‘Looking for brother, Arturo’

By Renato Perdon
 Sydney, Australia
January 29, 2014


In my research for my book The Life and Times of Perdon Family, I found out a number of questions which I deemed time  and further researches will eventually provide the answers. They refer, in particular, to the life of my late father, Regino Perdon,  a public school teacher who  helped the Philippine government during pre-war, the occupation and post liberation in extending the cause of free primary education to many distant barrios and sitios of Camarines Sur in the Philippines.

His career as a classroom teacher as an extension of the so-called  the ‘Thomasite’ project of the then  American Civil government to teach in barrio classrooms turned out to be a young man’s right of passage towards manhood and the vicissitudes that went with it. By his fourth year as school teacher in 1923, only 22 years old, he became part of the 98.5% Filipino educators who were taking over from the American teachers educating his compatriots.

I can just picture a young man drawn away from family and birth town of Nabua, Camarines Sur and assigned to a lonely far flung barrio in Caramoan peninsula and its equivalent distant other Camarines Sur barrios.  I can imagine that in bringing education to the barrio, he was well respected, and welcomed by the people including the prospect of him establishing his own family in their location.

As it turned out later, the young public school teacher fathered a son named Bonifacio and, with some debates, with another woman another son named Arturo and, yet,  another rumour of  a reportedly only daughter which story is not covered by this article.

I grew up knowing and admiring my older half brother Bonifacio who himself grew up and had a family of his own in Caramoan whilst my father  and his real family resided  in Sipocot, the other end of Camarines Sur province.  But the question of another half brother named Arturo had intrigued me for many years. I had encountered very few information about him, and left out information about this in my book The Life and Times of the Perdon Family which is almost exhaustive.

Perhaps because of my yearning to fill the gaps so to speak that I went to the Philippines, did personal research on records in Manila, and travelled to Bicol in the Philippines, particualary Caramoan town and interviewed a number of old people who can still shed a light on the life of my late father, Regino Perdon, as a young and single public school teacher in Caramoan town.

From barrio Napolidan, Lupi, Camarines Sur where I was able to get arrangement to set up a Regino Perdon Library in Napolidan Elementary School to honour my father as the founder of the school in 1948, we ventured, together with my two nephews, Reggie, eldest son of my late brother Hermes Perdon, and Dexter, youngest son of my late elder brother Danilo Perdon,  further southern tip of Luzon, in Caramoan peninsula facing Catanduanes island in Bicol. We were joined in Naga City by my niece, Prosy Perdon Martirez, youngest daugther of my late elder half brother, Bonifacio Perdon, who was born and died in Caramoan, Camarine Sur.

My main aim this time, aside from visiting relatives living in places along the way to Caramoan is to verify the often told stories of my father’s love affairs during the early part of his career as an educator in a god forsaken places like the remote barrios of Bikal and Paniman, both sitios of the town of Caramoan, Camarines Sur. Both places are heavenly beautiful even today, particularly Paniman which is nestled on the beach of the same name. During the night we were lull like babies to sleep by the smooth waves that breeze brought from the sea, part of the Pacific Ocean. The different little beautiful islands dotting the horizon facing the Paniman beach are also something to behold and remember by, particularly for first time visitors like us.

This time, I told myself not to be detracted by any kind of attraction, including the beautiful sceneries that confronted us on our way to Caramoan peninsula, now very popular thanks to the reality TV series of The Survivor with a number of segments were filmed there. I was informed that film crew from the US, Israel, Poland, Netherlands, and Germany have been there and enjoyed the working surrounding so luscious that the European and American visitors were envious of the locals for having such natural beauty in their midst. In six months time, another foreign film crew is scheduled to film another segment of The Survivor. I digress.

From Naga City after visiting my cousin Fred Perdon who owns GNN TV 48 which broadcast throughout the Bicol region we travelled towards the town of Bato where I, my brothers Danilo and Hermes were born during the time our family lived there from June 1938 to October 1948, a total of ten years, including the intervening  war years. The family was residing just close to the legendary Bato Lake.

In the town of Bato, we visited a 95 years old man, Judge Intia, a friend and contemporary of my father and his brother Alejandro Perdon during their time teaching in Bato schools. The retired judge used to teach in the barrio of San Juan where my father also handled elementary classes.  I handed him a copy of my book, The Life and Times of the Perdon Family, as my gratitude for the 2008 interview he granted me and which formed part of the book, particularly our early family life in the town of Bato.

I personally thank him for the interview and at the same time apologize for misspelling his name as Judge Entengan, instead of Intia, the wrong name provided me by my cousin who lived in Bato all her life until migrating to Quezon City. The Judge was still working then. He has retired now and enjoy the life of a retiree and started to relate more stories about my father’s activities as school teacher. We did not stay long because it was getting late in the afternoon.

From Bato, we proceeded to Caramoan, but due to the limited time and the chance of encountering high waves in our travel going to Caramoan, we decided to spend the night at Prosy’s house in the town of San Jose, close to Sabang where we could board a motor boat the following day. It was in Caramoan where my father spent eight years of his early career as an educator. It was this eight years stay in Caramoan,  nineteen years before I was born, that I was interested to explore more. I consider the information I was seeking as the things that would fill the void in my life that has been bothering me a lot.

