Jin's marriage to Amado was prearranged, a "buya." Her's was a Manco family,
which was one of the most influential in the Visayas, and certainly, among the
wealthiest. Inju insisted on the marriage, giving Amado very little say on the
matter. "This arrangement will benefit us all. Jin is the Chinese word for
gold. That is a good omen. Gold is powerful. You can buy anything with it. And
anybody."
Amado offered little resistance to his father's wishes and had no regrets,
realizing soon that Inju was proven right. Jin was beautiful, classy, obedient
and submissive. She was superb in bed and was an excellent mother. Their
marriage celebration was like the Chinese New Year in Chinatown. The guest list
was like a who's who in Philippine society. Even the elusive tobacco and travel
billionaire, Luis Chan, was present during the reception. Most of the
administration's political big-shots attended. The president came for cocktails
as did the vice-president and several senators. The upper echelon of the
Catholic Church headed by Cardinal Chen came in their brightly colored
sartorial plumage and fifty milligram rings, piously strutting about like
peacocks, each one trying to look holier than the other and each one solemnly
vying for attention.
By the time they got back from their three month world cruise, she was already
pregnant and the news was received with great pride by Amado and the Manco
clan. Tony Fidel Lee was born ten months after their wedding.
Jin Lee was a wonderful mother but was too protective of her only child. This
was at the expense of the boy's complete psychological development. A child
needs to experience the inevitable failures and disappointments, some pains and
heartaches to be able to face the world. He should ultimately be able to
distinguish between right and wrong. Morality is not built in into the
chromosomes like fingerprints or retinal configurations. It is invisibly
imprinted on one's character early in life by personal experiences, pleasant or
otherwise. Tony Fidel Lee never got vaccinated against these psychological
insults. He was never reprimanded nor was he ever called upon to answer for his
actions. He was doomed to emotional and moral confusion, a predictable outcome
of an overzealous exercise of maternal prerogatives. And he suffered from this
all his life.
Jin catered to her husband as a slave to a master and closed her eyes to his
spousal transgressions. Whenever Amado got bored, which was quite often, he
would fly to Cebu or Manila and spend a day or so in the company of his
concubines. His wife always pretended not to notice. To her, this was only
natural for men and surely her husband was very much a man. She accepted her
role as a womb, a mere vessel, an incubator that fed and protected the baby
while it was still inside her and then to become a nursemaid after their son's
birth. To her husband, she would become just a partner, no longer a lover. Soon
after Tony's birth, the guarantee of the continuation of the Lee blood-line,
the sharing of their matrimonial bed became as increasingly infrequent. Before
long, they finally decided to have separate bedrooms, the main pretext of which
were that he did not want to disturb her with his loud snoring and late night
business phone calls.
But Jin did bring them good luck. The family wealth had quadrupled since they
got married. Amado did most of the business deals now. It was true that most of
the money and property was still in Amado's father's name. Of course he
realized that the old man was not immortal and in the end everything would be
passed on to him. Sometimes though, his father could be just dominantly
overbearing and would insist on unquestionable obedience, unmindful of his
feelings. He specially hated it when his father would contradict him and
overrule his decisions in the presence of his wife and son. Sometimes Amado
would lie in bed wondering, "Is he going to live forever?"
Amado's father was not Chinese. He was born in Korea before the second world
war. When the Japanese came and invaded his country, he escaped to the Quemoy
Islands just south of mainland China. Although he was never really accepted by
the people there, being a foreigner, he managed to get married to a local
maiden. Inju Kang Lee was a natural born entrepreneur and with his business
acumen and his wife's frugality, he began accumulating wealth. He started out
buying and selling goat meat, pork and vegetables then branched out into almost
anything that would turn a profit. He managed to take advantage of the war
between Mao Zhe Dung and Chang Kai Shek.
The Chinese are a superstitious people. There was an unspoken agreement between
the nationalists and the communists. Both sides believed that it was bad luck
to fire the canons every day. So the exchange of artillery bombardment between
Quemoy and the communists in the mainland occurred only during even numbered
days and never on Thursday. During quiet days, Inju Kang Lee would gather and
buy up all the empty shells and spent cartridges and recycle them into
imitation katana swords and tanto short knives. He used the metal from the
artillery shells as the inner core for these swords and forged the alloy from
discarded railroad railings for the outer layers. The American servicemen could
not get enough of the swords and knives as they were very sharp and so
beautifully handcrafted, sometimes even more so than the original ones made in
the Mino Province of Japan. The Yankees brought them home as souvenirs,
displaying them on the mantles over their fireplaces. Inju would make a three
thousand per cent profit margin on these. He kept the sharpest, most beautiful
miniature tanto as a souvenir and a family heirloom.
