Doing something good

(This column appears in today's edition of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express)

Hi there! It’s a new week. And we are a month away to the Calbayog City fiesta. Nope, I was not thinking of “The Sound of Music” when I came up with today’s title. That’s what came to mind when I decided to devote today’s column to the Bahandi Samarnon Awards held recently at Christ the King College.

And my take on the recent (news) developments? So Koko is set for his oath as the new member of the Senate, or so said some news reports. Welcome to the club who are enthusiasts of everything investigatory. Oops, me and mouth!

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The Bahandi Samarnon Awards. A good number of the members of the Gomez family were at the Frs. David and Leopold Auditorium at Christ the King College last Friday. They were on hand for the 1^st Bahandi Samarnon Award.

The award committee headed by Dr. Francie Santos identified the late maestro Jose Gomez as the first recipient of the award. Jobart Gomez, a grandson of Jose Gomez was delivered the acceptance speech. I’ll feature that speech in this column next week.

In her welcome message, Dr. Santos informed the guests that the award aims to acknowledge the sons and daughters of Samar who have excelled in the field of the arts; and later, there will also be recognition for other fields.

Seen at the event were Fr. Marcelo Tubac, ofm, Mrs. Edita Paculan, Agueda and Intoy Chan, Pio Santos, Jerry Perol (of Metrobank Calbayog), Chat Gonzaga, among others. Also present was Fr. Marlowe Rosales, ofm who conducted the CKC Youth Symphony Orchestra who performed some Jose Gomez pieces.

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Mayor Aquino was invited to deliver a message during the Awarding Ceremony. However an equally important engagement prevented him from making it to Calbayog in time for the program. He requested me to read his message parts of which I would like to share with you today:

“…the Franciscan community should be commended for this worthy but challenging undertaking. Achievement Awards are so many that it runs the risk of being a commonplace. But in this case, in the case of the Bahandi Samarnon Awards, it is nice to note to have a group of Samarnon acknowledge the achievements of their fellow Samarnon. It should not take outsiders to acknowledge what good there is that is being done in Samar. It should not take outsiders to acknowledge what great achievers, what great people there are in Samar. Before we look far and wide, let us look upon ourselves for examples worthy of emulation. There should be so many of them just lurking around.”

“Now a question: Where can this Award find its significance? In this world characterized by political bickering, economic difficulties and what have you, don’t you think we should be looking at how we can help alleviate or reduce the incidence of poverty, maintain peace and order and provide decent jobs to our fellowmen? And let us not even start discussing about caring for the environment. That almost sorry scenario is exactly where this Bahandi Samarnon Award will find its significance. This is exactly where this activity finds its proper place. This ceremony calls for us to be able to do something good; or at least to manifest our ability to do something good out of the dire conditions. This is manifested by the life of the first awardee which the award committee has selected for tonight. He serves as both an inspiration and a call to action.”

“Jose Cinco Gomez. No need to recall details about his life. No need to memorize the titles of his works. The name speaks for itself. But then, knowing his name and his person is not enough to honor to the man who has contributed much to the development of music in Samar.”

“It is proper that we honor Jose Gomez. It is proper that we respect the works of Jose Gomez. But after taking a close look at the life story of this man, he deserves more than just us memorizing the lyrics of “Calbayog”; more than just us tapping to the vibrant beat of “Kamote”; and more than just us being familiar with lively tunes of his Samareno folk songs. The life and times and the works of Jose Gomez tell us two things: to be proud of our heritage; and to cultivate the hero in each of us. The times might have changed, but the call for us to be of service to our fellowmen and to be good sons and daughters of Samar remains. Like Jose Gomez, let us look beyond our mundane concerns in life. We have our own capabilities and abilities that can make a difference. Nobody among us is too small so as not to be able to do something for our beloved Samar.”

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Greetings: Happy Birthday Congressman Mel Sarmiento. He will turn a year older on Thursday.

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This is it for now. Let me give you something to think about this weekend. It’s from Plato: “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”

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Have a nice week everyone! Ciao!

On Jose Gomez and Christ the King College

(This column appears in today's edition of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express)

Hi there! It’s another weekend. And what do we have? Forget about Bedol and Garci. Surely Senator Migz is still the news. As expected, he got cheers and jeers for his decision. Well, what’s our world without them? Anyway, let’s wait what’s next for the upper chamber with Koko Pimentel, more investigations and what have you coming up.

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There will be a special event at Christ the King College today. It’s the Bahandi Samarnon Award. Conceptualized by the Franciscan community, the award is an undertaking guided by this vision:

“Guided by the Gospel values, the Bahandi Samarnon Award engenders a Christian community that celebrates humanity towards a better Samar.” The award has as its mission the commitment to honor Samarnons with noble contributions, inspiring and empowering the people of Samar especially the youth to selfless endeavors and developing sense of patriotism, thus recognizing component and ethical individuals who integrate faith, life and culture for the advancement of Samar. The first awardee to be honored (posthumously) is Jose Cinco Gomez. Here’s some info on the awardee as contained in the program flyers:

“On his centenary, Jose Cinco Gomez deserves a grateful celebration from his fellow Samarnons. The eldest among seven children, he was born on February 27, 1911. His parents were Mr. Licarion Gomez and Ms. Benigna Cinco.”

During World War II, he was one of those who fought for our freedom. As a result, his three sister were tortured and killed in Catarman, Northern Samar on March 7 – 9, 1944. He expressed his loss in a heart- breaking composition ‘In The Wink Of an Eye’. He also wrote 'An Kamote’ as that rootcrop saved many families from starvation during the war years.”

