Of MODERN STEEL CONSTRUCTION Magazine Editorial, My Mother, and Enteng Butikol

Note:
Enteng Butikol is a person’s complete name. The name is in Bisaya; Enteng being the first name and Butikol is the surname. In English, Enteng is translated as Vicente, hence Vicente Butikol.

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Maybe my mother was somewhat superstitious when she declared that someday, in one way or another, my name could become famous. This she said when I told her of a story about a mysterious old man I met during a trip to Bohol, a province in the southern Philippines famous for the chocolate hills and the smallest monkey in the world, the tarsier. The story took place during my college days, about two decades ago.

It was culmination of summer classes at the University of San Carlos in Cebu where I took up Civil Engineering, circa 1990’s, when a group of classmates and friends arranged a trip to Bohol to catch a glimpse of the chocolate hills for the first time. Our trip to the site was remarkably tough and rugged – in contrast to today’s trip going to the same site. Today, the upsurge of tourism has brought about remarkable developments to the province’s infrastructure and transportation; consequently providing ease and convenience in one’s journey.

The last time I visited Bohol to see the chocolate hills once more was May 8, 2010, a couple of days before the Philippine presidential elections. I was amazed by the manner, speed and ease in getting there. First, the trip from Cebu City to Tagbilaran City now only takes less than 3 hours by a boat known as catamaran, a sea craft which did not exist during our time. Second, upon arriving at the port of Tagbilaran, to get to the Chocolate Hills, all that one needs to do is to charter a van just waiting outside the port terminal – at an affordable rate. Just before the sun sets, with all the comfort, one will be able to see the chocolate hills and tour the rest of the famous tourist spots in the province of Bohol.

In our time, when we came to Bohol for the first time, this was not the case. With the excruciating summer heat, we had to cram into an un-air-conditioned bus in order to get to our destination. It was during this trip that I met the mysterious old man. The bus has been piled up already with passengers more than its intended capacity when it finally left the terminal – with almost a quarter of passengers in standing position. I was seated along the aisle of the left side of the bus directly opposite the door located at the middle right side of the bus.

About halfway to our destination, the bus driver still managed to pick up one more passenger despite the fact that the bus is already filled to its capacity. The passenger

Pat Morita, Enteng's look-alike

was an old man in dirty ragged clothes, wearing a pair of worn out slippers. With a thin gray hair and unshaved beard and mustache, he has the exact semblance of the Japanese movie actor Pat Morita of the karate kid. The old man came up the bus, clenching a handful of coins in his right hand containing presumably the amount for his fare.

While trying to find a place inside the bus, he accidentally bumped into my shoulder, unfortunately, losing his grip on his precious coins. As the coins scattered on the bus floor, I expected a furious mood from the face of the old man. But to my surprise, all I could see on his face was a genuine smile of delight. He was somewhat delighted and having fun picking up his scattered fortune.

I wasted no time and immediately began helping the old man picking up his fortune. As I was picking up the coins from the floor, I felt a heavy compassion for the old man as I found out that all the coins I had picked up are all in twenty-five centavo denomination. It is a manifestation of his indigence. He won’t have enough money to pay for his fare if I would not be able to retrieve all of his coins. Somehow, I am partly to blame for his misfortune. Patiently, I searched for the remaining coins on every accessible corner inside the bus; even crawling under every seat where the coins are found.

“This money is so elusive,” he whispered to me with a smile, alluding to the coins. “I had a hard time earning it, and now I had a hard time finding it,” he added.

“Oh, I am so sorry for the trouble I have caused you,” I begged the old man. “I really didn’t mean to do it.”

I felt sort of relief only when he said, “Don’t you worry, son; it’s alright.” The old man and I, however, were not able to retrieve all of the coins.

Now it’s my turn to reciprocate his sense of calmness and forgiveness. I offered him my seat to atone for the misfortune I caused him. However, he chose to stay standing. “I am made to endure the rigors of life. Though I am old, I can last the whole length of the trip standing even for the whole day. I am still very strong,” he said with a wink and a smile.

After a short conversation, suddenly the old man pulled something out of his purse. It was a one peso coin. “Please take this coin;” he said while handing the coin to me, “keep this as your remembrance from me and a token of friendship.”

Now, here is an old man having a hard time picking up his 25 centavo coins on the floor for transportation fare – giving out his one peso as a token of something. “How can you be able to pay for your fare when you give me your money as a token?” I protested.

“Please,” he pleaded, “it will be an honor for me if you accept my token.”

I was persuaded to accept his token and I thanked him for his ‘gift’. He continued talking, telling me some baffling things: “You know what? I know where you came from. I know that you are an engineering student. I can see you have a good heart; you are a good man. In the near future, you will become a well-known person. We will be seeing each other again. I gave you the token so that when that time comes, you could recognize me as the old man who gave you the token. Please remember me when you are there.”

When he said I’d become well-known, I thought I would become a mayor, a governor, a congressman or perhaps the president of the Philippines someday. At that moment his words came to me as a prophecy; I felt somewhat elated.

During the course of our conversation, I never asked his name. Maybe I was not interested who he was. Suddenly he said that he was now at his destination; the old man had to leave the bus. Suddenly, I wanted to know his name; but he gestured leaving the bus already. Before he could leave the bus I asked him, “What name shall I call you?”

He replied, “Just call me ENTENG BUTIKOL, a fisherman.” I forgot to ask the ‘fisherman’s’ age, but I believe he must be in his late 70’s.

