“Nanay, Nanay!!!” Nena was shouting as she was holding a piece of paper.
“What is it, Nena?” Martha asked.
“We won! We won!”
Martha reading the letter.
“Tacio! Come here! Nena and her three classmates won the “Boracay Environmental Poster Contest on Making Boracay Green and Clean.”
Tacio hurried with pails in both hands.
“What is that all about?”
“Our daughter and her classmates Leni and Marjorie will go to the beach to represent the youth as their drawings show environmental awareness in “Making Boracay Green and Clean” She can bring her family with her.”
“Oh, count me out. You know I cannot make it.” Tacio looked at the pigs and the fruits outside.
Nena with a scowl.
Rey immediately yelled in the background “I can go.”
“Nena let us prepare. It will be three days away. “
“Nanay could we bring Kulit?”
Kulit immediately leapt in Martha’s chair.
“Please.”
“Ok” Martha nodded.
Three days later, Martha, Rey, Nena and Kulit left for the bus going to Plaridel and then they hailed a taxi going to the Manila Domestic Airport.
In the airport, Nena saw Leni and Marjorie with their families there. Leni, a 7-year-old girl with big rimmed glasses and piggy tails kissed her. Marjorie, a 6-year -old, who puts pencil in her left ear, hugged her.
“Nena, you ready?” Marjorie said.
“Yes, as well as Kulit.”
“He is sooo cute.” Leni pinched Kulit’s nose as Kulit snorted.
“Common let us go.” Martha pointed to the Asian Spirit Airline. “They will bring us to Caticlan to the Panay Island.”
Leni with her mom and 2-year-old sister, Toni, and Marjorie with her dad, Andres; Rey, Nena and Kulit all boarded the plane.
They arrived an hour later in Caticlan and boarded a shuttle bus that brought them to the boat ferry that brought them thirty minutes later to Panay Island.
White coral reefs and white powder sand greeted them with coconut and palm trees dancing in the light breeze.
A throng of adults greeted them including the Aklan governor, Paolo Montes, who was their special guest of honor.
As their boat loading tourists mostly Europeans and other Asians landed on the beach near Club Panoly, well wishers had trash can bins and clang them like cymbals. Making a
twanging sound, tin cans were improvised with sticks and they were welcomed in the island.
The Contest sponsor secretary, Jude Mangahas, led them to the pavilion to meet and greet more people.
A makeshift stage with tropical flowers, gumamela, makahiya, sampaguita, jasmine, ylang-ylang, decorated the stage. An a bevy of tropical fruits where in the main banquet table consisting of mangoes, chicos, oranges, lanzones, ducat and guyabano were in great quantities.
“Let us welcome the winners of the “Make Boracay Green and Clean Contest” announced Jude. He introduced the three winners who won nationwide in an attempt to avert pollution and minimize waste disposal.
The crowd applauded...
The feast of fruits and rice, pork adobo, pancit, lumpia as well as sinigang na manok was available to the public who attended.
The one week trip made Nena too excited to start showing off their drawings as well as describing how they can make the environment a better place not just to live but to make it beautiful in harnessing the untapped qualities of nature.
There were seminars about garbage disposal, environmental awareness of sponsoring companies for its cause as well as making the youth the inspiration in leading adults to destroy bad habits, to be proactive in cleaning the environment that starts from their homes.
Nena was attending the five-day seminar and during one of their breaks at lunch. Kulit was very disturbed and could not sit still.
Nena followed Kulit as they were walking in the white stretch of Boracay’s pristine beaches when Kulit stopped in a little shack that seemed abandoned.
Kulit entered it and showed Nena a bunch of paraphernalia and burlap sacks. Nena thought it was just rice but how could it be in this shack? She asked herself.
She opened the sacks and saw smell of white dust as well as several boxes of glass flasks, syringes and other medical equipment.
Before Nena could turn around, a white European man gagged her and bound her two hands. Kulit yelped as the 6- foot tall bearded Caucasian tried to hog -tie Kulit. Kulit slipped to his fingers and scampered off.
The scraggly faced man tried to catch Kulit who stormed out and went directly to the Club Panoly’s room 111 where Martha was taking a nap and Rey was playing video games on TV.