By 1950 Inju Kang Lee had a monopoly of the businesses in Quemoy. He gave
protection money to several warlords but before long, these Chinese warlords
began to get greedy. When he refused to pay more, they called him a foreigner
and accused him of being a Mao sympathizer. He was ultimately driven out to the
Formosa mainland but even there, he faced the same problem, only this time it
was from the "legitimate" henchmen of Premier Chiang. He was forced to escape
to the Philippines where he had already gradually funneled the majority of his
liquid assets when he started to suspect that the envious Khoumintang thieves
were beginning to take undue interest in him and his businesses.
In Manila, and with all his wealth, he had little problem establishing himself
a niche. Not surprisingly, he found that the politicians were easily
corruptible. He learned passable Tagalog within a year and was able to purchase
a large property in Ongpin Street not far from the Santa Cruz Plaza that was
subject to foreclosure, paid for it in cash, and built an imposing walled
residence. He lived with his wife in Chinatown for a couple of years. That was
where his wife got pregnant only to die during childbirth, thanks to the
expertise of the herbalists and traditional Chinese medicine men. He never
remarried. His son, Amado survived.
Amado grew up spoiled. He got everything he asked for and more . Problems with
the law, concubines, drug use, kidnapping, heavy gambling, were not uncommon
among the young affluent members of the Chinese community. Amado was an
exception. Although everything was handed to him on a silver platter, he still
managed to inherit his father's knack for business. He enjoyed quid pro quo
relationship with some Filipino politicians, government officials and the
military and although these people thought they were milking him, Inju and
Amado were actually using them for protection even if just by association.
Life could not have been better for father and son except that one day, Amado
had the misfortune of expressing interest in a pretty Filipina movie star whose
suitors included Mayor Arsacio Locsin of Manila.
Retired General Fusilero, chief of police for the City of Manila was not overly
concerned about being an officer and a gentleman. Neither was he subtle. And
nobody could accuse him of being vague. "Leave or die." was the message he
delivered and Inju immediately spread the word around that his son was not
really pursuing any kind of relationship with Charito Silos. Still, fearing for
their lives, Inju and Amado decided to be prudent and to agree with the
"suggestion" from the general that it was time for them to move. If they did,
they would still be in the good graces of the administration and none of their
property would be seized. If they stayed, the general would not be able to
guarantee their safety from harassment and hinted that he had no control of the
dreaded kidnappings. He hinted, "Your family can be vulnerable."
Three generations of Lees, Inju Kang, Amado , and little Tony Fidel left for
the land of promise. At first Amado wanted to go to Cebu or Cagayan de Oro but
Inju Kang, always the patriarch, prevailed. "We go to Agusan. That is where the
future is. The land is fertile in Agusan. And mark my words, it will be during
my grandson's lifetime that the great industrialized nations will come for the
minerals that maybe found only there. Our ancestors knew this five hundred
years ago."
Life in Butuan was miserable for the first year for both mother and child.
Neither could tolerate the dust and the pollens. Twice they had to be flown to
Cebu for respiratory infections. Tony kept on having what seemed like asthmatic
bronchitis. So, most of the time, the boy was inside air-conditioned rooms. His
kindergarten classes, in Mandarin, English, and Pilipino, were held at home
although he was very resistant to any form of regimented education. He had the
temperament of an artist. He loved music, poetry, and painting and spent a good
amount of his time, even as a young man, in movie houses or listening to music
in his own music room which was filled with the most expensive and modern
stereophonic audio and video systems. He was also a loner and had very little
interaction with children his own age except for a select few. The other
teenagers considered him and his group somewhat weird.
Tony's Grandfather Inju died of cancer of the pancreas, one of the deadliest
forms of cancer. From the time it was diagnosed to the time he died, it took
only a couple of months, even with the most modern form of treatments available
in the world. Tony was absolutely devastated when he was informed of his
grandfather's demise. He stormed out of the house and got on his motorcycle and
sped around town, naked to the waist, crying, refusing to stop even in the
heavy rain, riding to Bancasi, Buenavista, and Nasipit and back, only to go
around and around the city until he ran out of gas.
When Tony was younger, the old man would hold him on his knees, under the shady
mansanitas tree where all kinds of small wild birds converged. Inju insisted
for them to be alone during these moments of bonding. The boy would listen in
rapture as his grandfather told him of his adventures in Korea, Quemoy, and
Formosa which was now called Taiwan. He told him of all his travels as he had
literally been around the world, from Tierra del Fuego south of Argentina,close
to the South Pole, to the northernmost part of Alaska in the North. He told him
of the Pyramids in Egypt which are the only existing structure of the original
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as well as the friendly Turkish people of
Istanbul, the perfect teeth of the beautiful Indian women of the mountains of
Peru, and the fierce men of Papua who still lived in the Stone Age.
