Manoy Junnie: So The Younger Ones Will Always Remember

We grew up in a family with nine children whose father is a jeepney driver and a dressmaker mother. Their meager income can feed the family with simple and equally divided meals but barely send all the children to school.

But with very good intention to send their children to one of the reputed good high schools in the area, which is a private school, Papang and Mamang send Manoy Junnie (the eldest) to Allah Valley Academy (AVA). It was understandable that our parents can still afford the school fees for their eldest in a private high school because all the younger school children were availing the free public elementary education that is a walking distance from our house.

When Manoy Junnie was still in AVA, Manay Rosalie, the second child and just a year younger, graduated from elementary, and was very eager to proceed to high school. Due to the measly income of our parents, they cannot afford to send her also to a private school. So, it was decided that Manay will attend to a public high school named Surallah National Agricultural School (SUNAS), where Papang and Mamang had to think only of her exact daily fare (no, I mean, NEVER had extra allowance for snacks. Money for snacks and other wants was so foreign to us by then!) and a very minimal miscellaneous school fees.

Two years after Manay Rosalie entered high school, it was also Ate Lilyn’s turn to embrace secondary education. It was also then that Manoy graduated from AVA . Wow, congratulations, it was a dream come true to our father who only reached Grade III and to our mother who is a high school graduate!

In as much as Manoy wanted to continue schooling, college education to our parents by then was far fetched and, they said, it was only meant to those people whose family can afford to send them to far away places where a College institution is available. By then, there was no College yet in our town. So Manoy had to stop and gave way for the younger siblings to get high school diplomas too.

While in respite from school, Manoy Junnie was Mamang’s executive assistant in the house in any task one can think of. Among so many, he cut woods for cooking, go down the cliff which was about a kilometer away to fetch water from the well right beside Allah River (there was no Cartesian Well or running water in our place by then), maintain our yard garden with ornamental plants and vegetables, raise livestock like chickens and pigs, clean the house, and look and prepare food as it is the practice of our family that Papang buys about a kilo of meat or fish every day that will be consumed for dinner that day, and breakfast and lunch the following day. We had to be innovative what menu to prepare bearing in mind that this 1 kilo of viand should fit in 3 meals for the whole family. We harvested from our backyard the vegetables and spices to add. Horse radish and lemon grass were champion!

While busy with house chores, Manoy also took time to be active in church activities and made friends with the family of a pastor. The pastor and his wife, who were both high school teachers, became Manoy’s mentors. They encouraged him to pursue college education from where they graduated. The school is about six hours jeep and bus ride away from us. The fare going there is already so expensive based on the family’s standard. This simply implied that we can never afford the tuition fees and Manoy’s daily sustenance! With so much thoughts and prayers, Manoy eventually asked the blessing of our parents. After lengthy discussions and arguments of our parents, and with great hesitation of Papang but with fervent prayers and a strong faith in God of Mamang, they finally let Manoy pursue his dream.

After about three years of vacation from school and with humungous determination, Manoy enrolled at Southern Baptist College (SBC). He took up Bachelor of Education in Secondary Education major in Mathematics. Manoy wanted to be a teacher! Our family, with the contribution of some friends, was able to raise only for his fare, for required tuition downpayment and for buying food for a few days. Upon recommendation of his mentors, Manoy then worked as a working student (as in mopping the school gym's floor, cleaning the comfort rooms, cutting bushes, etc., etc.) during weekdays, and served as a pastor in a small church in a far flung Barangay called Tibao Baptist Church during weekend. He utilized the working student salary for his school fees and projects, and lodging payment. For his food, every time he returned to SBC from a weekend of pastoral work, the members of his church gave him supplies of rice, chickens, fruits and vegetables which he can barely consume for weeks. Manoy was also blessed to receive gifts of clothes to add to his very limited wardrobe! During weekdays, when he had no class or was not working, Manoy spent almost all his time either in the library or at his room studying for both his subjects and preparing sermons for his church services.

There were rare occasions when Manoy went home either during long holidays or school vacations. We were always very glad to have Manoy home. He always exerted big effort to bring little something for us all. My favorites were those second hand reading books especially the Sesame Street. The only books around the house by then were school textbooks and Bibles. He also prepared special meals for the whole family - his very own creation! I can still figure out a horse radish-egg soup. Hmmm…it was so yummy by then!

In one occasion, I remember seeing Mamang and Manoy standing before the open rectangular window of our house. Manoy was about to go back to SBC by then. They were talking and I overheard Mamang saying in cracked voice, “I am really sorry, Jun, that is the only amount we can afford to give you now.” She gave Manoy P120. “Do not compare yourself to your friends whose allowances are thousands of pesos in a month. We can never afford that. And, as you can see, many of your siblings are also attending high and elementary schools. I don’t know where your Papa and I will get their daily sustenance. I just commit everything to God.” Then Manoy replied with teary eyes, “I am very aware of that, Mang, and don’t you worry because I never demand at all”. By then, Manay Rosalie, who graduated already from high school, was the one who is managing the house chores.

Then the reaping time for Manoy’s labors arrived. About four years after Manoy first left home for SBC. I remember so well, it was when I was in Grade V that Mamang, Manay Rosalie, Nonoy and I attended Manoy’s graduation. (By then, Manay was already done in her first year in BA Economics. Yes, she enrolled in another college with her own humongous determination.) I remember wearing a Girl Scout uniform during the commencement ceremony because it was the newest and the only presentable dress I got. Mamang was ecstatic that her eldest finally receive a college diploma and now a “degree holder” as she called it. It was a dream come true not only for herself but also for her own parents whom she had been feeling guilty of failing them for their wishes that she will be a “degree holder” as well. Papang did not go with us. As he justified, he cannot afford for a vacation from work even just for a day. Otherwise, we will all starve! And, to be consistent, he never attended any graduation of all his children!

After graduation, Manoy took the licensure exam for teachers and was fortunate to pass it right away. He was hired by SBC’s high school department right after.

Right then and there, he owned the responsibility of sending Ate Lilyn (who was about to enter college, Kuya Jocjoc (who was about to enter 3^rd year high school) and Nene (who was about to enter high school) - the 3^rd, 4^th and 6^th child, respectively - to school. He enrolled them at SBC as well. Our parents were partly relieved with the burden of sending us all to school and, hopefully, improve our lives!

While teaching and serving as guardian to our three siblings, Manoy was not yet content with his education He enrolled in weekend classes to a graduate school of Notre Dame of Marbel University in order to get a masters degree in education. He traveled 10 hours back and forth each weekend to do this. He then transferred to a national high school to be near our home, to teach to less privileged high school students and for a better pay.

Right now, Manoy is back to our place serving as principal in a national high school just about 50 meters away from our parent’s house. It has been a long and mountainous journey. But Manoy was determined, focused, persevered and clung to God through and through.

May his children, nephews and nieces will emulate him always. May their lives be like what Manoy is enjoying right now or even better.

P.S.

Manoy is still fond of planting and raising livestock but he, together with his wife who is also a principal in another national high school, has been expanding it from the yard of their house to hectares of farm. The additional income he is getting from their farm helps in sending his daughter who is graduating in a pre-med degree from the premier university of the country, and his son who is taking up marine engineering from the premier maritime university in the country. Moreover, there is an abundant supply now of running water both in his own family’s house and in our parent’s house.