My childhood days

I grew up in 1980’s in Palompon, which was a small coastal town some time ago. My father (Gerardo) and my namesake was a teacher first in Lomonon national high school (7 kilometers from town proper) then transferred to Colegio de San Francisco Javier (CSFJ) and finally in Northern Leyte College (NLC). My mother (Nimfa Molon Codilla) was an engineering student in Arellano University in Pasay but chose to stay at home as plain housewife, taking care of my Papa and the six of us (I am the eldest of 6). We live beside the ancestral house of the Codilla (My mother was the eldest of eight siblings, and the rest of them are studying and working outside Palompon) My grandfather (Papang Juaning), a retired soldier, was left alone at the ancestral home, my grandmother (Mamang Leoling) died in 1982, when I was still two years old.

The town was dusty and full of holes (libaong) almost in all streets of the poblacion, with exception of the main thoroughfare, known as Rizal street, where the terminal, public market, municipio, sentro, was located. Other known landmarks in this town during my younger days were the big house of Chinese businessman Diyong (Chiong) in Rizal street (still existing today), Kadiwa, near the public market (a coop operated by the government), the Lampakanay (floating restaurant near the wharf), ABC building adjacent to the municipio, another is Sentro (health center) near municipio, I could no longer recall its exact location, the store of Insek Jose (Soy Tsan, also known as Jose Sanchez) which was burned down in 1984 fire. Most of the businessmen in this town are of Spanish and Chinese progeny, like Hoga Lim, Bernardita (Liok), Byawha (is that the correct spelling) An Kok Yu (who own as bakery), Diyong (Chiong) owner of sea vessels, and many others.

There are old houses in Palompon during 1980s, some of those have already perished to this date (either gutted by fire, demolished, renovated or abandoned by owners). During my childhood, we can still see that this place is really a colonial town and the Spanish leave its mark on some of the structures here. The house of Esperanza Marilao (Tacan) was built before 1900 (still existing today), another old houses of Salvino in Ipil and one in Zamora (which is influenced by Hispanic architecture).Other old houses are in Libertad and Arellano streets, the Delgados house, Eamiguel, and the other one beside it (atbang ilang Dodong Selpa). Although there are existing old houses here, most of the residential buildings are built after the war (some others built before the war was spared from Allied bombings in 1944).

Riding in a pot-pot is indeed a bumpy and bouncy ride since the holes were filled with stones and gravel especially during rainy days (aron way pita nga maglatak sa karsada). Very few people ride on potpot and most of these vehicles preferred to traverse the concrete pavement along Rizal street. I remember walking from our house to the house of my grandparents, Tatay Oloy (Rufino Reyes) and Nanay Tesia (Patricia) in Washington corner San Francisco street (known then as Ipil, today Ipil was divided into 3 barangays).But people of Palompon before refer the southern part of the poblacion as Ipil while the northern part of the town proper as Guiwan and Look (now San Isidro). People as far as Guiwan preferred to walk in going to church and market (merkado) than to ride potpot.

Today, potpot were still there, but no longer traversing a muddy and rough road, the streets are already concreted and Palompon has changed a lot from my childhood days up to now. Daghan na kaayo ug kausaban. And I know that it will be a positive change as this town faces a bright future.

Palompon was a simple town then. And as I grow up I witnessed how it metamorphosed into a bustling town in this part of Leyte.