Adding some colorful distractions to the Visita Iglesia of Maundy Thursday

Note:  This photo essay  appeared in the 21-27 March 2014 issue of the FilAm Star, a weekly newspaper published in San Francisco, CA 'for Filipinos in mainstream America.' This blogger is the Special News/Photo Correspondent in the Philippines of the paper.

 

 

The Holy Week is a month away.  It’s time to prepare for the long vacation, which, my hometown experiences tell me, is capped by family and class reunions on Black Saturday after the religious rites of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

The folk rituals of Holy Week among Roman Catholics, local or Pinoys living in foreign soils, include visiting seven churches, a tradition called Visita Iglesia, on Maundy Thursday.  Many faithful go on excursions to neighboring towns in the provinces, so it’s not surprising to see jeeploads of city folks visiting churches in Laguna and Rizal, or Bulacan and Pampanga. 

I have not gone on a Visita Iglesia in all my life although I have visited many churches for their historical and cultural heritage values at other times of the year.  I can in fact help balikbayan friends and relatives choose seven churches in Metro Manila for their visita on Maundy Thursday.  My mind tells me that there should be certain colorful enrichments along the pilgrimage route from the first to the seventh church.   After doing the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and the fourteen Stations of the Cross, an enriching break between churches may do wonders both to body and soul of the local and balikbayan pilgrim.

In my list are three churches built during the last century:  the UP Church of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines in the Diliman campus, and the Santo Domingo Church on Quezon Avenue, both in Quezon City, and the Redemptorist Church in Paranaque City, more popular as the Baclaran Church.

The UP Church of the Holy Sacrifice, a round chapel with a thin shell concrete dome, still astounds me even if I still see it often after graduating from the university many years ago.  The altar is at the center, a double-sided crucifix hangs above it, and all around are wall panels painted with murals depicting the passion of Jesus Christ.  The creative geniuses who put all these together in 1955 later became National Artists: Leandro Locsin, Arturo Luz, Napoleon Abueva, Vicente Manansala and Ang Kiukok.  The church was recognized as a national historical landmark and a cultural treasure in 2005 by the National Historical Institute and the National Museum.

The pilgrim may not be able to escape the lure of the standard food fare of UP Diliman: banana cue or turon, available any time at the university shopping center a short walk across the church.  A leisurely stroll under the canopy of giant acacia trees on the academic oval up to the Oblation monument can be conducive for meditations before proceeding to the next church in the visita route.

The Santo Domingo Church is the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval de Manila.   According to historical accounts, the most magnificent of several Santo Domingo churches rose in Intramuros after the severe earthquake of 1863, but this was levelled to the ground by the Japanese bombs of December 1941.  The present structure built in Quezon City and inaugurated in 1954 is the sixth church.   This is where the image of Our Lady of the La Naval that survived the Second World War is enshrined.

When he recites the visita prayers, the pilgrim is surrounded by Stained-glass windows depicting the original 15 mysteries of the holy rosary by Galo Ocampo, and the colorful murals on the life of St. Dominic painted on the overhead cupolas by National Artist Botong Francisco.

From there is a short distance to Banawe St., teeming with restaurants for a quick snack or simple meal.  The Ma Mon Luk is still around for the mami and siopao of the good old days before moving on to the next church.  

The pilgrim may want to have the Baclaran Church last in the visita.  This church was consecrated in December 1958; earlier in January, it was declared the National Shrine of the Mother of Perpetual Help.  Devotees come here on Wednesdays to pray the novena before the picture of the Mother of Perpetual Help not the typical sculptured Marian image.   

Baclaran’s other popularity comes from the stalls of garments that can match those of Divisioria in terms of variety and prices.  Thus, a pilgrim’s journey to the next church may be broken by a quick trip to the clothes market.

Our next set comprises historical and popular places of worship:  San Sebastian, Quiapo and Sta. Cruz churches.  Depending on one’s capacity to walk, the pilgrim may want to traverse Ongpin St. of Chinatown to get to the Binondo Church and further on through Divisoria to the Tondo Church. 

This group already makes up five.  The pilgrim may however opt to divert from Sta. Cruz to Intramuros for the San Agustin Church and the Manila Cathedral.   Or, the pilgrim may consider another alternative for the visita: the Marian churches of Ermita and Malate.

