Readers' Contributed Theories About Suskupô Rudeh’s Identity

Rudy... the mystery continues.

It amuses me no end when one of my articles sparks off discussions about some of the most mundane things in life. This web site’s title, after all, is Life so Mundane.

One such article was last month’s feature on the Batangueño expression “suskupô Rudeh.” If you have not yet seen the article, perhaps you may wish to take a look at it first here.

Two weeks after publishing the article, I met up with some relatives. My niece told me that she derived so much amusement from the article as well. She was Manila born and raised but her first job was at a Jollibee store in Sto. Tomas.

And that, she told me, was where she frequently heard her Batangueño crew uttering the expression “suskupô Rudeh.”

The point of the previous article was to draw attention to the expression. If I could get to the root of it, fine; but never for one moment did I really think that I would get a definitive explanation.

Still, some of the theories put forth by readers were interesting to say the least.

One of the first respondents said that the expression originated from Puerto Rivas in Balangâ, Bataan and probably brought to Rosario here in Batangas by one of her relatives. This was thought provoking although there was every possibility that somebody from Batangas brought it to Balangâ in the first place.

My own cousin, Nasugbu born and raised, pitched in with his own. The expression probably came from his mother, he messaged me, as she would get annoyed whenever my Tito Rudy would get himself inebriated.

That was really no more than a family joke; and my uncle did have a fondness for a drink. This is probably the understatement of the year.

Somebody from Ibaan also pitched in, saying that the expression probably spawned in his hometown soon after the turn of the millennium. There was this guy, he said, named Rudy who when drunk would start trouble during local basketball league games and loved to get into arguments with referees.

This was interesting if not very plausible as I did write in the previous article that I first heard the expression used in 1994 or 1995.

Two other respondents gave alternate versions of the expression. The first said that Rudy is from Lumang Lipa and has a wife named Aning. Hence, he said, some people now say “suskupô Aning” instead of “suskupô Rudeh.”

I was particularly interested in this theory because Lumang Lipa, if I am not mistaken, is part of the Municipality of Mataas-na-Kahoy. A former colleague had, in fact, told me that he heard somewhere that the expression originated in the municipality.

Unfortunately, the details were skimpy to say the least. Another respondent did name a Rudy [Surname] from Barangay III in Mataas-na-Kahoy. Poor guy. Smiley.

Then, there was this other guy who gave a longer version of the expression: “suskupô rudeh baga-baga Siony.” There were no specifics about locality given, but according to the story, whenever Siony got annoyed and uttered “suskupô Rudeh,” the latter’s response would be “baga-baga Siony!”

All the other theories put forth were probably rendered implausible by a respondent from Nasugbu who said that he was 59 years old and that he first heard the expression when he was still small.

I suppose what this really means is that Rudeh continues to be a mystery. What about you, what is your version?

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