Golden Nuggets from the treasure trail

THE first time I heard of treasure hunting was when I had no idea at all about it operationally. It came from a man, who introduced himself as “Yamane from La Trinidad, Baguio.”

Yamane came to be a close associate and friend of my father, who himself was a recognized hunter in the wilds of Kumyaas like his grandson Leo at present. Above Leo, however, Papang Tomas was active in locating precious metals and forest products like hardwood, medicinal herbs, vines and fungi as well as the their opposites, the poisonous ones. I was never afraid when I was with him in the confusing ranges and jungles. He was always able to find water and edible fruits, flowers, barks for leaves. I never saw him buy or take synthetic medicine even in the case of serious wounds or infection. His skill stuck to my mind since I contracted malaria and may have been inherited by my brother became he adept in locating underground springs also. Frater Balweg solved the perennial problem of water supply at the major seminary compound of the Society of the Divine Word and an adjoining parish in Tagaytay City. Papang Tomas had in his fingertips the directional areas of Apayao and Kalinga and the names of prominent family trees and tribes. His highest scholastic attainment was a primary school grader, but because he was a wanderlust, he could communicate in Iloko, Tagalog, a bit of Pangasinan aside from various Tinguian and Kalinga dialects, in prose or entertaining chants. He also was taken as “escribiente” (secretarial clerk) of District Mayor Santiago “Ago” Camarao of the Municipal District of Bangilo, now a component part of the Municipality of Malibcong, Abra.

Yamane explained problems and dangers that should be known and given remedies in treasure hunting and recovery. I vividly recall an example that he dramatically gave, “I chose close relatives to work in my project in order to minimize distrust and quarreling but when they finally reached and saw the ‘object’, they instinctively reached for their guns and almost shot at one another (agistayanda nagpipinnaltog) had I not alertly doused them with water from a pale readily nearby. “According to him, his workers suddenly regained their composure and asked one another, “Apay, ania daydiay?” (why, what happened?) Since that time, he said some of them refused to join in his hidden treasurer search and recovery efforts.

The second time I got an inkling of hidden treasure recovery took place in the compounds of a seminary. After a violent storm caused the erosion of a mango-planted portion of an elevated portion of the compound, but far enough from an old tunnel below to the left of the Lourdes grotto that we then recently built as novices, I saw two black boxes the looks of oversized car batteries. I kicked them to put them aside from the path of priests reading their breviary but to no avail. They were heavy, too heavy. After two days, they were no more to be seen. So with our two gardeners. Rumors had it that they were sent on world tour with the permission of the foreigner Brother in charge of them. That was very strange because the seminary workers were recompensed with only six pesos per day (P6.00/d). In fact, this “inadequate amount” made me favor the PAFLU- advised strike put up by or led by our carpenters and maintenance crew against the carpentry and maintenance shops. Our social science professor, who had a stint of missionary activity with fellow Germans in China up to the Mao-tre-tung take-over of government, agreed to serve as behind-the-curtain adviser. He did not like the Philippines to undergo what happened in China in the name of socio-economic development vis-àvis exploding population. It was boasted that only sixty-five thousand lawyers were allowed to service 1.8 billion Chinese at the time and two million antis, mostly conservative elderly, were drowned in the Yang-tse River by the Red Guards. This need not happen in the Philippines, he advised, “there is still time.” But then as China had been opiated for long, the Philippines was beginning to be marijuanized slowly but surely. Its educational sector devoted itself to methods but reneging on substance. Even mainstream and denominational church people appeared to ride with “if you can’t beat ‘em, join them”, then prided themselves in colambasting secular government for something it, of course, cannot do if left alone. We forgot that God meant us to be co-creators and co-managers with Him as regards His creation. He did not set us apart from other creatures to see us keep bending our knees and folding our hands while the rest of the world is inescapably evolving, knowing that evolution can go haywire because of man’s intervention just as a cancer cell can wreak havoc to a systemic or organic whole in a body that is supposed to be human, a temple of the Holy Spirit if