weird, wonderful, whatnot...

"Art. 299. Robbery in an inhabited house or public building or edifice devoted to worship. x x x

(a) The malefactors shall enter the house or building in which the robbery was committed, by any of the following means:

1. Through a opening not intended for entrance or egress. x x x"

the morning of 08 january 2009 -- the morning i planned on catching up with snooze time -- i woke up to the voice of my brother, shouting, "ico, yung laptop mo wala!" then followed by my sister-in-law's voices saying "pinasok tayo kagabi!" those 3 words resounded in my head for a good few seconds before i heard "pati camera mo nawawala!" with that, i suddenly stood up from bed then went out of the room. the empty sofa in the living room is probably the most ghastly scene in my mind.

we live in a compond with a security guard supposedly keeping the place safe (the guard probably fell asleep). upon checking the other rooms, we discovered that the robbers came in thru an unlocked window in a room located in the ground floor. they then went to the upper floor.

i usually leave my things in the living room located in the second floor, just outside our bedrooms. my routine every morning after the bar exams was to sit in that sofa and go online for the whole day. so i would just leave my laptop and camera there in the sofa when i go to bed. every morning, the my black hp laptop would be the first thing one would notice in the living room. now it's gone, along with my canon dslr. with the laptop were tons of photos i've taken using the camera as well as all my personal files and records and the forum 2008 (ateneo law yearbook) files. (the yearbook, by the way, is almost done... see endnote (1) below)

then i saw the room where my brother and i keep our clothes. it was ransacked! (as in parang dinaanan ng bagyo!) we later on found out that the burglars even got some of the rosaries and an image of the madonna and child which were part of my late mom's collection. (imagine, pati mga rosaryo at poon!)

if there's one good thing, the burglars didn't enter the rooms where we were. for whatever reason. god knows what could have happened if they got into our rooms. at least only material things were taken. but of course, i can't help but be sad. people who know me, would know how well i take care of my things. plus the thought that the laptop was a graduation gift from my aunt and the camera was a gift from my brother and sister-in-law. so it has lots of sentimental value. (oo, talagang senti ako) then everything in the laptop! i don't know where to start recontructing them. oh, my presentation for my monday class is there. then i remembered placing some IDs in my camera bag. things just really get worse.

i spent the entire day thinking (and well, sulking), praying, and hoping.

thinking how this could have happened. i've been living in this place for the whole 26 years of my life. and i always felt very, very secure when i'm home. now that this security has been breached, i don't know where and when i could find that security again. i'm also thinking how long i could stand by my word that i would not leave the philippines, no matter what.

praying and hoping that i get my things back. i literally stormed the heavens with prayers. more than being my most prized worldly possessions, these things, as i said, have lots of sentimental value for me.

praying and hoping that things would get better after this. it's not really a good way to start the new year. with god's grace, i/we hope to get by this.

thank you to those who texted to check on me/us. we're ok and safe. thanks. it's very much appreciated.

- - - - -

(1) dear ateneo law 2008 batchmates, i would like to apologize and ask for your patience for this delay in the yearbook production process. rest assured that the layout team and all of the forum 2008 editors and staff would exert our best efforts to redo the entire yearbook and have the yearbook printed as soon as possible. thank you very much for understanding.

# posted by ryan quan @ 1:35 PM