Two sleeps ago, I received a white envelope addressed to the “Family of Late Judge Benjamin A. Oribe Sr.”. It was an invite from the Local Government Unit of Bayabas to attend the Gala Night on 19 November 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Gym to receive the posthumous award for our father as former judge of Bayabas and for our mother as pioneer teacher. This is in connection with Bayabas celebrating its 50th year as town.
A fusion of nostalgia and sadness. That’s what I felt after reading the citation.
I was in elementary when Papa wielded a gavel at his sala in Bayabas. During vacation, he would tag Gly and I along. We looked forward to this summer episode as it meant riding a pump boat and dropping by Lapaz to see friends and relatives.
Two things I loved most about our Bayabas sojourn: the sumptuous dinner given by Papa’s closest friend, Carlos Yu, who had a big house next to where Papa lived, at the house of Tio Julio Quijada; and the boating and swimming adventure to this rocky paradise whose waters were sparkling and clean and whose tiny caverns held lato ready for the picking.
When swimming, Gly and I were assigned a lifeguard each. I don’t know if they were priso cavallero, all they said was that they were Papa’s bodyguards. Sadly I have forgotten their names and all that my memory has retained is the surname “Palacio”.
Tio Julio, his wife, and children were nice. We were closest to Lalay though because she was our contemporary. One time, during high school, Lalay and I belonged to the same contest category in a competition held in Tandag.
Because Papa would go home to Tago on Fridays, we’d stay in Bayabas for a full week. And if he saw boredom on our face before TGIF came, he’d make Palacio whisk us off to Lapaz. And there, in the company of friends and relatives, we would wait for Papa to lead us home.
I loved Lapaz then. Still do, actually!
The birthplace of our mother, Lapaz holds beautiful memories for us that until the day we die, it will have a special place in our hearts.
In Lapaz we were pampered, doted on, and given special attention not because we had a judge for a father, but because we were family. Nanay Can(dida), our yaya and Mama’s first cousin, was a perfect surrogate mother who indulged and loved us to pieces.
We enjoyed Lapaz so much that there were Fridays only Papa would go home to Tago. And Mama would not bother to check on us because she knew we were having fun and were in good hands.
Last May, during the 1st Morse Reunion that I had organized in Lapaz, a cousin showed me the site of the school where Mama studied. I was near tears even if a new school—Tabing Dagat Elementary School---has been erected.
Mama and her sisters, all eight of them, were teachers. For the record, Tia Mameng (the late Maxima L. Morse-Cesar), their eldest, was the first teacher that Lapaz---and probably Bayabas----had ever produced.
Papa and Mama’s citation on the occasion of the Golden Anniversary of Bayabas may have come a bit late, but we are happy that the legacy they had left behind has endured and is now being acknowledged.
We’re grateful and honored.
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