Ex-pilot feasts on ‘soul food’

Reproduction of Pope John XXIII’s crucifix among retired pilot Ben Hur Gomez’ prized collection. —TONETTE T. OREJAS

ANGELES CITY—Retired pilot Ben Hur Gomez won’t call his house a museum, although it has been home to a collection of crucifixes, onyx stones, brass sculptures, wines and liquor, crystal glasses, miniature animal figurines and chopsticks holders.

“I’m an inveterate collector of ‘kalakuti’ (odd items),” said the sprightly 85-year-old Gomez, who asked to keep his address confidential. “My home is a personal statement,” he said.

Gomez picked up the hobby in between breaks while flying to international destinations for Philippine Airlines (PAL) in the 1960s.

This was 14 years after he joined the country’s flag carrier, right after graduating from Embry-Riddle School of Aviation (now Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University), dubbed the “Harvard of the Sky,” then in Miami, now in Daytona, Florida.

Gomez said he had time in his hands. A long flight to Europe back then took 23 days, with as much as a week of free time for pilots and crew at every stop. This gave him the chance to comb flea markets and disposal houses. He also had money to spare.

As president of the Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines (Alpap), Gomez, then 31, led a 10-day strike in March 1963 following a deadlock for a new collective bargaining agreement.

After that strike, hailed until now as the only successful protest by pilots, the Gomez-led Alpap doubled the pay for international pilots and won a 66 percent across-the-board raise for the rest of the crew.

Obsessive-compulsive

“I am a severe OC (obsessive compulsive),” said Gomez, who recalled that his father, Carlos, used to pick up screws, nails and just about anything that littered the streets which he stored in bottles.

His selected visitors find his collections either awesome or cute.

“I collect anything and everything,” he said, adding that he developed a liking for crucifixes not because his great grandfather was the innovative Augustinian friar, Guillermo Masnou, nor because of his family’s deep faith.

Amsterdam, a route he flew, simply had lots of flea markets and disposal houses selling religious articles, including Christ on crosses.

To date, Gomez has gathered 135 crucifixes from his trips. A few are antiques, like the Spanish cross he obtained from Napa Valley in California.

Most of his collections are modern crosses and knickknacks in various sizes and shapes, from items that measure less than an inch to a life-sized crucifix which he installed in his farm in Mabalacat City in Pampanga province.

He bought two crosses during the canonization of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II in 2014 in Vatican City. A cross the size of a big palm and with four corner images of basilicas, is a reproduction of Pope John XXIII’s own crucifix.

The most handsome artifact in the collection came from a chapel in Sapang Balen in Mabalacat. Folks brought him this piece, which was damaged. He donated a new cross and had the Sapang Balen item fixed.

Some crosses have glass eyes, others come with skulls. Several are Trinity crosses with representations of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Some are carved crucifixes with candle holders. Many have elaborate bases. One was made in South Korea.

He keeps a flawed cross from Rome. Its Christ figure on the cross shows a wound on the right rib, not the left rib as described in the New Testament.

His crucifixes are displayed in a glass cabinet mounted on a wall leading to his bedroom.

Meditation

“I meditate on them. They are my soul food. My joy,” Gomez said.

He did not stop collecting crosses even when his faith was challenged by the failure of his first marriage.

Gomez said almost all his Cursillo Catholic friends rejected him for deciding to end the marriage that produced four children. “I can’t be Cursillo Catholic, but I continued to believe in Christ and the Man upstairs,” he said.

Retired as a 747 pilot of PAL in 1991 (33,000 flying hours in 40 years without a single accident), Gomez left the family’s ancestral house in the old district of Pasay City and settled in Angeles City just as Mt. Pinatubo’s eruptions brought the city to its knees.

Retired pilot Ben Hur Gomez

Back to Catholic fold

He credits Fr. Odon Santos, now 100, for bringing him back to the fold of the Catholic Church.

Because Masses were held in the priest’s house, Gomez built the village a chapel in 2000, on a 1,000 square-meter land donated by Adoracion Henson Tayag, widow of writer Renato “Katoks” Tayag.

Gomez had his own house cleared of volcanic debris, slowly making nooks for his other collections. In the dining room-cum-library are crystal glasses made by Royal Leerdam.

In a glass cabinet are ivory chips. At a corner of the sala is a 10-foot brass jar, which is a sign of affluence among Muslims. Shiny images in Kama Sutra poses adorn the sala. Onyx stones glisten in his bedroom.

Wooden cabinets that he designed neatly tuck more collections. None has been catalogued so far.

Not for public viewing

The Gomez collections are not for public viewing. “It’s only for discerning individuals,” he said.

Gomez said he was itching to unpack, sort out his collections, build new cabinets and display previous acquisitions that almost fill a room.

“I live a very boring life,” he said.