Special Chapter 2 Part 1: Apolinario Santiago

Apolinario Santiago, part of what can be seen as the "big 3" of the future generation of the Philippines, friend of the child wonder and the youngest Doctor in Physics, Emilio, and the lover of Manila Brillantes, the historiographer discipled by the great Pat Lopez himself.

Like Emilio, he is known as a prodigy, social studies, and then a lawyer, and now the youngest outcoming secretary of Internal and local Governance and is even pleaded multiple times by the people to be the next president despite his age not being illegible for such a position, of course, the man ignored such chides, after all, the democracy of the country he's in is used not as a weapon for freedom, but a weapon to shoot themselves in the face.

"How could you do this... Ho... I... I thought we were friends...?"

Staring at the monument of his friend in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Graveyard of Heroes), the late Emilio, now known by his surname Hinirang, the pained words of his friend stung his old wounds anew.

It was still so fresh for him, those words, the tone, the expression of grief, and the first emotional conversation between him and his friend Emilio, even if it was nothing but a recurring and repeated dream.

For this man, it was all but an illusion.

____________

Apolinario is what you would call a political prodigy. If one is to make a historical comparison, then he would be the modern Emilio Jacinto, the brain of Katipunan, in his lead the Interior and local governance department effectively modified 1st world country systems to fit into the 3rd world, inventing what's famously called as the Santiago outline that was immediately adapted by all of southeast Asia.

And by basing in only this, people would infer that he is a level or two higher than Emilio, the world's youngest Dr. of Philosophy in Physics due to the simple fact that Emilio is yet invent anything that was immediately adapted by any other country, he just finished his studies incredibly fast compared to a normal person.

Such will be the thought of anyone who bases his/her judgment solely on the tangible gains of the world on the deeds of Apolinario and Emilio.

Yet, Apolinario knew that such a notion is nothing but bullshit, as a friend of Emilio and as someone who is deeply exposed to the white and black parts of the politics of his country since he was a teen and even has an access to the Secret Service Department of the Philippines that's supposed to only be known by the commander general, the president himself.

This is the reason that he also knew that Emilio is doing something far more dangerous and more discreet than himself.

Apolinario always wanted to uncover this, yet the only thing he knew is that Emilio is an orphan child who was able to talk faster than usual, before his frontal lobe even started to become sturdy, was able to do gross and fine motor movements earlier than usual and thus got groomed by the government to be the ideal genius for the country.

And yes, in a way, Emilio truly became the ideal genius, the next Rizal, a patriot, and even firmly rejected all offers from other countries to become their researcher all around the world.

Yet, Apolinario, as the friend of Emilio, saw something different; in his eyes, the brilliance of Emilio is blinding, too blinding in fact that even Emilio himself seems not to be able to see humanity and emotions at the same eye level. Things that are done normally, like bringing a lost wallet to the police station, or if Apolinario or Manila bought him a drink for free, or hell, even during the forced celebration of his super accelerated graduation, caused confusion for Emilio.

And not because he was startled, it was utter obliviousness to the concept of "sympathy" or even "celebration", though that's not to say that Emilio doesn't know their meaning.

If Apolinario is to describe this, Emilio feels "hollow" and emotionless, like a machine capable of breathing.

Manila noticed this and even played the role of the bad influence by making Emilio consume "materials" that needed strict parental guidance before being consumed by children, yet still, Emilio doesn't know what to do with it and in a bad sequence of events, the little genius even want to watch those things in public transportation for the sake of saving time, Manila was reprimanded, though she seem to be amused with all that happened.

Apolinario felt that all of these occurrences were strange, and every time he looked at the blank eyes of his friend, he couldn't help but have this burning desire to know the truth of his existence and the truth of his hurried development into a doctor of physics. Because in a catholic country, this maneuver of not letting a child be a child will be criticized, but again, even though Apolinario had some clout in the secret service, he was not able to procure any kind of information about the identity of Emilio.

Apolinario, however, remained patient, intending to use all of what his own value can do to extract the information he wants.

He can be patient, he is a politician after all, though he certainly didn't expect that it wouldn't take him very long time to obtain what he wants.

__________

In a certain cathedral in a certain part of Manila, Philippines, a large orphanage, both religiously and nationally funded can be seen right beside it, and in the front gate is an SUV with a black color and tinted gasses, being driven by the youngest secretary of Interior and Local Governance Department Apolinario Santiago was seen by the cleaning seminarians, seeing that it was an authorized vehicle as it's the friend of one of their orphans, they let the SUV in and out of respect for the policy of silence, upon entrance, Apolinario turned off the engine and then rolled down the windshield to say good evening to the seminarians who greeted him cordially too whilst one went to the office of the priest in charge of the orphanage affectionally known by the kids as Father Lakan.

Apolinario looked up, it was already the night, and he still needed to prepare the annual report of the progress of his department in 3 days, and couldn't help but sigh, seeing such a strict need to be silent during a certain period in the orphanage.

_This is not Filipino at all, we're losing our culture..._

Apolinario again sighed before finally seeing Father Lakan, who, despite his supposed age, seems to be well-built, and even his skin is relatively smooth.

Apolinario got out of his car and took the hand of the Father before kissing the back of his palm.

"Good evening, Father Lakan."

Father Lakan smiled, gentleness evident on his face despite the somehow horrible scar on his cheek.

"I see 'abducting' Emilio to celebrate his birthday again, huh?"

Father Lakan and Apolinario walked towards the back seat of the car, Apolinario opened it for the Father and saw there a peacefully sleeping Emilio, this scene somehow made Apolinario purse his lips.

"I... he... he still can't understand why he needs to celebrate his birthday, Father."

Father Lakan, shaking his head lightly as he mounted the car and cradled the youngest doctor of physics in a princess carry, when he got out, he replied.

"You know why that is, right?"

The priest's smile is bitter as if resigned to the inevitable, whilst using his one foot to skillfully close the door, Apolinario has been repeatedly saying these words and has already grown tired of such a response.

"Fathe-"

Apolinario breathed a deep breath, afraid of being rude to such a pious and kind priest.

"Father... this person is not just confused about birthdays, he is repulsed and disgusted by its very concept, I know because I can observe him well. And not only that, he is confused about why we celebrate graduation or why does people can digest kissing in public despite the bacteria, and the only thing he understands about himself is that he loves women, and that he can explain scientifically."

As Father Lakan looked at him, Apolinario paused to again control his frustrations, yet before he could continue, Father Lakan smiled at him.

"I see, so you are saying that Emilio barely has any humanity, huh... or rather, his humanity was taken away from him."

Silence again filled the place, and without even saying a single word, Father Lakan started walking towards the orphanage.

"If you're really concerned about Emilio's humanity, then protect, restore it, by any means necessary."

Apolinario looked at the back of the Father, his face full of dissatisfaction, but what can he do? Apolinario of this time is still a youth and is yet to fully get out of the wiring of his parents that old people are always right, so he just resigned to the always ambiguous answer of the Father, he looked at the back seat again and as he did, Apolinario's eyes froze in shock.

"Classified Top Secret Code: Black"

Is the stamp embedded in the thick brown expanded envelope that seems to magically appear in his back seat.

Apolinario's expression quickly turned back into that of frustration and resignation as he went back to his driver's seat, letting the brown envelope sit in the back seat.

_Good thing the mirrors are tinted for one-sided view._

Such were the Interior Secretary's thoughts.