Name recall

A. Paulita Roa

AS a kid I was known to be “pilya.” One of the ways my yaya did to deter my penchant for mischief making was to lower her voice to a basso profundo and tell me that “Niana si Amen Butod!” (Amen Butod is here). I did not know then if that person existed or not but the way the name was said was enough to scare me to behave. I finally saw the Amen Butod of my nightmares when my father pointed him out to me as he passed by the house. He was a short unkempt guy who was in porontong shorts and a dirty hat. But what drew my attention was that he had a big lump on the side of his face. Then I knew why he was known around town as Amen Butod.

There was a time in Cagayan when it was common for people to affix a descriptive title to a person’s name. Like there was a girl called Sita Kuyamad. A kuyamad was a tiny black head louse and Sita was dark and small in stature. Petra Picot had a pair of slit eyes and Juan Posong was known to tell tall tales. My father and his cousin both had the same name: Pio Roa. To distinguish one from the other, my father who was 6’3” tall was known as Pio Dako and his short cousin was the Pio Gamay. This kind of personal identification is hardly practiced today.

In prehispanic times, the men, women and children were referred to by names of birds and animals they resembled in appearance and behavior or trees and baskets whose shape they share. Like a well-dressed person was likened to a brilliant kakanog butterfly and an articulate and talkative man was described as like a certain plant with abundant leaves and fruits.

The book, “Historical Glimpses of Old Balingasag” by Garcilaso Vega y Fernandez, has a humorous account of this once popular practice of name recall titled “How Some Residents Were Identified.” This is a short one but it is one of the gems from this excellent book about Balingasag.

“The streets of Balingasag were as old as the town, but their names were given much later. Houses were not numbered and very few knew the names of the streets where their respective houses were located. Residents were not used to indicate in their latters the number or the name of the street where they lived and neither letters addressed to local residents had the names and numbers of the street. Everybody knew everybody and the two employees at the post office did not have any problem locating the addressees and delivering to them their letters and telegrams.

“If a stranger came to town and inquired for the address of the house of Ramon without mentioning the surname, the person asked would readily answer with another question, “Are you referring to Ramon Taas or Ramon Mobo?” This is so because there were two Ramons in town with the same family names, but one was tall and the other was short.

“Have you seen Tasio? You mean Tasio Balaod? Protacio in his younger years, wanted to be a lawyer, but poverty did not give him the chance. He always read law books, so the people in town gave him the name Tasio Balaod.

“In many instances, residents in town were known by the suffix added to their names, thus, Coning Panit, because Coning’s head had a scar. There was a woman in town whose eyebrows disappeared after every bath, and when they were restored by make-up, they differed with the originals because they curved up which were the exact opposite of the genuine, and children called her, ‘Ang corbada sa Cogon’ because the road to Bo. Cogon was not straight but a bit crooked, just like the lines in the woman’s eyebrows. She was called Soling ‘Corbada.’

“Doming was called Doming Bongi because of his missing front tooth. Pedring was named Bokol because of an overgrowth skin in the forehead, thus Pedring Bukol. There was no malice intended if in giving directions to a stranger, he would be told with all politeness and sincerity; to go straight to the house of Inting Budlot. From there you can see under a big mango tree the old house of Leo Bongol, and he would point you to the house of Maria Botihon.

“One day, in a political rally, a person was mercilessly attacked by a political leader. No name was mentioned, but the word ‘Panit’ which was repeated many times for emphasis. The people got the message who he was. In the next meeting of the political rival Panit stood in the platform and answered his detractor without also mentioning his name, but everybody knew who he was referring to when he described him:

“‘Siya mamahaw sa iyang ig-agaw

“‘Maniodto sa iyang amigo

“‘Manihapon sa iyang igsoon,

“‘Siya ang lamoy nga walay kinotoban’

“And there was only one in town who was called ‘Lamoy’ because he was so fat. He was Ramon Lamoy.

“One afternoon while the children were playing, they saw Tonio enter the doctor’s clinic. Out of curiosity, children followed him, but the doctor closed the door immediately. What the resourceful children did was to peep and to find the purpose of Tonio’s visit. It turned out that Tonio was complaining that he always felt tired, and was losing appetite, and what was more, he said he had a problem on his erection. Naturally the doctor gave him the advice and the advice was more on the erection. When he came out of the clinic, children began to call him Tonio Otog, and this became his identification and since then, he was known as Tonio Otog.”