Chapter 12 -- My First Year High School in Salaman Institute, Libak, Cotabato in 1954

My journey to get an  education was long and hard. I finished my primary school at Cawayan, Elementary School in 1951 when I was 11 years old. Then, I enrolled at Carles Elementary School, our town 7 kms. away from home. I stayed in the  home of my uncle, the cousin of my father, who was Chief of Police of Carles.  I stayed with them for a year, then I transfer  with my friend, Noeme Catalan, in the  home of his uncle, the  janitor of Carles Elementary school.

On Monday mornings, I have to wait for  a truck from Balasan to Carles, between 6 am to 7 am. There was only 1 truck that get passengers every day. So, often we walked from home to Carles. We brought our rice and dried fish, which we use for our food, mostly the whole week.  Often, on Friday afternoon, we just walk from school to Cawayan, our  home village. At 5 pm, there is no more truck for us to ride  home.

After two years,  in March 1952, I graduated in elementary school. Some of  my classmates were given honors - valedictorian, saliturian, first honorable mention.  Some graduating students were also given special honors in sports. I was given honor also in sports - swimming. For I was always seen by our teacher swimming in the beach of Carles town. He told me to  dress myself as a swimmer. I  planned to continue my studies   at Balasan High School, which  is  8 kms away from home. I  prayed hard  that  God will  open my way to be enrolled  in high school in June.

About  the 3rd week of March   my mother told me, that father will go to Mindanao that month.  They made their plans  to go to Mindanao as bigger opportunities  were   open for  those courageous enough to venture  in Mindanao,  

My father, a veteran of the 2nd World War saw the challenge  of Mindanao. He told me, “ Rudy Mindanao is called the ‘Land of Promise’. We will go there to seek a better future.” During the Presidency of Ramon Magsaysay, he opened Mindanao to adventurous farmers from Luzon and the Visayas to explore new life in that “Land of Promise”. Many  war veterans of the US-Japanese war together with some HUKS in Luzon went to  different provinces and towns in Mindanao. Some settled  in Libak, Cotabato as early as  1948. 

My father and my two uncles, brought our big male carabao, by  a passenger ship from Estancia, Iloilo to Libak, Cotabato. They told me, they were on the sea for 6 days. They ventured to Mindanao with very high hopes and  big dreams. During that time, I learned later, there was only one province in Cotabato. There were no North Cotabato and no Sultan Kudarat.

Since there was no port in Libak, the passengers has to dis-embarked from the ship and rode small bancas to the shores of Libak, a distance of more 1 kilometer. My uncle, Eldefonso told: "I wore  a black socks, so that the movements of  my  feet and the sparks of my feet   on the waters, will not attract sharks"  Then, my uncle Eldefonso,  an  experienced fisherman, swam with our carabao to the eastern  shores of Libak.  He told me, he was not sure how big sharks were in the seas of Libak. They may be infesting the seas. 

Months later with my classmates,  I visited the shore were my father landed  in Libak. I saw the very beautiful place. The seashore was lined with coconut plantations. And the homes were small nipa homes but comfortable and clean. The shores were clean  and beautiful. The fishermen arrived every morning with their caught  fishes.

I think, 75% of the people of the community  of Libak  were Muslims. There were some flower gardens that were will developed. One of the big orchids plantations, was managed and owned by a De Pedro family, a  Catholic family, who were political leaders in the province. I  saw  about a hectare of  Waling-waling orchids and other orchids that  were planted there. I was told they were export  to the United States and other countries in Europe  during that time.

My father stayed in the house of Mr. Pedro Olarte, a relative from Capiz. He was a tailor. A very good tailor in the town.  Tay Endo Olarte lived in a house with his wife and 8 children, two have finished college, 2 were in high school and the others in elementary and grade schools. His eldest son was working in Guam. .

My father, two uncles and me, stayed in the house of Tay Endo Olarte for several months. My father and two uncles engaged in farming. They farmed 3 hectares farms from Mayor Freires of Libak. They farmed on sharing basis. My father planned what they will do. He and my uncle, Estelito Bernal helped in farming – plowing, harrowing and planting corn  and rice.

 My other uncle, Eldefonso Alvaro, was assigned to  work  in the construction of roads. His weekly payment provide for our needs - food, viands and other needs. When harvest came, he left his construction works and  j joined in harvesting rice, threshing palay by foot, and other works.

After   1 1/2 months in  Libak, and seeing that the problem of malaria was minimal, my father went back to Carles to visit my mother and his other children. He will also visited the wife of  my uncle Eldefonso. After seeing that all was well with the family, he went back and brought me to Libak and enrolled me first year in high school. But before going back to Mindanao, my father fixed lot of things at home to make life for mother and my brothers and sisters a little better.

