Farmer Falls From A Binonga Tree

Feb. 21,2011

Farmer Falls From A Binonga Tree

By Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-A farmer who was gathering firewood on his way to another barangay,in the municipality of Malitbog,about 2 hours drive by passenger bus from this city, has fallen down upon a binonga tree when he cut its dead branch.

The victim was identified as Alex Dagatan Junio,34 years old, married, and has five children. He was a resident of sitio Kapayas in the hinterland barangay of Aurora, which is three kilometers away from brgy. San Vicente, Malitbog, located along the national highway.

In an interview with LSDE at the Salvacion Oppus- Yñiguez Memorial Provincial Hospital (SOYMPH), he said that he was on his way to San Vicente for some personal purpose.

Upon reaching within the vicinity of brgy San Vicente, he saw a big tree called Binonga and found some dead branches that were good for firewood.

“I climbed up the tree and cut off one of its dead branches”, he said. “However, it did not fall down right away, since a clinging vine held onto one of its large twigs”.

He said he cut off the vine and a twig sprung up, almost hitting him on the head. He dodged to parry from its lash by turning around on the other side of the tree’s trunk.

Nevertheless, he happened to step on a weak branch that gave way, he said, and he fell on the tree about five meters from the stony ground below.

He said his chest hit upon a huge stone with so severe a pain that he could hardly breathe. And his two accompanying children were crying.”Suerte lang kay wala ako matunong sa talinis nga mga batong bantilis nga anaa tungod sa binongang kahoy”, he said in Cebuano.(I’m still lucky that I was not hit upon a hard sharp stones that were on the ground right below the binonga tree.)

Several minutes later when he was able to breath, he said, he and his children shouted for help.

Some folks in the nearby area have responded to his emergency call and he was rushed to the highway.

They then contacted the municipal ambulance which whisked him to the provincial hospital here.

He was accompanied by his elder brother.

X-ray results showed that the victim’s leftside rib on his chest was forcibly pressed down by the impact of his fall hitting the large stone. However, he has no other bone injury on other parts of his body.

A tube was inserted on his left side to drain out the dead blood accumulating inside. During the time of the interview, already more than a liter of it was flashed out.

He said that his resident attending physician- surgeon Dr.Jude Aspirin has scheduled him for an operation to completely take out the remaining dead blood, which has contributed to his chest’s pain and hard breathing rhythm.

As of presstime the victim was already discharged from confinement.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)

Protect Your Business and Home.

Install Video Surveillance Camera

In Your Business Today.Contact Lemar’s

Electronics,R.K.Kangleon St.,Near Dogmox,

Tunga-Tunga,Maasin City,So.Leyte.Tel..No.

(053)381-2482; (053)570-8588.

Dr. Levi G.Tan,MD,FPCP,FPCC

Internal Medicine-Cardiology

Malaya Medical Clinic And Diagnostic Center

R.K. Kangleon St., Mantahan, Maasin City, So.Leyte.

Tel. NO.(053)570-8893

Guv. Signs PENRMO-GTZ MOA Establishing Mangrove Greenbelt Project

Feb. 21,2011

GUV Signs PENRMO-GTZ MOA Establishing The SL Mangrove Greenbelt Project

By Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Management Office(PENRMO) and GTZ(in literal English equivalent : German technical Assistance/Cooperation)has jointly formulated a Memorandum of Agreement for a project dubbed as “Southern Leyte Mangrove Greenbelt Project” with a funding of P1.5M. A resolution was passed authorizing Governor Damian Mercado to sign the MOA.

This was the disclosure of PENRMO head Eva Abad during the SP’s recent session held at SP session hall. She said that the P1.3M will be a grant from GTZ, the P263, 000.00 will be the counterpart of the province. While the P32, 000.00 counterparts will be shared by the involving 8 municipalities, which is for the hauling of seedling production from the sources to the sites.

Abad pointed out that the province’s counterpart is already part of the provincial government’s Annual Investment Program for 2011 under the PENRMO Coastal Fisheries Resource Management.

The PENRMO head also stressed that the amount of P263, 000.00 will be used for the technical trainings and information education program to the concerned barangays and municipalities. Whereas the GTZ funds will be for buying the materials and cash payments for the beneficiaries who will engage in seedling production and planting.

Earlier, she further informed the SP members that a resolution is needed authorizing Governor Damian Mercado to sign the Financial Agreement or MOA, which she said, is substantial and binding, so that the project can be implemented at the soonest possible time.

She clarified that with the greenbelt project, the provincial government thru her office is responsible in implementing in the municipal level. While the municipalities that are involved will assist the Barangay Councils in the selection of beneficiaries’ lists based on the established criteria.

Specifically, she emphasized that the role of the province in the project is to supervise, monitor and access the funds for them to really implement the mangrove rehabilitation program.

The places involved are one city and 7 municipalities, namely, Maasin City, which has the biggest mangrove area of the province, Macrohon, Padre Burgos, Bontoc, Sogod, Libagon, San Juan and Silago.Two other municipalities that are going to be involved in seedling production only are Liloan and St.Bernard.

Furthermore, another PENRMO staff has divulged that the MOA was finally signed by the incumbent Governor and that recently the SLMGP project will be implemented sometime in February of the current year.

According to Abad the objectives of the project are the following: 1) To promote the mangrove resources that are the major source of foods of fishes in the coastal zone. Lots of mangrove trees can produce more foods for our fishes;2)To mitigate the effect of climate change which is globally a major threat to human life; 3) More mangroves trees in coastal areas will protect coastal communities from typhoon surges, tsunamis and other impact of climate change; 4)To promote awareness in our communities on the importance of our environment and active involvement in our EFOs in the government side.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)

Postcript: One of the measures to mitigate the effects of climate change is to plant, not only mangrove trees along the coasts of each province nationwide, but also forest trees in our denuded forests in the country. Another measure is to strictly ban the cutting of all remaining trees in our bald forests for six decades in order to restores its former state of lush vegetations and to prevent flashfloods that were and are wrecking havoc on our people. To have some sources of construction materials for building residentials and commercial buildings, the DENR should encourage farmers and planters nationwide to plant in hectarages all kinds of forest and hardwood trees on the plain and lowland lots for harvesting after the plants become mature for cutting for sale as building materials. In this way, our illegal and legal cutters in the forests can have another means to get money for their livelihood.

Dr. Levi G.Tan,MD,FPCP,FPCC

Internal Medicine-Cardiology

Malaya Medical Clinic And Diagnostic Center

R.K. Kangleon St., Mantahan, Maasin City, So.Leyte.

Tel. NO.(053)570-8893

Protect Your Business and Home.

Install Video Surveillance Camera

In Your Business Today.Contact Lemar’s

Electronics,R.K.Kangleon St.,Near Dogmox,

Tunga-Tunga,Maasin City,So.Leyte.Tel..No.

