[Photo above shows Sir ROLLY aka ROLANDO S. NARCISO, third for LEFT, together with other members of the Board of Directors of the NEW KANLAON CONSTRUCTION, INC. (“NKCI”). Also shown in the photo is my father-in-law ANTONIO “ANTEVA”) S. EVANGELISTA, second from RIGHT, together with his better half, ROSARIO “CHING” EVANGELISTA.]

 

In February 2009, I got so very excited,

I was going to trek to AFRICA¹, a land I felt was so BENIGHTED²;

But it was in ALGERIA³ and it bolstered  more EUPHORIA⁴,

For its capital is ALGIERS⁵, and it gave me added FANTASIA⁶!

 

 

I was to accompany New Kanlaon⁷’s BOSS,

His name is ROLLY S. NARCISO⁸ and I’m supposed to BOOST⁹—

The negotiating style of Sir ROLLY,

As we’re going to  snag a contract¹⁰ and not to DILLY-DALLY!

 

 

 

Indeed, it was so quick and CUSHY¹¹,

We got the contract as the JAPS¹² were a bit EASY¹³;

For the meetings never had any DIGRESSION¹⁴,

And it ended with a DRINKING SESSION¹⁵!

 

 

The beer seemed even BETTER then,

It’s brand name I remember is TRIPLE SEVEN¹⁶,

But when we came home to PINAS,

SAN MIG LIGHT which is Rolly’s brand¹⁷  still is the top of the CLASS!

 

 

But a FEARFUL and FUNNY thing happened,

That was at the ALGIERS airport around past ELEVEN¹⁸;

We were happy having snatched the CONTRACT,

And we were leaving for our country, we’re on TRACK¹⁹!

 

 

And the Immigration Officer was STRICT²⁰,

He detained me for long, ‘twas a “RESTRICT”²¹;

And I shelled out some dollars for my LIBERTY,

Thereafter, I tried to locate my friend ROLLY²²…

 

  

And as I recited my SITUATION,

ROLLY snickered and seemed to be overcome with ABOMINATION;

He got extorted with DOLLARS too,

And it’s even double the amount I THREW²³!

 

  

Well, indeed those money got THROWN,

But Rolly’s DONATION for my kids is for a THRONE²⁴;

They have been aspiring to become CHAMPION²⁵,

I hope with Rolly’s help it would come to a FRUITION!

  

THANK YOU SO MUCH SIR ROLLY S. NARCISO!!!!

 

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[Legend: 1 – The first report which was conveyed to me in early  February 2009 when I was tasked to accompany Mr. Rolando S. Narciso aka Sir Rolly who was then the President of New Kanlaon Construction, Inc. (with my father-in-law Antonio S. Evangelista, as Chairman) was that I will be traveling with Sir Rolly somewhere in AFRICA.

2 – As I have never been to AFRICA, my impression was that as has been featured in some movies, AFRICA was relatively undeveloped and sort of “uncivilized”, thus perhaps, the term “benighted” would be more poltically correct.

3 – ALGERIA is located in North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea sort of separates it from Europe.

4 – The thought to traveling to ALGERIA gave me much happiness and elation as its capital ALGIERS is the customary locale and transitory destination  of characters as performed by actors and actresses in most spy-thriller movies.

5 – ALGIERS, as earlier said, is the capital of ALGERIA.

6 –  FANTASIA is imagination and the thought of going to Algiers, as our port of entry will be Algeria’s capital, sort of elated my imagination as I fantasized about those spy-thriller movies.

7 – NEW KANLAON CONSTRUCTION, Inc. (“NKCI”) is the construction company where Sir Rolly was then the President while my father-in-law, Antonio S. Evangelista, is the Chairman.

8 – ROLLY S. NARCISO is more formally known as Rolando S. Narciso. Prior to his designation as President of NKCI, Sir Rolly served as President too of the National Steel Corporation.

