Exeunt

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You have to read the first two books of Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil’s trilogy to appreciate the last, “Exeunt”.

The first, which I think is the best of the three titles, is “Myself, Elsewhere” which tells of the genteel little Spanish and later American town of Ermita by Manila Bay where she was born and raised. It ended with the destruction of Manila in 1945.

The book won the National Book Award for autobiography in 2006.

Mrs. Nakpil says the second book “Legends and Adventures” deals with her eight lives (as war widow, single parent, reporter, editorial columnist, bon vivant, media celebrity, technocrat and international bureaucrat) in the intense, clamorous post WWII era ending with the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983. It won the National Book Award for 2008.

“Exeunt” begins with Edsa I in February 1986, seen from one who was supposedly part of the Marcos official family. Her commentaries on current issues and personalities involved are enriched by her past experiences.

Take this portion on former Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos:

“I met the infamous Ben Abalos, the anti-hero of the Arroyo administration through (Makati Mayor Nemesio) Yabut.

“We were sitting having coffee at the Jeepney (Bar, Hotel Intercon) when in rushed a flustered, slight, dark-skinned man to dump his political woes on Mayor Yabut. He was carrying several posters and charts which he showed the Mayor as evidence that he had been cheated in the recent election. When he was introduced to me, I said, ‘Aren’t you the official for whom my friend Narda Camacho has been organizing motorcades?’

“He must have misheard something in my question because he replied, ‘I have nothing to do with Narda Camacho. She’s too old and ugly for me to bother with her!’

“I was stunned by his boorishness and replied angrily, ‘Well then, you’re a cad! Saying offensive things about a woman who’s been helping you.’

“Mayor Yabut disposed of Abalos, the way the recent investigations should have but didn’t. He stood up and gestured, addressing Abalos in peremptory Tagalog, ‘Umalis ka na. Go and take all your charts with you.’

“When I watched Abalos, already the well-connected Comelec chairman, perjuring himself on the floor of the Senate recently over the Chinese ZTE scandal, I was not all surprised.”

The book suffers from a lot of typo errors but not enough to distract from the brilliance of Mrs. Nakpil’s writing. The writer who explained the peculiarities of the Filipino character as a result of ” Four hundred years in the convent and 50 years in Hollywood” is in her element in describing Gloria Arroyo.

“I think she’s a paradox. A prim convent-schoolgirl, in a conservative marriage, a college professor, minor bureaucrat and colorless politician, she managed to hijack two presidencies, one from the Testosterone Idol of the masses, elected by the largest number of votes in history and another from the Macho King of Philippine Movies, staging two inaugurations with the Supreme Court, the AFP, the Opposition, the Makati Business Club, the provincial governors doing the opening credits.

“Using different bunches of crooks she built a reserve fund and kept everyone else, from the Bishops to the Muslims, the US, China (by giving away population control, Mindanao, the Spratlys) under her thumb. In a self-declared democracy, surveys show she is the most unpopular Philippine president ever.

“At this writing, she’s also an apparent nihilist. She believes in nothing, holds nothing sacred, defies all threats and odds and intends to live and reign forever, under her own terms.”

“Exeunt,” the book’s blurb says, is a term from stage direction specifying that a certain character leaves the stage. It’s a way of indicating “The End.”