(053)381-2482; (053)570-8588.

Private Policy

Private Policy

1.) Posting articles in this blog other than those of the author’s works/writings are strictly prohibited. If you have the love and the penchant to write articles you should sign up for a free account in any of the existing internet-blog providers in the world and be a blogger also. However, occasionally, readers may found other article/s in this blog with reference/s appearing below the article/s. It might be stated that the author of the article published in this blog has given his/her consent upon request from the former who finds it relevant as guest article and as a guest writer, or that he chooses to publish a friend’s article which he finds it relevant for inclusion as guest writer with its source being mentioned.

2) Copying/extracting any of the statements in the articles of this blog, without the permission and consent of the author, is strictly prohibited.

About

Email address: ricojun@gmail.com

My name is Quirico Monte de Ramos Gorpido, Jr. I was born in ST.Bernard,Southern Leyte, but I grew up in Ozamis City,Misamis Occidental,Mindanao,where my maternal grandmother, Marcela L. Almendras (deceased) has decided to move there (where her younger brother Lolo Jose was living) together with the whole family and settled there until her demise.

Yours truly is a product of combination of different groups of Filipinos indisputably dominated by their respective inherent Mother Tongues. My mother Lourdes Almendras Monte de Ramos (deceased) who is from Southern Leyte speaks Cebuano. My father Quirico Siervo Gorpido, Sr.(deceased) speaks Waray-Waray and hails from Northern Samar. My mestiza maternal grandmother Marcela L. Almendras (deceased), a half-Spaniard has her roots in Ilocos Norte. My maternal grandfather, Tomas C. Monte de Ramos (deceased) is also from Southern Leyte.

I studied in grades one and two at the Misamis Institute, later, re-named Misamis College (when I was in high school).Sometime in the 1980s, it changed its status to Misamis University.

However, I studied in grades three and four in St.Bernard when my mother, who became an early widow, has decided to move to the place together with my younger brother Emmanuel. After finishing the two level grades, we received a telegram instructing us to go back to Ozamis because Lola Ilang has died. There I studied in grades five and six at the Ozamis City Central School, where one of my classmates, a son of a medical practitioner, Artemio Tuaño Engracia,Jr.,(he was also one of my classmates in high school at the Immaculate Conception College of the same place), later a UP-graduate Journalism student, now promoted as news editor at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, after serving as the paper’s one of its Sportswriters .

Four years after I graduated in high school at the Immaculate Conception College in Ozamis City as a working student, I decided to go to Manila to see the place and to look for a job. I have experienced working different manual jobs until I was able to work in 2 private companies:1)at the Communication Foundation For Asia in Sta.Mesa,Manila and 2)at Merck,Inc,located at Salcedo Village, Makati City. Here in Maasin City, my base,I was once working at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources(DENR) which holds its office at the Capitol Site, where the Provincial Capitol is also located, for more than a year.

While living in Metro Manila I have enrolled as a self-supporting student at ICS for a home study course in journalism. Nevertheless, at the time I have lost my job, I was forced to stop. Although a journalism undergraduate, I was and I’m practicing what I have learned in my study.

For many years I was a correspondent to the Tacloban-based regional weekly, The Reporter, whose founder was a Maasinhon by the name of Agustin “Guz” Cerro Arnaiz, Sr.(deceased).It has its Maasin Branch office in brgy.Mantahan. But it closed shop after 34 years of serving the public.Recently, however,it was revived by one of his daughters on an online edition only.

Later I became a correspondent to other newspapers one after the other also for several years. I was a former correspondent to three Cebu-based newspapers: Visayan Express (now defunct), The Freeman and the Cebu Daily News. In Tacloban City I was also a former correspondent/news contributor to the weekly Tribune for three years and one year for the Leyte Samar Daily Express.

After I have learned little basic lessons in computer in 2007, thru the sponsorship of a kind, generous and good standing businessman, I applied again as a Correspondent at the LSDE during the last week of November 2007 by calling its Editor-In-Chief Vicente S. Labro. He then referredke thHeHe my application call to the publisher/owner, Dalmacio Grafil who accepted and approved my application.

The Blog

This blog will and shall contain miscellaneous articles: news stories, opinion/commentary articles, feature stories, anecdotes, personal and impersonal essays, other writings and most probably some news pictures and other pictures consider relevant by yours truly, after I can save some amount of money in the future more enough to buy a digital camera.

Binay Urges Mercado To Ask SP To Enact Resolution For Housing Project

Feb.21.2011

Binay Urges Mercado To Ask SP To Enact Resolution For Housing Project

By Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.

Maasin City Southern Leyte-Vice-President Jejomar Binay has urged Governor Damian Mercado to ask the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to enact resolution for housing project intended for Southern Leyte to make it official.

This was the disclosure of former SP member Jason Calva, the undefeated third termer, now works as a Capitol Consultant to the provincial government, during the recent session held at the provincial capitol here.

Calva informed that Governor Mercado had a discussion with the Vice-President in Manila during his visit there, the latter being the Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC). He said Binay wanted to see personally the province of Southern Leyte for such plan of the aforesaid project.

He said HUDCC is an umbrella organization of the LHURB and the National Housing Authority and other housing institutions of the national government. The housing institution, he said, was created thru Executive Order no. 19 dated Dec. 17, 1986 of which the Chairmanship is usually handled by the Vice-President.

The former SP Financial Chair claimed that Binay has committed 100 to 150 housing units for the province. The earmarked budget is something like P36M or more,

Asked by SP Albert Esclamado if the province has to put a counterpart, Calva answered in the affirmative, saying a lot where the housing units are to be constructed. That is, any LGU recipient would have to provide a lot as counterpart, he said.

The Consultant also made clear to Esclamado that if the project would materialize in the near future, the number of housing units would be distributed in selected municipalities after it would be identified by a task force formed and approved by the Governor.

However, SP Teopisto Rojas,Jr. has revealed that in Metro Manila where similar projects were existing, housing units that were distributed to the lower middle class were in the form of soft loans, but not for free.

Calva told Rojas and the rest of SP members, that according to the information he got in the HUDCC’s website relative to the housing program, if beneficiaries are considered indigents and certified by the DSWD, it would be a grant to them, as it was in other provinces.

But for the higher income families like some of the beneficiaries in Metro Manila, he said, the procedure in acquiring might be similar.

In answer to Esclamado if the HUDCC Chair or its staff will be the one to identify the recipients, Calva clarified that it would be the provincial government, while the only role of the former is to provide the housing units in accordance with its specifications.

Moreover, the third termer SP member reiterated the earlier call of Binay for the SP to enact a resolution addressing it immediately to the latter’s office for approval.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)

Lemar’s Electronics

R.K. Kangleon St, Tunga-Tunga, Maasin City, So.Leyte

Dealer of electronics and electrical parts, videoke parts,

Musical instruments, CCTV, Surveillance System.tel.

