Somewhere in the vast Pangasinan plains, inside a two-room guard house overlooking a bangus (milkfish) fishpond, Ronnie Dayan, was staring hard at the position in the chessboard.
It was midway into the middle game and to the credit of his opponent, the play was tight all the way. For every move that Dayan played, his opponent seemed to always find the correct reply.
But now the position has reached what can be described as the critical phase or what tacticians called the strategic stalemate. One wrong move and Dayan’s position would be compromised. But his queen has been active and the ensuing combination suggested itself: his queen for two of his opponent’s rooks.
It is the ultimate sacrifice. But it has been done before.
Without a second thought, he snapped the open rook on a bishop file for his queen only to be ‘eaten’ up itself by the other rook. This rook was itself snapped up by a knight after checking the opponent’s king in a fork move one move after.
Like magic, Dayan’s major pieces—comprising of two rooks, one bishop and knight—sprung into life in between a phalanx of pawns as if in one synchronized dance. One hour and 20 moves later, Dayan’s opponent who is actually his bodyguard, gave up the ghost.
In the stillness of the night, only the croaking of the toad and the chirping of the cicadas can be heard. The past weeks have seen sleepless nights and a slight noise is enough to alarm Dayan.
The heat is on and several times, Dayan thought he been spotted. Several times, he had to sleep in several places in one night. One day one friend suggested this island in the middle of nowhere.
His decision to go on the lam was not easy. But at least it gave him freedom for the moment as he considered the options confronting him. One DOJ feeler has been for him to retain his freedom and that he will not be harmed in exchange for spilling the beans that will nail down ‘Maam-honey’ once and for all. He rejected that option.
But the position at the chessboard kept on coming back on his mind: sacrificing the queen to ensure his eventual victory.
Will she sacrifice “Maam-honey?” She who has been virtually his common-law wife for the past seven years, she who has helped him build an expensive house and probably gave him enough fortune to last a lifetime.
Can he do it? After all, did he not dump his real wife (his first queen) in favor of another? What is preventing him from looking for another queen once he cooperates with the DOJ?
His mind was in a whirl.
Last time we heard, he was holding on to the queen on the chessboard this time not with fascination but with a new sense of enlightenment. A smile was slowly forming on his face.
Anak na lasi!
(Well, what do you know, just two hours after we wrote this piece, comes the information that Dayan was arrested by CIDG operatives not in Pangasinan but in La Union)
(JKL)
