On her way back home after receiving the money for her world tour, Jojo was accosted by a man showing her a precious diamond ring, saying it was worth much money and he was willing to sell it to her for so much.
Jojo thought it was a good bargain and gave him her dollars, $ , and pesos, ₱ , for the ring.
She was very happy to show us the ring and told us what happened.
Right away I knew that she was a victim of the “one two three” gang. I told her so. She tried to get back her money, even employing General Ordoñez’s expert services as Metrocom Chief. He was Nonoy’s uncle.
The following day I went to the Police Department of I.C., where I met one of my former students in the P.C. School who became a detective.
I told him what happened. He said he would try to get back Jojo’s money.
It was a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE but I knew all along as a Criminal Law and Criminology instructor that the police had connections with criminals.
That same day he came back with the dollars but the pesos were all spent by the swindlers.
And so Jojo was able to make a World Tour with her mother as her escort.
She never returned to Abra until I took her there in 1991, along with her youngest brother, Junior, Maria – my second wife, after Pat died in 1982 – Jun’s children, Jose III, John, and Joy, Betty’s daughter.
Governor Vicente Valera was our host. He gave us a blowout in the hotel near the Provincial Building and gave us his bodyguards as our escort.
When I returned to Bangued in 1993 I donated a picture of Jojo as published in the Philippine Free Press which is now in the Abra Provincial Library as a remembrance of Abra’s success in uniting together to support a good cause to raise funds for charitable institutions, as the Red Cross, etc.
In this connection I would like to make an observation: — that when God wills a thing to happen, “He makes all things work out for good to those who love the Lord and are called to His purpose.”
How would it possibly happen to poor, unknown, and insignificant people as Siniong and Patring, to have their daughter Jojo become Miss RFP when there were more wealthy, popular, and prominent families in Abra, such as Fina’s family, the Borsomeo family, the Bañez family, the Paredes, Purugganan, Villamos, Barbero, Valera families? There were the Benedito, Bayguen, Pe Benito, Barbero, Bringas, Algate, Zapata, Bobilos families more qualified to support a candidate for a National Beauty Contest.
Yet God selected a Sibayan family to be given this highest honor ever bestowed to any Abra family since time immemorial!
Then He made it possible for us to raise as much as ₱17,000, coming from unexpected, unbelievable sources, such as doctors, priests, ministers, teachers, mayors, Governors, from the length and breadth of the Philippines. How could this be possible without God’s miraculous ways?
I could only surmise or believe that this happened because of my eagerness to help the poor, the needy and helpless people this wise:
When there were so many GIFTS pouring into our house at 1-A Stanford Avenue, Cubao, P.C., such as sacks of rice from Mayor Pascual of San Jose, N.E., even a horse and saddle for Jun from him when Jun expressed to have one; carloads of vegetables from Mr. Ceviting of the Bureau of Prisons; big baskets of fish and crabs from the Mayors of Berlacem and Balanga; baskets of mangoes from Drs. Bautista Lopez of San Carlos General Hospital of Pangasinan; sacks of rice from the Superintendent, Agricultural School of Pantabangan, N.E.; baskets of cabbages from the Beguio Teachers College, etc., etc., which we shared with our neighbors and friends, I said: Lord, make it possible for me to share these with the more needy, such as the orphanages.
I guess God heard my prayers and used me as His instrument to help raise funds for such charitable institutions as the Red Cross, orphanages, Homes of Unwed Women, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Praise The Lord!
This also happened to me when I was reviewing for the Bar Exams and I said inside the Camp Crame Chapel: “Lord, let me become a lawyer and I will use my profession to help the needy, the poor, and the oppressed who cannot afford to hire a lawyer. That was in 1949. He granted my request when I became a lawyer in 1950.
All my clients were soldiers and their families or relatives and friends, such as Sgt. and Pat. Parameo (brothers) accused and acquitted; Cpl. Esquejo, for multiple homicides and damage to Government property (acquitted); Sgt. Major Hilario Bayabos, Ret., who got all his 15 years’ back pensions and had his pension resumed again from January, 1942, to May, 1957; Oscar Appari, for theft, who was just given a condition to distierro outside of Baguio City; others whom I helped in Tampa, as Tito, Tran, Gene, Manolito Guemos, and lately, Ex POW Venancio Pitelo (and MONA-MADRACALE). Yet, unlike Atty. Ferdinand Marcos, I am the POOREST lawyer that I know. Praise the Lord. JBS
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