OCtober 22, 2006

Edsa heroine goes Down Under rises again
By Emman Cena
October 22, 2006
Page A22

EVEN IN FARAWAY LAND DOWN Under, every detail of the 1986 snap elections walkout is still vivid to Linda Angeles-Hill. Twenty years have passed and yet the glazed looks, silent cries and frightened faces of her colleagues walking out the plenary hall of the Philippine International Convention Center linger in Linda’s memory.

On Feb. 9, 1986, around 30 computer technicians—including Linda—all manning the tabulation project of the Commission on Elections walked out due to alleged tampering of results of the presidential elections. The walkout, in part, triggered the chain of events that soon toppled the despotic Marcos regime in the unprecedented Edsa People Power I.

Twenty years later, the group had no regrets, says Linda, who is now working as a senior consultant in the information technology department of Qantas Airways Limited, the largest airline company in Australia.

“I remain proud of the group,” she says. “Once and for all, it wasn’t a staged walkout. It was, as we said then, a spontaneous response to protest observed anomalies in the election count.”
Intolerable situation While the protest was an escape from an “intolerable situation,” her migration to Australia in August 1988 was a “convenient escape” since her family was reeling from the Marcos regime at that time and IT skills were in demand in Australia.

At that time, her husband Red Kapunan, one of the leaders of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, was in strife under constant bickering and sniping from media and government. The political turmoil, which involved her husband who was implicated in the 1987 coup and the Olalia murder accusations, that accelerated the decision of Linda and family to migrate.

“Our family was quite harassed under those circumstances,” Linda says. “I didn’t want to leave but after many hours of iyakan, we agreed to leave the country to ‘regroup’ the family. Red was to join us in Australia when he was free to do so, or we would return if things got better.” The move was indeed not a permanent solution.

Their daughter Kriscia, then 10 years old, had a poster beside her bed in Sydney bearing the words “This is temporary,” a constant reminder that they would one day be completed again.
She recalls Kitinn, then 14, took a much longer time to adjust to the lifestyle and her new school, than Kriscia.

Collateral damage
Linda and her two young daughters had been the collateral damage. But the decision eventually became a “blessing and destiny” to the family who soon coped with the new environment. Linda and Red later parted ways, however.

“Only heaven could’ve planned it so well,” says Linda referring to the job waiting for her in Australia when she left the Philippines.

The move was not at all easy for the family but they treated it as an adventure, Linda says. They initially stayed with former officemates from the National Computer Center while looking for their own place.

“I guess you can say my children and I were collateral damage, even if now I have no misgivings about it,” Linda says of her life now with Greg Hill, a software developer in Australia. “I feel secure and happy where I am.”

New husband, new life It was in Qantas where Linda met Greg whom she eventually wed in 1996 following a divorce from former husband in 1993. Greg is one of the reasons she’s loving Australia. He is the house’s “iron man” who does, well, the “ironing,” she quips.

“I must say I am very happy with my life now,” she says. “I’m with my children and their families, a great husband.”

“The weather, the varied and rich culture, the food, the clean environment, my job, politics which though imperfect, works for simple people like me who pay taxes and get services and infrastructure in return.”

“Cost,” she says, “ is not an issue in Australia. You don’t have to break your back making money so you can pay for unwanted medical bills or services especially for the aged.”

Linda says that she feels secure in the land Down Under without worrying too much about their future and medical requirements, by the time they get old.

“I know Greg and I can live a reasonably comfortable life here not so in the Philippines, unless we are rich.”

In Australia, one needs not be rich, popular or dress up extravagantly to be treated well. Unlike in the Philippines, she says, there is no “obsession about appearance and stature here.”

“I see it in (Philippine) newspapers and billboard ads for skin whiteners, beautiful but inept TV presenters, aging politicians with jet-black hair who are in politics for the wrong reasons,” she says.

Australians treat each other well if one deserves it, not because one’s name, looks or jewelry demands it. Respect is earned by one’s honesty and strength of character, not by material or transient things, she adds.

“I used to be really passionate about Philippine politics even from here in Sydney. I used to scour every inch of Philippine newspapers that I could get my hands on. But I got more and more frustrated in the last few years,” she says.

The largely heterogeneous culture in Australia has also enriched the family being exposed to a wider culture base.

“I like how the society, culture have enriched my own daughters here,” she says. “I’m delighted that they buy stuff from St. Vincent de Paul [the Australian counterpart of “ukay-ukay”], have breast-fed their babies until the milk ran out, are hands-on mothers to their daughters and have chosen good, supportive husbands. If I may say so myself, their character is topnotch.

“We have become more adventurous and exploratory with food, choice of friends, activities and more tolerant of other people’s habits and ways.”

Sharing IT skills
From time to time, the couple visits the Philippines and is planning to make frequent visits to do some charity work by sharing their IT skills with her kababayan.

During her rest days, Linda does laundry and ironing just like every Filipino mother does. Weekends are spent at home with family and friends, often for a Filipinized Aussie barbecue.
Only a few years away from retiring, this Davaoe a says she misses her family and friends in the province, the food and the native speak.

“I’m not planning to retire there (in the Philippines) because my immediate family is here, and I like my life here now,” she says when asked of her retirement plans. “Besides, I can’t afford to pay for any major and long-term medical expenses if we fall ill there.”

But the woman who once figured in one of the country’s most significant events says that although she plans to die in Australia, she wants to be cremated and have her urn rest in her family mausoleum in Davao.

“Greg knows that’s my wish,” she says.