This is for the benefit of others.

1. Who was the Rajah’s son?
Loreto Paras-Sulit
Baybay was once is flourishing barangay by the sea a happy and prosperous barangay.
Those were the just and peaceful times of their rules, the wise and understanding Rajah Bayani
But suddenly, as a clear April sky is torn savagely into dark pieces by thunder and
lightning, tragedy struck life in the Baybay barangay, tearing it out of its peaceful contours. The
pirates from the South descended with all their with all their fury on the sleeping baranggay one
early dawn. They plundered and killed and burned.
All the warriors defending Rajah Bayani's gleaming bamboo palace fell. that was why
the pirates was able to capture the Rajah's young son, little Prince Alon and his playmate and
trusted servant, the faithful Lawin. Swiftly, the pirates fled with their precious captive. they tied
the young boy to the prow of their leader's vinta, lean and swift as an arrow. truly like an arrow it
darted across the darkening waters to be lost for all time, it seemed.
The remaining warriors rushed to the shore and got a last glimpse of their captured young
prince lashed to the prow like a common captive but bearing himself like the rajah’s son that he
was, calm and unafraid.
Burned dwellings can be replaced, lost belongings can be found again; but a broken will
and a crushed spirit are shattered pieces of one’s life, whether ruler, free person, or slave. So
Baybay became a leaderless barangay, for the will to live had left the old Rajah Bayani when his
son was lost to him.
He groped about his palace like a blind man; he listened without hearing; he scarcely ate;
he slept not at all. Seeing death so clearly marked on his face, his people let him be. Death would
be a kindness to the old rajah.
Heroically, the people of Baybay worked to build their barangay anew. They built new
dwellings, they traded, they farmed, they ruled themselves. But the people never forgot their lost
young rajah and his trusted servant. They were faithful people. So, the traders plying the open
seas dared to go to unlikely places to get news of the captured Prince Alon and his servant, the
faithful Lawin. Runners of the barangay peered into every young boy’s face in the hope that their
young rajah could be found again.
The women of the barangay prayed ceaselessly to the good god Bathala. “Watch over our
young rajah, wherever he may be. Please do not let the faithful Lawin weaken in serving Prince
Alon.”
They prayed and hoped and waited. They never ceased to wait.
Then one day, from he blue, sun-drenched seas came a vinta, long and lean as an arrow.
It was commandeered by two young lads, brown from exposure to the sun and wind, with
bleeding hands and rumpled hair.

2. Warriors of Baybay ran to the shore. With throbbing hearts, they knew that these lads
who had returned were the long-lost Alon and his faithful Lawin.
The two boys were strangely alike in all ways. In height, in figure, in the contours of their
faces, they could have passed for brothers. They moved lightly as young deer; they looked at the
warriors without a trace of fear and yet with restraint, as if they were strangers touching
unknown land for the first time.
How many years had passed by since by since that tragic day when the people of Baybay
lost their young prince? Twelve long weary years – enough time to have matured Alon, the
young child of three, and Lawin into these two sunburnt lads from the seas. And never had the
people forgotten the vinta, long and lean as an arrow.
Wondering, one of the lads asked, “Is this the Baybay barangay? We are looking for our
people. A long time ago, pirates stole us and took us to the South. We grew up among them as
their slaves, but we swore we would be free one day. We escaped and now we are fee. Are you
the Baybay people?
The shore was now crowded with men, women, and children. They stared back in wonder
at the two lads. Which one was their prince, their rajah’s son?
An elder cried to the heavens, “Thanks be to the good Bathala. He has returned our ruler.
Who is Prince Alon?
The two boys only gave them puzzled glances. They shook their heads and one of them
answered: “We are nameless. We do not know each other’s name. We have forgotten our names.
Hunger, hardship, the lashes of our captors drove our names out of our memories. All we
remember is Baybay, for the pirates always called us, “Hoy, you slaves from Baybay. We call
each other friend, so you may call us alike – kaibigan.
The inhabitants of Baybay looked at each other. “This cannot be,” they said. “One of
these boys is Alon and the other is Lawin. Poor ill-starred boys! How shall we find out who is
our rajah’s son?”
“Bathala will surely give us a sign. In the meanwhile, let us welcome these boys.”
The boys walked softly on the saand as if on sacred ground. Eagerly, they sniffed the
home-winds of Baybay. Truly it was different here. Tears welled into the boys’ eyes, now
unashamedly, they let them flow. For they were home at last.
Life took on new meaning for the Baybay barangay. A leader had returned, and all the
people took this asan auspicious omen that the good old prosperous days would return. People
worked with alighter heart and went through their household tasks singing their old lullabies.
But the elders-the old members of the barangay who formed the advisory council-had a
big problem on their hands. How were they to tell the prince apart from his faithful friend?
“Why must you worry about it?” laughed one of the boyss. “Make each of us the ruling
rajah alternately. Each of us will serve for one full moon. Is that not an answer to the problem?”

