Straightly Susil: The Lessons Of My Father

The front line staff at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila told my father that his surname in the birth certificate he is presenting is misspelled. The letter 'u' in Ligutan has an 'o' instead. My father asked what can he do to make things right so that he can get his passport. The staff said, "Sir, you need to go back to your place of birth and bring me back the correctly spelled birth certificate." My father, who has just spent hours on a queue under the grueling Manila sun before getting his turn, was not amused. "Miss, you want me to go all the way back to Bohol, just to get this one letter fixed, because the clerk at the Civil Registrar in Anda at the time I was born was a poor speller?"

My father, who like myself almost always wins an argument by putting a finer point to a reason, got his passport without having to go back to Bohol and from then on, he has traveled to spend many a happy times with me in Hong Kong.

I have many wonderful memories of our time together and the lessons of each of those interactions are both profound and funny, but they will be written and shared another time.

The most memorable of all the times my father had spent with me in his many visits to Hong Kong were the times spent with Ken and my friends. Having found a copy of an e-Album I made in 2005, I felt the most exciting of urge to share those joyous moments to everyone and I am doing so for the love of my father and for Ken who has been the best in spending time with him.