A few days before he died, Inju took his grandson to an isolated private beach
east of Magallanes, near the Centennial Tree. It was an overcast day but the
water was calm and the breeze was gentle. After breakfast the maids left them
alone. The bodyguards were a distance away and could not hear their
conversation. Tony was twenty nine years old at that time. He was tall, a
little on the heavy side, perhaps because of the steroids that he had to take
as a child for his asthma. Inju had shrunken to less than five feet. He held on
to this grandson's arm for support as they walked from the cottage by the beach
to the edge of the water where the maids had propped up a couple of folding
plastic lounge chairs.
"Tony, I'm tired and I may not be around too long."
"Don't say that, grandfather. You'll live to be a hundred and ten." Tony
answered but even he was not convinced by what he was saying because the
deterioration was obvious.
"Be that as it may but I want you to listen to me now and try to remember my
words." The old man paused for air. "With the right price, you can buy anyone.
Everyone is for sale, be it for money, prestige, or power. Everyone can be
bought. Everyone has a price."
"Grandfather, what about love? Can I buy love?"
Inju Kang Lee looked at his grandson's eyes and it broke his heart knowing that
Tony had never savored the joy and the agony of love. The local Filipino
maidens, even those from among the rank of their employees, and the daughters
of the other rich Chinese families, were afraid of Tony, were scared to get
near him, much less, socialize with him, because he always seemed like he was
on the brink of exploding with anger or displeasure. He knew Tony was extremely
shy. But he also knew that Tony was no longer a virgin. He made sure of that.
Sergeant Loloy made doubly sure that his partners were free of any kind of
disease. He received weekly reports from Mauring of the City Health Office who
also provided them a list of new GRO's and fresh karaoke bar entertainers on a
regular basis.
"Yes, even love can be bought." Inju lied. He knew he lied. He lied on purpose,
at least, to offer his grandson a few crumbs of hope. Tony's spirit was lifted
by this new insight. Surely his grandfather was right. He is so wise. He
reminded him of Yoda, the Star Wars character who could do amazing things just
by his will power and his mind. From that day on, Tony would keep fifty
thousand pesos of fresh crispy one thousand peso bills prominently propped and
displayed on his vehicle's dashboard. Who knows? Someday someone is bound to
take the bait.
"One other thing," the old man continued, "don't trust anyone."
"No one? What about Papa?"
"He would be the exception."
"How about my mother ?" Inju did not respond.
"And Sergeant Loloy?"
Inju could not face his grandson least his real answer would show. Although
Tony was already an adult, in some ways he was still child-like. He was aware
of his grandson's tantrums and uncontrollable temper. He was aware of at least
one instance when they had to pay off the family of a young man from Dulag who
was allegedly beaten up by him because he smiled and Tony thought he was making
fun of him. Were it not for the intervention of Seargeant Loloy, Tony could
have been in jail for aggravated assault. He knew that Tony did not have any
close friends. The only one that could qualify as one was Loloy, who had
protected Tony, since that incident with Felix. Loloy kept Tony from harm's way
so many times before and Inju knew that their investment in him had paid off
hundreds of times over. And yet, Inju harbored certain suspicions that he never
had positive proof of. There were many times over the years that Jin and Loloy
were alone by themselves and Inju would detect an unspoken communication in the
body language between the two. But then, he could never hurt his grandson's
feelings by an unfounded accusation. His relationship with his daughter-in-law
was, at best, lukewarm, anyway and it seemed Amado did not care at all.
"I want to give you a gift." He quickly changed the subject and reached inside
his pocket to draw out a shiny steel blue object that glinted in the sun. "I
personally made this before your father was born. It is a small version of a
tanto knife, a sidearm of the Japanese samurai." He pulled the blade out from
its sheath. A mythical dragon was engraved on the metal and sunlight bounced
from the eye of the dragon producing an illusion of movement. The handle had
inlaid real pearl and ivory and the word "LIFE" was etched in calligraphy on
one side and "DEATH" on the other.
Tony accepted the knife and held it in both hands gingerly. The balance was
perfect and it appeared sharp enough to cut through a piece of floating paper
napkin that might land on its cutting edge.
"Aah, Grandfather, this is beautiful. I will keep this with me always and
forever."
"Promise me you will never use it unless it is to protect your life or to
preserve our family honor."
"I swear."
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Next - Chapter 9
