Not long ago I recieved a snail mail with a New York postmark from a man named James Jacob. The name was new to me but the penmanship was very familiar. It was a penmanship I can always recognize anywhere in the world for my association with this man started way back 31 years ago when we were still high school freshmen. (The attached photo will prove to that.) How the name evolved from being Jaime Egpan Ondoy to James Jacob must have something to do with his change of allegiance from being a true-bloodied pinoy to a newly-minted American.
My relationship with James in high school was friendly but adversarial because of a healthy competition of being the top in the class. He was a wide reader and very studious while my interests were in something else. He drowned me in World History subject which almost cost me the top honors. Our school remembers him as that student who wrote to then US Ambassador to the Philippines Henry Byroade which resulted to a donation of several crates of books to our school library including a couple of complete sets of Encyclopaedia. We were in sophomore year when I became an Adventist and James was my first VOP student. (My second VOP student was a dynamic curly-haired freshman named Marcelo Sumaya Rara Jr. who hailed from Kabayawa but I reserve him for a future piece.)
We went to MSU together. And since he did not belong to any student organization yet, he was forced by circumstance to go with me join the Adventist group. Nong Johnny spotted him, gave him a bible study and by October he was one of those baptized by Dr. Dick in Tibanga together with Paul Sanchez and Richinor Villano. Due to his diligence in his studies he earned a full scholarship during his last semester of his last year in International Relations.
After graduation he ventured to Manila doing odd jobs here and there until he attained what he aimed for--- a career position in the Department of Foreign Affairs. In one of his rare visits to MSU conducting examinations to foreign service applicants, he gave me an application form which I filled up and sent to the Japanese Embassy on the very last day and forgot all about it. Three months later I received the longest RCPI telegram in my life covering one whole page telling me in a very elaborate language which simply meant I was accepted to visit Japan for one month all expenses paid.
Three days before our departure, I paid him a visit in his office telling him that I was accepted to visit Japan but unfortunately I do not have my passport yet. He accompanied me to the Passport Division which was then housed at the Film Center. My heart sank when I saw that the queue of passport applicants went out of the main entrance, circled the whole building and overflowed into the parking area. We went inside directly and he let me stay in a corner while he went further into the innermost cubicle. Thirty minutes later, he handed to me my brand-new passport bearing the signature of a consul who was also our kababayan. When we went out of the building the queue appeared to have not moved at all. I pity them but, really, life is full of unfairness.
One day while in office, Miss Chito Madrigal, the wife of then Secretary Manuel Collantes saw the artistic talents in him and offered him a job of curator of their family museum in New Ayala-Alabang a few houses away from the residence of a military officer turned politician named Fidel Valdez Ramos. I visited him once and I sensed that he was enjoying his new job.
I lost contact with him after my return from Japan until the time that I received that snail mail from New York. When I visited my home church in Cabadbaran, I saw a lot of improvement and learned from the mother of Marcelo Rara that James is regularly contributing dollars for the church building fund. He has an open invitation for me to visit his place in Park Avenue but until now I do not have the time ("read money") to accept his invitation.
Ah, yes. I write about James today because Pastor Peter Magarang of Taiwan is inquiring about him.