9 – I was tasked to provide legal support to Sir Rolly Narciso in trying to snag as quick as possible a contract, actually, a MANPOWER SUPPLY AGREEMENT, aimed towards sending engineers and other technical people to Algeria in connection with a road-building project thereat. I am indeed thankful for Sir Rolly Narciso, as when he was directed by my father-in-law, ANTONIO S. EVANGELISTA, to go to Algeria to negotiate the contract, and while my father-in-law was intent to send an engineer to accompany Sir Rolly Narciso; Sir Rolly demanded for a lawyer to accompany him, and not an engineer. Thus, I got the slot to be Sir Rolly Narciso’s companion to the Algerian trip.

10 – The CONTRACT was the aforesaid MANPOWER SUPPLY AGREEMENT.

11 – The talks towards snagging a CONTRACT was CUSHY as there never was any impediment which obstructed the undemanding flow of the discussion.

12- JAPS – The principal contractor which bagged the contract with the Algerian government was a Japanese contractor by the name of KAJIMA CONSTRUCTION, INC. and KAJIMA’s officers assigned in Algeria were all Japanese.

13 – The discussion to snag a CONTRACT turned easy as KAJIMA has had an experience in the Philippines with NKCI as their sub-contractor in a similar road-building project at TPLEX.

14 – The meeting never had any DIGRESSION as it was done continuously.

15 –  After the talks got concluded, our Japanese hosts served as BEER.

16 – The brand of the BEER which was served to us was TRIPLE SEVEN and I was told that it was imported from France. I then thought at first that it was some kind of European beer. But it turned out that it was also brewed in the U.S.A.

17 – SAN MIG LIGHT is Sir Rolly’s favorite beer.

18 –  We stayed only for a week in Algeria and after snagging the contract, we hied off to the airport in Algiers and we were at the airport around past 11 A.M.

19 – We were really on TRACK as it was Sir Rolly’s estimation that we could do our job there in Algeria within a period of ONE (1) week.

20 – The IMMIGRATION Officer at the Immigration Desk when we were at the Algiers Airport on our way back to the Philippines looked like “Saddam Hussein”. It turned out (and we were not priorly informed, that all currencies including US dollars have to be declared/reported upon arrival in Algeria via the execution of a disclosure statement) that having in one’s possession undeclared money is a violation of Algerian law. Thus, I was detained for questioning and was restricted to pass through immigration for almost an hour.

21 – RESTRICT is used here as a noun, instead of the term “RESTRICTION” just as to achieve a RHYME.

22 –   Sir ROLLY went in earlier than me into the IMMIGRATION DESK as I stopped by and went around the lobby of the Algiers airport looking for some items as “PASALUBONG” or gifts to bring to the Philippines.

23 – The term THREW is being used as the BRIBE money given to the Algerian Immigration Officer as it was in fact something THROWN and is eventually LOST.

24 – The term THRONE is metaphorically being used here as in the event my daughters’ (and son-in-law’s) hiphop dance teams are proclaimed as CHAMPIONS (in the 2017 WORLD HIPHOP INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION (“WHHI”) to be held in Phoenix, Arizona on August 7-12, 2017), they will virtually be deemed as KINGS and QUEENS of HIPHOP. Indeed, when I solicited for donations from kith and kin for the WHHI competition, Sir ROLLY eagerly threw in a modestly huge cash donation.

25 – My daughters SHAYNA and CHESKA were previously members of the compete team of the UP STREET DANCE Team. In 2012 the UP STREET DANCE TEAM, using their team name as THE CREW, was declared as CHAMPION of the 2012 WHHI. In 2013, UP STREET DANCE TEAM placed 2^nd Runner-Up. Now, my daughters are representing the Philippines in the 2017 WHHI under TWO (2) teams: the LEGIT STATUS and ALLIANCE Teams where Shayna is Team Manager for LEGIT (LEGIT’s coach Vimi Rivera is my son-in-law) and Cheska is Team Manager for ALLIANCE (ALLIANCE’s coach JJ San Juan is Cheska’s BF). LEGIT was 4^th Runner-Up in the 2015 WHHI in the Megacrew Division and 1^st Runner-Up in the Varsity Division; while ALLIANCE was 2^nd Runner-Up in the Megacrew Division in the 2016 WHHI.]