from bad to worse

there’s this on-going chronicle about the socialites of manila and how one aussie guy was duped by DJ Montano with his life’s savings. di basta-basta mawalan ng pera… and higit sa lahat yung perang pinaghirapan mo.

well, di man ganun kalaki nawala saken, money is money. ganito yun…

i live in this small boardinghouse inside UP Campus in the Dagohoy area. we have this little thieving caretaker who we call “Ate Thelma”… she was very accommodating, soft spoken, and respectful whenever we talked. she always seemed nice around me so whenever she’d ask for money, after a litany of how hard times are and how little she receives from the landlady for taking care of everything — from the soap in washing dishes to the toilet cleaner, i would lend her some with a promise from her that she would pay me back as soon as she gets her salary from the barangay.

or so i thought… and hoped.

dumaan ang linggo, dumaan ang mga buwan, wala akong natanggap na bayad. and then she would come to me again apologizing for not being able to pay, telling me stories of how his son got his gf pregnant and now they’re having a baby and they need money for the check-up, etc. i pitied the baby more than the parents and the grandmother. nagbigay ulit ako. she promised to pay when their loan gets approved.

dumaan ang linggo, dumaan ang mga buwan, wala akong natanggap na bayad.

i smelled something fishy, of course. and it wasn’t her. she smelled far worse. she knew i wouldn’t fall for the ‘pity’ trap again so she devised another way to deceive me… through “sanla”. a few times, she offered cellphones in exchange for money. the first one was worth the P300 i gave. old cellphone, weak battery but still working. then she offered me a necklace. i wasn’t fond of jewelry so i turned that one down… probably saved myself P100. then there was this last one, Nokia 6600. she gave me the phone but it was turned off… i trusted her that the phone was at least 90% working. well, it wasn’t. it’s a paperweight now…

and through out that time nagbabayad ako ng boarding house through her. i give her the money to be sent to the landlady when our landlady couldn’t come to collect the payments.

or so i thought… and hoped.

today, i found out that she hasn’t been remitting my rent payments. P1,300.00 every month for the past 2 months. i can’t demand payments from her. she can barely make ends meet. i can’t sue her. i could but it wouldn’t be worth it. i may get justice pero ang liit na bagay, papalakihin pa ba naten? pero hindi rin tama ang manlamang ng tao. alam kong hindi ko na makukuha ang nawala kong pera. ipapa-sa Diyos na lang ba ‘to? madaling sabihin, mahirap gawin… mahirap din kumbinsihin ang sarili ko na hindi gumalaw.

i will have my vengeance, one way or another.