Nos.(053)381-2482; (053)570-8588; Lemar’s General

Merchandise,tel. Nos.(053)381-2087;(053)570-9658,

Tomas Oppus St., Maasin City, So.Leyte

Insights & Travels (Qatar Airlines Appointed

Travel Agency) by Esperanza L.Samaco,Tel no.

(053)381-2527.Services Offer: Boat Tickets,

Airline Tickets, Package Tour. Located between

Abiera Museum of Arts and Natasha Service Center.

A.Bantug St., Tunga-Tunga, Maasin City, So.Leyte

Teaching Of Mother Tongue In Schools Should Start Now

Feb.20,2011

Teaching Of Mother Tongue In Schools As Medium Of Instruction Should Start Now

By Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-I have been reading series of articles written by Neni Sta. Romana Cruz,Butch Fernandez, ,Ricardo Ma.Duran Nolasco and Atty. Manuel Faelnar regarding the teaching of Mother Tongues as the medium of instruction in different schools in the entire country which found to be effective for the low graders as beginners. Their articles were separately published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Except for the Atty.Faelnar’s articles that can be read only in the internet, the first three writers’ works were published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on various dates, the latest of which was an article written by UP Professor Ricardo Ma.Duran Nolasco of the Department of Lingulstics, UP, Diliman, Quezon City entitled “Why Children Learn Better By Using Mother Tongue”, published Sept. 11, 2010 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

I feel and I sense that the articles that I have read in this new approach of our educational system are quite enough. The articles on the effectiveness of teaching the low graders in their respective mother Tongues are strong proofs that this is indeed the effective way that schoolchildren can learn more easily than using other language as initial way of learning some knowledge in schools.

Our educators must now be insistent and persistent whoever is the setting Education Secretary, to start implementing these new findings based on series of surveys conducted in different areas. Budget should be set aside for the Secretary of Education for the start of training teachers for the teaching of the Mother Tongues in various areas of the archipelago.

Writers in different local tongues and linguists must be hired to write manuals or modules that suits the needs of the young minds of grade-schoolers in public schools. There’s no need to dilly-dally this particular project. Grammar books in various Mother Tongues should also be written now for use in teaching the Mother Tongue as subject also in all school levels in accordance with its predominance in different regions of the country.

Educator in the entire country must act now as well to ensure that the Multi-Lingual Based Education could start implementing next year whenever possible. The positive survey results on using the Mother Tongue as medium of instruction are more than enough to inspired and persuade our current Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luisitro to support this new measure for the good of our grader students. Blocking this radical change in our education system by any subtle or esoteric means is tantamount to ignoring the demand for the more practical way of teaching our school children in the language they inherently learned from their parents and forebears.

In fact this discovery is also adoptable and applicable to all private schools nationwide. Not only in the grade schools but also in high school and college levels. Meaning our respective Mother Tongues as one of the medium of instructions, being additional subjects in schools and universities is imperative in improving and enhancing our local languages among its speakers and writers and in our individual communication towards our fellow provincemates.To boot, I have been observing that some local speakers in the Cebuano language could not even construct correct sentences in their own Mother Tongue. I think, my observation is also true to native speakers of other languages of other groups of Filipinos in the country.

Consider the English language, which is now accepted universally as the international language by every industrialized and non-industrialized nations, due to the constant use of this medium among speakers, the English language is so much alive and growing from years to years.

If you are a reader of this medium, you can perceive the various ways of expressing an idea or ideas in this living medium among writers in this language. Read the works of great writers and you will see and notice how they wave their words into lively and spirited sentences and dialogues, picturing even some scenes that will transport your imagination into the frontiers of reality.

Try also to read the works of well-known Filipino writers in English like Karina Polutan,Simon Dumdum,Jr.,Jose Garcia Villa,Gregorio Brilliantes,Nick Joaquin also known as Quijano de Manila,Teodoro Locsin,Jr.,works of Filipino essayists/novelists,Edilberto Tiempo who hails from Southern Leyte,Editha Tiempo,his wife; Og Mandino,Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Graham Green, Guy de Mapaussant,Nathaniel Hawthorne,Willam Wardsworth Longfellow, among other American, British and Filipino writers and poets.

Their kind of writings is the strong proof that it is only by patronizing, nurturing and constantly using our respective languages or Mother Tongues in the country and to make it as additional subject in all school levels that we can improve it, sustain it, cherish it and intellectualize it. This is actually what the English speakers and writers are constantly and persistently doing .Equally, this instinctive act is what the English and Tagalog writers and speakers are dong as well.

If the English language and the Tagalog language were and are used as other subjects in all school levels from generations to generations now, why can’t our respective Mother Tongues also? Like the Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, Bicolano, Ilocano, Pampango, Pangasinese, Ibanag and among other languages in the entire archipelago.

If the Tagalog-speaking people in Luzon island have the right to make their language as subject in all schools up to college, why can’t ours also? If they have this right or privilege, then as Filipinos like them with diverse cultures, we also have our right to make our predominant languages in the whole Philippines as subject in regions where these languages are prevalent or prevailing. We have to accept the reality that Filipinos are of diverse cultures and that each group of Filipinos should and must respect and treat each other’s languages with equality and fairness, and no one language should dominate us. Our educators throughout the country who have the influence must exert our rights on this regard since our respective languages is our cultures and our identities.”Without our language”, Iceland Presidential Adviser Ornolfo Thorsson reminds us, “we have no culture, we have no identity and we are nothing”. Another linguistics teacher, Kenneth Hale stressed:”When we lose a language we lose a culture, an intellectual wealth, a work of art”. Shall our educators in this nation of diverse cultures would allow this to happen? Will any group of Filipinos allow his own inherent language to vanish in the air just like a steam? We must use our respective languages always in our speaking and in writing towards our fellow provincemates.Why should we talk or write in Tagalog towards our fellow provincemates when we have our own inherent languages under our command? We should only use Tagalog to other group of Filipinos who cannot understand our own language. But if they can also understand Cebuano, then talk to them in Cebuano. If your language is Ilocano and the other group of Filipinos you have met can understand Ilocano, then talk to them also in Ilocano. That is not bad at all. This is the correct and proper way to patronize, promote and cherish our respective languages in the Philippines. To the educated Filipinos, we can also talk to them in the English language. Every educated Filipinos should have the English Language as their second language, because it is a universal language and they must know how to write and speak in this language.