My younger brother and 3 small sisters were cared by my mother. This was my mother’s brave response to the plans they made together -to  venture and build our future in Mindanao, the “Land of Promise”..

After my enrollment   at Salaman Institute  in Libak, I tried to visit the town. I saw the dynamics of religious life of the people of Libak. There were many churches feeding the spiritual lives of the people.  The town has many churches -- the Roman Catholic Church, the Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayan).  the Muslims Mosque , the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), the United Methodist Church, Iglesia ni Kristo (INC), Jehovahs Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Baptist Church and the Pilgrims Church. These churches have big buildings in the poblacion of Libak.

In Carles, when I was Grade VI, only 3 churches exist in the town – the Roman Catholic Church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the Poblacion and  Cawayan Baptist Church, that was 5 kms., away.

We have a very good harvest in Libak during  our first crop year. The sharing  with the land owner, was 50-50 per cent. With the harvest, father gave the shares of the land owner. He gave the share of my two uncles. Eldefonso, who sent some of his money to his wife and 2 children in Dayhagan, Pilar, Capiz. Estelito, who was single, went to another town to visit relatives who came from Iloilo.

Then, father started to build our house. He was assisted by my uncles. It was made of woods, bamboo and nipa. But it was quite a comfortable house, There, we live  4 months after we arrived in Libak. It has bamboo floors,  1 meter from the ground.

Why did they desired to go to Mindanao? According to my father: We have a very small farm in Cawayan, Carles. Only about 3 hectares. My  mother has a little more than 1 hectare give by my grandmother. We have  4 hectares. 

And most of it was upland and stony. We will live a hand-to-mouth existence all our lives, if we remained in our town. My father said, I have now 6 children. And some are coming. Soon, I will have 10 children. How could I feed and provide them with education with a 4 hectares farm?

In Carles during that time, a family has an average of children 10 children. There were families with 12 to 18 children. Family planning was not yet practiced. No one heard of Family Planning yet. In Mindanao, my father may be able to get 24 hectares of virgin and forest land, being a Filipino war veteran.

When my father returned with me to Mindanao, I learned lots of things on the way. We rode the boat from Iloilo City to Zamboanga, From Zamboanga, the boat proceeded to Cotabato City. In Zamboanga, I got lots of learning. There,  I first saw scores of bancas with women and children who were shouting to the ship passengers up. They were asking for money. Some boat passengers throw coins into the sea waters. .

The children, some about 3 years old, immediately jumped into the waters. They  swam deep, to re-treave the coins thrown by the passengers. The mothers remained on the boats, watching until the children returned and deposit the coins the got from the waters. The children at very young age, were expert swimmers, helping earn income for the family.

On the way to Cotabato City, we have to enter the very wide and long river.  The river was call  Rio Grande. We disembarked the ship and rode a steam boat to Libak. I saw a different culture. Men, were dressed not with trousers. The use "Malong",  which was like our  “Patadyong” in Iloilo.

We reached Libak, passing a long river, I could remember seeing the vast spans of forest lands, that could be seen all around. Wherever I looked – in the north, south, east and west, I saw thousands hectares of farm lands with corns and rice. At the other side, were hundred thousands hectares of forest lands.

The forest lands could be opened for farming by homesteaders. Meantime, it has to be conquered and cleared. Most farmers who came earlier, fought with malaria, a disease and sickness suffered by many people from Visayas and Luzon who went in Mindanao.



MEMORIES: Life and Time of Pastor Rudy Bernal, his Glimpses on History &
Chapter 13- The Malaria in Mindanao I Witnessed & Other Experiences

When, I was in Primary school, I read and learned about malaria. But no one in Carles, ever got sick of Malaria. But in Mindanao, I heard, how malaria attacked people.

In the home of Nong Pendoy Olarte, where we stayed, we have  a neighbor from Carles who  immigrated to Glan, Cotabato. He got sick in Glan with malaria.  He was brought by his family to the house  of Mr. Olarte. He has to be treated from malaria in Libak by a physician.  He was suffering  hard from malaria. Every day for  a month, at about 2:30 pm, he was attacked by the sickness.  He felt very dizzy. He then,  lie on a mat on the floor.  Then, he began to shiver. His whole body was shivering. He perspired while shivering. He seemed to suffered hard. His entire body was shivering the whole hour.

After  an hour of shivering, he  relaxed and  he slept soundly. When he woke- up, he said, he felt so tired. He felt very, very   tired after shivering for  an hour.  With medical treatment, after a month he recovered. He returned home to Glan.

Malaria, I learned  was caused by mosquito bites. At an early age, I tried to protect myself from mosquito bites. Most afternoons, at 5:30 we have a bonfire, where we put firewood  and fresh leaves, providing smokes to drive mosquitos away. That was our simple way to fight malaria in Mindanao.

