A shoeshine man called Ito

by Jose Rizal M. Reyes / June 9, 2019

7 min readJun 9, 2019

I will miss the sight of this enigmatic man. He has been an integral part of my hometown’s landscape for several decades. It seemed as though he was as durable as the southwestern hills of Odiongan and as eternal as the interior mountains of Tablas. He will be remembered as the guy who loved to list down the names of people and fulminated against Pres. Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies as well as against Japanese invaders (a carryover from World War 2) and whoever else.

Through my FB home page, I learned this afternoon from my relative Polay (Anne Therese Leaño Foja) that Ito is dead. I haven’t gathered details but he passed away either late last night or early this morning. Yesterday afternoon, Polay, her niece Katkat and a third guy were still looking for a way to bring Ito to the hospital after an earlier attempt failed. They went to the house of my brother, Vice Mayor Cocoy Reyes, and I saw them chatting with my sister Pinky (with me overhearing some of their conversation).

Ito enjoying kindness and beverage at the Leaño-Foja residence. He used to wear a hat with plastic toy soldiers standing all around it, apparently glued to it. (Photo by Polay Foja)

The role Ito played in our town was part Shine Boy and part Village Fool. We lived in the same section of the town — the baranggay (town district) called Tabing Dagat (meaning, beside the sea). For several decades, he had been living all by his lonesome in a makeshift house near a riverbank, where the fabled Bongoy and Bangon rivers meet before going to the sea, in a sandy patch of land we used to call “kasiitan” (full of thorns) or “kaarumahan” (full of aruma, a thorny plant).

The kaarumahan is long gone, the area now dotted with several houses. The sand bar along the extension of Bongoy’s eastern riverbank, in the area where the two rivers unite, is now hidden by a newly-built road segment constructed over it.

The Rizal Park of Odiongan. You can imagine Ito passing by. (Photo by inquirer.net)

Ito had his own unique and magical way of shining shoes. If I remember it right, after applying wax on a shoe and brushing it for some time, he would spit on it at one point and keep on brushing to make it more shiny. For the finale, he would pull out and crumple a sheet of paper then light it, placing the pair of shoes over the fire as though roasting them. That’s how he used the heat to put a finishing touch to his shining effort.

My late friend and grade-school classmate Justito “Butch” Fadriquela once laughingly remarked that it was very hard to scrub clean the graffiti Ito wrote on buildings and plaza walls. Utilizing the same hard black wax he used in enhancing the color of shoes — locally called “biton” — Ito would jot down all over the place his exposes, complaints and sentiments on social, political and economic matters.

About a year ago, I planned to give Ito a few pieces of used clothes and told him so. But he nixed the idea, mumbling that the clothes would just be stolen. I guess I can safely presume that several other people have offered him the same thing but then he had his own way of life and apparently preferred his ragged clothes.

Bangon River (left) and Bongoy River (right). The isthmus formed in between is called “Cota” (meaning, fort) because of the stone fort built at the tip of the delta as protection against Moro pirates in olden days. Over the years, the water between Baybay (right) and Budiong Beach (left) where the two rivers join the sea has claimed several lives — mostly young boys — including my first cousin June 2. Folk legend says the place is haunted by some malevolent spirit who would pull the legs of victims to drown them. But my own theory is that the unfortunate accidents were primarily caused by the tricky interplay of currents among the two rivers and the sea plus the fact that the sandy bank at the eastern side has a portion where the depth suddenly falls, a beach characteristic locally known as “timpa”.

The particular area where Ito lived is at the southwestern end of a place traditionally called Baybay (meaning, sand bar or sandy beach). This adjoins a small area at the eastern bank of Bongoy River traditionally called Bucana (meaning, mouth of the river) although Ito’s place is right beside the mouth of the twin rivers Bongoy and Bangon itself! Over the years, I have written several poems about this area. Let me share to you one of these.

Sonnet 363. Bucana
No map I know of bears that nameplace;
It simply means the “river’s mouth”.
I spent there merrily my young days,
Although I roamed much round about.
At times a stranger’s boat would anchor;
Sweet moments little kids would savor.
By ancient right, with lusty cheers,
We’d hop aboard like buccaneers!
The cargoes of such boats were simple:
All sorts of fishes dried or fresh;
From time to time, green oranges.
But while on board a wind would rustle
And then our minds would roam afar
Like pirates going into war…
Jose Rizal M. Reyes
February 26, 2009C
rhyming pattern: AbAb CCdd Eff Egg
sonnet type: Alexander Pushkin’s Onegin Stanza

Some of my town mates know some relatives of Ito but I understand those relatives are not living in the vicinity but far away across the sea, probably in Luzon. During my boyhood days, I vaguely remember him one time looking for his younger brother Robinson at the town plaza’s basketball court. He was worried because Robinson had not gone home to eat lunch. That happened around the start of the 1970s. His brother has not been seen in town for a long, long time. I wonder where he is now. I also wonder if any of my town mates still remembers him.

