Sunday, November 12, 2006
Musicians who need help
AGELESS and popular country music soloist Mike Santos once wondered aloud: "Kung tayo kaya and magkasakit, may tutulong din kaya?"
The question came one night several years ago in Mankayan, Benguet. The band members had just ended a concert at the Palanca Hall of Lepanto mines for a 16-year old girl stricken with leukemia. It was their latest in years of pro bono performances for the indigent and seriously.
The question came while they were sharing jokes, relaxing and lowering their adrenaline with gin. It broke their laughter, turning them silent for a moment.
Lead guitarist Porky Peria had no answer. Neither did drummer Willy Calderon. Lead singer Mhia Tibunsay was out of earshot, already resting in her room at the Lepanto hospital for the trip back to Baguio the following morning.
In no time, soloist Conrad Marzan took them back on track with another anecdote.
The poser returned when Mike was hit by tuberculosis, so weak he couldn't rise from the dormitory bed he shared with his wife Juliet.
"May sagot ako sa tanong mo noon sa Mankayan," Conrad said as he and Porky carried their mate to a waiting taxi for the Baguio health center. "Wala, walang tutulong sa 'yo," he said, grinning.
"E, ba't kayo 'andito?" Mike asked, also breaking into a smile and trying to shake his head.
For six months, the band played on without Mike. With free medicine from the health department, Mike recuperated under Juliet's care. The couple made ends meet with his share intact from the band's nightly sets at the Wild West Music Saloon.
The band again grappled with the question last Tuesday, All Saints Day.
That day, Juliet's mother, Adela Sagubo, had her right foot amputated at the Benguet General Hospital. The 76-year-old widow from Sagpat, Kibungan was suffering from gangrene.
Same day, doctors at the hospital took a tissue sample from Willy the drummer. They needed it for biopsy, to confirm initial findings for lung cancer.
The test result will be known on November 21, Juliet told this writer when she came to ask if anybody can lend her mother a wheel chair.
The band and other local musicians have been singing for the sick for years now. Many of the beneficiaries they never knew and never met. It's been easier that way.
Here's the hard part - the shoe is known on the other foot. Mike and the rest are asking if it's all right to set up a fund-raising concert, this time for his mother-in-law, whom he loves. And for Willie, his fellow band member since they started out in Olongapo many years ago.
Mike relishes narrating his mother-in-law's surprise when he visited her to ask for Juliet's hand. "Tinanong n'ya ako kung saan ang anak kong gusting ikasal si Juliet," Mike tells friends. "Akala n'ya ako ang magiging balae nya. Sabi ko, ako yon, yong gustong ikasal ang anak n'yo."
Mike is 67. Juliet is now 33. She bore him a daughter, Mica, an honor pupil who will be 11 on December 7.
While working out the benefit concert, Conrad has appealed for support for the two patients' medications and hospital bills.
He assures whoever can provide a wheelchair that Mike will help it when his mother-in-law is ready to go home to Kibungan.
Samaritans may get in touch with the band at the Music Magic Saloon along Session Road. Juliet's cellphone number is 09062138533. Porky's is 09194131295. (Ramon Dacawi)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (November 12, 2006 issue)
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