Bad Day

You are sleep deprived for days. Your tired and battered body longs for the pillows and your soft bed. It’s Sunday so you anticipate a full, blissful and indulgent bed rest, so you get your bedside book to read until you fall unconscious.

Just when the book slowly slides from your hand and your eyes begin to close, your phone rings. You try to ignore. You take a peek at your phone but you cannot ignore the name blaring in the screen: your boss. Suddenly you feel a hot surge of anger spurt up your esophagus. You deeply resent the untimely intrusion. Holding your patience, you held your phone and groan your most courteous tone.

“Yes sir, good afternoon”.

“Sorry to bother you during weekend but I want you to draft a department order. This concerns the guidelines we’ve formulated. I will present it tomorrow before the secretary and undersecretaries for approval.”

“No problem sir. It’s Sunday afterall and I am just killing time”,

You say it in the hope that he can read the subtext screaming: “Of course, you are bothering me! You’ve just intruded my most private moment. I am not supposed to work on weekends! Asshole!

“Good. Please email me the draft today so I can make the necessary corrections”.

“Yes sir. I will.”

He is the boss. You are the lowly subordinate. You do the dirty work. He gets the credit. As if the weekly enslavement is not enough, you are expected to deliver in such a very very very short notice.

You get up in vertiginous state. A lightening bolt of stress flashes from the top of your head to the base of your spine. Stomach acid heaves up your esophagus and starts filling your mouth with the taste of regurgitated lunchtime sinigang.You light up your cigarette; you vigorously puff. A cloud of smoke comes out from your nostrils.

You curse your fate.

UP Naming Mahal

I am a proud Isko.

Finally I got hold of the UP centennial planner after over four months of waiting. When I leafed through it, I cried. That is an OA statement, of course. The sepia tinted pages evoked nostalgia. It opened the flood gates of wonderful memories. Memories and experience that were greatly part of what I am now. I remember I was a young virginal (literally and figuratively) farm boy whose life then had been confined in the barrio and was abruptly thrown into a radical society. The Oble literally loomed over me; I was but a fleck in its agoraphobic campus.

One thing UP taught me: There is no limit to human capacity.

The planner chronicles the UP history: It reminisces the milestones that are etched into UP’s rich history, a proof that UP has produced a plethora of great minds and trailblazers that defined the country’s history. It also showcases the contemporary and timeless symbols that make for what we often call tatak UP such as the UP Ikot and Toki, the Oblation Run, Lantern Parade, the Lagoon, AS steps, the Sunken Garden etc. Every week, in the planner, one would be inspired by the quotes from different UP famous personalities. Something that would remind as of the UP ideal; something that could embolden us wherever we maybe.

I don’t know, but there is something about UP that bewitches us all. It lures us back wherever we may be. Every now and then, I would visit UP. Somehow the familiar environment would bring me a different feeling. The same way I long for the comfort of my mother whenever I feel sick. Without fail I would run into an old friend or classmate who does the same thing.

Kudos to the University Student Council for spearheading this once-in-a lifetime publication! MABUHAY ANG UNIBERSIDAD NG PILIPINAS!

All in a Days Work

I am sorry my dear readers (yes, I have two readers) for keeping you in dark. I could not really find time to sit, surf, sort and scribe to share interesting snippets of my life (say that five times, fast) .

Two days after the release of the bar, I got a call to report for work in a government agency. I wasn’t sure yet whether I would practice so I tried government service. I gathered it is permissible to practice on the side while working in the government. So off I went.

During my first day, I met my boss, the undersecretary. It turned out that we both came from the same law school so we talked about people he knew in school that I may have known, some dickhead law professors, and unreasonable questions during the bar exam. After a few minutes, probably realizing that he was boring me with the useless blathering, he called the secretary through the intercom and asked her to book me a ticket to Boracay. I was taken aback but I ignored; although at the back of my mind I was wondering what I did in the last 10 minutes that could have merited a vacation. Then he drove me home so that- in his words - to enjoy the rest of they. Before I left, he gave me a pat in the back and called me with my nickname. He was even apologetic for clutter in the office and my still unprepared cubicle. As if I went there for a pajama party…

Who can beat that? My first day of work and I have established a close relationship with my boss. My first day of work but I was not told to work. Instead I would spend my next few days in the beach. Of course I would be there on official business but what’s the difference? I would still wade and frolic in the famed powdery white beach.

I had the impression that working in the government is a walk in the park: I would just sit in my cubicle pretending to be busy, siesta every after two hours, attend meetings or conferences in hotels or beach resort, eat gourmet food etc. and the receive my pay check after the end of the month.

I was dead wrong. I never thought that that the coming days were portentous.

The next time I reported for work I was told to attend a meeting to observe and immerse myself. It was like a boardroom meeting and some one is making a power point presentation on what appears to be the status of a certain project. My nose hemorrhaged trying figure out what the f--- he was talking about. He talked about synergization, multi-modal system, administrative time-phases, synchronized transitional concepts and other gobbledygook. To make matters worse, the other responded in acronyms like TVR, OTC, PBML, QPL, LMP, PBS, PKKP, MDPPA etc. It was so disconcerting that I went out with extreme case of vertigo that I had to engage in unbridled smoking to calm the throbbing nerves in my head.

The experience gave me paranoia. I always had the nagging feeling that any time my boss would ask my legal opinion on something and I would give him a blank stare. I felt I had to make an independent study to understand the organization I am in. So I braced myself and started poking the ever reliable little mouse. I read everything the net has to offer about the organization: its mission and vision, its mandate under the law, powers and functions, I perused its rules and regulations and other issuances, I even codified all laws pertaining to the said organizations, the different departments and divisions , it organizational structure, etc.. I learned their jargons to adapt myself in their language game.

Within a few days I started to speak in tongues with my boss.

My boss gave me my first assignment: to draft a department order pursuant to an executive order issued by the president in order to address the complaints of an influential sector and to formulate the implementing rules.

I was an overzealous student trying to impress my teacher who after reading all the assigned readings started to make advanced reading. I accomplished my assignment way ahead of the deadline. I even gave my comment and recommendation with all legal basis that I could get, including Supreme Court decisions and US decisions to boot.

My boss was impressed. The next day he piled up work on my desk.

A week ago, my boss got sick and had to be hospitalized for five days. With minimum instructions I ran the office. I wrote memos and correspondence in his behalf, attend meetings as his representative, make decisions and recommendation in lieu of his.

Probably thinking that I could do the job even without him. He started delegating all his work to me, which includes making a complaint against PLDT for disconnecting their line without prior notice.

Right now, our department is undergoing a big project pursuant to an Executive Order. My boss gave me all the dirty work with very few staff which involved researching for jurisprudence, applicable laws scattered everywhere, formulating guidelines and policies, reviewing all rules and regulations of the department and including ordinances enacted by LGUs, making recommendations etc.

I have a bottle-neck work load. I can’t breathe.

And oh, tomorrow I’ll fly to Davao and then fly back to Manila the following day for another meeting. Aaaargh!