Avoiding speaking in other language like Tagalog, does not intellectually mean that we deride this language. That’s a Big No, my friend. It’s far from it. Remember that the suggestion that I’m proposing herein is a positive reaction to Sir Nolasco’s above-mentioned article concerning the importance of using the Mother Tongue as the medium of instruction in the grade schools in every region of this diverse cultures’ country which is not demandingly encompassing, unlike the Tagalog. Our intention for such kind of implementation is only by regions. This is base only in Cebuano-speaking people, Ilocano-speaking people, Bicolano-speaking people, Waray-Waray- speaking people, the Hiligaynon-speaking people, Manobo-speaking people, the Ibanag-speaking people and the like. Unlike the teaching of the Tagalog language as subject is demandingly encompassing. Like your language, we and other groups of Filipinos, want also that our respective Mother Tongues be made into as subjects in schools. I repeat, the suggestion here exclude the Tagalog-speaking regions in Luzon. Similarly, this is also with the purpose of making our respective peoples to learn to improve and enhance the use of our respective languages in speaking and in writing like what I have said earlier in this article. The Tagalog people have greatly improved already in their use of theTagalog language and we want also to achieve the same thing with ours. Likewise, we should read materials (articles, news stories, features, commentaries, poems, short stories, novels) written in our respective Mother Tongues. This is aside from reading English and Tagalog works. Similarly, we are also strongly encouraging writers in various tongues (languages)in the country to write materials written in their respective Mother Tongues so that diverse groups of Filipinos can have some works/materials to read for pleasure, information and entertainment.

On the same vein, any setting Education Secretary should likewise respect this inherent desire of other groups of Filipinos and should avoid any step that would block the implementation of our respective Mother Tongues as subjects in all levels in schools from the primary up to college. I repeat, Grammar books should also be written now by writers in our various respective Mother Tongues for use in schools as subject-from the elementary, high school and up to the college level.

A law should also be enacted in Congress that would prohibit/disallow any setting President of the Republic, Education Secretary or any high government official of whatever position to abolish or phase out such a law in the aforesaid approach of our Education System.

The immediate implementation of Mother Tongues as medium of instruction in all gradeschoolers in the country as provided in our Constitution thru Mother Tongue Multilingual Education must be enforced as early as possible.

Reiterately, the positive results of the surveys conducted in various pilot schools in the country on Mother Tongue as the medium of instruction should serve as the foundation to build our intense desire to make this approach into a reality.

The realization of this collective objective should be indefinitely sustained and maintained by our educators in the country who have possessed and equally love and cherish their own distinct languages. And that the teaching of Mother Tongue as additional subject in all school levels-from the primary up to college should perpetuate from generations to generations of Filipino learners and students akin to that of the English and Tagalog subjects that have gained a foothold in our Education System. (Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)

LGU-San Ricardo Requests SP To Enjoin PCG To Speed Up Salvage Operation For Sunken Ship

Feb. 11,2011

LGU-San Ricardo Requests SP To Enjoin PCG To Speed Up Salvage Operation For Sunken Ship

By Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-The Local Government Unit of San Ricardo town of this province has requested the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to enjoin the Philippine Coast Guard to speed up salvage operation of an abandoned sunken ship near the roro port in brgy.Benit.

An LGU resolution stated that the passenger ferryboat Ocean King sold to Navotas-based Salvor has posed navigational hazard to any ship or boat that might dock in Benit port, which is part of Surigao Deep.

During the fourth quarter of last year an extremely inclement weather bringing strong winds has affected the surrounding seas of Surigao facing the Pacific Ocean, resulting to continuous lashing of huge waves, has capsized the aforesaid passenger boat as it approached the port, according to our source.

Another witness had said that the regular route of Ocean King was Lipata to Liloan port. Because of the habagat wind (northeastern monsoon) the sea facing the Pacific Ocean became very rough and huge waves were lashing the big boat, oscillating from side to side. Its skipper tried to have an emergency landing at Benit port in San Ricardo. However, the huge waves continued to strike the boat until the weigh of several loaded vehicles have caused the fastened large ropes to give way, and the vehicles skidded to the other side, thus causing an imbalance and it sunk.

SP Abelardo Almario of District Two of which Panaon Island is under his jurisdiction, disclosed there were no reported casualties, except that the derelict ship has remained at the bottom of the sea, until their recent session at the provincial capitol.

On of the reasons for the request of speeding up the recovery of the ill-fated Ocean King is that another Cebu-based shipping company called Montenegro Shipping Lines is interested to ply its passenger boat on a Benit-Lipata,Surigao route and vice versa. Ocean King was the ferry boat used by GMA and her entourage of high government officials during the inauguration of the Benit Port during the first week of April 2009.

The shipping company has requested the assistance of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to urge MARINA to act favorably on its application to operate in the area. This is to serve travelers from Surigao and other parts of Mindanao in reaching the province thru the Benit port in Panaon Island.

SP Florentino Fernandez, Chair Committee on Public Utilities, told his colleagues during a weekly session that the issuance of Certificate of Public Convenience by MARINA is for the benefit of travelers and traders from Southern Leyte to Mindanao and vice versa. Although PPA-Tacloban has already endorsed MSL’s application for MARINA’s approval.

“Lipata is the logical link to San Ricardo in Panaon Island which is facing Surigao province and the most practical and beneficial route between the two places”, he said.

With the disappearance of the mode of transportation between Benit and Lipata ports, Fernandez said, the former’s port has become ungainly meaningless and a waste of public funds. The funds for the construction of Benit roro port amounted to P120M, according to Vice-Governor Miguel Maamo, 11, in an interview in April 2009 at the provincial capitol after its inauguration.

He claimed that “it is the policy of the government that a healthy competition among the ship owners that would apply the aforesaid route would redound to the benefit of the travelling public”.

The approval of the LGU’s request was moved by Fernandez and was jointly seconded by SPs Albert Esclamado and Sarah Dampog, ex-officio member, PCL-President, Southern Leyte Federation.

A staff of the SP Secretariat has said that the request-resolution was already mailed to MARINA-7 in Cebu.The Sangguniang Panlalawigan was still waiting for the latter’s response.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)

Systems Technology Institute(STI)-Maasin,

4th Floor, Zialcita-Oppus Bldg.,

Above Mercury Drug, Maasin City, Southern Leyte.

Courses Offer: Information Technology, Computer and

Electronic Technology, Hotel and Restaurant Services,

Travel and Tourism. For more information call telephone

Number (053) 381-3744.

Aqua Health Alkaline Ionized Water

No. 043 R K. Kangleon St., Mantahan,

Maasin City, So.Leyte.Contact no.(053)381-5555;

0999-5815555; 0915-8762555.

Website For Cebuano Song And Lyrics Needed

Feb.11,2011

Website For Cebuano Songs And Lyrics Needed
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.