3. Then the other rejoined, “We suffered together. Without each other we would not have
won our freedom. Now we must share everything.”
The elders shook their heads and looked boys with compassionate understanding. How
could they tell these lads that one ruled not with strength or just the willingness to share and
give, but it is a divine power that guides the rightful ruler when times of stress come?
” How to find out? How? Without telling the boys, the eldest sent them through tests of
their courage, their strength, their keenness in judgement, their quickness in understanding, their
resourcefulness in danger and uncertainty. And both the lads were equally brave, keen, hardy,
resourceful, and alert. For he who had been servant had lost the shackles of servitude and served
in freedom in freedom and equality. He who had been prime had given up his cold aloofness and
lived freely and on terms of equality with his companion.
But the destiny to rule had been given to one of these lads and that destiny had to be
fulfilled.
While the elders worried and sighed and racked their brains for a solution, the two boys
hunted and swam and sailed on the seas around the barangay.
One day, they came upon a vinta sailing secretly near the shores of Baybay. The keen
eyes of the boys picked out the lone occupant of the spying vinta. The long years of their cruel
capture had carved in their memory that crouching figure. He could be no other than one of the
pirates of the South.
Relentlessly, the boys gave pursuit, and the cornered spying pirate, losing his bearings,
grounded his vinta on unseen rocks of Baybay shore.
Somebody from the barangay had seen the pursuit, so when the boys landed, there was
quite a crowd to give fierce welcome to this pirate. But he was a courageous one who had known
the dangers when he set out on this hazardous trip. As he looked at his captors, his eyes lighted
up with recognition when he saw the two boys.
"Ah!" he snarled. "Our former slaves from Baybay; although one was not a slave but a.”
"A what?" leaped the question from the elders.
"A Rajah's son," smiled the pirate.
"Which one?" elders eagerly asked.
"Which one?" repeated the pirate mockingly. "I do not remember that," he continued with
a sneer. The warriors leaped on him in fury, but the pirate knew well he was safe as long as he
had the secret with him. So, he taunted them and said: "Perhaps I can remember which is the
rajah's son if I can be free."
"To the crocodiles!" decided the elders in fury. "Throw him to the crocodiles to be torn
slowly apart until he gives the answer. Pirate, do you understand? You shall not escape, and
neither shall you keep your secret. We have our way of tearing secrets from swollen lips."

4. The pirate paled in spite of himself. He had heard of the crocodiles of Baybay and how
they gnawed at captives, morsel by morsel from toe to head until life was completely gone from
them. The pirate gazed wildly from person to another, from warrior to the free, from the young to
the old. In every eye he saw only the hard, cruel judgment. These people had waited all these
years for their reckoning. And they were going to have it at the gleaming edge of crocodiles'
teeth.
Then from the crowd one of the boys stepped forward, speaking naturally, as a leader
speaks.
“Let this pirate go,” he commanded. “He shall not say he declared who is a rajah’s son
through fear and torture. Let him keep his secret forever, for not one of us can tell whether his
answer has been true or false. Surely, the good Bathala will give a sign to tell you who the rajahs
son is.”
Then the people of Baybay saw the boy in a new light. Truly he was the fairer, the taller
one, the more divine one. For when all the rest of them, including his companion, were blinded
with a common desire for revenge, here was a boy who saw crystal clear and justly.
As one, the people turned to him and knee that they had seen the sign.