The only thing i remember now are the
hushed NO's i kept hearing when the grownups
talk. Being 5 years old, i didn't
know what a Martial Law Plebiscite
was all about. I was soon to find
out. Yes, Virginia, even 5 year olds remember
that dark day in 1971.
One of my dad's hobbies was bird hunting. And I, of
course, tagged along despite the ultimate
pain a 5 yr old can experience - waking
up at the ungodly hour of 4AM. As
they said, "Pagkasayo mobatyag kung mamusil,
pero kung ting-iskuela, taod arte."
But, i digress.
5AM, with baon of hard-boiled eggs,
sandwiches and soda, we'd
depart to meet the rest of the
hunting group (Uncle Mike N, Uncle Inik,
Uncle Marshall(?) ug uban pa). Then we're off to Tungao or
some remote barrio taking roads made by
logging concessions into the deep forests of Agusan.
The rewards for all those day-long adventures
are memories that would last me a lifetime.
Perhaps trivial to adults, to a 5
year old, a roadside bush with
a kajillion-billion yellow butterflies hovering
above was an awesome sight. Hearing a
pair of kalaws exchanging their calls was
not something one would hear in Sacred Heart
Kindergarten School. The alimokons barbecued or
adoboed somehow tasted a lot better than
anything on earth. Extracting stuck vehicles in the lapuk
was more fun than playing dakop dakop.
Anyways, back to the story...despite all the NO's i heard
when the elders talked, martial law passed, and for some reason,
we never got to go hunting again...
Note: It was much later when i realized that Martial Law involved
banning firearms...8-(