When Enteng Butikol was gone, an old woman, the age of my grandmother, sitting beside me said: “When you find a church along your way, light a candle, pray and give thanks. The old man you were talking to was a messenger of God. I live in this region, but I’ve never seen him before.”

The woman, who had been holding a rosary since the start of our trip, further said that she believed in what the old man told me. Until I went home to my home province Masbate, I failed to do what she told me.

My mother, a religious but somewhat superstitious woman, shared the same belief with the old woman. She told me to keep the one peso coin in a special box and never to spend it. The coin would bring me luck, she said. My father, a cockfighting aficionado, viewed the coin differently. He would like me to turn over the coin to him. The coin, he believed, would make a good talisman and would bring him more victories in cockfights. I didn’t give him the coin, anyway. But shortly afterward, I lost both the box and the coin while my father started winning incessantly in the cockfights. However, he strongly denied stealing the token Enteng Butikol gave me.

Since then, every time something good comes or happens in my life, my mother always associates those with Enteng Butikol’s supposed prophecy. Winning a lottery, finding a good job and even going abroad are among those that my mother thought of as fulfillment of the prophecy. In my thought, however, I never took Enteng Butikol’s words with seriousness. I believe in destiny but as something that can be achieved through a combination of fate and hard work, not through somebody’s prophecy. The good thing that the story about Enteng Butikol brought me, though, is that it forever reminds me to strive harder. If becoming famous is a challenge to undertake, it couldn’t be attained by just waiting for something to happen. I may not dismiss Enteng Butikol’s prophecy as a hoax but I don’t depend on it; I take it as inspiration. My mother, though, will remain a believer of Enteng Butikol’s prophetic words.

Just recently, my younger brother who is working at PLDT Cebu, bumped into an editorial of a famous steel construction magazine based in the U.S. where he found something interesting. After reading the editorial, he called up my mother who is in Masbate province and recounted about what he had just read. After talking to my brother; in turn, my mother called me up and eagerly told me that my name is being mentioned in an international magazine - and that I must be famous already in the world. Of course, I know it does not equate to fame; and my mother’s words are but an exaggerated expression from a mother who is always proud of his son.

My name is Redem Legaspi, a HANDSOME structural engineer. I work at Crystal Steel Fabricators as a structural designer. I am a computer programmer. I am one of the privileged few to be mentioned in the editorial of MODERN STEEL CONSTRUCTION Magazine, below. My mother calls it fame and fulfillment of the prophecy. I call it a sheer luck.

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Excerpts from the Editorial, MODERN STEEL CONSTRUCTION Magazine, August 2010 Issue:

editor's note

I LOVE WHEN A GOOD PLAN COMES TOGETHER

It might be something as simple as my daughter’s hair color. When she stated she wanted brightly colored streaks in her hair, I could have freaked out. Instead, I told her sure — as long as Ms. Pamela agrees. Now my daughter, Julia, dances. A lot. And she’s constantly in one performance or another. Had I said no to the hair streaks, there might have been screaming and pouting and definitely a lot of whining. But when her main dance instructor said it would interfere with performing, that was the end of the subject. No whining. No complaints. I love when it works the way it’s supposed to.

Years ago, AISC used to produce and sell some simple software. But more than a decade ago, we decided we weren’t in the software business. We weren’t particularly good at it and there were commercial developers producing better products more efficiently. We did remain a key information provider and obviously most steel design software utilizes AISC information. One of the useful tools we provide is the AISC Shapes Database. The database provides electronic access to dimensions and properties of W-, M-, S-, and HP- shapes, channels (C and MC shapes), angles (L- and 2L-shapes), tees (WT-, ST-, and MT- shapes), hollow structural sections (HSS), and pipe (P, PX, and PXX) as given in the AISC Steel Construction Manual. (A companion product provides information on historic shapes from 1873 to 1952). This tool is available free to all AISC members at www.aisc.org/epubs (and many commercial software providers also use it in their software).

A few years ago, we introduced a service that has morphed into steelTOOLS (www.steeltools.org — note the domain is .org not .com; the .com address takes you elsewhere). The idea was that many designers created spreadsheets and other simple tools that simplified their professional lives. Wouldn’t it be great to provide a forum for designers to share these design aids? So far, it’s been very successful and many of the tools have been downloaded more than 1,000 times. (In addition, steelTOOLS provides a social networking site for the steel design and construction industry. It’s a place to comment on what’s happening on specific subjects of interest to our community. Check it out and post a comment!)

One of the really cool things about steelTOOLS is to see what people have done with the Shapes Database. For example, in the blog section, there’s an announcement that David Homes has created an iPhone application containing the Shapes Database.

In the library section, the friendly folks at NYacad have posted an Access-based shapes viewer designed for the quick creation of a list of structural shapes used in a current project. (The program is presumably based on the Shapes Database though this isn’t explicitly stated).

Redem Legaspi, a popular poster on steelTOOLS, posted a great utility called SteelPro. While primarily a search utility for structural steel shapes (utilizing the Shapes Database), it also provides an allowable beam load calculator, a bolt group coefficient calculator, and a weld group coefficient calculator.

But my favorite version of all is by steelTOOLS’ top contributor, Alex Tomanovich. He created an Excel-based utility called AISC 13.0 Properties Viewer. It’s simply the Shapes Database in a more user-friendly form. In other words, he did exactly what we hoped someone would do: Take the Shapes Database and make it better.

Yes, I love when a good plan comes together. Check out Alex’s, Redem’s, and all the other utilities at www.steeltools.org (just click on “steelTOOLS Library” to see all of the amazing utilities available)

SCOTT MELNICK
EDITOR