Do our Cebuano/Visayan musicians, composers, singers and music lovers aware of the pitiful situation that in the internet there’s no active website for all kinds of Cebuano/Visayan songs and lyrics of the past and present? But the Tagalog people of similar fascination and inclination in music and songs have their various websites accessible in the internet for all kinds of Tagalog songs. The Americans, British, Australians and other white men who are equally great musicians and singers and composers have theirs in plentiful in the internet. You can ask for the songs or the lyrics of your favorite singers or bands by typing inside the box being provided for your search. Mostly, you can get what lyrics or songs you want.
Personality backgrounds of your favorite singers or bands are also made available by typing their specific names prior to clicking the search menu. Can we do the same thing if we want to know the songs and backgrounds of our Cebuano/Visayan singers, whose songs we have been listening in the past years? No, we can’t! And no lyrics either.
On the other hand, we are fond of singing numerous Tagalog and English songs, but we can rarely sing our very own indigenous song compositions.Why? Mainly because lyrics of these Cebuano/Visayan songs that we used to sing in the past have been forgotten. And we have no immediate guide to re-learn its wordings and tunes since there’s no proper venue to get it.
The availability of Cebuano or Visayan songs in record stores particularly in small places are only a various collection album commonly one or two kind. Names of singers in each selected song were not even mentioned. Most music lovers, particularly the young, know the singers of the songs that they’ve sang, whether English or Tagalog. Ironically, when it comes to local talents, they hardly know anybody. Except Max Surban and Yoyoy Villame whose antics and humorous songs tickled their senses. But rarely, if they ever knew of Jaime Salazar’s antics and funny songs that will also equally tickle their senses.
But for Visayan singers of standard love songs and ballads, the young .generation of music lovers or even some old ones, could hardly mention some local singers. Why can’t we have a display of individual albums of various popular Cebuano singers, among others, like that of Taks Suguete,Al Commendador, Sergs De La Peña,Pauline Sevilla,Nora Hermosa, Carmen Camancho,Jaime Salazar,Dos Compadres, Diomedes Maturan,Pelita Corrales, Nora Aunor’s original English songs, Victor Wood,Dulce de Amor,Gina Morales, the young popular Cebuano singers of the 1970s, l980s,1990s and the current popular singers. What I’ve mentioned here are the singers of yesteryears favorite Cebuano songs. Theirs are the songs that we want to have it heard always from time to time. Its compositions of songs are irreplaceable and timeless. If the songs of these singers were pleasant to hear in the past, the same kind of pleasantness has remained until this very day. The taste in its melodies will not dissipate. Songs are ageless-whether it is Cebuano, Tagalog, English, Ilocano, Bicolano, Waray-waray, Hiligaynon, or other regional songs in the Philippines. As a music lover myself since my childhood days, I still love to listen now to some songs that I heard in those days, whether it be Cebuano, English or Tagalog.
If concerned Cebuano musicians and composers lack the influence in convincing the recording companies in Metro Manila to make Cebuano/Visayan songs be made available in individual albums of the past popular Cebuano singers, then it would be much better that people in the music industry in the Visayas and Mindanao should join hands in establishing our very own recording companies in Cebu City, Mandaue City, Davao City, Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City,.Ozamis City,Bohol and in Dumaguete City.. Like what the Tagalogs and the English people are doing to promote their various countless songs in albums, we in the Cebuano-speaking regions should also patronize our very own songs by buying it and playing them regularly in all radio stations in the Visayas and Mindanao side by side with Tagalog and English songs. Our discs jockeys, particularly FM stations have a great role in this kind of musical promotion to achieve success, including our AM radio stations.
Again musicians and composers should start educating and informing our young generation of music lovers by exposing them to Cebuano songs and music thru the FM and AM stations in the Visayas and Mindanao. It would be too strange and ridiculous if we can easily sing Tagalog and English songs but find it hard to sing our very own native songs. We must remember that our original Cebuano song compositions are not inferior to English and Tagalog if we want a comparison. Even the adaptation songs of Jaime Salazar, Pauline Sevilla and other Cebuano singers for instance, are also pleasant to listen to. Theirs should be played side by side on the airlanes with the bisrock’s new raw, crude and seductive Cebuano lyrics composed by the current breed of amateur Visayan composers who still need to learn from the professional composers.
The only thing that varies is the creation of tunes, melodies and the kind of wordings use by the composers to fit for the tunes of such songs. For a fact, some of our Visayan songs have a national and international appeal, the reason why some Cebuano songs’ tunes were adopted by some Tagalog composers with Tagalog lyrics. Example: “Kasadya Ning Taknaa”,(Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit); “Sa Kabukiran”(The same title for Tagalog song) and other Cebuano songs. Our “Matod Nila” song composed and sang by Ben Zubiri is being sang by many Ilocanos.When I asked an Ilocano while I was living in Metro Manila during the past years, he said that he was so fascinated by its melody even though he do not understands the wordings. And a Tagalog composer who obviously likes it too has adapted the Matod Nila’s tune and wrote Tagalog lyrics. It was sung by Sharon Cuneta.
As I have said earlier,Cebuano songs comprising the classical love and ballad songs, some antic songs and even various adaptations songs of the past popular and current Visayan singers must be given equally ample time to be played in a round-robin scheduling. This will give every Cebuano song be heard regularly for recognition via regular playing of various songs in all FM and AM stations in all Cebuano-speaking regions. By letting Cebuano songs available in all recording companies and by playing regularly throughout the whole year side by side with English and Tagalog.The inculcation of our kind of music to our old and young generations of music lovers must be pursued until it will reach the climax of appreciation to the very hearts and souls of every Cebuano-speaking Filipinos.
The consideration of this noble idea must be put into practice now by those who have the means and the capability to execute this remedial measure. The realization of our objective is that Cebuano songs be elevated onto the pedestal of recognition and appreciation equal to what the Tagalog and English songs have achieved in the hearts of young and old Filipino music lovers. We have to sustain, cherish, nurture and patronize our songs written in our respective mother tongues in order to achieve a strong multicultural foundation in our Philippine archipelago as our distinct identity as Filipinos.
The plight of Cebuano songs and lyrics under the perspective of internet links,
is similarly applicable to that of the Waray-Waray songs and lyrics which also
needs a website availability to cater to its internet-user music lovers in some areas of
Leyte and Samar Islands. Waray-Waray is the predominant language in most of the municipalities of Samar and Leyte Islands with Cebuano as the second language.
WE hope that there are music lovers in Cebu City, Mandaue City, Davao City, Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City, Ozamis City, Tagbilaran City, Dumaguete City and other places in the Visayas and Mindanao who are literate in computer programming or B.S. Information Technology graduates who will build websites in areas that I have mentioned for this purpose. (Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)

Mandatory Implementation Of Alternative Fuels Will Gradually Reverse Climate Change

Feb. 11,2011

Mandatory Implementation Of Alternative Fuels Will Gradually Reverse Climate Change

By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr

The unabated rising prices of crude oil and other petroleum products in the international market is now unbearable to the millions of Filipinos, rich and poor. Its influential power of creating a chain reaction of prices in all prime commodities and manufactured goods in the market and stores are irresistible to businessmen who do not want to be left behind by their counterparts in business and escalate as well the prices of all their products. With the spiraling increase in prices of all kinds of consumable goods, the poor and the rich alike are feeling the bitterness of coping with their daily needs. Those who have very low income Filipinos have forced themselves to refrain from buying other household needs, which decades ago were also affordable to them. They reduced their consumption of some goods so that they can still buy something they need for the next two or three days. That’s why the entire Filipinos are suffering because of our overdependence on gasoline and crude oil. The Philippine government is spending millions and millions of pesos yearly on gasoline and other oil products for vehicles and factories.

