Jun Arriola hailed from Masbate, province of the Visayas. His father was a physician by profession and his mother, Mrs. Eva Maranan-Arriola was a former beauty pageant finalist somewhere in Manila. His mother was a close friend of our very distant relative, a pretty Lenie & her sister Charito, daughters of my father's distant cousin, by the name of Clautilde Lanuza.
The closeness of Clautilde Lanuza's family & friends with my father was such that during their teenage years, they used to go together to some of their memorable singing & dancing parties, for my father, the late Eliseo D. Fuentes, was good at chacha & at playing guitar, not to mention that he had the popular baritone voice in the community. Having a good command of the written english language, my father was often asked to compose replies to the numerous love letters that Clautilde & other cousins received from their suitors at that time.
So when I finally met Jun Arriola during our grade 6 term at Beata Elementary School here in Pandacan, it was rather a close encounter with a kindred person. I immediately took notice of his good handwriting & was being drawn to him like a true close friend. But it was not until our 1st year at Carlos P. Garcia that we bonded together like pen & paper. This was partly due to the fact that we were the few guys who were classmates at grade 6, who finally ended up classmates again at an entirely different world, freedom years of high school. I frequented their house, which was also the clinic held by his father, who treated my father & eldest sister on few occasions. Upon learning that I was a relative of Lenie Lanuza, the mother of Jun took fond of me. I was even invited to eat dinner with their family if my stay coincided with dinner time, and I met Jun's brothers Jing, Jerome, and only sister, Judith.
Henceforth, Jun & I were inseparable, we often ate & stayed together during school's vacant hours. I soon found out that Jun was very good at History, English, Literature -- subjects that I enjoyed most. That's why it was not a surprise that we both ended up in a journalism class during first year (remember our picture together with Jun Chavez, Rosemarie Concepcion, and others ?)
So we also ended up together in some of the most exciting times in high school, during City-wide Journalism Contests, Spelling Contest in Araullo High School, field trips, seminars, etc. We even duked it out during the elimination round in 2nd Year Social Studies (Current Events) Contest, whose winner would be representing Garcia High School among other public high schools in Metro Manila. He beat me in this and he represented our school. But I was happy in the end for I was awarded the Best in Social Studies at the end of the school-year, 1979-80.
When the former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos called for the young journalists of the public schools into Malacanang to distribute his newly published books on Filipino Ideologies, Jun & I were there, at the heroes hall, but doing what, playing with the then popular Nintendo Game&Watch ("Fire") while the First Lady Imelda Marcos was delivering the opening remarks -- funny times -- we never realized that right above where we were seated, was the sign, "Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan."
If you think that was funny, well listen to this. On our way home after the above Malacanang visit, we saw the Vicente Mapa High School just nearby & decided to enter it, on a sentimental journey, for it was my father's Alma Mater. Call of nature forced us to enter a comfort room with partly erased signage at the top of the door. We did not bother to make sure what we were entering into.
Moments later we heard commotion outside, and a loud authoritative voice from the Principal herself, ordering us on threat, to come out or else she'd have us arrested by the guards for entering the ladies room.
Jun & I had never been so scared in our entire life. We hardly noticed that it was a ladies room, we were the only ones inside, and there was nothing unusual, the smell was the same as well as the dirt in the bowl, who would know what? We looked out the windows to escape, but we were at the second floor, much too high to jump out from.
At this point, we remembered what Francisco Balagtas wrote in Florante At Laura, when Florante was detained at the forest, "Sa loob at labas ng bayan kong sawi, kaliluha'y s'yang nangayayaring hari.". But we changed these wordings and said, "Sa loob at labas nitong banyong mali, kalituhan ay nangyari sa aming pagpili". Somehow, we felt vindicated, and should not be condemned right away. We felt like heroes inside that comfort room. But who would believe us?
After that, we said to ourselves, "We are brave, we're not cowards, we will face them." The crowds were getting bigger.
And for the last time, we both drew out our combs together, styled our hair, in a last-ditch effort to look as decent as possible to somehow mitigate the sentence, if we would ever be found guilty of indecent acts.
We decided to go out and face our accusers and saw the mob of teachers & students who appeared ready to corner us. We tried to explain our side that we mistook it for the men's room unintentionally for we never saw the sign correctly. But they laughed at us & insisted that we be probed further. Then we remembered again what Francisco Balagtas said, "Kapag ang isinalubong sa'yong pagdating, ay matamis na ngiti na may pakitang giliw, lalong paka ingat pagkat kaaway na lihim, di maglalaon s'ya mong kakabakahin."
Guess what we did? We run as fast as our feet could carry us, way past the bewildered young & old students alike all across the hallways, our hearts pounding hard deep within. We also remembered what Dr. Jose Rizal wrote, in Noli Me Tangere, "Ang umiwas sa punglo ay hindi karuwagan."
On our way out, we yelled at the students, "Huwag n'yo akong salangin!" (Noli Me Tangere or Touch Me Not) You see, all our learnings in Garcia High School came into play with our predicament. That proves Carlos Garcia teachers are the "cream of the crop".
Adrenalin-rush proved beneficial, and we reached the final exit gate, breathless but unscathed. We felt like we were Elias & Chrisostomo Ibarra on the boat, the night when the Guardia Civil tried to arrest and shoot at them at the river.
Whewwwh, that was close, and we would never tell it to anybody, we were so ashamed. Not even my father would ever hear that story, I dared not tell him. I felt I brought shame to our family. This is the first time I ever recounted this event to anyone after more than 20 years.
There were many other things that Jun & I went through together as students. We discussed so many things together, various topics, plans, ideas, opinions, most were mundane & juvenile; but even until now I can vividly recall some of them.
But those were just part of growing up years, who would bother listen to them? That Mapa High School event taught us the grave lesson of "Always look first, before you jump; don't let smell (or your senses) beguile you". This served me very well in all my undertakings in life, and I think it would help you, too, to avoid trouble, right?
After high school, Jun Arriola went to study at Dela Salle University, Manila, to take up commerce. At this point he belonged to the much higher echelon of our society, so our roads never crossed again. In my opinion, that was a rather sudden ending of what once used to be funny but promising adventures together as close friends. I wonder whether we would meet again, or our kids would? I just hope not in the wrong places, hah, hah, hah!
So long Jun, my close friend, my buddy, life could never have been as colorful, had I not met you. Till we meet again...
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