Another driver, another lover

(Disclaimer:Thisnarrativeisacreativeinterpretationof real-lifeevents,andthuscontainsfictionalelementsandother embellishments.Nodisrespectorharmisintended.)

THE beginning of this narrative is rather farfetched, and also an innocent one in relation to the subject matter.

You see, I have this piece of land in Antipolo City—which I have settled on way back in the late 1960s—that has become prime property, thanks to structures that have popped up in its vicinity: the Assumption school, built on a block across Sumulong Highway in 1973, followed in the 1980s by the establishment of a large and of the Manny Pangilinan

- ship Academy, with which my property shares a large frontage on the highway.

Describing my lot is necessary for me to explain how I came to stumble upon the story about to unfold. With the developments that had taken place around my property, its value had risen tremendously, such that upon knowing that I had not gotten the lot titled, land grabbers started coveting it. In 2009, I initiated at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) cancellation proceedings against pertinent land registration documents used by a landgrabber in claiming my property. After a thorough investigation, the DENR found those documents spurious and recommended their cancellation by the Anti-Fake Titles Board, an agency under the Department of Justice. So one morning, I invited a kumpadre to a coffee tete-a-tete, in which I had hoped he would advise me on how to have my way with the Justice secretary at the time.

“That woman’s hot,” David, my kumpadre, began his narrative.

IT was the night of the party at the Matabungkay resort Batangas. The governor had thrown a bash that was attended by select government personages, close friends and associates, and a few media people, which included David. Nothing so special, really, about the event, except as a showcase for the cosmopolitan lifestyle of the rich and the famous celebrating routine successes in business and politics.

By midnight, the party was over, and each of the guests went his or her own way to search for their assigned quarters in the resort cottages. David found his, which was adjoining another in a cottage that was already occupied, as indicated by a woman’s giggling in what David surmised as some play taking place inside. By whom, David didn’t know.

Anyway, David went through his pre-bedtime toilet routine, changed into his sleep shorts and sando, and threw himself onto the bed, which was pressed close to the wall. It rather surprised him that the landing of his body on the bed appeared to have made such an impact that the wall shook. A rather amused David lay on his side, his back happening to touch the wall, which shook again.

David rather jerked his back off the wall and, lying on his other side, faced it. The wall then shook continuously, as the movements taking place in the adjoining room, What those movements were, David could only have vague ideas of. But the sounds of giggling were becoming increasingly loud and shrill, indicating a woman’s extreme pleasure at whatever that was being done to her. Whatever it was, it was becoming frequent.

Then the giggling turned into commands, into a woman’s unabashed urgings for whoever was doing what was being done to her to get it on and on and on and f**k, faster, faster!

And suddenly, at the apex of those carnal cajoleries, came the shrill, suppressed cry of ejaculation of the frailties of a woman.

THAT was way back in 2011, when Benigno Aquino 3rd had only just beginning to rear his vindictive head, particularly at the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, whom he publicly chastised at the judicial summit, evidently as a reprisal for the latter’s awarding of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda and at former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whom the country to seek medical attention abroad, despite the Supreme Court’s lifting of the TRO on it.

At the Hilton casino, I ordered a fresh cup of coffee, as I could see that David’s story would drag on, even as he was keenly observing the mannerisms of the man handling the roulette table.

“Einstein said the only way you can win at the roulette is for you to steal some chips when the roulette master is not looking.” David said.

“You said the room was occupied and was alive with some excited activity when you entered your assigned quarters,” I said.

“But there is not a second in which the roulette man is not looking.”

“You didn’t see those occupants come into that room.”

“Ah… If only I could split the second. For me to do that, my hand must travel at the speed of light squared. The energy released by the splitting of the second will enable my hand to steal the chips unnoticed though the roulette master appears to be looking.”

“How’d you know it was they who were in that other room?”

“Her name was tagged on the door.”

“So she was the woman giggling endlessly and then ordering to go faster and faster…” “Remember the movie Ding

? “What about?”

“That was what we were that night. She and her driver storming in bed, such that I was virtually made to hump my pillow in a side position because our beds were pressed together, save for a piece of plywood in between.”

SEPTEMBER 22, 2016. President Rodrigo Duterte issued this statement in that day’s issue of the Philippine DailyInquirer not only screwing her driver, but also screwing the nation. She has been building a name at my expense to become popular.”

The presidential plethora with her driver was a veritable storm of vile and vice exploding out of Pandora’s Box. In fact, that was the kind of graphic description the driver, Ronnie Dayan, gave of his affair with the senator. At a subsequent House probe on the alleged connection of the two to the illegal drug trade operated by incarcerated drug lords right from specially constructed detention quarters inside the National Bureau of Prisons in Muntinlupa City, the driver likened his romance with the senator to “storm signal no. 5.”

During her term as chairman Human of the Rights Commission under the on Arroyo administration, De intense alleged summary investigation executions on the committed Davao Death by Squads the notorious (DDS) while City. This he was time mayor around, of Davao Duterte seemed to be taking sweet, sweet vengeance. De protector of the illegal drugs trade when she was Justice secretary, but also pilloried for carrying an affair with her driver, through whom she allegedly collected protection money from drug syndicates. On November 15, 2016, the

reported: - sion exclusively on Winnie Monsod’s BawalangPasaway program, which aired on Monday evening, November 14, on GMA News TV.

“‘Frailties of a woman,’ the lady senator said when Monsod asked why, given her status, she fell in love with a driver like Dayan.” and Dayan became “so close” for a few years until she broke up with him before she joined the Senate slate of the “We became so close. That’s it. I trusted him. De

Now, just what that “naano” means may be gleaned from the incident between former Social Work Secretary Judy Taguiwalo and Sen. Tito Sotto (not yet Senate president at the time) during the Commission of Appointments hearing Noting that Taguiwalo had a child without a known father, the senator said such a situation is called “naano.” That remark sparked loud protests from Taguiwalo and her fellow women’s liberation advocates, including her daughter, the very fruit of that “naano.”

