Remembering Niño

February 19 is Niño Calinao's death anniversary. I'm reposting this private blog entry from my multiply site two years ago so that people will continue to remember...

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Most UP Volleyball Club (UPVC or VC) members would recognize the name, but not the man. Calinao Cup -- that's what we now call our yearly 3on3 Grass Volleyball Tournament. It was titled that way in order to draw attention not only to the event but also to Niño's haunting murder on February 19, 1999

Niño was my batchmate in UPVC. We were the first batch to apply then, since VC was founded just the previous year. Niño was one of my closest batchmates and we both stayed active in org activities til our senior year.

The night before that fateful day of his death, I dialed his number to encourage him to visit UPVC's 3on3 Grass Volleyball Tournament booth at the AS Walk. I knew his number by heart since I've called him several times before to update him on org activities. He's been quite busy with his studies (he was about to graduate that semester), and wanted to make up for his absence in VC so he promised to drop by our booth before his STS class.

Several people manned the booth that 19th day of February. Three other VC members squeezed with Niño in that small bench below the anthill, almost fronting a fraternity tambayan. I stood in front of them, leaning on our booth table.

I suddenly heard shots. Ignorant as i was, I thought it was pillbox firing near us. Everyone panicked and ran towards the green house. I stayed calm, trying to figure out what was going on. When my orgmates stood from the bench, Niño fell on the floor, blood escaping his mouth. I tried to catch him but he was too heavy. In my mind, I was so angry at these fraternity members for being so careless with their stupid wars (I didn't know then that Niño was hit with gunshots).

Therese, a female orgmate, stayed with me as we tried to drag Niño out to the street to get help. For a long time nobody seemed to care that we were carrying a bleeding victim. Suddenly a car with three guys stopped in front of us and offered to help us take Niño to the hospital. Therese couldn't fit in the car so she simply offered to take care of my stuff at the booth.

On the way to the hospital, I suddenly feared that I was riding with the idiotic fratmen who started this mess and they were trying to clean it up. Sensing my anxiety, they introduced themselves as members of another fraternity and explained that they simply wanted to help. (I was sorta calmed down by their presence because i knew that they weren't part of the ongoing fratwars at the time, and i believed that they really wanted to help.)

Niño seemed unconscious as I cradled him like a child in my arms. But I didn't think he was already dead. I even noticed some flicker in his closed eyes, and one of the guys in the car told me to try to talk to him.

When we arrived at the East Avenue Medical Center, I immediately got out of the car and asked for a stretcher. The girl at the desk wanted me to fill out some forms first but I screamed at her that I have a dying patient in the car.

While the doctors were trying to help Niño, i tried to look for a phone to call his parents. I can't remember what I told them but I remember his mother's gasp when i mentioned the blood coming out of his mouth.

After the call, a guy told me, "Miss, maghugas ka muna, andami mong dugo. Dun o, merong gripo." So i went and washed the blood out of my arms and face.

I went back to the emergency room and saw one guy in a scrub suit kneeling on top of the bed over Niño's body, resuscitating him arduously. Then they stopped. They looked at me and asked if I was the "misis." I said no, I was his friend. I'm not sure what happened afterwards, how it registered in my mind that my friend was dead, and what they did to his body. The guys who helped me stayed for a while, but they requested to leave because they couldn't bear to face Niño's parents.

As I waited for Niño's parents, several VC members arrived and waited with me at the hospital. I was in a daze, probably still in shock. Actually, I don't remember feeling anything at the time.

But I do remember one GMA reporter bugging me for an interview. He kept asking me to just tell him what happened, and that he also knew Niño from UP. I kept telling him I didn't wanna give an interview, so when he said, "Niño would want you to tell the truth," I snapped at him -- "Philo major ako, walang truth saken! Truth is relative!" He finally left me alone.

When niño's parents arrived I had very little time to talk to them in private because reporters were surrounding his crying mother like mad paparazzi. I was actually a bit mad that reporters were feasting on her sorrow.

Only when the police asked me a few questions was I able to figure out that Niño died of gun shot wounds, that he was proclaimed DOA, and that the gunman was probably a professional shooter (considering the number of shots that hit Niño without hitting the others who were squeezing with him in that small bench). Only after i've put two and two together did i realize that Niño was not accidentally hit by some pillbox but brutally killed, mistaken as the fratman who recently beat up *ass**, a member of a rival frat.

UP people speculated that *ass** hired his mighty dad's goons to kill a "big, tall, dark and curly guy prowling at the AS Walk", because his own brods wouldn't avenge him. I got goosebumps when i heard about this description -- Niño was a big, tall, dark and curly guy who went to AS walk that late afternoon because i asked him to show up at our booth.

As clumsy as you've been
There's no one laughing

These are words from Our Lady Peace's song Clumsy. Niño and I both loved this song... funny how the words could've been talking about his death... about hired goons doing a clumsy job.

There will be a Eucharistic celebration tonight, February 19, 6:00 PM at the UP Chapel, inside the UP Campus in Diliman, Quezon City in remembrance of Nino's death.

Rest in peace, my friend. If anyone deserves to go straight to heaven, you do. And if there is indeed a heaven, it deserves someone like you.