A rose by any other name (would it smell as sweet?)

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Liezel Magno-Tan takes much pride to her family surname. The Magnos are well-known political dynasty that primarily resides in the suburban Marikina City nestled in between more prominent metropolitan cities in the Philippines. Combined with her father’s corporate empire that continues to be a giant in the tech business, Liezel lives a very comfortable life. The Magnos has managed to hold several political positions as well as establishing and managing a now historic string of banks that has led to their affluent lifestyle. Her mother marrying very well was another brick that cemented their family’s prestige. They live in Marikina even though they travel around the region in their shiny Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce that are carefully air-conditioned to protect the passengers from the hot and sticky city air because of their ancestral roots in the city.

Between the family, there's been one previous president, a couple of senators and a few slightly distant cousins who are congressmen thrown in the mix; there are also well-known artists wearing their name like a fashionable designer bag they carelessly hang around their elbows. The connections her family has are limitless, they have friends all over the world. Her older sister even spent a year in Sweden with almost zero trouble with the DFA because of a good word with the Wallenberg family whom are fond of their mother.

Liezel is not unfamiliar with the reverent stares she gets in the international school she goes to; the subtle superiority she holds. No one quite reaches her level, and she is accustomed to this treatment. In fact, she rather enjoys it. Nothing compares to the feeling that nothing she does will get reprimanded but instead is showered with praise; that every mistake she makes can all be erased in the school record. She knows she is envied among her peers, but mostly, she keeps her distance. She couldn’t stand most people and their lies to get close to her. She values honesty and integrity, two values that their family stands for: Ante omnia vero. Truth before all else. 

There is comfort in knowing that her family name is a safety net that even when she trips and falls, she has something to land on. Her mother and father are relentless in providing her a good education and ensuring that she enjoys the privilege they have to the full extent. With school however comes annoying and boorish assignments such as a detailed report of their family history. Despite having this information publicly known, her teacher has insisted her to research her family tree, which she found incredibly irksome.

With her school uniform on and her family name in tow, she walks up to the Marikina City Library to check the public record of her family registry to complete her assignment. She didn’t want to go to these lengths for some boring schoolwork, but her teacher specified a ban on internet use to encourage either talking to relatives or research for written documents. Liezel certainly didn’t want to talk to her grandparents, because after recent events they were currently out of the country-living in Singapore, her mother and father-in Shanghai on business. Her mother’s probably in a spa, relaxing. Her sister was nowhere to be found in the house and her only piece of advice when she texted her was to head to the library.

To be frank, she wasn’t completely oblivious to her family tree. Her great-great whatever of a grandfather was a haciendero, the landlord who owned most of the land in the city and whose position was bequeathed by the Spanish crown. He was the first city’s gobernadorcillo, the town’s first mayor. No other prominent family can claim this title. A Magno’s signature can even be found in the Malolos Constitution, the first time the Republic of the Philippines was established; her family succeeded in integrating themselves to importance and the rest is history. Wikipedia has extensive sources online to corroborate her family tree, but to the library she grudgingly went.

It was late afternoon and the library was only open until four in the afternoon, but when she climbed the steps leading to the library’s glass doors, the security guard wordlessly opened the door while wishing her a good afternoon. The bright fluorescent lights in the library immediately assaulted her eyes and as she blinked owlishly to adjust, she stepped toward the information desk where a young woman wearing a green sweater was seated and typing in the computer. “Hi, I’m Ms. Martinez, one of the city librarians. How can I help you?” She looked up and blinked twice, recognizing immediately Liezel by the many publicity photos released every year and that her family has a hall named after them in the library, complete with a family photo. “Ms. Magno! What a wonderful surprise! Are you here to discuss this year’s charity ball for the library?”

Every year the Magno family hold numerous events to keep up with donations and to remind people who exactly funds their new sports equipment, classrooms, scholarships, laboratories, and even clinics; the library is part of this as well. Liezel didn’t care about any of it, she finds it tedious but still necessary in flaunting her family's importance. “Not exactly. I’m sure someone will get in touch with your office soon, but that isn’t what I came for. Will you direct me towards my family registry?” Liezel asked, looking at the librarian and inwardly judging her unkept hair. She kept a passive face but the judgement was clear in her eyes. It isn’t that hard to comb hair, is it?

“Of course! Please follow me, miss,” she clambers ungracefully off her seat and began to walk towards the elevator, her heels clicking on the tiled floor. “You’re lucky the elevator works today, most of the time we use the stairs,” she jokingly said. Liezel gave a sound of interest but didn’t reply. She wants this done five minutes ago. They enter the elevator and there’s the usual music that fill the pneumatic void between the two. It’s Valerie, which Liesel finds tolerable but now listening to it, she finds grating.

 By the time she’s advising her to get a good lawyer, they arrive on the fifth floor which is thankfully air-conditioned. “Here we are! Now I know the book your looking for is 097 in the Dewey Decimal System, but let’s type it in the archive to get the complete listing,” she walks toward a similar information desk with the same beat up computer and types. Liezel waits on the other side, side-eying the clock that reads its quarter to six in the evening. She gets a pen and writes down the numbers on a neon pink Post-it and says, “If you need me, I’m sitting right here.”

Liezel takes it without speaking to her and walks towards the shelves and shelves of books, helpfully labelled at the sides. Thankfully, her teacher reviewed the Dewey Decimal classification to them which meant she was at the right shelf immediately. The book was right in front of her and was relatively new, which was normal considering that the book was republished a year ago. The sanitized version of her family’s history is public and was mostly used for research. Of course, it would’ve been more legitimate to use the original family registry but that was off-limits to the public, even Liezel. It was kept in the House of Representatives alongside several primary documents.

As she reached for the book, her eyes glanced upon the Complete Collection of Influential Families in the Philippines which was right beside it. This book was an anthropology of many more families like Liezel’s, but opening and turning to the table of contents made it clear that the Magno section was clearly the thickest. The book’s author was a historian who investigated similar political dynasties in the country and was only able to print a few copies before families sued him for libel and slander. The book was never to publish again, with the cases piling up against the author and their publishing house. Liezel has never seen this book before and only has heard of it through eavesdropping on conversations. It was probably surprising that the library even had a copy, but it still looked brand new. She had every intention of turning it over to the librarian for its immediate removal when she decided to take a peek.

She grabs it and quickly hides between the shelves. It’s probably against library rules to take pictures, but Liesel was not in the mood to stick to the rules. She was curious why her mother didn’t want her to read this and she wanted to know why her grandmother gave her a quick reply of not nosing into adults’ business when she asked her what was going on. She couldn’t connect to the internet and she didn’t have her phone or laptop. For two days she was just existing in her house without even knowing why its banned and how it turned their entire household upside down. She scans the sections, reading quickly and determining which facts were necessary in finding the truth. She was done double checking and was closing the controversial book when a certain footnote stops her harried movements. After a couple of minutes staring down at the page, she did not hesitate to tear off the end of the page with the searing footnote. She crumples it and takes the book she came for as well as the one she was holding. Both were medium sized books, but for some reason the paper she stuck in her pocket was heavier than both of them combined. She walks toward the librarian to loan the books.

The Magnos have been contested many times as the town’s founders. While it is undisputable that Francisco Magno was the first gobernadorcillo of Marikina, there is one primary document dated prior to Magno’s ascension to power by another name. This name remains anonymous as the document was considered false by the government at the time of its discovery which curiously enough was during President Alfonso Magno’s term. The document was not disclosed to the public.