Special Chapter 2 Part 3: I’m so Important
Again, this is not an accurate depiction of the Philippine Government.
3 days after the missing report incident and the document is still unable to be found, all traces of evidence that might be left in the FM and AM towers of every possible province in the Philippines has already been scourged, yet to no avail as if the document suddenly vanished into thin air, the situation has gotten desperate to the point that every retired agents has been forcefully reinstated just to find the damn culprit that seem to be as illusive as a ghost. Yet, the one who can potentially get implicated the most is not even inside somewhere safe, nor is he keeping tabs on the progress of the investigation.
Emilio is in a park near the cathedral were the seminary/orphanage he was living in is situated, he's in a swing and is being currently pulled up by his friend, Manila Brillantes, he stared at the ground in silence, though he is clutching the chain ropes of the swing the moment he reached 70 or 75 degree angle from the ground and then looked at the bad influence of a friend of his.
"Don't you think this is too hi- Ah."
Manila just smirked at this question and didn't let Emilio continue his question and let go of the swing, It took a second or two before the swing came back to the hands of Manila who caught Emilio's increasingly speeding figure casually.
Emilio had some sweat lingering on his forehead and immediately went to the monkey bars, and in there, he let himself hang using his two hands and, in that position, let himself be lost in his thought.
In these past 3 days, he was not able to do anything except go to this park, wherein he will observe the only scene that can spark waves of emotion in his brilliant yet emotionally deprived brain, some of them is that of a mother with two children, one can walk, eating ice cream and one is just 8 or 9 months old, looking at her brother's food enviously. Sometimes it was that of a father, looking at his son or daughter as they eat ice cream together, though if one is to observe carefully, the child will realize that his father's portion is smaller than them, though of course, they are not that enlightened in the true color of the world to realize the reason of this.
Every time, it was a different scene, however, Emilio can't help but be curious and, of course, long for this kind of relationship.
_Did their parents call them unwanted?_
Probably not.
_Did their parents wish they had never been born?_
Certainly impossible.
_How does it feel to have parents that doesn't want you dead?_
Answer non-conclusive.
_Why... do I need to have such an accursed highly functional brain...?_
Emilio's brain will continue swirling in this bunch of questions, questions that his brilliant brain can't answer, questions that seem to be only answerable by his friends, for they were not unwanted like him, yet also can only be comprehended by himself. Emilio stopped observing, finding such thoughts of self-doubt unpleasant, a glimpse of the owner's gargantuan pride that even the owner himself will not be able to realize even until the very end of his life.
"What's wrong?"
Emilio was again jolted by the voice of Manila, this woman always puts him in dangerous, or well, potentially dangerous situations and was even branded bad influence by him and Apolinario, one time, she even almost coaxed him to drink, and, for some baffling reason, he found it hard to refuse, it was a good thing that Apolinario was there, if not, then who knows what might happen.
"Nothing..."
Emilio blankly replied, whilst also thinking of a way to get back to Manila.
"How about you... Or rather, Apolinario? You two are rarely separated when hanging out with me... did you two quarrel?"
This question, actually didn't steamed just now as a way to get back to Manila due to her almost launching him into the sky, it was one of his observations because in the past days, specifically the time when the report from his lab was supposedly stolen, Apolinario seized to even let his shadow appear in front of Emilio and, even though these kind of coincidences is common, Emilio, Apolinario and Manila knew who they are for their country and knew that if one of them is gone, it has something to do with how they are groomed to be the "Big 3" of this country.
Despite this fact, Emilio can't help but feel that Apolinario's goal is a little different than what he was thinking, however, his undiagnosed immense pride made Emilio unable to accept the fact that there are things he can't understand, so he didn't pursued the matter and now tried to make Manila cough up some information, yet, to his surprise, Manila remained silent and looked at him in this perpetual and strangely unbearable silence.
"Don't... worry about him..."
For a moment, Manila's face gave a trace of worry and helplessness before again going back to her usual mischievous glint.
__________
Though, of course, Emilio won't miss and forget such a reaction from his friend.
Malacañang Palace, a room designated for the newly institutionalized yearly meeting of the presidential cabinet.
In this meeting, Apolinario, as the secretary of one of the most influential departments is in the front row alongside the executive secretary, finance secretary, defense secretary and more that Apolinario doesn't particularly care about, in this meeting, the job of the secretaries, commissioners and every head officers in the cabinet of the president is to report their yearly progress to the president, this is so that the president can make preliminary decision on how he would reshuffle his cabinet next year, this is something that the president, Melchor Vidal has personally suggested to make the efficiency of the executive branch increase.
