Dad was our hero

For me, my four brothers and lone sister, Yolanda Espina – Llavore, Papa was our hero. Yet, he was not the hard-hearted person most associate with fathers.I hardly remember anytime when he belted me, except once when he realized that I had put a cardboard behind my shorts.And he just laughed at it and embraced me.

That was Papa. Yet, he was the sterling man. He hardly quailed when confronted by the Japanese. Instead, he used his knowledge of Japanese and two of us brothers – Dodge and myself – to convince the Japanese that, after all, we were distant relatives.

That was the miracle of how a renegade group of Japanese stragglers from Leyte suddenly transformed themselves into well-behaved and disciplined soldiers during the last days of the war.The Japanese group had fled Leyte from the Americans and had landed in Taba-ao, a barangay of Sagay, when we encountered them.

Actually, we had spotted them from far away.Then, Papa advised me and Dodge to use our knowledge (fluency actually at the time) to converse with the stragglers.But he minced no words about warning us on how the Japanese stragglers could suddenly become vicious and possibly massacre all of us.

Papa and us, two sons, engaged the Japanese in a lengthy palaver.And we ended up with the Japanese lieutenant seemingly convicted that somehow we must have been distant relations.And he forthwith instructed his group of about 12 to behave.

To our surprise, they just waited for the household to serve them corn mixed with rice plus the eggs and chicken that the family had cooked for the visitors.

But that’s just one story about Papa.

Actually, my father had completed dentistry at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila together with my uncle Dr. Jorge Espina, who completed medicine(He was later chief of the Southern Island Hospital in Cebu City).

But shortly before the graduation, their bohemian lifestyle took its toll on Papa’s health and he developed tuberculosis. That prevented him from taking the board. So, he had to take a vacation in Bohol with the late Venerando Reyes, an uncle.

There he developed his talent as a painter.He had several of his paintings used by that late Padre Nanong for liturgical celebrations.

Later, however, Papa went to Cagayan de Oro. There he became a scout master. And befriended the late Bishop of Cagayan de Oro (Msgr. Hayes.)

He established a reputation there as a scout master and a “boy scout”.During my adult life, I discovered that he had linked up with several relatives there and was well-known in Cagayan de Oro. Later, my own brother, Dodge married Mila Castaño and stayed there until he and the family transferred to Palawan.

I learned from both Papa and Mama (Mrs. Gracia Lopez-Espina) that Papa often traveled all the way from San Carlos City from Toledo. She was then the pharmacist of Tiyo Ando Tolentino.

Pa and Ma decided to get married. About a year later, I was born in Escalante City near the residence of former Rep. Ferrer.

I was just one year old, when Lolo Doroteo Espina and Irene Mercado fetched me and brought me to Cebu City where I stayed with the two and their children, dividing my time between Cebu City and Toledo.

Anyway, to cut the story short, Papa was a businessman and contractor. He often brought me with him and we went to Paniqui-on to oversee the construction of public works projects.Once, I remembered vividly, he used a rifle to shot a crocodile in the river.

Proof that crocs then abounded in northern Negros, particularly in the Danao River in Escalante.

Both Pa and Ma were very religious.Nightly, we prayed the rosary. Yes, during the Japanese occupation, we became more fervent in our devotions.

All the time he devoted himself to painting and playing the piano.And, yes, reading.Our library in Fabrica contained almost every available book at the time, including the Crime of Sylvester Bonnar and the Thais as well as others written by French and English authors. As well as American writers.My love for books dated from that time on.

But he and Ma were also working underground with the guerilla intelligence network. And we got involved in several escapades, including the precipitate departure of Tiyo Miguel Jean Jaquet, which almost caused the lives of hundreds of ILCO employees.The most serious episode was the arrest of the late . Tomas Bagatsing, elder brother of former Manila Mayor Ramon D. Bagatsing. That could have proven fatal to the members of the network.But we were deployed by both Pa and Ma to report to them how the Japanese were torturing Bagatsing and to report immediately had he spilled the guerilla secrets. Luckily nothing untoward happened.

The confirmation of his involvement with the guerillas was when we fled to Fabrica and, upon reaching Hda. Agustin of Arthur Cooper, an officer handed over to Papa his “grease gun.”

When we returned to Fabrica after the liberation, Pa suffered a major hemorrhage of the lungs, luckily by that time American doctors of ILCO had returned and they (Dr. Smith especially) cured him.

But it was when he was vomiting blood that he called for me and to ask me to take care of “your mother and your brothers and sister.”

But he overcame his TB.And devoted his years to promoting the Knights of Columbus in Negros Island and Cebu together with Bagatsing, Arthur Cooper and Teodoro Lopez (Tiyo Doring).

Their promotion included Bantayan, Toledo City, and Negros Oriental. Years later, the three of them – Tiyo Doring, Cooper and my Dad – got knighted as Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.

I remember Dad as somebody who never hesitated to go to the public market to do his marketing.And he did his own cooking, usually Spanish dishes like Arroz Valenciana and a lot of other tasteful Spanish dishes.

Later, when we had them transferred from Fabrica to Bacolod, Papa knew his days were numbered.Thus, the day I brought him with Nene to the Doctor’s Hospital, Papa whispered straightway – Son, I think I will not get out of this hospital alive.

The most beautiful sight for me and my brothers was when he and Ma were together and openly uttered the words – “I love you and I’ll love you until the grave.”

That was the night Papa left us, his smile on his lips.Content with being – with the Lord.

He was a loving and doting father all the way. My brother, Bert, called him – the kindest man I had known all my life.

***

Incidentally, I got caught by the rains after my luncheon engagement with Ely Solas, yesterday.I should have attended last night’s Ang Banwahanon Awards except that I developed a slight fever.*

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