A TASK FDR THE FINE WHISKEY

OF THE BOURGEOISIE

T/Hliving
E IR house in Little Baguio, in San Juan, has th is sunken
room which seems to have been especially designed for
l lie sort of parties Gaby and Chiqui Bautista like to give. N othing
grand, just a gathering of seven or eight people, usually familiar
friends from college days, drinking Scotch and vodka and gin-
ionic, chatting amiably by the aquam arine light of the huge vine-
gar-jar lamp Chiqui found in an antique shop in Erm ita, the hi-fi
playing the songs df the year soft and unobtrusive in the back­
ground, their cigarette smoke wafting up tow ards the dark expos­
ed m fters o f the white ceiling.

At the very first of such parties, in November 1960, three m onths

after Gaby and Chiqui’s wedding, the following are present:
their best man, Danny de Leon, an advertising and public rela­
tions executive; Danny’s girl, Edith Ledesma, an interior de­
corator; Louie Paterno, a philosophy professor at Assum ption
Convent and De La Salle; Jules Gonzales, a CPA with Soriano
y Cia.; Lucy Ongsiako, a travel agent; Poch Ayala, an A teneo law
graduate who has just taken the bar; and Maitet Tuason, who is
24 THE APOLLO CENTENNIAL

taking her M.A. in Comparative Literature at the UP, has lesbian

tendencies and is deeply attracted, starting this evening, to Edith
Ledesma.

Chiqui Bautista wants to practice her cooking and serves her

guests the results o f her valiant sally into the culinary arts: diluted
clam chowder soup, arroz a la valenciana with a much too la.ish
mix o f chorizos de bilbao, and a more or less passable em butido
reclining in an orchre sauce. Danny de Leon leads the cheers for
the breathless cook, which sets the tone for the evening: good-
hum ored, teasingly ironic. Two maids, sisters from Kalibo, Aklan,
provided by Chiqui’s m other, serve at the table, and for beginners
acquit themselves rather admirably, breaking only one soup tureen
betw een them . During dessert — mango slices topped w ith choco­
late ice-cream — Jules Gonzales and Louie Paterno try to outdo
each other in the prurience o f their smoking-room jokes, all
featuring eggplants, bananas, and similarly horticultural items.
M aitet Tuason snorts in exaggerated disgust and pads down to the
lower-level living room , followed by the rest, except for Lucy
Ongsiako, who has a weak bladder and has to go to the bathroom .

A t this first party at the Bautistas’ the following subjects, not

necessarily in the order they are listed, occupy the group till
m idnight, provoking earnest declarations, solemn confirm ations,
affable disagreements, derisive hoots, bad puns, chuckles, unres­
trained laughter, gasps and groans: 1) The wisdom o f marrying
early or late; 2) the rhythm m ethod o f birth control; 3) the causes
o f the Korean War; 4) the Berlin Wall; 5) the next NCAA cham­
pions; 6) Frank Sinatra; 7) Zen Buddhism; 8) Carlos P. Garcia,
9) haunted houses; 10) General M otors, which Gaby Bautista has
ju st joined; 11) real estate vs. jewelry as investments; 12) night­
clubs; 13) advertising agencies; 14) bangungot\ 15) mothers-in-
law; 16) Jose Rizai; 17) the troubles in Central Luzon; 18) rock
V roll; 19) James Bond; 20) World War III.
A TASTE FOR THE FINE WHISKEY. 25

In the next five years, Gaby and Chiqui Bautista give parties
similar to the above every other m onth, or at least six tim es a
year. There are other affairs in the house in Little Baguio, family
gatherings for the m ost part, the baptismal and birthday parties
of th e little Bautistas, three of whom have arrived on the scene
in almost as many years; dinners for Chiqui’s parents visiting with
them from Bacolod and G aby’s father and stepm other coming
over from Forbes Park; bienvenidas and despedidas, some of them
in the form o f extended meriendas, for assorted relations and
business associates. But it’s the parties with their tested, loyal
friends th a t Gaby and Chiqui Bautista really delight in hosting;
the cheerful, voluble reunions of the group gathered for dinner in
1960.

