By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Then I was a small kid, there was this movie titled, St. Valentine’s Day massacre. I asked an older college student what massacre meant and this was his answer which was not the typical boring academic definition. He said, it means “great patay!”
Last Sunday early morning around 6:00 there was a conflagration a long Queen of Peace Road. That’s the one that passes through City Camp and goes up to the Lourdes Grotto area. If a kid asked me what conflagration meant, I would have answered, “great po-or!”
Six commercial buildings, mostly apartments were totaled including a small old house where the fire originated. A 5-story new apartment building still in the finishing stage was one of them and a big grocery store.
The fire started when an unmarried couple were quarrelling, and a million things could have happened. They might have become highly emotional they forgot there was something being cooked. Or they separately locked themselves in separate rooms. Or they both stormed out of the house. Etcetera, etcetera.
Surely the owners of the buildings burned were devastated. Such is one of those times like when a member of a family meets with some misfortune. One could have wished being burned in purgatory for sometime if that was what it took for the unfortunate incident not to have happened. But there it was. The buildings will be demolished. It would be a miracle if any of the building owners had an insurance against fire.
In relating the story, the day after the incident, the cabbie bringing us to the office said, “Uncle, nakitak diay akin bagi diay grocery, kasing lakay yo, agsangsangit idiay igid kalsada.” Anybody would have shed a million tears.
I was not so upbeat early that morning as I felt a bit tired. Here is why.
At about 5:15 p.m. the day before, I and two companions walked up the stairs to the 5th floor of a classroom building at Easter College. We (supposedly mostly me) were to give a lecture on yoga and how to write better to graduating criminology students. When we reached the venue, I was gasping for breath. Will I suffer a heart attack? I was doing a yoga technique with my fingers to avoid that from happening.
In a minute the lecture started. I gave the students the news I heard earlier that afternoon. The PNP’s priority now is to hire education graduates because they are better in paper works. The papers such as affidavit-complaints being accomplished by criminology graduates were atrocious (makapasangit) in their grammar and composition. Because of that so many criminal cases were, and are still, being dismissed.
“So, you better listen,” I told the students, “as this lecture is timely.” I then related to them how I was so challenged when it came to memorizing in the college of law, and I was also struggling to do business at the same time. Thus, I was always pressed for time. But because of the discipline instilled in me by yoga practices and the concentration as well as the stamina to study late into the night, somehow, I was able to make it.
While I still felt tired, I managed to muddle through the lecture on the benefits of yoga to students, and how to write better—the usual stuff. After about 40 minutes of that the possibility of my collapsing was becoming stronger. So time to let go.
I requested one of my companions, a foreigner lady missionary who teaches yoga to take over. She then taught the students a simple meditation technique which they tried for a few minutes.
Then our other companion, an alternative medicine doctor, taught the students simple yoga exercises to aid them in studying.
The whole thing is a part of our advocacy to provide students the necessary skills, discipline and practices to deal with the challenges of the times. All of these worked for me and it could be a game changer for some students.
Though I found out my kidneys and heart were not yet up to the task, so I will have to undertake the necessary measures to cope. For it would be a lot better to work and suffer for a worthy advocacy than becoming a victim of a conflagration or other similar misfortune. There is of course no assurance but I could always say in the end, at least, I tried.
So, on to the next lecture, wherever or whenever (soon) it will be. **
