A touch of home

Duol ra ang San Fernando diri, Uncle? I haven’t been addressed like that—an uncle— by a stranger and it was a bit of a shock, to be asked like that by a boxer I just met.

But it reminded me of home, where everyone as old as your folks is either an “uncle” or an “auntie,” whether you’re related or not.

The boxer, Vince Paras, all of 18 with an impressive 10-0 record, was busy gobbling as fast as he could as the press con for Engkwentro sa Mandaue finished way past lunch. He was onto his second serving of rice in just minutes.

“Is-tek man ni ang tawag sa amo, Uncle,” he said, while taking generous portions of the sizzling pochero of Abuhan. I and a photog gently told him it wasn’t a steak and when he had a hard time figuring out what a sizzling pochero was, we told him, “pareha ra na sa baka gikan.”

During the press con, he brought the house down when he called his foe, Kuya. It was the first time in all the boxing press cons that I attended that a boxer has been referred to as “kuya.”

But I don’t think he was being a smart aleck when he referred to Omega’s Jimboy Haya--his opponent on the June 10 card in Mandaue--as Kuya. He was just being an 18-year- old kid from Silway addressing reporters the way he would address his seniors back home.

I told him that San Fernando was just an hour or so away from the city and he said that the Paras family of San Fernando were his relatives. The way he told me, it seemed he assumed I’d know one or two of them and was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t. Small-town boy transplated to Cebu.

It reminded me of my first few days in college here.

The promoter of the June 10 event, Kenneth Rontal, said one of his most succesful promotions was in Polomolok, South Cotabato, where I was born and raised. He said some 4,000 people packed the air- conditioned venue, to which I was honestly surprised.

Not with the number of people who packed the venue, though, but with the fact that our hometown’s municipal gym was already air-conditioned. It was under construction, I think, as early as my elementary years and was still under construction when I returned home from college.

It’s great that the edifice that for me was a monument of government waste has finally been put to use.

Rontal also said Polomolok officials have been calling him so he can put up another card there. I wanted to share a bit about the lady mayor in our town, about how, when we were in junior and she a freshman, a friend made her cry when he “courted” her in their classroom.

But, I thought, perhaps that wouldn’t be a nice story to bring up again, considering she’s now the mayor.

Paras isn’t the only kababayan fighting this June 10. The Saludar brothers—Vince and Froilan—are also fighting. And I told them that I’d bring a lot of taga-Polomolok to their fight, so they won’t feel like “visitors.” We may be a few, but we can make some noise if we want to.