In the case of the DayanDelima affair, “naano” took in a testimony the driver-lover made in the House inquiry hearing, as reported by ABSCBN News on November 24, 2016 with the headline: - fair, using storm signals.” The report went: alleged bagman, on Thursday used storm signals to describe the intensity of his seven-year love affair with the former Justice secretary.

“During Thursday’s House inquiry on the narcotics trade, Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas asked Dayan how intense their relationship was before it ended.

“‘Medyo signal no.1 nalang po, sir, medyomahina-hinana po (It was just signal number one, it was kind of weak)’ De According to the report, Fariñas insisted, “Gustokong malamanangsukdulan…ang pinakamalakasna signal na inabotniyo.”

“Dayan said: ‘ Umabotdin posiguromga signal no. 5, sir (I think it reached signal number 5).’” ‘Basta Driver, Sweet Lover’ THIS phrase began adorning the jeepneys of Metro Manila in the late 1960s. It was either painted in attractive colors on cute wooden or tin boards and hung inside the vehicle or on its exterior, or designed so as to frame the upper portion of the windshield.

The phrase was displayed so prominently that it became a daily sight for commuters. In 1979, it became the title of a movie starring the late George Estregan, a brother of now-Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, from the story and screenplay by Franklin Cabaluna, my dear departed kumpadre who ended up keeping as a paramour the movie’s leading lady, Chanda Romero, so that he might as well have subtitled his piece, “Basta Writer Sweet Romancer,” which I definitely am, anyway.

As all lovers are wont to allow themselves to be overcome by passion, Dayan admitted to the House inquiry that he remembered slapping his senator-lover one time because he found out that she was running an affair with another one of her close-in security personnel.

Here’s how Dayan recounted the incident, as reported in an article titled “Dayan: I out about new boyfriend,” published by GMA News on November 24, 2016:

“Ronnie Dayan, the former driver-bodyguard and lover of hearing on Thursday about the seemingly bitter end of their seven-year affair last year. - davit, Dayan said he slapped Justice, when he found out that she had a new boyfriend, who was also a member of her security team, following the rough patch in their relationship before 2015.

“‘[ N]agkakalabuannakami ni Kesyo hindinadawkamimasayasa pagsasamanaming (sic), lagi kasingbangayan,atlaging nag-aawaykami,’ he said.

“‘Kayano’ngnabalitaanko na‘yungisanghagadniya,na angpangalanay Warren Cristobal, angbagong boyfriend niya,parangnasampalkosiya nangbahagyasi Ma’am. Sabi ko,‘Uubusinmoyatakaming mga security mo,’” he added. “The confession was met with laughter.

“From there, Dayan said he seldom showed up for work at the DOJ and went to cool off in Pangasinan. “‘Taposnag- text siya, ‘PumuntakasaMaynila,may pipirmahanka.Kasihindika pumapasok,sumusuweldoka,’ sabiniya.Sabiko,‘Isangbeses langakosumuweldonitong

January, noong 15 lang.Noong 30 hindinaakosumuweldo. Walanangpumasoksa ATM ko,’ he said.

“He said that when he apthis, she forced him to resign, which was apparently also their breakup.

“‘Taposnoongpumuntana ako, resignation na.Sabiko kay Ma’am, ‘ Pinagre- resign monaakonaparangnagpapalipas loobsa Pangasinan,’ he said. telling him: ‘Nakakahiya kasi...atsakatamanarinito paraiwasgulo.’ “’Okay,parawalana ngangtalaganggulo.Ayaw konggulo,’sabiko.Pinirmahan resignation letter mgakatapusanng February 2015— kungbaga, pinuwersaniyaakongmag -

resign,’ he said. had an affair for seven years, starting a few months after he started working for her as driver-bodyguard in 2007.” The Seven-Year Itch

THE seven-year itch is the skin disease known as scabies, a contagious skin infestation by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei itchiness. For reasons which I will have to dig up yet, the term has come to be applied to the decline of happiness between couples that supposedly takes place at around the seventh year of marriage.

TheSeven-YearItch is the title of a 1950s Hollywood movie that turned Marilyn Monroe into a global sensation after doing a poetic upskirt, with the hem of her immaculate white dress ballooning up her shapely legs all the way up to where her hands press the skirt just in time to prevent from getting exposed. Coupled with that ecstatic expression on her face, that pose exuded sexuality so much that it is almost poetic, and enraptured the whole world.

Now back to Dayan. With my scant knowledge of arithmetic, I counted back seven years from 2015, which, he said in his House testimony, was the year he broke up with De

- seven-year itch. so it seems for Dayan, at least; charges of plunder.

As for my insatiable inquisitiveness, I had one more coffee session with David, this time while he was trying his luck at the roulette table. For one obsessed with quantum physics, it has become a passion for him to disprove Einstein by splitting the second and thereby produce the energy that will enable him to steal chips from the roulette man, though he appears to be looking but actually not seeing. said.

“What?” he asked.

“The story you told me once.”

“What story?”

“The story of Dayan and the giggling, storming lady next room in the Matabungkay resort cottage.”

“What are you talking about, stupid?”

“It’s all over the media. Dayan admitted it.”

“I wasn’t talking about Dayan.”

My mouth gaped.

“It was another driver.” Within a split- second, one pile of chips in front of the roulette master popped out of view.

David briskly shifted away, with me in tow. A smart-alecky glow lit up his face.

“You look so happy,” I said. “I won,” he said casually, showing the big handful of chips he was holding.