Because of our current hardships and economic miseries our government must not remain callous and insensitive to act. Members of both the Lower and the Upper House must muster their political will to hasten the approval of a House Bill aim at making mandatory for all operators and drivers nationwide to use the Compressed Natural Gas(CNG)to run the vehicles and factories. The aforesaid HB was co-authored by House energy committee chairman Mikey Arroyo of Pampanga and Parañaque City Representative Eduardo Zialcita. With the immediate implementation of this economic measure, our country can do away with being overdependence on imported fossil fuels, which greatly contribute to the heavy pollution in our big cities and the environment. When this goal would be realized, the Philippines can have a huge reduction on fuel expenditures and its unabated heavy pollution in big metropolis where all types of utilities and factories abound would be greatly reduced.

Since we have no vehicles and cars suitable for the utilization of Compressed Natural Gas, big financing institutions should come to rescue and help the government to buy the needed vehicles in places like the USA,Canada,India,China and in other countries where vehicles design for compressed natural gas fuel are being manufactured. The Malampaya-Palawan oil and gas fields in the country must be mined now and tap other potential oil and gas fields in various places of our nation to sustain our fuel needs. On the other hand, our big capitalists who choose to be consignees in this kind of business should not be tempted in the near future to mix compressed natural gas with crude oil like we have in all gasoline stations throughout the country, called kerosene by other name.

The mixture of two elements, we’ve just mentioned, like we are buying at gas station, especially if there is a blackout, will surely result to additional pollution in all our areas. The additional pollution due to crude oil mixture with the natural gas is very evident by the soots gathered inside our noses the night before when we resort to kerosene use as temporary substitute for the absence of electric power. Have you not observe that in your home, especially in the households of poor Filipinos? In contrast, unadulterated natural gas, if there’s a detection of any soot, is so insignificantly negligible to consider as pollution. Some of emission of kerosene (a mixture of natural gas and crude oil) put inside the lamps would also pollute our rooms the following day, if you have observed that as well. This means that if in the near future some tricky and hoarding businessmen would be tempted to do this deplorable thing, the pollution in our environment would re-emerged. Hence, there’s an urgent necessity to screen the attitude of businessmen/capitalists who would like to participate in the Government’s venture in this kind of undertaking where the issue on environment-friendly fuel is at stake.

Considering this probable prediction of the money-oriented rather than service-oriented attitude of some businessmen to rake huge profit in the name of mixture elements, the House Bill must include as one of its provisions prohibiting any capitalist/consignee to mix CNG with crude oil. A monitoring task force must be created that would include as members the Energy Committee Chairman, energy official and some honest and prudent NGO environmentalists for the purpose of monitoring and regular checking of CNG’s natural content before dispensing the fuel for private and public use. Those businessmen who would violate the law must be slapped with huge fine and imprisonment. We seriously need honest and prudent investors/capitalists in the strict application of such law in order to achieve our goal to greatly reduced our environmental pollution which make adults and children in this country suffer from illness and eventual death to countless of lives. According to reports pollution also causes chronic coughing in millions of children across the globe.

Other alternative fuel or energy that has been tapped to provide electricity and run vehicles is the solar energy. It has already been experimented and found to be feasibly usable and suitably applicable in running vehicles and providing electricity in numerous households in the country. It’s a free source of limitless energy and is non-pollutant: one of the greatest gifts from Mother Nature that remain untapped for centuries by man. The emergence of Great Minds in the field of Science and Technology are responsible for a huge leap in inventions and discoveries that have provided man his amenities including some of his needs in life more obtainable than before. We can also use electricity to run jeepneys and buses, which is also pollution-free. Makati’s current use of electric jeepneys plying in various areas of the city, which is much lesser in fuel expenses for the drivers and operators compared to gasoline and crude oil, is very encouraging and worthy of emulation for other cities and provinces. The experiments that our scientists, technical men and the experts have been doing are enough proof that the Philippine Government has the capability and the capacity to relentlessly pursue on these projects. A huge budget proportionate enough for its continual implementation must be made now for its effective realization.

The two alternative sources of fuel and energy that we are discussing are sure ways that will eventually release us from our overdependence on gasoline and crude oil which is now very prohibitive to obtain.

Global warming (the root cause of climate change) caused by unregulated heavy environmental pollution, which also damaged the ozone layer according to the scientists, is not only a Philippine concern and problem. It is also a concern and a problem of every country, every nation throughout the world, whether the industrialized or the developing because we breathe the same air and we live in the same planet. Therefore, it is of urgent necessity that all the nations and other countries of the world, including the United States of America, China, England, Australia, India, Russia, Japan, European countries, UK and Germany should also shift to alternative fuel like Compressed Natural Gas, solar energy to run their vehicles, cars and factories, biofuel or biomass, deuterium in order to achieve the highest degree of pollution reduction in our Planet Earth.

To those countries whose climate condition is similar to the Philippines, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Hartmut Michel during his recent visit to Manila has also advised its respective governments to tap wind power and hydro power that are environment-friendly to generate electricity

Series Of Rollback

Although nowadays the prices of crude oil and gasoline have greatly reduced after a series of rollback, but this ups and downs in pricing activities of the fossil fuels cannot be relied upon by the users and consumers. These kind of dirty fuels have no permanently sustainable pricing movement. It is dependently influence by the law of supply and demand in the international market. The preoccupation of self-interest capitalists/investors who mostly want to rake huge profit in this kind of business undertaking is also something to be considered as contributory factor in the unpredictable and volatile pricing scheme hike.

Hence, our businessmen and the government must not be callously complacent if there are days when crude oil, gasoline and other oil products will have decreased prices. The government must start implementing now the laws on Biofuel act of 2006 and the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 to tap and develop nature’s renewable energy resources that are readily available in our very own environment and are ecology-friendly.

The plan of the government to recommission or revive the 30-year-old Bataan Nuclear Power Plant must be debunked. It was found out by a team of Scientists and Engineers that it has numerous defects in its construction, among other defects, which pose as health hazard detrimental and harmful to the health and welfare of the people and equally destructive to the immediate environment.

Our high government officials, like Congressmen ,Senators,Scientists,Engineers,Technical men,The Experts, Educators and other concerned leaders should take heed seriously to what UP Professor Roland G. Simbulan was saying in his commentary article entitled “Is The BNPP Safe?”(PDI, Feb. 5, 2009 issue)

And that of Rina Jimenez-David’s “Anti-Nuclear and Pro-Life” (PDI, Feb. 24, 2009 issue) on the danger of reopening the defective BNPP as energy source. Who has initiated this plan? Why do we have to disrupt our thinking with such kind of energy which produces radioactive wastes harmful to humanity and our already heavily polluted environment? Another kind of potential and unprecedented radioactive disaster will only add to the worsening of our already worst environmental condition.

