Her Life
A young couple, Cresenciano P. Cambusa and Florencia Bermas, together with their daughters, Lourdes and Leonides, visited the wife's hometown in Bacacay. Unfortunately, the couple was caught by the typhoon walding that hit the Bicol region in October 1952 and have to.
Twenty-second November, amidst the storm, a soft cry of a baby girl emerged through the rustling winds and gushing of waters, the couple's youngest daughter and she was named Maria Cecilia Corazon... after the names of Florencia’s aunts, three old maids at that time.
Soon after the typhoon subsided and the roads were declared safe, and the family went back to Polangui...
Maricel, as she was fondly called by her friends and classmates, grew up with grandmother Edoy. The old madame, Teodora Panga Cambusa, a tall Spanish mestiza, was actually strict but kind mother of Cresenciano. who could have tell that Maricel was a favorite of Madame Edoy... growing up with granny, young Maricel always get what she wanted. She dropped her other names and graduated in primary school as Cecilia.
But life was not always been good... in 1968, Cecilia quietly ran away to Manila… She wanted to escape from that arranged marriage… a traditional agreement between businessmen to ensure passing their respective business to their children. In these times, places were not yet fearsome as it was after decades and her thoughts of running away give her full of courage to ride a railway train bound to Tutuban. She walked along with an elder woman while entering the train… her height then gives her the privilege of free ride. She sat on a can of biscuit brought by the elder woman. She only has herself small pack of clothes and some money she had earned whenever she was in-charge of their family store or at times ‘buy and sell’ of products at a young age.
At Tutuban Railway Station, Cecilia called her Aunt Remy and waited a while to fetch her. She was brought by her aunt to their residence in front of V. Luna General Hospital. She enrolled her third year at Ramon Magsaysay High School, and the rest becomes part of high school life until she graduated and successfully enrolled to college.
In the following years, the country had been in the state of unrest. Manila had become more busier than it used to. In July 1971, several groups were gathered and rallied alongside the streets, bringing with them some placards with written statements against the government. Along with those rallyists were groups of sophomore students and Cecilia was among them, marching toward the Plaza Miranda. In the midst of a commotion, a young army man suddenly grabbed Cecilia into an alley pushing her to the other side of the street, firmly asked her to leave and do not come back to that place. The following month, the bombing of Plaza Miranda was broadcasted in the national news and due to civil unrest, Martial Law was declared in 1972.