“Oink ! Oink! Oink! “Kulit was squealing.
“Shut up! Kulit. I am busy. I need to catch the princess in the Prince of Persia!” Rey rejected him.
Kulit yanked the bed of Martha and drooled on her.
“Kulit! What a bad boy!” Martha spanked him
Kulit went out and spotted Jude the contest spokesman who was smoking and laughing with other guests.
Wagging his tail and catching a red cloth that belonged to Nena Kulit wailed…
“Hey, what is wrong with you boy?” Jordan caught the cloth and went to the room of Martha and Rey.
“Hello, your pig is here with me. I have this red cloth with me.” Jude said.
Martha stepped out still groggy.
Rey was still playing…
“Oh yes that was the t-shirt of Nena!” Martha said.
“Rey, come here! I think Kulit is telling us something!”
“What Nanay?”
“Where is Nena? “ Jude asked.
“I don’t know.” Martha answered. Rey shrugged his shoulders.
They all left the room and looked for Leni and Marjorie who are both playing chess in the clubhouse.
“Where is Nena?”
“I know she was with Kulit.” Marjorie said.
“Kulit was with her.” Leni reiterated.
“Oh no, my Nena is kidnapped!” shouted Martha.
“I think Kulit knows where we can find her.” Jordan parried.
“Let’s go!” Rey said.
Following Kulit. They arrived at the makeshift shack but there was no trace of Nena or the sacks and paraphernalia they saw earlier.
Kulit noticed that there were traces of that sparkling white dust in the beach and when he prowled out got a box of syringes a few yards away leading to a green house a stone’s throw away.
Jude called on his cell phone to alert the others to look out for Nena and also see as they neared the home shots were heard.
Martha cringed in the rocks as Rey held her.
Jude called the cops. He knew there was something wrong in that house.
Kulit let go of them and went inside the home entering it through the back door.
He slid into the house as they waited. Another shot was heard as Kulit came out with a bloodied ear.
A white bearded man was running after him. As he went out Jude, Rey and Andres pounded on him.
Martha immediately went inside the house and saw a woman with a gun pointing at Nena.
“I will kill her if you go any closer!” she demanded
She stepped back.
“Come here!” She tied her too in a chair.
Rey watched in the background and saw another man with her. They were drinking San Miguel Beer and watching Nena and Martha squirm in their seats. They were also smoking shabu.
The lady was offering it to Nena and even to Martha.
Rey went back and told Jude what happened. They caught the Caucasian man but not the other man and woman smoking shabu.
Police came in and ask them to let go of the hostages.
They fired back.
Kulit still bloodied with his right ear almost gone went inside as more shots were fired.
Rey tried to go in. Seeing Kulit tipping off the shabu and heroine in the table. Rey jumped in and without hesitation used a pocket knife on the sink to let go of Nena and Martha.
They ran off as the man caught Rey and stabbed him.
Kulit bit the man in the neck and the woman in the leg.
As he did that, the woman fired another shot and Kulit got hit on the eye.
He still charged and the police came in.
They all surrendered.
Paramedics came and they were brought to the nearest hospital.
“Oh my God! We could not get those drug dealers without Kulit!” Jude exclaimed.
“The police are after Red Robin and his gang for quite awhile. They distribute heroine and shabu in the island.” Jude added.
“We have to thank Kulit or all the things he has done!”
Martha crying in the hospital bed as Rey lay recovering from his gunshot wound and Kulit had surgery on his eye and right ear smiled.
“Yes, I owe my life to Kulit. “Rey said.
Kulit kissed him.
All were there in the hospital room as police thanked Kulit for a job well done.
“I knew Kulit is my Savior.” Nena prayed. “He will never let us down.”
Glossary of Terms:
Nanay: mother
Boracay: located in Panay Island, in Visayas Region in the Philippines known world-wide for its pristine white beaches and romantic allure.
Gumamela, ylang-ylang, makahiya, and sampaguita – indigenous flowers in the Philippines. Sampaguita is the national flower known to emit a mild blossomy scent.
Shabu- Philippine version of cheap cocaine. It can be sniffed, snorted, smoked on the glass flask or mixed with marijuana.
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