In 1966, the group loses three m em bers but gains four regulars.
Poch Ayala leaves for Harvard, E dith Ledesma breaks up w ith
Danny de Leon and is last seen boarding a plane for Hongkong in
the com pany of an elderly congressman, and Jules Gonzales is
assigned to Atlas Consolidated Mining in Toledo, Cebu, where he
prom ptly falls and drowns in a rain-filled excavation. The new­
comers are Roger Benedicto, a Pepsi-Cola plant manager and his
wife N anette, a poet and ceramic artist; Jing-jing Lichauco, a
m oney m arket consultant; and Pepot A raneta, effeminate b u t not
hom osexual, the com ptroller of a unisex-wear m arketing com­
pany.

A fifth addition to the party makes his appearance on the first

Saturday o f the following year, Gaby Bautista’s Tarlac town-
m ate and com padre, Philip Lapus, an accountant w ith Dole Philip­
pines. He seems ill at ease, and sits o ff in one corner of the sunken
living room , n o t saying m uch, just smiling wanly at the jokes th at
the rest find so uproarious. He likes G aby’s Scotch, though, and
spends the evening drinking Johnnie Walker, first the Red and
then the Black, and eyeing Jing-jing Lichauco, whose long legs are
encased in electric-blue palazzo pants. His mahjong-playing wife
26 THE APOLLO CENTENNIAL

has ju st left him for a Chinese copra trader, and Gaby has asked
him to the party more out of a vague charity than an access of
com radeship. Philip Lapus slowly, quietly gets drunk as the group
chats away on the following subjects, no t necessarily in this order:
1) The Kennedys; 2) Lyndon B. Johnson; 3) Diosdado Macapagal;
4) the cursillo; 5) sex in Scandinavia; 6) antiques; 7) U FO ’s;
8) com munism; 9) dem ocracy; 10) the N orth Borneo claim; 11)
rape; 12) the scarcity of housem aids; 13) international beauty
pageants; 14) Elizabeth T aylor; 15) the war in V ietnam ; 16)
lunchtim e fashion shows; 17) the films of Fellini; 18) Sergio
Osmena, Jr.; 19) LSD.

One night in August 1967, the party at the Bautistas’ breaks

up unusually early—10:16, by G aby’s Girard Perrigaux w atch. This
is how the unhappy turn o f events comes about: Roger Benedicto
and Philip Lapus get into an arm-waving argument over labor
unions, w ith the form er implacably for m anagement and the latter
taking up the cudgels for the w orkers o f the world, united or
otherwise. Roger Benedicto, to the group’s dismayed surprise,
loses his cool and unleashes a to rren t o f full-volume abuse in
Philip Lapus’ direction. The long passive Philip Lapus, to every­
one’s stunned surprise, turns furious and eloquent, and helped
along by Gaby B autista’s White Label, delivers a passionate indict­
m ent of the exploitative classes larded liberally with choice Marx­
ist epithets about the running dogs o f U.S. imperialism, domestic
feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism. W hereupon Roger Bene­
dicto, similarly red in the face, rises to his full five-foot-eight and
smashes his glass on the floor, near Philip Lapus’ Valentino boots.
N anette Benedicto announces tearfully that it’s about tim e they
all left, to which tw o-thirds of the com pany express awkward
assent. Shaking his shaggy untrim m ed head, Philip Lapus strides
out o f the gate, declines the offer o f a lift in Danny de L eon’s
Mustang, and stalks off to the bus stop three blocks away.

G abv and C hiaui Bautista find they can giye no more than three
A TASTE FOR THE FINE WHISKEY. 27

parties for t heir friends in 1968. Gaby, accompanied by Chiqui

and their eldest son, Junie, goes off to Dearborn, Michigan,
U.S.A., to attend a General M otors foreign managers’ conference.
They are abroad for well over six m onths, making an unhurried
tour o f Europe, which includes an audience with the Pope, on
their way back to Manila in October-November.

They give their third and last party for the year a week after
their arrival. The Benedictos in the m eantim e have emigrated to
Chicago, and Roger Benedicto’s antagonist, Philip Lapus, re­
appears bringing a girl, 16 or 17, who tells everyone just to call
her Babette, never m ind the surname. Babette in katsa blouse and
faded denim pants is sunburned, sullen, and pretty. She and
Philip Lapus drink a lot of J&B Scotch and say little, nodding,
shaking their heads almost im perceptibly, as the group chatters
till well past one in the morning about, among other things, the
following subjects, not necessarily in this order: 1) The student
dem onstrations; 2) Com m ander D ante; 3) the Beatles; 4) free
love; 5) Italian vs. British sports cars; 6) holdups; 7) the stock
m arket; 8) Ferdinand E. Marcos; 9) the m oney m arket; 10) ESP;
11) life on other worlds; 12) the U.S. bom bing o f N orth Vietnam ;
13) abstract art; 14) the ghetto riots in New York City; 15) Ro­
bert F. K ennedy; 16) Com m unist China; 17) the corrupt press;
18) Congress; 19) Im elda Marcos; 20) Ninoy A quinc.

