 1980s hit TV series, Falcon Crest (La Casa de Bernarda Alba may be too far off in the past).  Then again, some blindsided readers may not have been born during the days when Falcon Crest ran every Sunday evening on Channel 7.  Falcon Crest, for those who may not remember, centered around the feuding factions of the wealthy Channing/Gioberti family in the Californian wine industry. The series was set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley (modeled after the Napa Valley) just north of San Francisco.

Different setting Falcon Crest is.  However, in actuality, it's the same cast of characters....it's practically the same plots.... only this time, instead of Tuscany Valley, we're talking of the sugarlands of Negros.  In place of wine, it's the "white gold" known as sugar.

The strong maternal influence is drawn from the Negrense woman or Ilongga achieving dominance over her brood because of any of the following:

1) a premature launch into widowhood
2) an unexpected assumption of tasks and key roles due to the neglect of the husband (philandering included), and/or
3) a mother's impeccable foresight given the large family and all the extensions (or in modern day e-mail terms, attachments)

Yet, long before the matriarch assumed such power, there were "difficulties" which led to her rise.  This post is the first of four parts.  Each part talks about a brave Ilongga's experience and how it led to her awakening.

Let's listen to them....

MARRIED TO A MAMA'S BOY

Kathy (not her real name), 38 , used to be married to a certified Mama's boy. She already knew that his attachment to his mother would pose a problem later on. But she was madly in love with him that she chose to ignore the signs. Her husband was sweet and caring when they were still going steady. But after they got married, he showed another side of him that gave her years of unspeakable anguish. "He's used to having what he wants.His mother really spoiled him." Kathy shakes her head when she recalls their stormy marriage." I was always the one who compromised , the one who adjusted to his caprices, the one who did all the hard work."

It did not help that they were staying with his parents as they were still saving up for a house of their own (which was actually out of her prodding). Although Kathy has no complaints as far as her in-laws are concerned, she still thinks that it would have been better had they lived in their own house, even if it was in a far corner of the parents-in-laws half hectare compound. "That would have taught him to be responsible. He was dependent on his parents and on me. Since he's the youngest and only boy, he's the 'baby' of the family. He's so demanding and wants instant gratification." What made it worse for Kathy was her husband's habit of telling her that she was not as efficient as his mother. He complained that she's not a good cook and not frugal like his mom. The constant comparision almost drove her to the heights of dementia. Things got worse when his parents left for the States during the sugar crisis leaving them on their own.

Although she finally had a say on how to run their household, Kathy found out much to her dismay that she could not shake off the shadow of her mother-in-law. Blame it on the strong matriarchal tendencies of Negrenses. Not a day passed that her husband did not make her feel that she wasn't as good as his mother. Later on, the emotional and verbal abuses graduated to physical abuse. Kathy had just given birth to their first child when he started hitting her. He wanted her to stop working and be a full time mother to their kid. But Kathy refused as she had a career with a national company based in Bacolod. But the abuses became frequent and she could no longer concentrate on her work. "I was losing my head but before it could happen, I finally decided to end the relationship. I left him even if he was already down on his knees begging me to stay."

But leaving her husband wasn't an easy decision for her to make even if he was abusive. She spent countless nights mulling over her decision. For one, her in-laws were very nice to her wants; and second, her husband adored and was very close to their child. "My in-laws were telling me to be patient and wait for him to mature. But how long can I wait? Our son is so close to him and it pains me to see him crying and looking for his Dad. But having gone through years of abuse, I've had enough and I know I must leave and get my life back."

Part 2 soon....

This blog was meant to highlight the need for retirement strategy.  If ever it seems to veer away from its intended path and occasionally delves into Out-Of-Home media, it only does so in order to showcase how one can "re-engineer" or "re-invent" a new routine after corporate life.

The farthest thing this blog was meant to delve on would be the Ilonggo (or Ilongga) and all the idiosyncracies that come along with being one.

So much has been said about Ilonggos.  More so, about Negrenses.  But whether these are fact, fiction, or fantasy, we shall soon see.  Hence, from time to time, I shall make some posts about Ilonggos and Negrenses.  Hopefully this will help blast away the mystique and in the process allow the readers/onlookers a safe perspective to understand the quirks of a unique people which seem to be ridden with opposite and contrasting traits -all at the same time! (i.e. malambing daw and yet at the simultaneously, "tikalon").

In simpler terms...this series of posts will help demystify and unravel the schizophrenia.