A bomb blew up a public market in Nueva Ecija, killing the Japanese soldiers who took over the area. A young Filipino father who was selling ice cream and one of his sons died.
The year was 1945. The Japanese and Americans were at war in the Philippines.
Prudencio Magpayo, a former teacher who later became information officer at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), was only 3 years old when his 11-year-old brother was killed.
His father, a cadre of the Japanese resistance guerrilla conducting covert works in the mainstream for the underground movement, was 27.
His mother was forced to wash the clothes of American soldiers to feed all seven of them. His brothers and sisters helped her eke out a living by cooking and selling boiled corn.
When Prudencio was in primary school, he sold newspapers to help the family, hitting the streets while most of the kids his age were still asleep.
He earns a peso a day and gives this to his mother, who rewards him with puto (rice cake) before he goes to his afternoon class.
It was during his years in elementary school when another tragedy shook their lives. Their house was destroyed by fire. The blaze originated from an open gasera (kerosene lamp) that was not extinguished as everyone fell asleep.
They were spared on that horrible night but they escaped with only the clothes they wore that evening. But this did not stop him from dreaming.
Seeking help, his mother, who originally hailed from Quezon Province, turned to her relatives in Gumaca. She took two of her children, including Prudencio. Her mother’s eldest sibling took care of him. The other child was brought to another sibling’s house in exchange for the P30 his mother brought back to Nueva Ecija.
Prudencio attended Grade 5 and 6 at Roosevelt Elementary School and graduated valedictorian.
After his graduation, his mother took them back to Nueva Ecija. He was sent to the Philippine Statesman College in Cabanatuan where he resumed selling newspapers. He also shined shoes for 10 cents a pair and sold sweepstake tickets. Prudencio eventually graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English.
Seeking to pursue engineering, a discipline he was interested in, he went to Manila with the late Julius Caesar Gallego, a politician and brother-in-law of TV and events host and newspaper columnist Johnny Litton.
Serving in the house of the Gallegos as the family’s errand boy, he became neighbors with prominent Philippine movie stars at the time, like Juancho Gutierrez and Gloria Romero.
But instead of taking up an engineering course, he went to the University of Santo Tomas (UST) to study Secondary Education.
By the time, his father had already received the recognition due to a citizen who fought for his country. Back in Cabanatuan, his mother was already receiving pension.
After a semester, he transferred from the UST to Wesleyan University in Nueva Ecija where he finished Secondary Education.
He assumed his first teaching post at the Nueva Ecija High School as a substitute English teacher in 1965. He also taught at a school in Gapan.
It was in General Tinio where he met her future wife, Remedios, who is a retired teacher.
Looking for greener pastures, they moved to Manila in the late 1960s. They taught for some years at Judge Juan Luna High School in San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City.
He was hired to a post at the BSP in the early 1970s. He recalled being caught jaywalking near Manila City Hall on his way to apply for the job.
Without any knowledge on finance and banking, Prudencio began to educate himself.
He wrote the first article for the Security Plant Complex (SPC), which was formally established along East Avenue in 1978. The piece was about the security printing plant’s creation.
Before the establishment of the SPC, De La Rue, which is the world’s largest commercial banknote printer, prints the Philippine money, Prudencio said.
He wrote technical articles for the Central Banker, an internal monthly publication of the BSP and for the CB Review, an external publication.
Prudencio traveled across the country covering rural banking stories and was privileged to see major cities where a BSP branch was rising. He also wrote the speech of the BSP governor for the opening of the central bank’s branches.
He wrote in a room at the 18th floor, away from the clutter of the different offices of the BSP along Roxas Boulevard. To him, writing was “just a matter of necessity,” he said.
After writing for the BSP for 15 years, Prudencio availed of the special incentive benefit, a program for employees who wish to retire early, in 1993. He retired as corporate affairs office Information Officer IV, a post equivalent to assistant division chief, during the time of former Governor Gabriel Singson.
Prudencio and his wife are successful parents. Their eldest, an accountant, is now a successful food-cart franchiser. The second, a physical therapist, has put up his own clinic in Chicago, Illinois.
The third one, an Electronic and Computer Engineering and Nursing graduate, is employed as a manager at a telephone company in the Philippines. Their youngest and the only girl is about to finish college.
Today, Prudencio works as a consultant of a mayor in Nueva Ecija.
As an “occasional journalist,” his writings appear in leading national broadsheets, like the BusinessMirror.
Prudencio, who doesn’t look his age at 72, is still productive. He and his wife are concerned and active members of Barangay Bahay Toro in Project 8.
Image credits: Oliver Samson