Killing Time in a Warm Place

By Jose Dalisay
I.

II.

The story started when Noel Illustre Bulaong is on his way to the Philippines through
an US army plane for the funeral of his late father
a. He started reminiscing about his place and his childhood life when he thought
about his father
i. The remembered how his place is very likely, filled with coconut trees
ii. Kids are all over the place playing all day long
iii. Kids often make fun of his name
b. He admires his father because of how much respect his father gets from the
community.
i. His father has an excellent command of the English language
ii. His father has a sideline job of making speeches and poems for politicians
locally
c. When Marcos and his people visited Kangleong, Noels father made speeches for
the party
i. Noels mother said that it is a great honor to see their father in the stage
together with Marcos
1. Though the father is in the very corner of the stage, looking very
insignificant
ii. Noels mother even said that if not for the fathers works, Marcos wont
win the elections
iii. When Noel is losing sight of his father, he saw Marcos as his second
father
1. He even said that Marcos is a father image for all
2. (This shows how his perception of Marcos started as an
admiration)
The story continued when Noel is already a student of UP Diliman and participating
in a protest demonstration organized by the struggle
a. He is not the leader of the struggle but just a warm body for auxiliary works
i. There is a point where is joins demonstration just to meet girls and to look
cool
b. He is together with Estoy, a son of a military officer working for Marcos
i. Rumors of Estoy being a government spy circulate within the group
ii. Noel experience with the company of Estoy proves that Estoy is really
sincere about his intentions
c. Noel moved out of his house to live with his other 3 comrades in their HQ
i. Their HQ is a shaken apartment
1. Leaks on the roofs
2. Pests everywhere
3. Not enough beds for everyone
4. But is the most affordable for their total budget
ii. They pretend to be cousins just to live in one room

III.

iii. The room does not really look like a HQ except for the radio they have to
contact the main HQ of the struggle
1. That is also the reason why their HQ remained unknown despite
the series of raids done with all of their HQs
The Martial Law was declared
a. They will not even know if not because people talk about it
i. They only borrowed a radio set from their landlady to monitor the
situation
ii. They even let their female member (Laurie) to leave for shopping
b. They were very paranoid about the situation
i. Every time someone knock on their door, they load their revolver gun with
the 4 or so bullets that they have
1. They also have a planned evacuation on mind
2. They know that it would be easy for the government now to pick
them up
ii. They decided to leave the HQ and regroup with the remaining members of
the struggle in the main HQ.
1. They also left the group for a while for some personal stuff like
Noel coming home to inform his parents about their situation
2. He also took whatever food he could bring from their house
3. Their female member was able to regroup with them because of
their precautionary plan.
iii. Noel also lived in the Tambakan with Jong (basically a slum area) where
he found out about the real situation about the poor
1. No one in the Tambakan will buy expensive stuff, they will steal
them rather.
2. It is a way of living in the Tambakan
3. Imagine the stereotypical Tondo

***I wasnt able to read the parts after this, but according the summaries I have read, Noel was
eventually caught and was put to jail. He and the other prisoners just wait for their name to be
drawn from the lottery like game in order to be free. When he was granted amnesty, he found
himself working for a government office (ministry of Public Welfare), while at it, he made a 5page fake bibliography of a politician for a service award. HE wasnt able to take that he is now
working for the government, he exiled himself in America and took his graduate degree while at
it.