Beginning in 1970 . th ere are more parties at the Bautista h ouse

in Little Baguio, in San Juan, once a m onth, or almost, and
the group has grown to fifteen, counting the hosts and Danny
de L eon’s newly acquired wife, Maripaz, a TV producer and
director. Gaby Bautista has been named senior vice-president
at GM-Philippines, and w ith the new post, the highest he will ever
get before he is felled by a m yocardial infarction or cancer of the
pancreas, he has become more expansive and w itty ; he is also
having an affair with the estranged wife of one o f his subordinates,
a laughing, deep-throated wom an w ho has been m istaken for
28 THE APOLLO CENTENNIAL

Pilar Pilapil. His new position and his affair seem at once to have
generated a deeper affection for his family and his longtime
friends, as if he wished to make up for the time and energy he has
not devoted to them . Thus, his urging Chiqui to give the m onthly
dinners, at which the guests now include Armand Orosa, a banker
and magazine publisher; Bobby Rom ualdez, a subdivision deve­
loper; Joy T antoco,w ho owns a chain o f boutiques; and Monching
Sevilla, Gaby B autista’s poker and golfing crony, a stock-broker
who com m utes betw een his Dasmarinas Village residence and his
Nueva Ecija hacienda in a reputedly bullet-proof Mercedes-Benz
450 SE.

In 1971, the Bautistas adopt a hobby which furnishes th e m '

another reason for entertaining. Every so often, on weekends or
holidays, they fly off to some corner of the archipelago, to collect
ethnic objects, beads, masks, cerem onial vases and such, which,
Chiqui B autista explains with a kind o f missionary rapture at a
party, m ust be “ baptized” before they can be installed in a Chris­
tian hom e. The “ baptism ” would have to be com m em orated with
dinner, drinks, and happy talk up to the wee hours. Many a
“baptism ” then is celebrated by the Bautistas who return from
their excursions lugging wooden idols from Kalinga and B ontoc,
fire-hardened spears and shields from Nueva Vizcaya, brass plates
and jars, musical instrum ents and bladed weapons from Lanao,
C otabato, and Sulu. Some they give away to their friends, m ost
they hang up in the living room and the dining-kitchen area, so
that by the m iddle of 1972, the house has begun to look like a
museum.

A week before the declaration of m artial law, Gaby and Chiqui

Bautista give one o f the most m em orable parties o f their lives.
They have ju st come back from Lanao with a sari-manok, which
is a Maranaw symbol, Chiqui inform s the duly impressed com­
pany, of prestige, wealth, and power. While she no longer cooks,
she now exercises unrem itting supervision over the com petent
A TASTE FOR THE FINE WHISKEY. 29

maids in the kitchen, and from her larder issues an array of well-
fashioned dishes: gazpacho, bacalao a la viscaina, to rta de cang-
rejo, crispy pata, and tenderloin tips in oyster sauce. A fter dinner
they descend to the living room , where Gaby Bautista, with
priestly m otions and thoroughly enjoying himself, positions
the sari-manok in its place o f honor betw een tw o santos, one of
them with a disfigured face, the other recognizable as a traditional
representation of San A ntonio de Padua, atop the Chinese ivory
chest he and Chiqui brought back from Singapore in 1968. Al­
ready tipsy from the drinks he has had through dinner, he recites
a florid toast to the stylized w ooden rooster with the fish caught
in its beak, invoking its blessings upon all gathered there. The
other men take turns toasting the sari-manok, except for Philip
Lapus, who just smiles and clinks the ice around in his second
glass o f Vat 69. The talk is especially animated on this occasion,
frequently punctuated by squeals and laughter, and ranges over
the following subjects, not necessarily in this order: 1) Martial
law; 2) the sex life of Muslims; 3) Ferdinand E. Marcos; 4) bom ba
Films; 5) the Liberals; 6) aphrodisiacs; 7) last year’s Plaza Miranda
bom bing; 8) the C onstitutional Convention; 9) the Santo Nino;
10) the July-August floods; 11) Raul Manglapus; 12) Ho Chi Minh;
13) faith healers; 14) soul-rock; 15) massage parlors; 16) VD;
17) oil vs. mining stocks; 18) the 1973 presidential election;
19) Ninoy A quino; 20) Imelda Marcos; 21) Swiss bank deposits;
22) Carmen Soriano; 23) the coming revolution; 24') golf; 25) God.

