The Odyssey
of Corazon Zaldivar

Her story is of a woman who sought love, and hope, but failed. And yet found, in a hapless sort of way, some solace in a city that became the mute witness to her ghastly end.

Corazon, or Cora, came to Tagbilaran a total stranger. She had neither close friend nor known relative to speak of in Bohol. A Manila girl, she was a BSC Magna cum Laude graduate who once held a regular job at the capital's TESDA.

She had defied the protestations of her next-of-kin against her leaving her job to follow her man, along with warnings that she'd have to be on her own if she insisted. Insist she did, and truly on her own she was.

She came and hoped to make a life with the father of her two children, her common-law husband, who is in Bohol with a job at the local BIR. One may glean that their relationship had soured because the man walked out on Cora and her children in their rented place and lived somewhere else.

The first two years of this arrangement were bearable in that Cora and the kids were able to get by with 200 to 300 pesos a week as support from the man. Then it stopped.

The two children aged nine and ten years also had to stop their schooling at the HNU. Tuition payments from their father had ceased. The rootless family of three reached a point when even daily meals became a rarity.

At least they had a roof above their heads. The kind landlord let them stay on despite 24 months of unpaid rent. And they were in Bohol, in a city where kind, anonymous people may be less apparent, but they do exist in number and are as real as the city exists.

Neighbors and acquaintances helped, some with their own meager resources. It was said that there were times when they bought for Cora and her kids a five-peso worth of cooked pancit, which they divided as their food for three meals.

How is the children's father supposed to feel? However love may have died between him and the mother, he's still a father who loves their children. He was said to have called the attention of the DSWD to his two out-of-school kids. Cora was investigated. The DSWD learned her side and took her as a welfare case needing help.

An agreement for a monthly support of five thousand pesos was drawn up between Cora and her ex. It didn't come. The women's desk of PNP Tagbilaran then filed a complaint with the Ombudsman, which issued an order for a monthly salary deduction from the children's father. Still it didn't see fruition.

A relative of lawyer Aster Piollo's husband acquainted with Cora and her plight brought her to the lawyer's office for help. Answers to inquiries at the BIR regional office made clear that no salary deduction could be had because the man forbade it in writing. He had his own grievances, foremost of which was that Cora didn't fulfill her part of the agreement for him to have his children on weekends.

The child support case dragged on and got messier as the two protagonists dug in their heels, interposed only by little concessions in favor of the children. They were able to go back to school, joining the fast learners' class at the city central. Along with their father's cash gift to set them off were school uniforms donated by a seamstress, bags, clothes and other supplies from neighbors, and some cash from the lawyer for their shoes and a few days' food.

When the lawyer's office secretary gave birth, she agreed for Cora to take over in her absence. It was seen as a chance for Cora to have some form of income to keep her head above water as she awaited the outcome of her case.

The face-off had reached a point when more concessions were possible. Cora gave up weekends with her kids, who pleaded with her for them to be with their father, "para naman makakain kami ng masarap." Their father treats them to fun time at the mall and the standard fastfood fare, something that Cora couldn't give.

A court decision on the case was handed down January 15, 2007. Thankfully for the kids, they were with their father on February 9 when two men knocked on Cora's door. One of them stabbed Cora 13 times.

(Next week: Cora's Requiem)