A view of the Bongoy River from the bridge connecting the town proper to a narrow strip of land called Cota (left side). Ito’s place is at the end of the river wall at the right, going forward. The governor’s residence can be reached by going backward. Between Ito’s place and the slaughterhouse at the right is a small area traditionally called Bucana, meaning “mouth of the river”. This picture was taken when a fleet of fishing boats from far away Surigao in Mindanao visited our place and tarried for some time. The fleet is long gone and only a few fishing boats of this relatively larger size can be seen around. (Photo by Martin Jendrichowsk. Uploaded in Panoramio on January 13, 2013)

Before I forget, I overheard just today that even Ito’s makeshift house is gone, apparently demolished when a new road segment along the riverbank was built by the provincial government under outgoing governor Eduardo “Lolong” Firmalo. I don’t know what was Ito’s accommodation after that. What has the municipal government’s much-touted Serbisyong May Puso done to him?

Is it true that the now homeless Ito (because no preparation nor provision was made for his relocation) had been hanging out mostly behind the front gate of Zeny Leaño Foja’s house? That should explain her daughter Polay’s active involvement in the Ito affair. Ay, Ate Zeny, inasmuch as you and your family are kind and helpful, you might as well run for baranggay captain after Joey Fabiculana’s term is over!

The area behind the gate of the Leaño-Foja residence is said to be the favorite hang out of Ito towards the end of his days. In this picture, we can see Polay (left), his brother Cosme (right) and their first cousins Anne Anne and John John, children of Rudy Leaño and Alice Fabella. Polay’s father is the late Emer Foja, former Bishop of Rome — I mean, Bishop of ROOM (Romblon, Oriental and Occidental Mindoro) — under the Philippine Independent Church. The Bishop-of-Rome allusion is actually a lighthearted pun often mentioned among the bishop’s circle of friends and relatives. Furthermore, many Odionganons love to say they are going to Rome when referring to Romblon province.

The governor and I belong to past generations of Odionganons — especially residents of Brgy. Liwanag and Brgy. Tabing Dagat living near the riverbank — who regarded Bongoy River as a place for boyhood escapades and sometimes as the venue for testing one’s courage by crossing Bongoy River and even the wider Bangon River just beyond the narrow isthmus of Cota.

If you walk southward from Ito’s place along the river bank, you would easily reach the place where I live, perhaps 75 yards away. You leisurely walk further south, towards the direction of Brgy. Liwanag, and you would reach within 10 minutes or so the house of the governor where also lives the incumbent mayor of the town, his daughter Trina Que Firmalo-Fabic.

Gov. Lolong Firmalo stands along the eastern bank of Bongoy River. If you walk along this road in Brgy Liwanag, then along the sea wall in Brgy. Tabing Dagat till you almost reach the sea, there you will find the place where Ito lived. The river has much narrowed at this point. The mangrove area at the left side is part of the isthmus of Cota. (Photo courtesy of facebook.com/govlolong)

I would like to commend the humanitarian, Christian and civic-minded efforts of Ate Zeny’s family to provide food for Ito, contact his relatives, and bring him to the hospital. They did it on their personal capacities, Ito being a member of the neighborhood. I understand he refused to eat during his last days. He also refused to be brought to the hospital despite the assistance of two policemen who assisted Polay’s small team of community volunteers. I can’t ascertain if he was finally brought to the hospital after that episode.

I doubt if any of Ito’s relatives will be coming. What sort of a funeral arrangement will he get? That wouldn’t worry Ito by now, of course. He has earned his ticket to immortality. If I know my town mates, he will be remembered and talked about for a long, long time.

Updated June 10, 2019

First shared on my Facebook wall:
https://www.facebook.com/jose.r.reyes.5/posts/10218890816124105

Condolences and testimonies for Ito in Polay Leano’s FB wall:
https://www.facebook.com/annetherese.foja/posts/2513901705307743?hc_location=ufi

A shoeshine man called Ito

by Jose Rizal M. Reyes / June 9, 2019

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