“Considered as one of the greatest composers of Samar folk music, he has written approximately 5,000 songs which he compiled in his ‘Shower of Musical Thoughts’.”

“Famous among his compositions is ‘Calbayog’, a song dedicated to his birthplace. It was written on August 5, 1955. Today, every Calbayognon proudly sing this composition after it was adopted as the local anthem of Calbayog City.”

Today’s awarding ceremony which will be held at 4:00 pm today at the Frs. David and Leopold Memorial Auditorium is a three-part affair. It begins with opening of the Exhibit on the Jose c. Gomez Memorabilia. The awarding proper will include performances by the Christ the King College Youth Symphony Orchestra. Speeches will be delivered by Dr. Francisca Santos (the Chair of the Bahandi Samarnon Award Committee), Mayor Ronaldo Aquino and CKC President Fr. Marcelo Tubac, ofm. A representative of the Gomez family will deliver an acceptance message. The event will be capped by a cocktail reception.

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Still with Christ the King College. Good news to my fellow Christi Regians. The venerable institution experienced higher enrolment rate this semester. I’ll give you details in my next column.

I recently received a copy of the Institutional Memorandum which Fr. Mar Tubac issued for the Christ the King College community. It’s the 10-point Road map towards formulating CKC Educational Life Project for School Year 2011-2013. There are many points worth noting in that road map. And I will be featuring these in my forthcoming columns. For a “teaser” let me give you points number one and number two:

1. “That the first challenge for the Franciscan education today is how to offer the youth with clarity, creativity and audacity a new framework of relations with God, humanity and ourselves.”
2. That Franciscan education is called to integrate in creation the following perspectives of the physical world: scientific, symbolic and religious. It offers a vision which makes it possible to understand the world not only as the natural place of human existence, but also as an expression of love, wisdom, power, greatness and beauty of God, a world in which it is possible to encounter god as the foundation, and our brothers and sisters, helping them feel welcomed and loved.”

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This is it for now. Let me leave you with something to think about this weekend. From Henry Ford: “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

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Have a nice weekend everyone! Ciao!

Beyond Earth Hour

(This column appears in today's edition of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express)

Hi there! It’s another weekend. First things first. The CKC-Jose Gomez Symphony Orchestra is a finalist in the Globe Campus Super Showdown. Please vote for the orchestra by texitng: CCSS CKC and send to 2948. Their final showdown with other Visayas finalists will be held on March 31, 2011 at the University of San Jose Recoletos campus.

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So tomorrow, the world or at least a good portion of it will be observing Earth Hour. And Calbayog will participate in the said event. Surely it is a noteworthy activity. An Earth Hour (EH) event in always news. By Sunday, it will all over the place. And many will take note about how many countries or cities participated in the event and how much energy was saved for one hour. And then, that’s it. We wait for the next EH event. I think it’s time that we go beyond just observing one hour of darkness. But, having that dark hour (on purpose) is a good start though.

And while we are into this event, I might as well repeat what I have always wrote in this column each time this event comes around. Power outages, or blackouts, or brownout are one of the (sad) realities in these islands which comprise Region 8. Now if one is to sum up the number of hours when we have dark nights or hot days because of just that – power failure, I think we have more than enough of our share of Earth Hours to last . . . a lifetime perhaps?. Oops, don’t take that seriously, just wanna make you smile this weekend.

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Golden Sacerdotal Anniversary Celebration. Rev. Fr. Antonio Guy Petilla celebrated his 50th Sacerdotal Anniversary last Friday. Calbayog Bishop Isabelo Abarquez, Catarman Bishop Emeritus Angel Hobayan and Infanta (Quezon) Bishop Rolando Tirona along with a good number of the Calbayog clergy concelebrated with Fr. Petilla during the Thanksgiving Mass at the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral. Liturgical Music was provided by the CKC-Jose Gomez Symphony Orchestra and the SVP Seminary Choir under the baton of Fr. Marlowe Rosales, ofm.

After the mass, a dinner reception was held at the Calbayog Convention and Cultural Center. Congressman Mel Sarmiento and Mayor Reynaldo Uy led the guest list which included some of Fr. Tony’s parishioners from the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Daly City, California. The dinner was capped by a presentation of Calbayog songs and dances courtesy of the CACO ISKOLARS, the Petilla Clan and the Calbayog clergy.

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Birthday Greetings. Belated greetings to Archbishop Jose Palma who turned a year older last Saturday.

Advanced greetings to Rolando Saplad Jr. will turn a year older tomorrow.

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Wedding Bells. Glenn Lagman and Angel Dira will get married tomorrow. Msgr. Bienvenido Chiquillo will preside over their wedding mass at the San Damiano Chapel at Christ the King College. Concelebrating with him are Msgr. Jun Cinco and Fr. Bloy Guiuan. Reception will be held at the Calbayog Convention and Cultural Center.

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A Parish Centennial Celebration. The folks at the Saint Vincent Ferrer of Tinambacan District are currently on their toes preparing for their forthcoming big event. The parish will turn 100 years old on May 11, 2011.

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Lastly, let me repeat my request (for globe subscribers). Please vote for the CKC-Jose Gomez Symphony Orchestra. Text: CCSS CKC and send to 2948.

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This is it for now. Have a nice weekend everyone! Ciao!