The Bourne Ambrosity
The Bourne Ambrosity is an adventure story arc of the Philippine comic series Pugad Baboy, created by Pol Medina Jr. The longest story arc so far at 126 strips, this was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer from August 2012 to January 2013. In July 2013, the story arc was reprinted in the 25th compilation of the comic strip series, named 25. For the first time in the series, the Sungcals' maid, Ambrosia "Brosia" Tangara, appears as a solo lead character. The title is itself a portmanteau of her name and the title of Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne novels, which usually contain the words "The Bourne..." followed by another word.
Synopsis
Sen. Cabalfin asks Mang Dagul to let him hire Brosia as his adviser on ways to heckle opposing candidates ahead of the 2013 national elections. She gets burned out after three days of work and Cabalfin lets her drink stimulant pills from his wife's medicine cabinet. However, the pills are actually anti-psychotic medication which leaves her totally dazed and the family dog bum rushes her into the pool. She gets electrocuted after a live wire that was cut from debris thrown about by Typhoon Helen dips into the water and she is sent to the hospital. It is the least of her worries, as she is blamed for a theft at Cabalfin's safe (her outline was caught on camera; a man posing as the family psychiatrist copied Mrs Cabalfin's key to the safe and gave it to her). Brosia suddenly displays extensive details about the contents of the safe - millions worth of rare jewels and various currencies. Although Brosia blackmails the senator into not pressing charges against her, Dagul lets her go.
While walking along the street, Brosia ignores Bab and rapidly fights off two kidnapping attempts. The men who tried to kidnap her the second time explain that their syndicate wants her talents. They take her to a safe house and pump her full of truth serum to verify if she really had amnesia. Calling her "Rita," the goons assign Brosia to work as a maid named Clarita Relucio at the house of a drug lord named Don Hepe, located at a gated subdivision in Paranaque. She gets especially close to Don Hepe's daughter Carmen while scouting the house's security system and safe. The family's departure on a stroll one night allows her to raid the safe and slip out of the village for her rendezvous (but not before a close call with the subdivision's security watchmen). One of the goons, codenamed Onse or No. 11, explains to Brosia (as No. 33) that she'll only receive a token amount from the loot, with the syndicate's committee of ten - comprising various high officials- will get the lion's share. The success of the heist results in Brosia performing the same modus operandi on the houses of other criminal leaders, but her last job - at a rich man's house in Batangas that also hosts a cybersex den - gives her an epiphany three months later because one of the victims sought her help to escape.
Posing as a pet dog, Polgas sets her aside and reveals she was originally sought out by the OCB as a deep-cover agent codenamed Amrita or Rita for a mission to find maid recruitment agencies that have househelps who rob rich employers. OCB command scrubbed the mission because Brosia failed her training. She declines Polgas' offer to be extracted and later insists to No. 11 that she must get a bigger share of the loot. Remembering that she was uttering the name of former Philippine Education Secretary Isidro Cariño during her sedation, she deduces that the loot was stowed in a bag belonging to Cabalfin's son Bong, prompting her to infiltrate his school and get it out of Paltik's locker.
Returning to her handlers, Brosia is suddenly taken back to Don Hepe's house to meet the syndicate's leaders - and learns that Carmen is Don Hepe and No 1. Carmen says Rita's heist was staged as a test of her loyalty to the organization, which she failed because of a "Sorry" note she left behind (indicating an attack of conscience). Brosia is sent to jail for all of the thefts. Polgas visits her and teaches her how to dislodge a nanobot tracer implanted in a club sandwich she ate. She successfully spits it out and puts it in a wall of her cell before preparing to be transported out of the cell for another job. After the prison vehicle picks up another inmate, she escapes and makes her way into Los Baños, where a henchman who tried to kidnap her earlier recognizes her and she is brought back behind bars with the woman from the cybersex den. Brosia disconnects a security camera in the cell and hotwires it to the cell bars. After some hijinks, Brosia and the woman escape and beats up the cybersex den leader's lead henchman. The two team up to hack No. 11's Facebook account to sow discord among the syndicate's members and let them kill each other amidst the infighting. Carmen stops the executions and has No. 11 verify that Rita is still in her cell but Rita and Polgas (as Dobermaxx) capture him.
Under threat of being shaved by a barber afflicted with Parkinson's disease, No. 11 says the syndicate's remaining leaders are planning a meeting at the ranch of a No. 6 (an Army general) in Tagaytay. Brosia proposes to entrap them using video cameras all over the place as Polgas mobilizes the entire OCB for support. No. 11 is released to warn the syndicate. True enough, all of the Pugad Baboy gang (in their separate alter-egos) plus Dado neutralize and capture the syndicate's members. Carmen's air of invincibility is broken as well when Brosia takes away her pet dog.
Epilogue
Since high voltage has practically erased Brosia's memory, Polgas creates a "legend" for her to be the Sungcals' maid once again. Her immersion initially does run into some problems (accidentally electrocuting Dagul while looking for a potholder and taking down Bab near the pool). An electrocution at the hands of Igno and clapping motions of Gordon Ramsay (as Mang Dagul is watching his cooking show) restores her heckling ways, but retains her sharp memory and close-combat ability. Although all of Mrs. Cabalfin's jewels and only part of the money is recovered, Brosia resumes working for Sen. Cabalfin, who emerges in eighth place in the final tally of senators during the elections.
Real-life references
- A "deleted scene" strip with all of the characters in their alternate personas eating "siowarma" (siopao with shawarma ingredients) with Mao cooking in the background spoofs the post-credits scene [1] in The Avengers where all the characters eat at a New York shawarma joint. In the strip, Brosia proposes to collect the ranch footage into a special video and Powerpoint presentation, with Filipino editor Chuck Gutierrez as editor and veteran actor Joonee Gamboa as narrator (over Bab's suggestions of Ike Jarlego as editor and Orson Welles or Morgan Freeman as narrator).
- As Brosia plans to rig cameras all over No. 6's ranch to expose the syndicate's lust for power, discredited doctor Hayden Kho appears and claims he's good at lust as well. This is a reference to Kho's on-camera sexual dalliances with various Filipino actresses in late 2008.[2]
- Carmen's codename and her organization's importance on numbers-based anonymity is a reference to SPECTRE, the unseen group of villains in the James Bond franchise.
- Brosia references her being born in Albay and shows a tattoo image of the Mayon Volcano to Polgas, who exclaims she should be called the Girl with the Oragon Tattoo - a portmanteau of the Bicolano word oragon (highly-successful person) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
- The inmate who rides the same prison vehicle as Brosia is implied to be Atoy Co, whom Brosia refers to by his moniker the Fortune Cookie and his past relationship with sexy star Alona Alegre.
- Babman sings Drowning Pool's "Bodies" in suppressing a pack of attack dogs. When Babman is introduced to Dado, he claims that Dado is part of Team Jacob because he's only wearing his pants.
- Brosia calls her plan to take down the syndicate as a "Dutertic solution" with matching blacked-out dirty finger, referring to Davao City Vice-Mayor Rodrigo Duterte's on-camera flipping of his middle finger as a response of criticism against his daughter Sara, who is the city mayor.[3]
- The Parkinson's disease-afflicted barber is modeled on Freddie Roach.
- Pao uses her estrogen darts to capture two of the syndicate's members, who dance to It's Raining Men.
References
Bibliography
- Medina, Pol Jr. 25 (Pugad Baboy 25), Pol Medina Jr. Novelties, 2013.