Good morning!

Netnet Camomot

ON Monday morning, our house help opened the sliding door downstairs and said, Good morning, August!

I was then in the bathroom from where I could hear everything. If this were a chika column, the bathroom would be the best place to listen to all the chika in the world.

Yes, it’s August. And there’s the usual, How time flies. Ho-hum.

We’re now on the second half of the year, with September almost hovering overhead, waiting for the countdown to Christmas. Wish ko lang malls and department stores would have Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September” as muzak for the whole month of, well, September. Better that than enduring another round of “Pasko na sinta ko hanap-hanap kita…” Ouch!

It’s not ouch in Cagayan de Oro, though, as the city prepares for the fiesta. The buntings, the parade, the beauty pageant, the Kumbira, the lechon!

My first ever published column way back in 2003 was inspired by the Cagayan de Oro fiesta. In March 2003—or was that April—I asked veteran journalist Butch Enerio to invite me to write for the paper he was with at that time, but I kept wondering if anyone would care to read my thoughts. Months passed by, then it was August when I saw a video of a city fiesta press con, and he happened to be there. So, I texted him if I could still write for the paper. He said, Yes. I replied: Any topic you can suggest? He texted back: The city fiesta. Big question mark above my head: What do I know about the city fiesta?!

Then, one morning, I happened to pass by Velez Street and found it to be unusually dark. Curiosity always inspires me to investigate, so I looked up, and there it was—the buntings. Lots and lots of buntings. Eureka! And that’s how the first line of my column went.

Yup, I wrote about this many times before and will write about it again next year because this is the month when my columnizing officially began.

Living uptown now inspires me to ask again, Fiesta? What do I know about the fiesta? We could hear the birds chirping, the repairs of old houses, the construction of new ones. Even the rain here doesn’t jive with downtown’s. A friend, who lives downtown, called me up once and I could hardly hear her voice because of the rain pounding on her rooftop, while here I was under cloudy skies but still no rain, prompting her to comment, “Moabot ra ning ulan diha.”

Remember Sendong? Some uptown residents didn’t know about the flashflood until the morning after.

We still have to go to the city proper for the parade, Kumbira, Miss Cagayan de Oro, even the opening of S&R.

But we don’t have to go downtown anymore for the fiesta. My tita was the one who hosted fiestas for the whole clan. When she passed away, my first cousin—Tita’s daughter—took over as the host. They sold their ancestral house and compound last year, the area has been slowly morphing into condominium buildings, and this will be the second year for the family to have no fiesta.

I’m not a fiesta fan. I love lechon but that doesn’t mean I have to love fiestas. There’s the traffic, the crowds, the buntings. Besides, we can still have lechon and other yummy treats at non-fiesta parties.

I’m writing this on the morning after that good Monday morning. The weather was cool earlier, almost felt like December. But somewhere outside of the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR), there’s Carina, and she was probably the reason for the cool weather.

Inside the PAR, however, there’s a general named Bato and his mascot also named as Bato. You gotta feeling the public relations machinery is working in this department, with the mascot hopefully softening the effects of the daily annihilations which the general has to explain.

The mascot has to do what the general may not have time to do, like dancing the “Trumpets” and “Running Man” challenges, although the madlang pehpohl would rather see the general himself dancing, that is, if he hasn’t yet. He and President Rody Duterte are the faces of the new administration, they say it as it is, they don’t mince words, and they mean what they say. For now, that’s a welcome respite after all the perceived kaplastikan of the past.

Now that we’re talking about the new admin, August can’t be described anymore with “how time flies.” Time was grudgingly slow for those who sought justice. If they feel justice has not been served through the annihilations, then time will continue to crawl ever so slowly.

It has only been a month, but it feels like it has been months since the new admin took over. Must be the result of all those daily annihilations. A person, no matter how much he hates drugs and the crimes they inspire, can only take so much cardboard justice. Still, he may not say, Enough already, as he waits for the ultimate solution to the drug problem.

In case your concern for the annihilations is bordering on paranoia, please remember that only drug users are expected to be praning.

However, you don’t have to be into drugs or the drug business to be concerned about rights: the rights of the alleged drug user, pusher and drug lord; the rights of the drug user’s family; the rights of the society that can become the drug trade’s collateral damage.

Meanwhile, be like our house help. Say, Good morning! That won’t solve all the ills in the world, but at least you’re facing each day with some awareness—it is morning and, for now, it is good.