Amante Caballero visited me one day in Feb. 20, 2011 after dropping some guests at Palau Royal Resort. He asked for a photograph with me while playing piano at Waves Restaurant of PRR. He also asked for another photo while me and PRR choir are practicing at the lobby for Christmas presentation, one of them is Christmas tree lighting.
AMANTE CABALLERO --
19 STRAIGHT YEARS IN PALAU
WITHOUT VACATION
I'VE NEVER known anybody who can stay/work in a country for 19 straight years without having a vacation in all those years. Amante Caballero is one of a kind, or maybe he loves Palau that he doesn’t want to take a vacation in Philippines even once.
I’ve known him since the early 1990’s when he is the bus driver of Airai View Hotel. I’ve noticed the quality of his voice when singing old songs by Matt Monro, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones and other 50’s and 60’s popular singers.
The problem is with his diction or pronunciation of the English lyrics where the e and o were pronounced as “i” and “u” respectively. Sometimes he is doing the reverse of these – pronouncing “e” as “i” and “u” as “o”.
A good example was the singer/contestant of the Amateur Singing Contest held in 1992 at Sunset Bistro where I am one of the members of Tropical Depression Band, who were accompanying the contestants in the weekly qualifying round.
One of the male contestants sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and he pronounced the “Left” as “Lift” with really a different meaning if mispronounced. When Amante is singing “For Mama” by Matt Monro, it starts with “She said my son I beg of you”, and he will sing “She said my son I big of you”. In the song “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, Amante sang it as “Wise Men Say, Only (False) Fools Rush In.” The double oo in “fools” which is pronounced as “u” was mispronounced as “o”.
Our musical bonding becomes regular when there are wedding receptions at Airai View Hotel, where there is a white Yamaha Grand Piano, and he used to sing love songs at the reception. That grand piano is also a player piano. It can play by itself when you insert a cassette tape to a machine and plugged in to the outlet and the keys are also going down as if a person is playing it. Orly Matias, one of the bus drivers of the hotel, thought that I was just playing around with the taped music when I am playing there in 1993. But when he noticed that “Song for Anna” is not one of the songs in the machine, which is not plugged in, he comes behind me and said, “So it’s really you playing that song!”
We also get involved in the GoldQuest International Ltd. The Numismatic Company in late ‘90’s where he was able to get an American Eagle Gold Coin Watch worth $400.00 when he got 5 referrals to his left and 5 to his right. I was able to get $400.00 check from Chase Manhattan Bank in New York for completing 5 and 5, and also the limited mintage of John F. Kennedy gold coin—fine gold content: 999.9, weighing 1 oz (31.1g), with a diameter of 38.6mm and minted by B. H. Mayer’s Mint Germany.
That John F. Kennedy gold coin was the one we pawned at Lhuiller’s when me and my wife took a vacation in 2011 because we were not able to get a loan from a local Palau bank. We pawned it for more than 58,000.00 pesos—more than double of what I paid for it. It’s really a collectible item and its price goes up every time.
Six years ago, Amante pawned to me his American eagle gold coin watch for $200.00. After one month, he gave me $220.00 with the $20.00 as interest. I didn’t accept it. He insisted but instead of spending it, I donated it to Pentecostal Missionary Church of Christ (4th Watch) Palau Locale under his name. Usury is one of the things that we must not do according to the Bible.
A year later, I was shocked that his contract was not renewed by his Taiwanese employer (now at Papago International Resort), where he is an all-around worker by driving the hotel’s bus, golf and archery instructor and other miscellaneous jobs.
He will be 60 years old in Sept. that year and will be eligible to get Social Security pension if he’s still working and staying in Palau.
He hasn’t gone for a single time having vacation in 19 straight years and when the timing for at least a year renewal comes, his contract was not renewed. He got help from an American lawyer, Mr. Hess, and got at least lump sum. When I got some news from him in Philippines, he said he is now receiving SS pension from Philippine government for a minimum of 1,200.00 pesos. He’s got a wife who is doing well with her job that’s why he is not sending money to her while in Palau.
When I played music during the wedding of the century in Palau on Aug. 22, 1999, Amante showed up at the reception at Palasia Hotel and sang a few songs after my duet with Weena Elbelau to the song “I Finally Found Someone”. http://palau-chess.blogspot.com/2012/06/music-and-me-june-14-playing-music-at.html
Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
December 29, 2002--August 31, 2017
Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)
The Beginning of Chess in Palau
By Roberto Hernandez
Soon to be published as a book
Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
March 15, 2012 -- April 18, 2013
http://palau-chess.blogspot.com
April 25, 2013 -- August 31, 2017
The History of Chess in Palau
By Roberto Hernandez
June 09, 2002 -- August 31, 2017