Looking for brother Arturo, who was said to be another half brother my father left behind without giving him the benefits of using our family name Perdon. This was the goal of this recent trip to Caramoan where for many years we know only one half brother, Bonifacio Perdon, who was born in 1925, six years after my father’s arrival in the remote barrio of Bikal, also in Caramoan. But the case of Manoy Arturo has always been an enigma and part of family tales that became sweetener of conversation among the members of the branch of the Regino Perdon family tree.

Since we all know the information about my elder half brother Pacio, including information about his families whom we also recognised, interacted, and regarded as part of the big Perdon family, now extending to Italy, Australia, USA, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Canada, not to mention other members who migrated to other parts of the Philippines, up north and south of Luzon, I concentrated on chasing information about Manoy Arturo, my other half brother whom I never meet nor seen in my 70 years on earth now.

Before I left Australia, an interesting information reached me from Romeo Perdon, the eldest son of my half brother, Bonifacio Perdon, who was born and raised in Caramoan. He said that an old man was claiming that he was adopted by my father and his wife Jacobe (?) and lived for a while in Cadlan, a barrio of the town of Pili, also in Camarines Sur.   I included this valuable information in my list of prersons tointerview, including the surviving members of Manoy Arturo’s family who still live in barrio Paniman, Caramoan.

Early in the morning, we took a tricyle driven by Rodel Martirez, the husband of Prosy to Sabang where many people, including a number of tourists and balikbayans, are already waiting to board a motorboat destined for Caramoan. Seeing the scenery while we were travelling, with the almost covered Mayon Volcano and the island of Catanduanes hardly visible on the horizon, Dexter, my nephew who for the first time taking the motorboat to Caramoan was mesmerised by the beauty of the place. A couple of hours smooth sailing on the Caramoan waters, we reached the port of Caramoan with Myzel, a great grandniece waiting for us and brought us to the town proper of Caramoan and had a meal at the house of Irene Perdon Avila, the sister of Romeo. She was then confined in a hospital in Naga City for suspicion of having a serious health problem. I visited her at the hospital before we proceeded to the town of San Jose.

Myzel and another niece arranged an interview with Arsenio Curva Delloro, the person who claimed that he was adopted by my father and his wife Jacobe Racelis Perdon. Jacobe’s name is new to me but my relatives in Caramoan know her and knew the old man as a former policeman and a teacher. No wonder that his story  about my father’s relationship with  a certain woman named Jacobe during my father stay in Caramoan is believable to me. It turned out that Arsenio was the son of Jacobe’s sister and he himself has now three children, two living overseas. However, his claim that my father was married to Jacobe and lived in Cadlan, Pili, where my mother grew up; it was there that her family settled down after escaping from the trouble in China, seems to me does not hold water. Myzel shared with me this observation because as she was born and grew up in Caramoan she knew that his great grandmother, the mother of Bonifacio Perdon wasn named Agatona Sales. I Just too note of the new information for further verification during my visit. The old man apologised and said that it is the only information he could give me about his being a former ward and for seven years living with my father and his wife Jacobe? At the time of the information about Jacobe came into the picture, I recalled seeing an old burial photo from the old photo albums left behind by my mother when she died in 2003. In that photo I identified my father who was prominently seen grieving for the deceased person. More on this photo later.


From the Delloro residence we proceeded to the barrio of Paniman where the children of Manoy Arturo still live. We stayed in the house of Milagros Bien or Lagring, daughter of Manoy Arturo, facing the beach of Paniman, a beautiful place made by the presence of fishing boats creating a rustic atmosphere. Further up north is the site of La Playa  Beach Resort and down south is another beach resort called Blue & Waves. In an early visit to Paniman in 2008, Lagring informed me that she lived briefly with my mother in my apartment in Cubao, Quezon  City, during that time I was in Australia pursuing studies in museum and archives administration.

In Paniman, Lagring who requested his sister Socorro and brother Larry to join the interview provided us a place to spend the night. They also invited Jaime Sancha, an 80 year old man, a chilhood friend of both Manoy Pacio and Arturo. Jaime told me that he was a childhood friend of both men and he knew and everyone knew in the barrio that Arturo and Bonifacio were brothers. Although having different mothers, they were both recognised in the barrio, even in Caramoan poblacion, as the sons of my father when he was teaching in Caramoan. It was Jaime who told me that Manoy Pacio recognised Manoy Arturo as his half brother, although he has different surname.

Then Socorro, or Coring, gave me more than enough to clear the doubts about Jacobe as my father’s first wife whom he took with him when he was re-assigned in barrio Cadlan, Pili, after his stint in Caramoan ended. The information provided by Coring corroborated an early statement given by Arsenio Curva Delloro that he lived in Cadlan with my father and his wife for seven years, in fact, he told me that the couple did not have a child, so they decided to adopt him. He said that my father was a kind man who even treated him as his own son. He repeatedly told me that when he arrived in Cadlan at the age of 6 years old, my father bought him a small bicycle.

