The Pretty Tarrosa Sisters of Tacurong...Fatima, Yolanda and Lourdes
Posted on Monday, 26 September 2016
THE PRETTY TARROSA SISTERS OF TACURONG
…FATIMA, YOLANDA AND LOURDES
By Apolinario Villalobos
When Tacurong was politically weaned from
Buluan, the once flatland punctuated with pockmarks of marshes was obviously showing
signs of fast development. The Oblates of Notre Dame came to establish a school
and church which later adopted a patron, Our Lady of the Candles (Nuestra Seἧora de
la Candelaria); enterprising migrants from Luzon and Visayas filled market
stalls with various merchandises that came all the way from Cotabato City and
Iloilo City; Chinese businessmen from Cotabato City and Dulawan came, too, to
open better-stocked stores; the Dulawan Bus Company, and Cotabato Bus Company included the struggling
town to their route over dusty roads to Davao City and Cotabato City; a fashion
school (Aumentado, later Grimaldo) was opened, actually, a vocational school
which taught hair styling and dressmaking; two more schools were opened, the
Lyceum and Magsaysay Memorial College, and later, another vocational school,
the Parisenne was opened. Meantime, the elementary school, Tacurong Pilot
School was steadily flourishing. But the most prominent establishment was the
Rural Bank of Tacurong.
The bank was managed by the Tarrosa couple
who hailed from Iloilo. Clients came from as far as Isulan, Esperanza, Buluan,
Tantangan, and Surallah. The couple had fair young daughters, Fatima, Yolanda
and Lourdes…all long-haired and fair-skinned. Those are my recollection of the
pretty sisters, as I used to go to their house, because their brother happened
to be a classmate when I was in elementary. Their brother who was at the head
of our class, as he was unquestionably intelligent had a unique name, being
three- Jesus Armando Antonio. Among the three names, classmates chose
“Antonio”. He would invite two or three of his classmate to their home, and
which included me, where we grilled eggplants from their garden for our late
lunch. Tony pursued his high school in Iloilo while we were left to continue
our studies at Notre Dame for Boys.
The sisters seldom ventured outside their
home which intrigued and challenged the young hombres of the town. They would
just be seen on school days and during Sundays on their way to the church with
their mother. Their long flowing black hair set them apart from the rest of the
girls of the town, and which emphasized their modesty. I recalled the eldest,
Fatima, to have played the role of a Virgin Mary during processions, a role
which was also played by another long-haired and fair lass, Concepcion (Mrs. Cainglet today), as well as, Rosemarie Mojado and Aileen Jordan.
As Junior-Senior prom would approach,
daring college and high school students would pray hard to all the saints
before facing their strict mother to seek permission for the girls to grace the
occasion with their presence as to be paired with any of them was an honor.
They would find out that the mother was not so strict after all as she would
readily give her permission for as long as it was asked with all respect.
The intrigued and curious of the town
learned that the sisters and their brothers left the town to pursue their
studies in Iloilo and Manila, particularly, University of the Philippines. When
I was new in Manila, having just joined Philippine Airlines, I was able to
visit them at their apartment in Diliman. Many years elapsed after that without
any communication until I was invited to an informally organized “reunion” by
Manuel Delfin, and which Tony was said to attend. Unfortunately, I failed to
make it.
Practically, I had no idea how to
reestablish my contact with the Tarrosa siblings until a colleague in PAL, John
Fortes, gave me an old photo of two ladies and I was surprised to learn that
one of them was Yolanda, while the other one was Olive Rocha. He told me about
Lourdes’ being a UP campus personality. I kept the brownish photo hoping that I
could one day show it to Yolanda and the opportunity came when we became
“facebook friends.” After getting her permission, I am gladly posting the photo
with this blog. In the photo, she is the one on the right, with long hair.
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