Elias Santiago or Ely looked left and right before going out the door of his house or abode or hole in the wall. It depends on one’s perspective. The 8x4 dwelling is home to Ely. He shares it with his wife and child who is 3 years old. Ely just turned 21 last Saturday and he barely got to celebrate it until his brother, Ignacio came with 2 liters of Emperador Lite and lechon manok.
At first, he did not want Ignacio to show up since Ignacio was also a small time pusher. But he was his only brother and his sister passed away 2 years ago because of complications with childbirth or Ely wanted to believe. He just do not want to listen to stories that his sister overdosed on shabu since she was already having contractions on her stomach and wanted the pain to go away.
Ely looked both ways again and took a step. It has only been a few weeks when many of his gang “surrendered” and went to the barangay hall. Oplan Tokhang has not reached their eskinita yet but somebody from the barangay went around with a list that showed names of drug addicts and small time pushers. Having found out that they had their names on the list prompted many of them to “surrender”. Ely’s name was not on that list. He avoided successfully taking shabu even though most of his friends were hooked on the stuff. He just did not like it, that’s what he told himself. He was now on his way to the plaza area where he has this small stall that repaired cellphones and other gadgets.
He never had time to kiss Linda goodbye, she was out early being a laundrywoman and she took their child with her. Ely gave Rooney 2 Pochi as they went. He hoped to get some business by 11:30 a.m. buy lunch and go home and after that return to his repair stall after lunch and earn some more before buying their supper.
It was a hardscrabble life for him and his family. He got Linda pregnant when they were both 17 and just graduated from high school. Having a son gave him such a heavy responsibility that he was afraid to think 2 weeks in advance. He just worked, went home and played with his son. The regular drinking session with neighbors would come in twice a week and a brother who would drop by once a week was what occupied his time. He had a small TV set with cable connections (courtesy of neighborhood drug addicts who made the illegal connections) and a DVD player that he was able to buy from another drug addict who must have stolen it.
He was riding his BMX bike (a survivor of his transition from boyhood to manhood to parenthood all in a span of 1 year) when he saw SWAT vehicles going the opposite way. He knew he was too small a fry to be bothered and even if he did bother, they would just ignore somebody like him. The only attention he got was when the owner of the sari-sari store would remind him of what he owed the guy.
He arrived at the stall and removed the netting. Setting up his CPU and other tools took a whole of 5 minutes and he was open for business. Magno, the other stall owner who sold headphones, chargers and other gadgets sauntered up to him. “Pare, eto may 2 pang hopia. Merienda natin. Hoy Gemo, 2 gulaman, paki dala mo dito, dito ko na babayaran.” Magno would do this almost every morning. He was thankful that the cellphone repair stall also generated business for him. It was symbiotic business relationship. “Nag inuman kami ni Ignacio kagabi. Di mo man lang ako inimbita nung birthday mo” Magno feigned hurt but he delivered it with a smile. “Biglaan lang naman yun, dumating si Ignacio may dalang empi at lechon manok. “OK lang yun, biro lang. Eto, hopia, happy birthday hahahaha!”.
It was almost noon when Ely took up the contents of the box, he now had money for lunch. He bought 3 Okoy and 6 lumpiang shanghai and 3 orders of rice. As he was bicycling home, he was nearly sideswiped by the barangay ambulance. Hurrying home via the callejon, Linda with Rooney stopped him. She was in tears. “Ely, huwag ka muna umuwi, nag raid ang SWAT kanina pagkatapos mong umalis. Hinabol si Ignacio, dun na corner sa may kapilya, patay na.”
Ely rushed to the kapilya, there was already a security cordon. “kapatid niya ako” he told one policeman. He saw Ignacio. Half his head was blown away and uncounted bullet holes riddled his body. Ely’s knees buckled to the ground. He knew that his brother was a small time pusher. A small time pusher. But what he is seeing now is not a small time pusher. It was not even a pig slaughtered. A slaughtered pig does not look like that. His mind raced back when they were just children. Ignacio was always a big brother to him. Ignacio was the one who brought him to school and picked him up after school. It was Ignacio who came up with the money when his wife gave birth and it was Ignacio who spent for the baptism of Rooney. Ely knew that Ignacio was a pusher but Ely also knew that Ignacio was his brother. Ignacio did not deserve to be butchered like this.
Ely composed himself and went back to his stall. He will close early today. He will just wait until he has enough for dinner. He could not afford to wallow in despond. He had mouths to feed. Magno came up “Sorry Ely, kaibigan ko din naman si Ignacio.” Magno looked down. “Parang tayo lang ang kayang patayin di ba?”. Ely had this far away look. “Ely, may ipakikilala ako sa iyo. Hindi tama ang ginagawa eh. Para tayong mga ipis na pinupuksa”. “Sige, ipakilala mo ako.” Ely replied without even looking at Magno. Ely was gazing at the bell tower of the church and so much hated that the day is coming to an end.