As the story of Manoy Arturo unfolding, this is what Coring and his sister and brother told me on that night talking with them. Before telling the story of her family she told me that she once lived with my mother in my house in San Pedro, Laguna, at the time my mother was already approaching senility and was even suspecting that she was the other woman of my elder brother, Danilo, who brought her from Caramoan to acompany my mother who was living alone in my house.

Coring told me that his grandmother’s name was Josefina Mercado who was a student of my father when he was teaching in Paniman and who doubled as laundry woman for his dirty clothes. Many remember that teachers during those time, like my father, was always following the dress code for teachers in the community, no matter how remoted their assignment was like Paniman, a secluded place far away from the town proper of Caramoan, teachers always appear respectable, prim and proper and almost always in elegant suit, even during summer time.

Sometime, just after the birth of Bonifacio by Agatona Sales, my father impregnated Josefina Mercado and got her pregnant. It was also about the time the he was given a new teaching post, first briefly in Baao, then in Cadlan, Pili. The poor Josefina who was left pregnant by my father found a saviour in the name of Felix Bien who  gave Manoy Arturo his family name by marrying the young woman abandoned by my father. That union, after the birth of Arturo, also in 1925, followed  by Marqueta, Merlita,  Carlito, Sabel and Elsa, all known in Caramoan, including Manoy Arturo as having surnamed Bien. This is the reason why Manoy Arturo used Bien, instead of Perdon as his surname.

There is a twist on this story. After the birth of Elsa, the youngest or sixth child, the sister of Josefina brought Arturo, according to Coring, and presented the boy to my father, not clear whether it was in Baao, Pili, or in Nabua where our grandmother live at the ancestral house of the Perdon family.  At any rate, it was told that since Arturo had already been known as Arturo Bien, my father denied paternity and that is the end of the story, as far as my father was concerned. But everyone in the barrio of Paniman, including Manoy Pacio who lived in adjoining barrio of Bikal recognised his half brother who was father by his father until both had their respective families and their descendants even up to know recall, including from the statement of 80 year old Jaime Sancha, that the two families of Perdon and Bien in Caramoan recognised their paternal link.

My father’s stint as classroom teacher in Bikal ended in 1927, two years after his first son was born. He was a single father. He was re-assigned and given a new teaching post in the town of  Baao, Camarines Sur, closer to his birthplace town of Nabua.

He stayed there for two years until 1929, when he was again given a new post, at barangay Curry, a remote barrio of the neighbouring town of Pili. There he had to hike morning and afternoon for many kilometres to reach his teaching post and back to his accommodation in town in the evening. The place is also in Camarines Sur. My mother would tell us later tha my father opened the school in that barrio in Curry, located at the foot of the legendary Mt. Isarog, a former active volcano, where many of the inhabitants were Aetas, the nomadic aboriginal tribes who were enticed to a more settled life and adapted into a more permanent lifestyle in the lower lands. A couple of these negritoes, in fact, worked as household helps for my parents.

Back in Australia, I looked for the burial photo I remember seeing but had no clue why my father was figured prominently on the photo. He was seen still in state of grieving and at the back of this photo is handwritten the name ‘Jacobe R. Perdon’. I identified the handwriting was that of my mother. I closely scrutinised the photo and using a magnifying glass I found the face of my mother when she was still single, as among nthe barrio residents who bade goodbye to the deceased Jacobe.

My historical interpretation of the burial photo and the facts gathered is that Cadlan, being a small barrio, like other small barrio in the Philippines, even today, almost all residents knew each other. My mother was probably was moving int he same circle as my father and his wife Jacobe, particularly in her religious membership with the town’s Dignitarios de la Accion Catolica. Another reason was the fact that the period, from 1929-1938, a ten year period, when my father’s wife died, he decided to court my mother who was nearing 30 years old. In 1938, in February, my father married my mother at the Naga Cathedral. He was 37 and she was 27 years old. The marriage could also be the reason why my mother never received the customary ‘dowry’ given by my paternal grandparents when their sons settled down and got married. After all, it was already a second marriage for my father.

As I close the story of my long lost half brother Manoy Arturo whose place in our family tree remain a blank space for the main reason that no one could show me a photo of him except a hazy burial photo which is too blurred to know him more, at least, his face. But my distant relatives in Paniman promised me that they would continue looking for a surviving image of my half-brother, Arturo. As I close this saga of my father’s love affairs during his initial years as an educator and seemingly as a ‘dashing lothario’, another information surfaced which is also connected to another family tale that my father fathered a girl but having shamed the family, the parents of the young woman decided to move her out of the town of Caramoan. My niece, Prosy and her husband confirmed that there is this information in the town of Garchitorena about the woman who is linked to my father. I decided not to pursue this part of family search and prevent the family of the woman further humiliation having been father by Regino Perodn, a pioneer teacher in far, distant and secluded barrios of Camarines Sur nin the Bicolandia.

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See also related articles:

Remembering a Filipino pioneer educator

Ang Buhay at Panahon ng Pamilya Perdon

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