My town’s basketball team defeated the U.S before Cojuangco’s cagers

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Invited recently by Arturo "Turing" Almario for a lunch at his shed in Barangay Tawan-Tawan in my rustic landlocked fertile town where I exchanged notes and banter with his college clique. They were Robert "Marao" Hinojales and Ferdinand Vilarosa. Almario and Villarosa who are ten years older than me were the early batch (1978) of Philippine Marine recruits when Mindanao and the brave Tausog Muslim locked horns in Jolo Sulu particularly. Probably because of my antics at Facebook these amused Senior Citzs wanna rubbed elbows with me where I brought my gang mate and classmate Fire Captain Jerry Reyes at Turing's abode in Tawan-Tawan. Turing and Jerry' s older brother the late Alfonso "Ponso" Reyes were basketball pal. "Kabalo ka nag lalis pa kami ni (Don’t you know that I argued with) San Miguel Corporation Big Boss Danding Cojuangco tungod sa imo (because of you Turing) while we were (Senator Chiz Escudero , Pangasinan then Governor Amado T. Espino,Jr. in late 2000s) drinking beers at the cloud kissed mansion of his son Cong. Mark in Sison, Pangasinan.” I jested.

 An astonished Turing wondered and asked me why billionaire Danding C. would ask about him, former Vice Mayor Bernie Abasquez, Minggoy Eulatic, Mongo, and Ponso. 

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I explained: Danding crowed to the Marlboro ciggie smoking Senator Chiz and Abono Chairman Rosendo So that when he was President McCoy's Man Friday his Northern Consolidated Cement ( the name of his cement factory in Pangasinan) Pinoy cagers won against the Americans at the two Jones Cup. "Supak gid ako, siling ko bag o mag daog (I disagreed, I told him that before the NCC won) ang mga players niyo boss Danding with Ron Jacobs as coach sa Kano pinirdi na nila Turing kag Minggoy ang mga almost 7 - footer nga mga Baptist nga mga Amerikano sa court didto sa Pilot Elementary School sa M’lang".

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While huffing and puffing on my morning road run around the plaza of my landlocked town, Turing Almario and a retired cop Senior Police Officer-4 (equivalent of the present Master Sergeant) Norberto Cabalfin called me up to join them with some retirees sipping their coffee at Noylette (Bakery).

“In Baguio they have that Luisa’s Cafe and in Dagupan we had that old Dagupena Restaurant where old timers like you, businessmen, and media men had their watering hole,” I told retired Army Master Sergeant Escamelo Corneja-Crosero , Cabalfin, Turing, Farmer Joe Pacificador Peroy, and Retired Second Lieutenant Rolando Pagtolun-an who are in their 60s of their age.

In the 1970s and early 1980s the rustic town had the same place like Diego Coffee (whose brewed coffee at 50 cents tasted like the P140 Americano at Starbucks) and Mila Bakery near the century old Acacia tree where old folks like my Uncle Luding Celestial, long reigning Kapitan of Dugong, cooled their heels

“Hmmm old timer,” I saw another senior citizen mumbled probably surprised about the other synonym of the common titled Senior Citizen where many Filipinos loved to use: Kasi Philippine Citizen na Senior Citizen ka pa! Dual Citizen kasi. Maging Triple Citizen pag U.S Citizen ka pa like may parents hahahaha!

“Are you then Captain Ortigoza who toured me at PMA when I visited it a long time ago?” The dark skinned averaged height but still slim Lt. Pagtulon-an queried.

“Nope. I was the eldest but I worked there too at its Public Information Office in the late 1980s,“ I told him of course not in English but in Ilonggo – the language in Heaven.

“His father is also a retired soldier. He was that man brought by military helicopters whenever he went home for R&R,” the dark skinned Turing Almario, a former member of the Philippine Marines, told them while telling us to hurry quaffing our coffee and the three pandesals he allocated to each us because they have their own businesses to tend.

“You have five minutes to drink and eat your coffee and pandesal,” he barked to us all just like a Marine Training Cadre to recruits.

“Son of a gun, this guy so anti-climax,” I told myself as the old timers relished my antics of my anecdotes in the nitty gritty of the politics and police matters especially jueteng and other forms of gambling in my mammoth Republic of Pangasinan.

They guffawed on my blog when I narrated to them about “Sick Cops Dragged Me When I Was A Kid” (where you can read them by copy and pasting this title: Snake Oil Merchant And The Kid's Odorous Infected Ear at Google Search) and my experiences with cops mostly police majors, colonels, and generals in my work as columnist and a clique of some of them.

They rolled in laughter when I told them that I overstayed already in the town, thanks but no thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, that someone powerful converted me from being a Christian to Muslim here in Cotabato.

“What’s the chosen name given to you by the Imam?” Somebody posed a question.

“Datu Mortz Musuko Pagdimakakiyo,” I retorted poker face.

(Send comments to totomortz@yahoo.com)