By Delfin Mallari Jr.
Inquirer
SARIAYA, Quezon–With vegetables she herself grows in the cool climate of Mount Banahaw in Quezon for her daily sustenance, Filomena Remojo Relativo is only three years short of hitting the century mark.
Her body is crouched and her face wrinkled from years of hard work, but the old woman still tends her farm planted with vegetables, medicinal herbs and ornamentals.
“I’m not deaf. I can still hear you loud and clear,” Relativo shouts in Filipino in jest during the interview in her house in Barangay Mamala Uno at Banahaw’s base, also known as an abode of divine spirits.
“I can still also sew clothes using the old sewing machine,” she boasts to draw attention to her unfailing eyesight.
Asked about her birth date, Relativo instantly mentions 1910 but grasps for other details. Her daughter-in-law butts in and says July 14.
She was born and raised in Mamala, and married Leon who died seven years ago, leaving her with eight children, two of them already dead.
Banahaw has been her lifetime companion, and she enjoys her simple existence, feeding body and soul with the fruits of labor from the mountain’s bosom. “Mt. Banahaw is a part of my life. This is where I live and this is where I will meet my Creator,” she says.
She shows a faded photo of herself when she was 14 years old with sister-in-law Leonora. “I could no longer remember the occasion, but I’m sure it was a special event because we have a souvenir photo,” she says.
Daily grind
Relativo starts her daily grind when the cocks crow at the first light of day.
After sipping a cup of hot coffee, she grabs her bolo still soiled from the previous day’s farming, and heads off to her farm nearby. She immerses herself in the ornamental plants, medicinal herbs, bananas, onions, eggplants, bell peppers, lettuces and many other vegetable crops.
Relativo recalls how patrolling Army soldiers and New People’s Army members often passed by her house before daybreak at the height of the communist insurgency, when Banahaw used to be the rebels’ mountain lair. “They greet me and leave me alone. I was not afraid of them, unlike the way I feared Japanese soldiers during the war,” she says.
When her husband was jailed by Japanese soldiers at the garrison in the town proper during World War II, she often failed to deliver his food out of fear, she says. “The moment Japanese soldiers bark out, ‘Kura! Kura!’ I always scampered in fear and ran back home, failing to give the food to my husband.”
Power breakfast
At around 7 a.m., Relativo returns to the house for a “special” peasant breakfast she will prepare herself. Her menu consists of steaming rice with bulanglang (boiled vegetable mix), fresh onions soured with vinegar, and fried dried fish dipped in chopped fresh tomatoes.
“That breakfast for me is the prefect combination. I can work all day in the farm,” she says.
She abhors waking up late when the sun is already out. “People, especially farmers, should start the day early. The cool mountain breeze in the early morning is conducive to farming and also to our health.”
After the power breakfast, Relativo returns to her farm and continues to work till noon.
After a hearty lunch of another concoction of fresh vegetables, she takes a two-hour siesta to recharge her body, which still surprisingly remains fit and healthy despite two surgeries on her appendix and cervix.
“I seldom consult a doctor. The last time I saw one to replenish my blood, I became weak after the transfusion. Despite the rigor of daily farming chores, my blood pressure is always normal. I also eat meat but not that often,” she says.
Relativo’s son Romulo, 70, a retired public elementary school principal, says her mother can still help other farmers in planting rice. “It’s a backbreaking task, but she’s up to it. As a matter of fact, she enjoys the hard work,” he said.
Romulo also chose to become a full-time farmer after he retired five years ago.
Most of the time, Relativo says family members have to shout for her to come home because it’s already late. “And sometimes, when I’m too busy attending to my crops and ornamental flowers, they have to fetch me and force me to call it a day,” she says.
Natural farming
An advocate of natural farming since she started cultivating in the bosom of Banahaw, she admits to using commercial fertilizers sometimes. “But we have to return to the basic natural farming. It’s good for the soil and human health,” she said. “The other day, I cut grass around my farm. Once dried, I will use it as natural fertilizer.”
Relativo enjoys a swig of “lambanog” (native coconut-based liquor) on special occasions.
She considers her pack of “Magkaibigan,” which contains 30 pieces of native cigarette, her best buddy. She consumes a pack every two days; her family used to pester her to quit smoking for health reasons.
“I just laugh at them. My body is different from them,” she says.
The old woman, who finished Grade 4, says she has no secret regimen to explain her long and healthy life. Instead she offers this advice: “Pray to the Lord not for some material gains but for a strong, wholesome and healthy life. This, I sincerely pray several times a day.”
Romulo says he is now busy gathering the names of every member of the clan for a family tree in preparation for her mother’s centennial. “I’m having a hard time even in listing the names of all her grandchildren and great grandchildren, but it’s fun. Having a big family has its own special reward,” he says.
Photo by Delfin Mallari Jr.
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