The first party they hold after the declaration of m artial law,
in the first week o f December 1972, is quite subdued despite
the am ount o f Scotch, gin, and brandy consumed. Philip Lapus
has_ disappeared, and the Bautistas and their friends exchange
som ber notes on his possible fate or whereabouts. Louie Paterno
believes the fellow was a subversive all along and has either been
picked up by the military or gone north to join the New People’s
Army in Isabela. Pepot A raneta, who tends to think the worst o f
people, suspects Philip Lapus is involved in nothing so ideological
30 THE APOLLO CENTENNIAL

b u t in something shoddy and pedestrian, like procuring or drug-

smuggling — with the M etrocom keeping a close w atch on such
characters, concludes Pepot w ith a sigh and a shudder, the guy is
just lying low somewhere w ith his m ysterious girlfriend. Maitet
Tuason, who has overcome her lesbian tendencies b u t is still w ith­
out a boyfriend, hopes no harm has befallen Philip, who, come to
think of it, she and the other ladies chorus, resembles a gaunt
Joseph Estrada and can be sweet and charming if he wants to.
Armand Orosa, whose weekly magazine has been closed down by
martial law b u t whose bank is as prosperous as ever, has heard that
Philip did go underground, Was captured in O ctober and is now
detained in Camp Crame.

Armand Orosa’s report turns out to be true, and more than

tw o years pass before the group gets to see Philip Lapus again.
In January 1975. Philip, is. amnestied out o f Crame. and in the
following m onth, the Bautistas give him a welcome party. Gaby
Bautista brings out the champagne and pours out a generous glass
for his compadre from Tarlac, Lucy Ongsiako and M aitet Tuason
clamor for him to tell how it really was all those m onths inside
Crame; b u t Philip Lapus has not the slightest desire to talk about
his stay in the stockade. He has absolutely no wish tonight to
remember, much less talk abo u t the windowless room with the
lone bright bulb, the narrow bench on which he was m ade to lie
when they beat him up, the electrodes, and how B abette died. He
smiles at the Bautistas and their friends, ax their solicitude, their
sincere anxious questions, their job offers, and accepts a glass of
Chivas Regal, on the rocks, and listens to them talking about:
1) The new hotels; 2) the best discos; 3) condom inium s; 4) rich
generals; 5) Japanese tourists; 6) the last referendum ; 7) Rico J.
Puno; 8) the next oil price increase; 9) beach resorts; 10) mis­
adventures occasioned by the curfew; 11) the proposed tax on
bank deposits; 12) foreign call girls in Erm ita; 13) m ultinational
corporations; 14) the floating casino; 15) m arried ex-Jesuits;
16) the new C onstitution; 17) the Mindanao fighting; 18) cou­
A TASTE FOR THE FINE WHISKEY. 31

turiers; 19) TM; 20) media censorship; 21) the stock m arket;
22) Ferdinand E. Marcos; 23) the house the Bautistas are buying
in Dasmarinas Village; 24) the Great G atsby m o tif of the house­
warming in Dasmarinas.

Philip Lapus listens to the anim ated, continuous chatter and

lets Gaby Bautista replenish his drink and reaches for the sardine-
and-cheese canapes passed to him by J in g -jin g Lichauco, who
looks ravishing tonight in a see-through blouse, a black bra, and
wine-red pants. His bloodshot eyes in their deep sockets survey
the Bautistas and their guests, and the sunken living room w ith the
vinegar-jar lamp and the santos and the sari-manok, the mask
and shields and gongs on the adobe walls. He drinks the excellent
Scotch and watches them , the enemy whose destruction, he be­
lieves with a passionate intensity, has been foreordained by the
forces o f history. Maybe he should start being nice to Jing-jing
Lichauco. Maybe he should accept one o f the jobs the Bautistas
and their friends have offered him. A low profile, and parties like
this every now and then to relieve the old routine, why not? He
drinks slowly savoring the fine whiskey o f the bourgeoisie, and
nods, and smiles, ta k ing his time.

Biding his time.