THE JANITOR: HE FAILED BUT WON

The Manolito G. Betita Story

by: Norberto Betita

Once I was asked by a classmate in my graduate school subject if I am the twin brother of her classmates in high school. She is the daughter of the owner of the college where most of us siblings earned degrees; a District Supervisor of the Department of Education, a respected and prominent woman. I told her that I am not, that they were my elder brothers. She then told me that they were such good and brilliant students in high school. I was elated. She was sorry, as I told her that they did not make it to college due to poverty.

My twin elder brothers Carlito G. Betita and Manolito G. Betita were the fifth born in the line of thirteen births with one still born and thirteen siblings. We have a common beginning having been reared and nurtured in a poverty stricken family. They were born almost at the conclusion of World War II in December 16, 1944. They were one of those who set the tone for us siblings to be known as the best pupils in our town. Indeed they are brilliant and intellectually gifted, the way my post graduate classmate knew them. I always heard them talk about becoming engineers---a very elaborate ambition for poor boys that they were. 

Like all of us in the family, they had been through all the rigors and difficulties of a poverty stricken family life. They both have their share of disappointments and despairs. They have been growing in an atmosphere and environment where vices are very common among relatives and peers. In their youth they are already engaged in gambling and drunkenness. Their high school life was a time when fraternities and gang wars are still common in Surigao. It is ordinary for many boys to carry secretly in their waists a very sharp custom made small dagger for a defense. Manolito carried a sparkling-sharp knife while Carlito fabricated a single rubber sling with tiny arrows for their personal protection. They do not start a quarrel but they are always ready to fight. They were always together in drinking sprees with their peers and in cockfight gambling. They are too good as friends that they are respected by their contemporaries.

They are always willing to sacrifice for their friends. Once a fellow from our place was assaulted by fraternity men and Carlito with a bolo in his hand ran after the molesters. While in the campus a well-known gang in Surigao mauled our first cousin. Manolito immediately snatched a large stone from the ground and struck the most dreaded gang leader almost to death, and all gang members ran. Since then no one ever tried to molest them in campus.

His son and daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren 

When they graduated from high school and they realized that they have no chance of following their dreams to become engineers, Carlito went to Mangaggoy in Surigao del Sur to find a job at the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) while Manolito remained to enroll in college. That was the only time they were separated for so long. Before long Manolito eventually stopped college after he realized that it was really difficult for our parents to support us. He was married early to Milagros Lamoste and eventually found a job as janitor at the Surigao del Norte National High School. His cross road begun when they already have two children. His direction changed. He mellowed and tried to limit his vices.

As children started school, he had to double his efforts. His wife had to do some sewing and cooking to earn additional income for the family. He learned carpentry and took odd jobs of fabricating teacher’s cabinets at school and even in their homes. It was not hard for him to learn carpentry for it is in his blood. He also earned some tips for doing and preparing communications for teachers and other workers. He tried to use his talents if only to be able to earn to supplement deficiencies in his income. With the support of his loving wife he made sure that even in their poverty they will never deprive their children of their needed school stuffs for their academic journey. They rightfully planned to only have two children in their marriage to make sure they will not encounter the same deprivations that he had been through in his life. They made sure that the needs of their children are of paramount priority than all other concerns.

With siblings

True to his family commitment, he tried to be just as true to his wife as he is to his children. In my long association with him, I found him really sober in so far as his relationship with his family is concerned. Even in his drunkenness at times and occasional gambling, he made sure that he would not do anything that would create trouble in the family. He always made sure that his paternal responsibility is done the best way possible to set in order his family, despite their deprivations. He wanted to be assured that his children will not pass the same way of failure that he had encountered in his life because of destitution. He knew he could no longer change his past, but he could reinvent the future, not about his own, but of his coming generations---his children and posterity. He encouraged and motivated them to set their dreams high. He promised and altogether devoted his labors to support them no matter what. Consequently his children made good in their quest for learning and education. His son Jun James, the eldest made it as a scholar at the Mindanao State University---Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). His daughter Cheryl, graduated valedictorian in high school and passed the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) and was admitted at the UP-Cebu College.

While their children were scholars---free tuition and fees---it was admittedly difficult for them considering that they have to pay for the board and lodging. The salary of a government janitor was categorically not enough. While his daughter was receiving a stipend as an “Iskolar ng Bayan” at the University of the Philippines, it was never enough for her needs. So they have to struggle even harder to support her other needs. Perhaps, while their children were away from home during college days, they do not know how their parents wrestled for their needed provisions. Never had I heard him complained about his difficulties during the highest peak of his grapple with deprivations. He was gripped ever the hardest during the college days of his children, but he bolted tight to his remaining hope to free his posterity from the bondage of poverty. Perhaps in his mind was the thought that, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” - (Napoleon Hill http://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2013/12/30/30-powerful-quotes-on-failure/).

With our eldest living sister and me

Yes, he failed to attain his dream to become a civil engineer and ended up a janitor, all because the sting of poverty had constantly crept in his life and its persistent pin-pricking had somehow discouraged his youthful spirit. But as his children come into his life, he determined and pledged with conviction to cut the cycle of poverty by making sure that his children and coming posterity are fortified so as not to undergo the same level of penury and dejection he had suffered. He believes that, “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.” - Denis Waitley, http://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2013/12/30/30-powerful-quotes-on-failure/

His son graduated with a degree in Electronics Engineering from the MSU-IIT. He further studied a course leading to a degree in education at the Surigao del Norte School of Arts and Trades and eventually passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers. However, he opted to work as a medical representative and eventually opened a business of his own. His daughter graduated with a degree in Management at the University of the Philippines –Cebu College. Immediately after her graduation, personnel from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Surigao Branch contacted me at my office at the Philippine National Bank, Surigao Branch thinking that she was my daughter and informed me that she was considered for employment, although she did not apply, but she refused and instead worked in a cooperative enterprise. She eventually resigned and is now the marketing manager of a publishing house in Cebu City. 

Manolito at 71 is now a widower. His ever faithful support in his struggle; his most beloved wife and parental equal Milagros died a few years ago after savoring the beautiful dawn of victory and seeing the cloudless horizon of a brilliant future for their children and posterity. The Janitor is now living with his son, enjoying the golden moments of triumph while reminiscing the dark nights of his journey in failures paths of yesteryears and appreciating with sincere gratitude the blessings that come of patience in tribulations. Indeed, he failed but won his personal battles with adversity. In the twilight of his life, he now cherishes and delights in the beautiful sunshine as it radiantly emerge after the storms. His granddaughter Carrel Joy is now a licensed pharmacist. Two other grandchildren are now in college. As he cuddle his first great-granddaughter, he felt a hopeful assurance that his coming posterity will never be a problem to society but contributors to progress. He now lives with his very meagre government pension, but happy that out of his lowly attainment as a janitor, he was able to successfully nurture and raise his children to rise above his level of difficulties and break the chain of poverty, which had long since bordered his personal growth, onwards to a far more brighter day of a future summer.