The following little story took place years ago on a college campus somewhere in Manila. This was in the period after Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr.'s assasination.
College Boy Panaderos was hanging out with a couple of his college buddies in an empty classroom one weekday afternoon . He and his buddies were talking about the hot-button issues of the day namely, the murder of Senator Aquino and the awful state of the country's political and economic environment. Their talk centered on how evil the country's leadership was and in what ways he and his buddies could help in bringing the Marcos administration down.
College Boy Panaderos had idolized the late Senator ever since he was a kid. This was due to the fact that Panaderos' father was an avid follower of Philippine politics and was a frequent viewer of news programs and news talk shows back in the pre-martial law days. In those days, especially from 1970 to 1972, Senator Aquino was often on tv blasting the abuses and corruption of the Marcos administration. Thus, his was a face that was immediately recognizeable to many Filipino kids who tuned in to those news and public affairs programs.
The late Senator was a gifted speaker, was mentally sharp, and had popular appeal. In the early 1970s, a lot of Filipinos had already assumed that he was destined to be elected the next President of the Philippines come the 1973 elections. However, martial law intervened in September of 1972 and sadly, the rest is history.
Anyway, the discussion about the ills of the Marcos administration made College Boy Panaderos' blood boil. He needed an outlet for his seething anger. Thus, he walked towards the front of the classroom, grabbed a chalk and scribbled "Death to Marcos!" in large letters on the blackboard. However, unbeknownst to our stupid hero, one of the university's Discipline Officers was walking by the classroom at the time and happened to see him scrawl his anti-Marcos rant on the blackboard.
The Discipline Officer walked into the room while Panaderos' back was to him and asked, "What are you doing?" College Boy Panaderos turned around and was shocked to see the Discipline Officer glaring at him. He then replied, "Sir, I was just expressing my anger at the President." The Discipline Officer, looking at what was written on the board, proceeded to ask, "Do you know that what you just did is considered vandalism?" "No, sir," said Panaderos and tried to reason by saying, "I used a chalk anyway and if you'll let me, I'm going to erase what I wrote."
The Discipline Officer then said that such attempt at undoing an offense was no longer necessary. He asked Panaderos to hand over his Student ID. "See me at the Discipline Office tomorrow," were the Discipline Officer's stern parting words to a bewildered and dismayed Panaderos.
So to the Discipline Office went Panaderos the following day. He expected a scolding from the Discipline Officer for what he did and he also expected further sanctions. As soon as he walked in, he saw Mang ("Mister") J, one of the Discipline Office's head honchos at the time. Mang J had a reputation for being a tough but fair man. But even with that, once Panaderos saw him, he (Panaderos) immediately assumed that Mang J was going to hand down other punishments to make sure that our hero learned his lesson.
Mang J motioned for Panaderos to take a seat. Panaderos did so and anxiously waited for Mang J's verdict. "I'm not pleased with what you did, young man," said Mang J, unsmiling as he proceeded to pull a book out of the file cabinet that stood adjacent to his desk. The book turned out to be the College's Discipline Manual.
He put his thick-rimmed glasses on and leafed through the manual until he found the page he was looking for. "I want to show you the offense you committed and I want an assurance from you that you won't do it again. Is that understood, young man?" "Yes, sir. I understand perfectly well, sir," a rather antsy Panaderos replied.
"Very well, this is the offense you committed," replied Mang J as he proceeded to show Panaderos the particular page, section and rule the latter violated. Panaderos' eyes settled on the part of the page where Mang J's finger was pointed and saw the offense he was found guilty of:
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The Lords of Discipline
Unauthorized use of chalk.
"Never do this again, young man. Am I making myself clear?" warned Mang J. To which Panaderos promptly replied, "Yes, sir. It won't happen again." With that promise, Panaderos' Student ID was promptly handed back to him and he quietly left the office.
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18 responses:
Meron bang ganong offense? hehehe
Parang kilala ko si Mr. J
Hehehehe, give the wasted chalk back! =D
Rolly,
I suspect that the DO was a Marcos Loyalist. But to answer your question, yes there was such an offense, albeit an obscure one.
Btw, I wanted to respond to you but couldn't find your e-mail address on your blog. Could you e-mail it to me or course it through a mutual friend? :D Thanks.
Mirage2g,
I did. Hahaha :)
you know what, things might have turned out worse if you were studying at UP. good thing you chose finance over journalism.
Hahaha... this is such a funny story! :) Well, it was an easy offense to remember. Pero parang hindi 80s yung mga DO nyo... parang galing pa silang dark ages. Ganyan din yung mga madre sa school kung san ako dati nagturo. :)
Ha ha ha. you just dated yourself again!
I was in second year high school when Ninoy died. I knew nothing about the man then.
I always wonder if things would have changed in the right direction if Senator Benigno Aquino would have been elected.
Lucky you! It was indeed a dangerous thing to do !
Oi! You mean you have to ask permission to use a chalk?? Grabeh... :-D
I was one of the few who didn't join the student rallies during those heady days prior to and after Ninoy's assassination. But curiously, I was one of the those who experienced being tear gassed. How? I unexpectedly walked into one of those rally dispersal in front of the Manila City Hall. Ansakit sa mata and I felt like I was being choked... whew! I went home that day flushed and teary eyed.
Mari,
Maybe and it would not have a first for a member of the Panaderos family. I have at least two relatives who attended UP's College of Journalism. Although one of them now works as an editor in one of the major dailies, both remain quite active in nationalist causes. Very proud of them.
Toe,
Hindi nga 80s iyong DO na iyon. To this day, I suspect that he was probably a Marcos loyalist. The other DOs were reasonable people to deal with. Malas ko lang na I chanced upon the unreasonable one in their ranks.
Em,
"I was already a voracious reader when I was two years old, got accelerated in school at least 9 times and became a college freshman by the time I was 8 years old. :P
It's a feat that remains unheralded (and will probably remain unheralded hehehe) in Philippine academic history."
Quite a b.s. artist, ain't I? :) Joke lang siyempre.
Sidney,
I've wondered about that too.
I know it's debateable but had the 1973 elections had gone on as scheduled, I think the two-party system would have remained in place, we would have been a lot better off economically because we would not have been saddled with too much foreign debt, not too many Filipino lives would have been lost due to Communist and Muslim rebellions, and there would have been a lot less of us Filipinos around because the Church would not have had the influence it has now to prevent the government from implementing an effective family planning/population control program.
Rudy,
It was an absurd offense really. But I got caught so I had no choice but to face the consequences.
I did participate in a number of marches at the time but luckily I never figured in any where the police had to disperse the crowds with either tear gas or water cannons. Pero what you said is true, ang sakit daw talaga sa mata pag na-tear gas ka. Ilang hilamos na eh mahapdi pa rin.
Unauthorized use of chalk?!
I idolized Ninoy too. Unfortunately, I knew very little about him before he died, just like most Pinoys.
Mon,
That's correct, Pards! Ridiculous, isn't it?
that's the weirdest thing to be "principal officed" for! but mari's right, that might have turned out very differently had you been at UP.
Dr_Clairebear,
You're right. That was so weird. Good thing that it turned to be the first and only "visit" I made to the Discipline Office. If I had ended up at UP, I might have to ask Mari for more details as to what would have happened to me. :)
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