Common sense of wisdom and political will, unblemished with a sinister and wily scheme of acquiring more wealth thru greediness and self-centeredness, are the only 2 important things that our leaders really need to push thru in the realization, acquisition and the sustainable utilization of nature’s renewable energy resources that abound and are readily available in our environment. Like solar energy, hydropower (waterfalls), wind energy, biofuel from jatropha oil, coconut oil, corn, ethanol from sugar cane, biomass and reportedly a vast limitless deposits of deuterium lying in hibernation under the Surigao Deep also known as the Philippine Deep is waiting to be tapped.( Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)

Please Help Me If You Can

Feb. 8,2011

Please, Help Me If You Can

By Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.

I am calling on my relatives, both father and mother sides, particularly those who have the means and the capacity to help a poor relative. If only I have my own dwelling, I could have refrained myself from asking some sort of assistance from my kith and kin. However, I have been renting a house for the past 20 years now since I started to live independently away from any siblings’ reliance. Our parents have already passed away many years ago. Because of poverty, some of my siblings were not even able to finish high school education. We have separated from each other earlier than most instances that happened to a poor family. It was only thru my initiative efforts that I was able to study in high school as a working student in ICC (now De La Salle University) in Ozamis City, Misamis Occidental where my siblings and I grew up.

I was able to take up journalism when I decided to go to Metro Manila where I worked in the past and stayed there for several years. But when I lost my job I was forced to stop my study. My experiences of acquiring some commonly manual works including two private companies where I happened to work did not make me well enough to live a much better life than when I was still young. The little progress in my life did not serve well to materialize my desire to own a house until now.

If only there would be an existing housing projects initiated by the Government exclusively for the poor Filipinos who are houseless that could be owned thru affordably low monetary monthly payment for the period of ten years, I could have my own house and lot now. But there is none that exist here and I’m still renting and always moving from one house to another like a migratory bird.

It would be taxing to always be renting. My little savings would usually be used mainly for a monthly rental. It seems that houseless people are always struggling everyday to be able to pay one’s monthly obligations to their landlords/landladies. If you happen to live in a boarding house owned by a non-compassionate landlord or landlady, chances are you will be ordered to leave the house and look for another boarding house. But how can you look for another lodging house, when in the first place you were not able to pay your preceding rental obligation? You see! This is the common fate that would happen in some occasions to some boarders who have no immediate funds to pay for their house rents. It would be hard indeed and hurtful for those who have undergone such experiences.

The housing projects that I know available are only for those government workers who have contributed to PAGIBIG fund. How about those who are not government workers and have no money to contribute regularly for 20 years at least as requirement for possible acquisition of PAG-IBG-sponsored housing units? The poor have none of this kind.

We are calling on the present Administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino,111 and to the succeeding Presidency to please consider for the establishing of another kind of government-sponsored housing projects exclusively constructed for houseless poor Filipinos who have no house of their own, but continue to live under the dictation and mercy of their respective landladies or landlords who imposed monthly rentals according to their satisfying wishes.

I’m not talking about the housing projects under the supervision of the so-called Urban Poor. It seems that these so-called Urban Poor dwellings -approach did not really cater to those who are indeed poor. I heard stories that most of these so-called “Urban Poor” are not really poor people. Unofficial reports have it that they were the first to gain an acquisition of housing units, because they have the means to pay much quickly than the poor ones. How true is this?

Indeed, there’s really the need to construct in every province of the country housing units, exclusively for the genuine poor. Genuine poor refers those who have only a little income, but did not own houses of their own and continue paying their monthly rentals for many years already. Another Chairman of this kind of housing projects is needed for him to focus on the task of surveying the genuine poor anchor on the premise that these poor Filipinos are houseless and continue to pay monthly renting for their respective dwellings.

Vie-President Jejomar Binay’s Chairmanship of Pag-ibig –sponsored housing projects should be his focus so that this kind of projects he’s tasked to do would be effectively implemented, with similar expectations to that of the Chairmanship’s in the housing units for the genuine poor Filipinos in all provinces of the archipelago.

I hope that officials appointed by the new President to the housing committee will be able to read this article in the internet and will be moved with altruistic concern. That a compassionate concern would drive the Chairman Committee on Housing projects and its members in Congress for the millions of poor Filipinos to act with dispatch. And that plans for the approach of truly helping the millions of poor Filipinos will be realized in the near future.

Nevertheless, on my personal side, it’s too long years for me to wait. But my abovementioned idea is worth implementing for the Aquino Administration to start the planning now for the welfare and benefit of millions of poor houseless Filipinos who I am specifying categorically here in this piece. We, the millions of us poor Filipinos are hoping the government will bail us out soon from our predicament and plight.

On my part, I have been struggling for more than 20 years now of monthly renting from different boarding houses that I happened to live in different places. And I think that this duration is quite long enough for my endurance to suffer from such kind of struggle. I hope that a well-off relatives or relative who has owned a big lot would be kind enough to share a part of his/her land for constructing a house that could accommodate 6 to 7 persons. It would be good if there would be a portion of his lot also which I could plant some vegetables for family consumption and could also plant some fruit trees so that I would not be buying always vegetables and fruits in the public market.

Here are the marks to show to which I am related by blood on both sides of my father and my mother. My maternal grandmother is Marcela Almendras (deceased) whose roots are from Ilocos Norte. My maternal great grandfather is Pastor Almendras (deceased) who hails from Laoag, Ilocos Norte. My mother Lourdes Almendras Monte de Ramos (deceased) was born in Southern Leyte province. My maternal grandfather is Tomas C. Monte de Ramos (deceased) of Southern Leyte. All I know about my grandfather’s lineage is that the Monte de Ramos clan originally settled in barangay Nasaug, Maasin City, Southern Leyte. Some of them have migrated to other places in the province and even some have moved to settle in Mindanao. I have also three or four first cousins who are now living in various areas in Mindanao to look for a greener pasture.

Nonetheless, our great greatgrandfather who bears the family name of Monte de Ramos hails from the province of Negros Oriental. He migrated to Southern Leyte and got married here. Some of his siblings chose to settle in Mindanao. His progeny got married and their children have multiplied. That’s why there are so many Monte de Ramoses in Southern Leyte.

On the other hand, my paternal grandfather is Agapito Gorpido (deceased) of Pambujan, Northern Samar. My paternal grandmother is Eugenio Siervo (deceased) also of Pambujan, Northern Samar. My father is Quirico Siervo Gorpido, Sr.(deceased). I also know that there are some Siervos living in the province of Negros Oriental .With this information that I’ve got somewhere, I have the perception that these Siervos have the highest possibility that they belong to only one tree that the Siervos in Northern Samar have progenically belonged.

