Boy Boso Dot Com Part III

Update:

Our landlady talked to us yesterday about what happened and based on her understanding, it was my husband who told my friend what Gilbert said, which paved way for her to file a complaint. She also stressed that since among the tenants, my husband and I are the ones who have been living there for the longest time, we should not interfere with petty issues.
She believed that my husband told my friend her nephew’s statements which caused my friend’s husband to be angry, called our landlady over the phone and told her to let Gilbert stay away or else “titinggaan ko siya sa ulo". According to her, small incidents should not be forwarded to the Barangay because we could talk about it and patch things up easily.  Well, we just told her to talk to my friend instead, because we were not the complainant and we didn’t have the right to complain since we haven’t actually caught who the voyeurs were.

First of all, we really couldn’t believe that Gilbert is one of the perpetuators, although there might be chances that he is one of those who could discreetly watch people who are using our comfort room through the window. When I started living there, my landlady instructed him to watch over me, since I go home past eleven PM due to work schedule (I used to work from 2PM-11PM) and because he was often seen with his friends on the street even at night. We are all aware that in our country, there are a lot of people who claim to be “kings” of the streets, and if you were the lucky one, they would victimize you and to avoid this, there should be someone to watch over you, especially if you were a newbie. With his constant presence, we became friends and I introduced him to my then-boyfriend (now my husband). That’s why we really couldn’t believe that he could have done it. My husband explained that he was there because he himself couldn’t believe that Gilbert was one of the perpetrators of the “pamboboso”. Since my dear friend’s statement and Gilbert’s confession (that he almost had a fistfight against his friend Matias)  did not match, he wanted at least to be in the middle of the two since they are both our friends (by the way, Gilbert is a distant relative of my husband since his paternal grandmother’s surname is Manalo).

Second, here’s the sequence of the event last August 18th:

4:00 AM (est): 
My friend went out to switch the water regulator on to take a shower. This was also the time that she claimed 
that the incident happened.

Afternoon:        
My friend was still at work and I attended a kiddie birthday party. My husband was left and fixed our 
landlady’s desktop computer. This was the time when Gilbert told him about Matias.

Evening:            
My friend told my husband about what happened and he, in return, told her Gilbert’s side.

Late Evening:    
My husband told me what happened as well as their two different statements.

The next day...

Past noon:        
I talked to my friend to clarify what happened. Then, I asked her about her next plan of action.

Around 5 PM:  
We went to my godmother’s place and after a few minutes, we accompanied my friend to the office of 
Barangay Chairman.

This was also the time that my friend texted her husband.

When we returned, we decided to talk to our landlady but she was not around so we talked to her younger sister instead, who told us to report her nephew to learn lesson.

I was not sure whether my friend’s husband called our landlady right on that day or the day after, but the thing is, based on the sequence of events, our landlady’s claims were not true.  Of course, my friend’s husband had all the rights to be mad because of what happened. She even told us that my since my friend’s husband is a member of the Philippine Army, there would be a big chance for him to pull the trigger and hurt Gilbert.

If you caught a person who had peeped through your window while you were taking a shower or something, would your husband throw a party? Of course not! That was why I told her, that if it were me, my husband would also be mad, and once I informed them, my dad as well as my cousins who all happened to be in the military as well might also say the same thing. I did not emphasize my dad and my relatives’ involvement in the army out of arrogance; I just emphasize that anyone could react that way once their female relative is at stake, and to warn her subtly as well.  

Oops! I forgot to mention that my friend’s husband asked our landlady to give their rental deposit back, to which she refused.

The window before and after   the incident 

Next, according to her, we should not interfere. Well, I am also a woman who happened to live in the same house, and if that thing happened to my friend, there’s a big chance that I would also suffer the same fate.  Boy Boso might have already enjoyed seeing me naked and he was just lucky not to be caught. What do you expect me to do? As I said in my previous post, three women had already complained in the past, but my dear landlady did not even take action, considering that she has two daughters and several nieces. She only covered the window with plywood and twelve-inch ruler when new tenants started occupying the room beside ours.  How did she expect me to be blind? Besides, it is not just to interfere; it’s a call for awareness.

Why didn’t my friend talk to her first before filing a complaint? It’s because we already had talked to her about the smell of cigarettes by the window every time I take a shower. We had already informed her about the incidents where my fellow female board mates allegedly saw a man’s head peeping through the window. She herself as well as her younger sister and another tenant also claimed that there really are people who peep through the bathroom window, but yesterday she was claiming that it would be impossible to do it. And, because we have been living there for several years, we noticed that whenever people talk to her and to her relatives, they rarely listen.  They would say what they wanted IN A LOUDER VOICE while others are still talking. Thus, we believe that if my friend had talked to them first, nothing good would happen.

Our landlady also told us that her older sister (Gilbert’s mom) was already awake at that time, and that she asked him to turn the water regulator on so she could prepare to go to work. However, Gilbert did not say anything about his mother when we talked in front of the Chairman.  She also mentioned that Toto, another neighbor, was also there but my friend clearly said she only had seen two persons. She also claimed that Matias or “Matti” is a quiet, young man and he had not been involved in any trouble. However, I told her that, the Barangay Chairman himself told us, in addition to what we heard from others, that this young fellow had been involved into several troubles in the past, and has been living in Cavite now due to gunshot (which we are all aware of). After several seconds, she said we wouldn’t be able to know these things if the Chairman and her brother-in-law (Gilbert’s father and is also one of the Kagawads) are in good terms. See?

I told her that we didn’t have any problem with Gilbert since he already had admitted the truth--- that he couldn’t further control his friend’s actions no matter how hard he tried. That, although he had been included in the complaint, he already talked to my friend to clarify things. She told us that she was worried that Gilbert has already been involved, to which we replied “There’s nothing we could do about it.” I advised our landlady to talk to my friend before her husband arrives. Why did she have to talk to us when she and her relatives couldn’t even approach my friend?

I know that she was offended because of what one of her tenants did, but for me, it serves her well. She was aware all along that something’s wrong, but she did not do anything. In the past, whenever there were problems, she had always told us that WE’RE JUST THEIR TENANTS, when in fact, they, being caretakers of the entire compound, are also tenants like us. And tenants also have rights because we are also human beings. In addition, in landlady- tenant/renter relationship, the former is equivalent to PRODUCER and the latter is the CONSUMER, and I believe that there are laws that protect the consumers, although these are sometimes not being implemented in this kind of business.

I repeat, Gilbert and my friend had already talked to patch things up, and we were not the ones who filed a complaint because we were not the one who saw him with Matias on that fateful day. What will happen next is up to his statements on their next hearing of the case.

By the way, the case has been rescheduled next Monday because Matti did not show up. Why? I’m just thinking….

Lastly, why don't we move to a new apartment? The answer is...soon!

Room for rent: beware of peeping Toms.

NOTE:
I forgot to update this entry. Two weeks before we moved to Makati, a female tenant of Gilbert's family decided to move to another place. The reason: she saw how Gilbert's father, one of the Kagawads of Barangay 170 Zone 17, feasted his eyes on her naked body while she was taking a shower. Like father, like son, ne? So to those who are looking for an affordable room for rent along Pasay City, avoid 119 V. Cruz Street.