Madame Fideliza

When a former teacher passes on, it feels like a close relative has also left. Since most of one’s childhood and adolescent years are spent in classrooms, one develops a familial bond with teachers.

I was lost in reminiscences of days gone by when I went to the wake of Fideliza Garcia-Noel, 92, on Saturday, June 4.

Madame Noel was my teacher in Pilipino and English in high school at St. Paul’s College – which later became Divine Word University – in Tacloban City in 1963-64. Yes, it’s the same college where Imelda Romualdez, who would later become first lady, graduated from.

Fideliza Garcia-Noel, who was in her mid-30’s, was one of the prettiest teachers in our high school. Her pleasant countenance, however, was matched by her firm disciplinary style when dealing with students.

She once dressed me down for not paying much attention to her lecture and warned me of a stiffer penalty – like being sent out of the classroom – the next time around. I behaved properly since then.

When I became a columnist at the Manila Bulletin in the early 1980s, I received a letter from Madame Fideliza saying she and her co-teachers were right in thinking that a smart aleck like me would still amount to something.

Mrs. Noel’s wake, held at the Heritage Chapels in Taguig, was known to many dignitaries, who either came to her wake or sent flowers.

The chapel where she lay in state was filled inside and out with flowers expressing sympathy to her family. One of the wreaths displayed near Mrs. Noel’s coffin came from President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Madame Noel raised her children well, as all of them are occupying high positions in the government or in the private sector. One of her sons is An Waray party-list Rep. Bem Noel, whose wife is Jay, congresswoman of Malabon.

Fideliza came from a family of teachers. Her father, Lauro, whom we called “Gary Cooper of the Philippines” as he had a striking resemblance to the Hollywood star in the 1950s and 60s, was also a Pilipino teacher; her mother, Natividad, was a college instructor; her husband, lawyer Federico Noel, taught law subjects at the college of commerce; and sister Salvacion Garcia-Sequito was an elementary school teacher in the same college.

Salvacion was killed when I was in fourth year, when a runaway truck ran over her while she was on her way home from school.

Fideliza Garcia-Noel, who died in her sleep in her home in Merville Village, Parañaque, was a very fulfilled woman.

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Thinking about the dignity of Fideliza Garcia-Noel, I feel disappointed by a teacher who displays her sexy dancing prowess in public.

Teacher Mayette (I won’t mention her surname) is always seen on TikTok, a social media platform that specializes in short videos, dancing like a nude woman in a girly bar. The only difference is that she has her clothes on.

I wonder why Mayette’s attention has not been called by her superiors at an elementary school in Surigao del Sur. Mayette, who wears her uniform when she performs on TikTok, teaches in the seventh grade.

I also wonder why officials of the Department of Education have not reprimanded Mayette, who describes herself on Facebook as a “teacher, influencer and dancer.”

Mayette is not alone though. Many of her fellow teachers, both male and female, make themselves look ridiculous and stupid performing sexy dance numbers on TikTok.

How do you expect elementary school pupils and high school students to respect their teachers, who gyrate and make thrusting motions (as if they were performing sexual acts) without inhibition in public?

No wonder many impressionable kids make suggestive dance moves on TikTok because they imitate their elders.

I’m also surprised why the Philippine National Police (PNP) higher-ups have not reprimanded female cops who this column called out for performing sexy dance numbers on TikTok while in their uniform.

I’ve even pointed out two uniformed male and female cops – the male a commissioned officer and the woman with a lower rank – suggestively dancing on TikTok. The policewoman is seen bumping her buttocks on the officer’s crotch, suggestively simulating the sexual act, dog-style.

If that’s not disrespecting their uniform, I don’t know what is.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a prude. But such sexy dance moves are best done in the privacy of a bedroom. They can hump and pump and huff and puff in private, but not on Tiktok.

Such exhibitionistic, animalistic acts can only be done by people who have been deprived of their mental faculties.

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Most senators will sign a Senate Blue Ribbon committee report into the apparent multibillion-peso scandal in the procurement of COVID-19 supplies only if outgoing President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte is not linked to it.

The senators who are not keen in signing the report as long as Digong is implicated in the apparent large-scale theft include Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Sherwin Gatchalian.

From where I sit, Digong will never be involved in such a scandalous theft of public funds. He’s been telling me time and again that all he cares about is not money but how he can “rise to the occasion.”

If the President seemed to have given the impression that he was defending those linked to what is now called the “Pharmally deal” it is because he was misinformed by some of his close advisers.

Apparently, several of these advisers were themselves involved in the highly irregular deal and have thrown up a smokescreen.

Let’s give the President time to realize he was mistaken in his seeming defense of the Pharmally deal when those people can no longer whisper into his ear.