SIATON, NEGROS ORIENTAL — On the first day of November, at sitio Agbagacay in the seaside barangay of Bonbonon here, all children and all those who have experienced being her “children” came home from all over: Canada, the US, Australia, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Manila, Cebu, Zamboanga, Camotes Island…and many more.
They all came home to express love, loyalty, and gratitude to their beloved mother, grandmother, great- grandmother, guardian angel, home matron who generously shares a shelter for the homeless Petronila Gadiana Jaugar-Palalon, born on the first of November in 1916.
It was, afterall, Petronila’s 100th birthday.
The special day overshadowed the Halloween, All Souls’ and All Saints’ holidays, as it had become an annual homecoming for this huge clan from around here in Siaton.
Petronila’s household is home to children, grandchildren, great- grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren from her own immediate family and those of her brothers and sisters.
On her 100th birthday, Petronila, youngest of Jose & Eleuteria Gadiana-Jaugar’s brood, demonstrated her sharp memory by enumerating her siblings from the oldest: Basilisa Palalon, Valeriana Palarpalar; Ponciano and Premitiva (both stillborn); Eleuterio, Cornelio Sr., Roberta Palarpalar, Atelana Palalon, and Eugenio and his twin Bernardina Aberca.
She admits to being pretty but is quick to qualify, “…not as popular as Valeriana who was taller, slender, and more beautiful with her natural curls. I’m really the not-so-pretty one when compared to my sisters.”
Although people around her would disagree.
Petronila has remained oh-so-beautiful as you can see in the picture I took of her the morning after the big event.
At dawn on her birthday, as she was being serenaded by her children and her “children”, Petronila was looking regal in a traditional dress.
I love her sharp European features, softened by the Asian lineage, so evident on Petronila’s lovely presence.
Another proof to this good-looking lineage is the fact that two of the Island’s beauty queens come from the fourth and fifth generations of the Jaugars: Miss Negros Oriental Centennial Theo-liza Quilnet (daughter of Teodorico & Rosario Jaugar-Quilnet), and Ms Silliman 2007 Sarah Jane Martin (daughter of Dave & Lisa Macatumbas-Martin, and great-grand daughter of Basilisa Jaugar-Palalon).
She tells me, “Wanti’s grandfather was from Poland.”
Julian “Wanti” Jaugar, patriarch of the Jaugars and Siaton’s legendary man, was Petronila’s grandfather. Known not only as town mayor, Wanti was also known to all as the one person with extraordinary powers that drove away the pirates. A creek near the old seat of government was named ‘Wanti’ in honor of his heroism.
Wanti’s legend comes strong in Petronila’s total being. He was her superhero, and she understood much of her father Jose’s authoritarian discipline as all stemming from the original superhero of the family.
Why this much love for Petronila Jaugar-Palalon? I think it’s because Mama Itdol or Lola Itdol — as our birthday celebrator is fondly called by everyone here in Siaton — treats everyone lovingly like her very own children.
Mama Itdol’s niece, the late Rosario Jaugar-Quilnet, former supervisor of the Department of Education here in Siaton, revealed in a 2012 interview with much sense of pride due to their intimate connection that she was “the baby who brought Mama Itdol home”.
As the story goes, while the Jaugar sisters, including Itdol, were growing up, they were forbidden to be with any of the Palalon boys. Their father Jose told them he did not find a good-looking one among the Palalon pedigree.
But the Palalon boys seemed to be so obsessed with the Jaugar sisters that everyday, they would wait for any of the sisters to be on the road.
In the olden days here in the town of Siaton, the men would get their women by force: it was for this reason the women would have a lanot (woven chastity belt) under their long skirts.
Eventually, two of the Palalon boys successfully won over Jaugar sisters Basilisa and Atelana; Jose Jaugar continued to be at war with the Palalons.
So it came as a shock when the youngest Itdol, 24 years old then, eloped with a young tailor named Hilario, who turned out to be another Palalon. Itdol was disowned by her father, and so Hilario took his young bride to Bacolod.
But Jose’s favorite daughter-in-law Isak Jandog, the Spanish mestiza wife of Cornelio (who was working as security aide of missionary Robert Silliman), died while giving birth to Rosario during World War II. Jose had no choice but to ask his youngest daughter Itdol to come back home and breastfeed baby Rosario. That time, Itdol had her two-month old eldest Librada.
It was Itdol’s response to the dire need for parenting for her brother’s baby Rosario that reunited her with her family in Siaton.
With enduring life lessons, Mama Itdol became the “mother” of all other children in the next generations of the Jaugar clan, demonstrating much wisdom for life’s survival.
When she was younger, Mama Itdol was as hardworking as her husband. She was Hilario’s assistant at the tailoring shop, and proved to be a good tailor herself. She would join him in their cornfields, and in the evening, they would go fishing as they had their own bungsod, a traditional fishing gear. They also went into copra-trading, and she became more entrepreneurial in spirit with a lot more sources of income including cattle and goat raising, piggery, poultry, rice fields with carabaos-for-rent, a sari-sari store, and a sound system rental for benefit dances and other public events.
While Itdol and Hilario were busy working, the workers in the copra business helped mind the children. Itdol taught the Palalon children to work as hard, who learned to do household chores at a young age, and who became “helpers” themselves to their parents’ various undertakings in their teenage years.
With Mama Itdol’s emphasis on the importance of education, some of them left Siaton to find work in Cebu to sustain their respective dreams for schooling.
On her 100th year, Mama Itdol continues to take much pride in her children’s success stories: the late Librada Banquerigo was an elementary school teacher in General Santos City; Edilberto is a professional driver in Toronto; the late Julian was a Coast Guard with the Philippine Navy; the late Jaime was a nautical engineer; Liliosa is an agriculturist who opened the door for her siblings to find opportunities in Canada; Tommy is an electrical engineer in Toronto now studying to become a professional pilot; Teresita Lagrama graduated with a secretarial degree; Rodrigo finished Commerce and is also working in Toronto; and her youngest Maria Elena Smith graduated with an accounting degree from Silliman University, and now also works in Canada. All of them said they are thankful to their mother Petronila for teaching them the value of hard work.
Petronila’s way to good parenting was not to manicure the road to success for the kids to have a smooth life, but to teach them the value of honest work and good manners when with other people -— the best keys to face the realities of what she remembers as pait nga kinabuhi.
“Life can be bitter, and so children must learn to work for their future sweet life,” Petronila says.
The testimonies during the birthday party were awesome: a sweet life that accompanied being with Lola Itdol; the world’s greatest mother according to world-traveler grandson Jeferson who grew up under Lola Itdol’s loving care after his father died and his mother left him.
Al Roseller Banquerigo, whom Lola Itdol refers to as “the king” as he is the oldest among her own 27 grandchildren, said: “My Lola believes she is the richest woman in this planet — and there is much truth to that, although not in the literal sense; she is the richest because our love for her overflows.”
Reflecting on this 100th birthday gathering, Lola Itdol expressed: “Ang akong Labaw nga Makagagahom nagsugo kanako nga bantayan ang tanan, ako ang magbalantay.”
Negros Island’s new centenarian may think that it’s only now that God has chosen her to be the guardian of all, but all of us who have witnessed her special presence in our lives know that her being the guardian angel goes within and beyond the hundred years of the beautifully-rich-in-sweetness inspiring life of this wonderful woman named Petronila. (Moses Joshua Atega, with reports from Dr. Theorose June Quilnet-Bustillo)