Though, the only only thing noteworthy in this administration is the production of a patriotic and young, so young in fact that he's not a teen yet, doctor of physics, emergence and priority of culture focused researchers led by Manila and the Apolinario Santiago's revamp of the system of the interior and local governance.
The latter is also the reason why Apolinario is the one who's honored to be the very first one to speak to brag about the amendments he has been doing to his already phenomenal initial run of this revamped system that caused intermunicipal trades and the upgrades of municipalities into cities to become better and faster, causing more local or foreign businesses to open up a branch in the newly upgraded area that will of course, get more permission in the usage of public spaces.
This is even though he is not the Cabinet secretary (executive secretary), which caused some turmoil, but as politicians who knew the background of Apolinario and how decisive he is because of their failed espionage of his movements, how can they voice out any complaints?
After the short prayer and the opening remarks of the president, the hammer at the side of the chief executive was banged, officially starting the meeting.
Apolinario took a deep breath and then put an envelope on his table, cleaning his barong. he took in the gazes of his fellow cabinet members before speaking.
"Before we start, I would like to let you know that I magically turned off the security cameras here."
Apolinario said with a smile, causing the cabinet members as well as the president to be shocked, and immediately, the place is littered with the metallic sound of guns being cocked, which caused the smile of Apolinario to be more pronounced as if their ostrich-like behavior is nothing but amusement for him.
"Hey, calm down! I'm still talking, don't worry, I'm just here to report my progress... and also introduce myself and then ask a simple request to the president."
Apolinario, with his immaculate training of speech, was able to quell down the turmoil, however, the inquisitive gaze of the startled president still landed upon him.
"What's the meaning of this, Secretary Apolinario?"
President Melchor Vidal asked, yet Apolinario ignored him and then, like that, started to introduce himself.
"Okay, so, I'm Apolinario Santiago, and most of you already know me. I am part of the dubbed "big 3" of the Philippines, three youths who were deemed the fulfillment of the quote of the great Jose Rizal: "The youth is a country's hope". Now, I would focus on myself."
Apolinario paused and then slowly pulled out a caliber 45 gun from the envelope, causing him to once again get targeted by hidden snipers, for the secretaries and the president, it was a wonder how did he made the gun slip through the routine check of the palace, yet, right now, due to the gravity of the situation and the bold move of Apolinario, they are compelled to listen.
"Now, I'm not like Emilio and was not trained from a very young age, I'm discovered during high school and then got large amount of scholarships and acceleration notices, and then when I got to college I was able to attend speech, political science as well a law schools at the same time. Yes, even though I only recognized myself as a political scientist, I am, in fact, also a law graduate and next year, I plan to take the BAR exam..."
After saying that, in one fluid motion, Apolinario put the gun right at his temples and in the widening eyes of the president as well as the cabinet, pulled down the safety lever before letting the cabinet, the Presidential Security Group, Secret services and the President himself to start self discussions on what the hell is going on.
"To tell you the truth, there's a script somewhere inside the head of President Melchor that says I will be the next president of this country..."
This time, the president didn't speak, but a gesture was made by his hand, causing three designated snipers to change their rifles into tranquilizing guns.
However, the man in front of him that, someone whom he was able to barely control, someone who hired hitmen, neutralized listening devices and everything that was thrown at him, causing a rather love-hate relationship between him and the president, knew what's this devious man is about to do, so he said.
"I'm so important, right? Actually, so important that President Segundo... no, we will talk about that later. Anyway, I am so important that the president will look like that when I put this gun in my head, mostly because of my incredible reform, he realized that I can be trained further into his... dog as long as I was brainwashed properly by his family, he held in this hope even though he can barely control me because Emilio is being watched by his government secretly, and of course, I would also like to share another fun fact."
Apolinario opened his mouth and there revealed a capsule of a liquid medicine, and if the President was called by the interior secretary, as Segundo looked closely, the capsule seemed to have water on it.
"Did you know that the salt form of cyanide will cause cellular failure and unconsciousness in 30 seconds, another 30 will cause respiratory failure and death in another 60 seconds?"
Another chatter of confusion and shouts came from the cabinet, things like being ungrateful or biting the hands of the one who fed you were hurled, yet Apolinario is unperturbed; he continued.
"And for those who don't have that good an inference, in summary. Mr. President Alejandro Segundo, if you don't listen to my demands, I will kill myself and waste your investment for a loyal genius president dog that you don't know have already gone to waste and also will leak your true identity as the son of the president of Segundo Conglomerate to the whole world."