Barrio Stories and Other Tales

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Apung Sepya's Feast



Apung Sepya is from my town Lubao, she is ninety-eight years old and is a contemporary of Apung Dadong who once served honorably as Philippine President. Today Apung Dadong's daughter is the new President. She just delivered her formal SONA to the applause of the House. But wait....

Apung Sepya is on her way to Congress too, bringing her chickens and ducks and a cavan of rice and onions and garlics and salt and pepper and aji-no-moto and some tender meat and her meager cash which is enough to pay for her fare from Lubao to Quezon City and back. I think the new Congress is in Quezon City, I remember the old Congress in another manner (but that is something only gays like me would remember, Apung Sepya is definitely not interested with what I did in old Congress at nights in the old days....)

But Apung Sepya is on her way to Congress to deliver her own speech and she presents herself as the Grand Old Tested Know It All Because I Saw the Founding of This Nation So Get Out of My Way Lady. And she ain't afraid - Nung keng leun o tigre eku tatakut, keko pa? to face the newly elected leaders who she thinks need a word or two from her. There has been so much Philippine issues she wants to talk about and she will make sure her mind is heard.

"I don't mean any harm", she explains to the guards of the House when they tried to block her from entering. " I am bringing chicken and ducks and rice and ingredients to make soup for our elected officials. I am intending to give them the best Pampango soup ever and don't doubt the words of an old woman like me. I was here long before your parents conceived you."

The prospect of broth and the brittle, demented look in Apung Sepya's face make her appear harmless enough and thus is allowed entrance to the House.

There is an initial commotion inside upon her entrance but she is not intimidated. One elected congressman shouts: "Who allowed this stinking old woman and her chickens and garbage inside?

Well, it is too late to remind the Congressman about the caliber of Apung Sepya.

She instantly drops everything she is carrying and shouts back - "I stink because this country stinks in case you have not smelled it yet! And who are you to scream at me young man? What do you think this Congress is for? Is it a law now for whoever comes in this House owned and paid by the people of the Republic of the Philippines must be prim and proper and must wear a foreign perfume like you oh ungrateful citizen? Is it a law now that stinking, old, poor and useless Filipinos like me have no place in this House? You sit down before I cuss you in the name of my forefathers and your forefathers! You don't have the right to throw me out of this House because I am as much entitled to come inside here as you do. You can throw me out physically but will that subdue my spirit? I promise you, the moment I am told I have no right to enter and speak in this House anymore I will just come out willingly and stay on the street in front rain or shine until there is no more breath left in me. There is no reason for me to live once you tell me I am untouchable in my own country. You don't treat a Filipino like a stinking garbage because you covered yourself with perfume.

"You may have accumulated half of the wealth of this nation and I own nothing but this I am saying to all of you - I come with good intentions - I come to share with you what is in my mind and what soup I can offer you and I order you, I never beg in my life, I order you to listen to me. I am the Filipino you promised to serve. I am here expecting to be served. In return I am offering you my chicken and duck broth and a big thank you if you'd listen, these are the only things I can give now.

"Yes, I stink. But I can no longer sense my own odor because man's sense of smell can easily adjust. Why I stink is because there is no more water left to give me a bath, the cost of soap is sacrilegious, it's almost a sin to wash oneself in this country. There is no social welfare, no medical health, no government food supplement like what they give to poor people in other countries, I am lucky I can still sell veggies to my town's farmers enough to make my ends meet but it's so horrible to see the life of poor jobless farmers that surround me in my town.

"I will never understand why you all expect those who come visit you to be prim and proper and clean. This Philippines is not the rich Dasmarinas or Forbes or Whatever Village where you are all safely tucked away. This Philippine is I, with nothing in my hands to offer you but broth and a grateful thank you. And I represent the millions of Filipinos who have nothing to offer you but words and spit. There are no jobs, so there aren't many who can afford good life and who can pay taxes; and those who must pay taxes don't pay rightly because of stinking corruption. And because there is not much collection in this country's treasury there is not much to improve the stinking quality of life. The streets are the same as in the Japanese Occupation. The houses are just as dilapidated. It is a cycle of poverty and degrading quality of life which you, politicians, failed to correct.

"That's why I come in front of you and tell you what I think - I was born when America was still our master. I felt the burns resulting from their paddles and whips and pinches as they forced me to adopt the American language and culture. I was a young woman when the Japanese killed my husband, I watched my husband die under the acacia tree. I buried him alone. I lived solitary since my husband's demise - after the war, I glimpsed hope - I saw this Philippines rise, almost to the peak until that stinking politician Marcos desecrated it. And since then I saw nothing but a bunch of stinking politicians who the only thing they managed to change was their faces but not their stinking characters.

"Oh yes I stink as much as you do. But I reign Supreme because I am Filipino People. Don't think of me as someone who is so awed at your looks or titles because you sought my vote, yes, you begged my vote to place you where you are sitting now, to give you the money that you possess now. You can't judge me. I judge you. So don't you dare point your finger at me and ask the guards why they allowed me inside this Congress because the moment I am forced out, I will bring that piece of paper called Constitution and the Spirit of Democracry in front of your faces and trample them both and set them into fire. The moment you start thinking you are greater than me, I will make the world know this country is no longer a Democracy. Your government is determined by the people, run by the people, from the people and for the people. You asked the people to represent them so you are the extensions of their minds, the representative of their persons, the seeker and fulfiller of their aspirations. You are not here to defend your names or promote your family's name or to build your dynasties or build your political parties or to show off your titles and talents or worse, to amass wealth. You are public servants, remember that. For every centavo you spend, I will demand a full account; for every word you utter I will demand its full value. I will judge you based only on one thing : What have you done in your elected positions to improve the Filipino life and nation?

"As lawmakers I will expect laws written by you that give me better life in my town. I do not care whether you memorized the Webster's Dictionary or given the most heart-wrenching speech or asked the most spell-binding questions - still, in the end, I will ask what have you done for me lately?

"So I say this to you before you get into your agendas and plans and maneuverings and tactics - the Filipino is watching and he is much more mature than you think. Listen to me on this because I am a witness to this country's birth and progress almost a century now, the Filipino today is more capable and more particular and more intelligent. You either match that or be swallowed by a barrage of humilitation.

"I want you to partake in the feast I am intending to give you, I , a stinking old woman that I am. I am giving you the best soup you'd ever taste. This is the Filipino way, stink or not -whenever we build a house, or a community or start a new beginning, we gather in the spirit of brotherly love and affection and drink.

"I provide the soup, you provide Tanduay or Ginebra San Miguel or San Miguel beer."

Alex Maskara

Barrio Tales