AFTER the publishers and politicians were released from detention, leaving Ninoy and Pepe Diokno behind, the opposition met to plan opposition to martial law. By an odd coincidence, the oppositionists spoke exactly the way they stood—in a circle. Joker Arroyo said, as he pulled me away, “They are deaf, you know. You will not waste your time going around in circles. You are going to law school.”
Joker Arroyo and Johnny Quijano were the lawyers of the Free Press, the most powerful newspaper in the country. My father being a busy man more or less made it understood that Joker would keep an eye on me. So whatever I did in life had his approval in choices of careers; his disapproval in personal matters, where he picked up the pieces; and his direct intervention when it looked like he’d have to make up the job that suited me at the moment. And so it went. He told me many wise things.
“When you are introduced to a much older woman, look at her breasts with a measure of longing. They miss that kind of attention.”
“Always be very early for a wedding, so you can see the principal parties arrive and look at your watch to make them feel guilty. Shake everyone’s hand until the marching music starts; then sneak out. They will think you stayed until the end.”
“Never be an asshole except with the rich, and never be discourteous to the poor. The first won’t notice and the second cannot forget.”
“Never accept the chairmanship of the committee on ethics. A man who turns on his colleague, however valid the reason, is contemptible.” Joker hated snitches.
“Never be holier than thou because, holy as thou art, that is only because you have not been tempted.”
“If someone asks you to do something improper, smile and say yes and that’s all. If they persist, make yourself scarce. But never ever say never. Rejection remembers.” In one case, he gave in, but picked a Palace party to come in with his eyeglasses slipping down his nose (he worked late into the night, but insisted everyone else go home by nightfall so that they couldn’t conspire after working hours). He was waving a piece of paper and shouting,“Ting [not his name], that dishonest contract you’re pestering me for? Here it is.” Ting sheepishly took the paper and slipped out.
There’s a story going around that Joker passed away. Well, seeing is believing and I haven’t seen it. I had drinks with him last month before I left for a 240-kilometer pilgrimage to the shrine of James the Slayer of Muslims, the patron saint of the Spanish Army. We talked about the people we’d known. Neither us could depend on the other’s memory about who was dead or alive because we did the same things at funerals as at weddings: in and out in a flash regardless. Some people believe the story. And I have read the fine things said about him. But it seems to me there is as much sorrow as relief that he won’t turn up again to kick their ass for speaking out of turn. Because Joker objected less to bad things and a lot more to how they were justified as good for their victims, like International Monetary Fund and American policies.
He believed that there is a time to stick it out, like with Cory in the coups, and a time to let it go. But when you let go, take along your enemies. When no one is left, no one laughs last.
He’d done a lot. He must’ve wished he’d done more but he never talked about such things. He never thought public office was a sacrifice but the greatest honor for which no price was too much to pay. But if you ever said out loud that it was a sacrifice, he’d take you down. We put out an administrative order forbidding the hire of businessmen who offered to serve the country for a peso. Anyone willing to make that kind of sacrifice has worked out how he will steal a hell of a lot more. Indeed, get as much done with no regrets at not having done more, then to sneak out as at a wedding so everyone thinks you stayed till the end. And whether he is here or no more, he will always be around. But only the assholes will feel his presence when they get a kick in the ass, if not from Joker, then from someone else doing it in his honor. For them, Joker will always be around. Promise.