With my aforementioned family backgrounds my kith and kin who happen to read this article can now easily identify themselves definitely with me who needs their compassionate help. I hope that some of my distinguished relatives or relative who has the capacity to offer help will have the great interest to extend his/her generous help in sharing part of his/her large lot that I can own. And where a proposed house can be constructed and that I can plant also some vegetable and some fruit trees for family consumption. In this way I will not be buying always at the public market for such things. Similarly, I can have my own permanent residence and that no one will be driving me out anymore because I have no available money to pay for my monthly rent.

I hope that a kindhearted and generous relative who have the means to help me will be able to read my piece in the internet and will readily contact me thru my email address here in my blog (click About Me piece above the template’s interface).I’ll be waiting for your help.

I’ll reiterate, I hope that some of my relatives, both mother side and father side, who are internet users will be able to read this piece in the internet and are or is interested to extend a compassionate generosity of sharing his/her portion of his/her big lot for a house construction where I could permanently live, and can also plant some vegetables and fruit trees for family consumption. I also hope that such kind of a relative or relatives with golden hearts can read this article in the internet. I hope. (Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)

The Revival Of The Spanish Language As Subject In Schools And colleges Is Favorable and Beneficial To Filipinos

Feb. 8,2011

The Revival Of The Spanish Language As Subject In All School Levels Is Beneficial And Favorable To Filipinos

B y Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.

The plan and the decision of the Department Of Education to revive the Spanish language as subject in all school levels-elementary, high school and college-is beneficial and favorable to Filipinos. Imparting to our forefathers the language of Spain during Her era of power is part of the good things that our colonizer was doing in the past. Aside from the constructions of big cathedrals in various part of the country including those in Ilocos Norte. Our forefathers have also acquired some traits that became useful which were integrated into our inherent culture.

Although it cannot be denied that some friars have committed atrocities against the Filipinos in general. However, we, the latter generations that did not experience any kind of good and evil done by the Spaniards during their almost 400 years of dominance and supremacy, should not concentrate only on the negative side of the Spanish colonization. We should give more weight on the good things that they have done to our country than their wrongdoings.

Though our forefathers could not forget some of their atrocities, we, who have only learned our past through reading history books, should be more forgiving in our present dealings with the latter breed and generations of the Spanish people.

Recalling an article entitled “Quezon’s Mexican Tour” by historian-writer and Ateneo professor Ambeth Ocampo, PDI, Oct. 13, 2010 issue, I’ve noticed that the very article that I was reading was a quote from the narration of the First Filipino Commonwealth President Manuel L.Quezon on his trip to Mexico in April 1947.

In his article, Quezon narrated how he was welcomed by the Mexican people, also a colony of Spain, and whose people speak the Spanish Language. Everywhere he went he was cheered. He was well-known to the people of México, not only as a representative of the Filipinos, but as the President as well.

He sincerely believed that because at that time majority of educated Filipinos can speak the Spanish language, he considered that, with a sense of history, the medium of our former colonizer has provided us and our country a linkage to all of the Latin-American countries. Nevertheless, what happened after several decades was the opposite: the educated Filipinos during the previous decades have decided to junk the Spanish language by abolishing it as a subject in all school levels.

This must be the reason why when I started studying in high school at the Immaculate Conception College in Ozamis City as a working student, we have no longer Spanish subject. But I was able to choose one of an “old’ soft-bond books on Spanish language mingled with other books in school during vacation period.

]

As one of the working students in high school (we were 25 working students at that time).Some of us would have to do some “repair” of many books whose covers were either loosen or destroyed by several years of usage by high school students who rented those books. Thus some old books that have duplication were given to us by our nun-supervisor Sister Mary Remedios.One of the “old” ones

was a book on Spanish grammar with some Spanish sentences translated into English. This was aside from other books like poems, short stories and a book of miscellaneous articles (written by various authors including that of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s) which I have taken from its file.

I have read those Spanish sentences and I did not know if I read it right. I read it verbally and just tried to instinctively pronounced any Spanish words according to my perception. I have read that book from time to time during my spare time. And I preferred to hear the sounds and its intonation the way Spanish speakers spoke this language, even though I do not understand most of what it means.

As a kid in the 1950s my maternal grandmother, obviously a Spanish mestiza by her looks spoke in Spanish in some occasions with her younger brother Jose, whose compound in Ozamis City was where we were living together with some cousins, uncles and aunts. I just have this deep penchant of the Spanish language despite of the fact that I could not comprehend most of its words and sentence constructions. I like to listen also to Spanish songs. What drives me to like the Spanish songs is that aside from its word pronounciation, the tunes and the melodies are fascinating and pleasing to my ears.

Occasionally, my mestiza grandmother, whose root is from Ilocos Norte, would have outburst her anger in the Spanish language. Since I could not understand the whole thing she was uttering, I just keep my silence. When she calmed down I would asked her what was the meaning of what she was saying in the Cebuano language. And that’s the only time that I would understand what she was bursting about.

Her younger brother Lolo Jose, however, talked less in the Spanish language. He would also translate some of what he said to me even without my asking.

Recently, a monthly religious magazine, an official organ of a well-known religious organization originating from the Philippines has included Spanish section in it. The articles contain are the fundamental doctrines of the Church that are solely based in the Holy Scriptures. This famous magazine that published both English and Tagalog articles are available in almost all libraries in major cities of the country like in Davao City, Cebu, Metro Manila, etc.Nonetheless, this magazine can also be borrowed from the members of the Church in various localities/districts in the country. Its religious articles are worth reading, especially for the true seekers of Truth.

The writer of the Spanish article is a Church’s Minister of the Gospel. He was a Filipino who writes in the English language as well. He was one of those Ministers of the Gospel chosen by the Church Administration to be assigned outside the Philippines. They took up lessons in the Spanish language to prepare themselves for a foreign mission in the Latin-American countries, like Brazil, Mexico, Spain, etc. With their newly-acquired knowledge, they become proficient in speaking the Spanish language which makes them easy to communicate with the people in the Latin-American continent. Mastering the Spanish grammar, its syntax and sentences constructions, this Minister of the Gospel can now write and speak in the Spanish language with ease. Students of the Spanish Language can add this religious magazine as another material for reading in the Spanish language.

Again, reviving the Spanish language as subject in all school levels is good, beneficial and favorable to the Filipinos who want to become multi-lingual speakers. Being multi-lingual speakers have a great edge over/against the other nationalities who only want to speak in their own languages.

It is also an added boost to the competitiveness among Filipino Professionals who want to seek jobs and work/serve in other countries of the world. Speakers in the Spanish language always fascinate my senses, particularly those Spanish songs (solos and duets) that are now rarely played on the airwaves.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)