On market days in Libak, I go with a friend to the market. There I saw big fishes that were slaughtered and sold,  Some fish  weighing 200 to 300 kilos. I have never seen this big fishes in Carles. Fishes in Carles were different from the fishes I saw in Libak. Fresh fish meat were sold at P0.50 per kilo in the market that time.

On market days, I saw mountain residents came down to Libak market. They came in groups to the market place. They brought some of their products -- roles of spliced rattans, dried native pig meats, embroidered hand made cloths and some special rice for sale. They bought things they needed home ---fresh and salted fish, salt, sugar and piece of clothing.

The native women wore colorful and long dresses. They have big bronze earrings  on both  ears. Some women wore 12 bronze earrings on  both  their right and left ears. They were native people called Teruray. They lived in the mountains many kilometers up, on the mountain ranges that I saw up in the mountains in the east. 

The Teruray women were  lovely. They have fine and light- brown skins complexions. They were slim and tall. They spoke a different dialects. I heard they were of Indonesian origin who came to Cotabato mountains thousands  of years ago.

I saw Teruray men go down from the market in groups together with the women. They were peaceful people. Often, the men walked ahead and the women followed. The men do not carry heavy loads. They were trained fighters and they walked always ahead to protect the women. They must always be ready to fight enemies they will met in the mountain trails. They carry short weapons. The women carry the heavy loads on their backs or on their heads.

I also  how people clear the virgin lands   My father, one day  brought me to the mountain about 4 kilometers from the market. The place was a forest that were cleared by his friend. The big timbers were cut down. The small trees around the big timbers were also cut. These were dried  under the sun. Then burned. After burning, the farmer planted corn. And we came to buy some young corn that were  harvested by the farmer. We will boil the corns for our breakfast and lunch.

When we entered the corn field, I saw many logs that were cut down. The logs were lying, some logs lying down, higher than me. The logs, lay around, nearly 2 meter higher than me.  The logs were just allowed to  rot. During that time, Libak mMnicipal hall was headed by Mayor Freres. One of his sons was my classmate and friend. But we never met again.

My father enrolled me at Salaman Institute. It was a private high school in the poblacion. I do not remember how many students were enrolled there. But we were many, from 1st Year to 4th year high school. I have some memorable recollections of my life during my First Year high at Salaman Institute. Our class was an interesting class of young and lovely  girls and intellegent boys, seeking education with plans to build better lives and future.

I was the smallest and shortest in our class. And I think, also the youngest. I am also quite bright. I often stood to share my thoughts. I have many friends among my classmates. I cannot remember their names anymore. But I think some of them are still living also today. Their ages may be from 79 to 90 years today, this May 2018. Our school principal, Mr. McKay was a big man. I thought he was an American. But some said, he was an Irish. He was a friendly and dynamic school principal.

One of the subjects we have was literature. We were taught and encouraged to read short stories and novels. It was one way to develop our written and spoken English. We were told by our teacher to read Noli Mi Tangere and El Felibusterismo, the two novels written by Dr. Jose Rizal. We were told to read English novels – the novels of Charles Dickens and other English novelists.

Nelson Olarte, who was 3rd Year High School that time, showed me some summary of novels, written by his elder brother who was already working in Guam. He left his package of novel summaries and love letters. Nelson Olarte, gave me the package and told me to read the novel summaries and love letters. He said this novel summaries and love letters will  teach  me to learn how to write in English. He told me to take care of the package and their contents.

So every day, I read the novel summaries I begun also to read the love letters of his brother. The love Letters were addressed to several of his girlfriends in high school. They were beautifully written Love Letters. I tried to memorize some of these Love letter,  trying to get the depth of its meanings and messages. For this were really beautifully written love Letters.

I chose  one of the Love Letters. I copied it and signed. I gave it to my classmate, who was closed to me. We sat often beside each other in our classes. She read my Love Letter. She smiled. Then she laugh a little. She told me she had read the same Love Letter before. Her elder sister got a similar letter from the boy that courted her. The original Love Letter was written by the brother of Nelson Olarte to his girl friend, four years earlier. She laughed again. And we laughed together.

That day, I learned one lesson. I must not copy Love Letters, from anyone, anymore.

While in Salaman Institute, I often visited a small restaurant that rent newspaper, Komiks, magazines like Hiligaynon, Banawag and Liwayway for five centavos. “Salaman Rendevous” was the name of the store. They have a creative business enterprise –a restaurant, a store, that also rent books, newspapers and magazines  for a few centavos per setting. It helped me much in my studies.

During that time, the restaurant offers us free drinking water. It was great being a First Year high in Salaman Institute, Libak, Cotabato during that time.