We were constructing in a fairly old building, where wiring was shoddily done, cabling ran out the upper floor window into the window of the floor below it (yeah, thats how they ran their cabling). The building owner did not have updated plans of their electrical connections. We were basically running blind. Opening walls to find bunched up wires (and termites). The curtain walls had broken glass and rusty frames. And the ceiling leaked. Really not a gradeA building. But the building owner was a business partner of our client, so I guess they thought it was good for them to locate their office there.

While we were demolishing walls on the nth floor for the new office we were doing (design and construct project), the broadband provider of the entire building experienced some trouble, and the internet connection of the other offices in that small building went down.

Mr. X, the president of the company freaked. He ran up to our site and yelled and cursed at the workers. He threatened to shoot them, and "fired" our Site Supervisor, who called me in a panic.

Now this is interesting because Mr. X is quite a public personality. When you see him on TV you get the impression he is a religious, upstanding member of society. Ready to defend and fight for the good of the common worker and consumer.

Not so. I noticed that his staff walked on tiptoe and would whisper when he was around. They always seemed to be waiting for some sort of explosion. I actually saw a desk right at the ground floor lobby and learned that he had his assistant's workstation moved there. So he wouldnt see her face.

We had a meeting to discuss the internet breakdown. Our stand was that we had not cut any data or internet cables, and had in fact left areas with them alone. Even the people from his office knew that the Broadband server went down.

We waited almost an hour, and just as I was getting really fidgety (I really really hate waiting), Mr. X came rushing in. He asked who was in charge of construction and when I said "I am" he pointed his finger at my face, said I was a stupid architect, didn't know anything, "Bobo, Tanga, Estupida", and that he would fire me and our company and shoot us all.

Gahhh, I swear. My knees were shaking with anger, and my fingers were digging into the armrests of my chair. I started to speak about the Broadband problem, but was cut off by one of his employees (actually a manager) poking his elbow in my side while hissing "Noooo nooo dont say anything, he will freak out even more....SHhhh" My head was hurting. I really just wanted to lift my chair and throw it at him so the old devil would have a heart attack and die spasming at my feet. Then I would stomp on his wrinkly face. Until. it. was. pulp.

So I kept my mouth shut, and bore the tonguelashing. Man that was hard. I couldn't believe that this man...this man, who comes out on TV and professes to do price watches for the good of his country(men), and says "Oh, the poor Filipino consumers and workers" would be shouting at me now, in front of about 10 or so people, saying "Putangina mo! Pinoy ka! Punyeta ka! Lahat kayong Pilipino. Gago! Lintek! Tamad, mga putangina nyong Pilipino. Babarilin ko kayong lahat!"

Surreal.

This entry was posted on 12/26/2004 at 12/26/2004 03:42:00 am. You can skip to the end and leave a response.