Matrona is a story arc

Story arc

A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...

 of the Philippine

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 comic strip series Pugad Baboy

Pugad Baboy

Pugad Baboy is a comic strip created by Filipino cartoonist Apolonio "Pol" Medina, Jr. The strip is about a Manila community of mostly obese people - "fat as pigs", so to speak ....

, created by Pol Medina Jr. and originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, popularly known as the Inquirer, is the most widely read broadsheet newspaper in the Philippines, with a daily circulation of 260,000 copies. It is one of the Philippines' newspapers of record...

. This particular story arc lasts 23 strips long. In 1998, the story arc was reprinted in Pugad Baboy X, the tenth book compilation of the comic strip series.

Synopsis

Bab takes Tiny on a date to the Soft Jazz Café. There, an elderly woman dressed in a revealing outfit asks Bab for a light and later, when Tiny goes off to the ladies' room, makes a pass at him. Bab later gets the scare of his life when he discovers that the woman, named "Girlie", is his mother's friend who had just come home from Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and was staying over at their place.

Cecille, Bab's mom, later relates the reason why Girlie had come home; she was looking for a way to have her marriage in Canada annulled due to her husband's impotence. Bab helps out by introducing Girlie to Attorney Adriano. Girlie, however, soon acquires a distasteful reputation among the men of Pugad Baboy, as even Dagul was not safe from her wiles. Girlie soon confesses to Cecille that menopause

Menopause

Menopause is a term used to describe the permanent cessation of the primary functions of the human ovaries: the ripening and release of ova and the release of hormones that cause both the creation of the uterine lining and the subsequent shedding of the uterine lining...

 was one of the reasons for her behavior. She was afraid of being old and unwanted. Cecille counsels her; telling her that she was experiencing a new phase in life.

Cecille's advise seemed to work wonders on Girlie; she soon ditched her flirtatious image and began wearing clothes appropriate for her mature age. As she takes her leave for a trip back to Canada, she even lectures Tomas on showing respect when speaking to older persons, suddenly speaking in Tagalog (she spoke in English the whole time she had her flirtatious image).

Trivia

• Although the word "matron" has a positive connotation in the Western culture
  Western culture
  Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
  
  s, the same may not be said for matrona, which Filipinos
  Filipino people
  The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
  
   sometimes use to describe a mature, affluent woman with questionable sexual morals.
• Matrona also has the alternate meaning of "midwife
  Midwifery
  Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding....
  
  ".
• This is Attorney Adriano's second appearance in a story arc; his first was in Col. Manyakis
  Col. Manyakis
  Col. Manyakis is an adventure story arc of the Philippine comic strip series Pugad Baboy, created by Pol Medina, Jr. and originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. This particular story arc lasts 35 strips long. In 1997, the story arc was reprinted in Pugad Baboy Eight, the eighth book...
  
  .
• Impotence is sufficient ground for annulment, although Attorney Adriano disagrees with this.
• When Girlie confides in Bab that she hated sleeping alone, Bab tells her that he would send "Dongski" to sleep with her. Dongski turns out to be Bab's pet Tamagotchi
  Tamagotchi
  The is a handheld digital pet, created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was first sold by Bandai in 1996 in Japan. As of 2010, over 76 million Tamagotchis have been sold world-wide...
  
  .
• The Soft Jazz Café may be an oblique reference to the Hard Rock Café
  Hard Rock Cafe
  Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of theme restaurants founded in 1971 by Americans Peter Morton & Isaac Tigrett. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. In 2006, Hard Rock was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and...
  
  .