The gothic architecture of the San Sebastian Church or the Minor Basilica of San Sebastian continues to stun visitors.  It is the only pre-fabricated all-steel church in the country; the steel sections came all the way from Belgium and were assembled on site.  Historical accounts say that the church was declared a minor basilica in 1890, and it was inaugurated the following year. 

The antique image of Our Lady of Carmel graces the center of the main altar, which tapers into a spire where the image of St. Sebastian is enshrined. 

The San Sebastian leg gets the pilgrim pass by Mendiola, the favorite culmination point of protests rallies before and after martial law, subjects of dissent seemingly the same, if he is old enough to remember.  Claro M. Recto or Legarda is not far behind for cool refreshments before hitting Quiapo.

The Quiapo Church is the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, center of worship on Fridays of the devotees of the antique life-sized image of the Poong Nazareno, and the hub of intense veneration every 9^th of January during the long procession of the image around the Quiapo district.  

The main door of the basilica opens into Plaza Miranda, site of miting de avances of political parties until the last election of 1971, and of protest rallies and demonstrations until the declaration of martial law in 1972.

Pilgrims to and from Quiapo church can be distracted by the commerce on Carriedo St.: Nazareno t-shirts and towels, colorful praying candles, flower garlands, native delicacies, medicinal herbs and anting-antings.   They may also get detoured to Quinta Market on Echague St. for mangoes and other fruits of the season, or to Excellente store for a large chunk of ham to feast on after the meatless Holy Week.

The Sta. Cruz Church, recently renovated, was completed in 1957. Like most of the churches of old Manila, the original stone church one sees in history books was totally destroyed during the Second World War. 

Today, there is just the rotunda with a running old fountain between it and the entry gate to Chinatown.  The pilgrim may find plenty of distractions on Ongpin St. on the way to Binondo Church:  lucky charm bracelets, jewelry, varieties of hopia, and carts of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

To me, Binondo Church and the Plaza San Lorenzo nearby comprise the focal point of Chinatown. The church is formally Marian being the Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish Church, but because the Filipino saint was born here, it was declared the Minor Basilica of St. Lorenzo Ruiz. The present church was rebuilt from the old structures that survived the American bombs of 1944.

The pilgrim may opt to walk the distance from Plaza San Lorenzo to the Tondo Church past the tempting distractions of the new mall on Reina Regente and the Divisoria stalls on Claro M. Recto.

The Manila Cathedral had been under structural reinforcements for some time, and may open in time for Holy Week.  The cathedral was declared the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in 1981. Since the Spanish times, it has been the seat of the Archdiocese of Manila.

The first cathedral was built in 1581. The fifth, built after the earthquake of 1880, was reduced to rubble during the liberation of Manila from the Japanese.  It was rebuilt in 1954 to 1958.

San Agustin Church, the oldest church in the country, survived the bombs that razed Intramuros to the ground during the battle of Manila.   UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site in 1993.

 A pilgrim can take a stroll on top of the walls around Intramuros, or tour the walled city on board a horse-drawn cart or calesa.  There is Casa Manila across the San Agustin Church where a museum, souvenir stores and restaurants are located for the refreshment of tired minds and bodies.

The Ermita Church is the Parish Church of Nuestra Senora de Guia, the oldest Marian image in the country.  The story goes that one of the men of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi found the local people worshipping the image on a trunk surrounded by pandan leaves.       

Roxas Boulevard is the scenic connection between the Ermita Church and the Malate Church, where another Marian image is enshrined: the image of the Nuestra Senora de los Remedios, brought from Spain in 1624.

The Malate Church is also a short walk from the light railway station on Quirino Avenue and the fruit stalls on San Andres St. can be an inviting distraction for the hungry soul. 

Jeepneys plying the Mabini and MH Del Pilar routes may take the pilgrim from one church to the other passing through the entertainment and commercial areas of Ermita and Malate. 

Thus, the pilgrim may actually find some reinvigorating distractions when he goes through the spiritual experiences of Visita Iglesia of Maundy Thursday:  local histories, cultural views, and food tripping.

Going wild for sea turtles during the inaugural World Wildlife Day

Note:  This photo-essay appeared in the 14-20 Mar 2014 issue of the weekly FilAm Star in San Francisco, CA with the title: "Celebrating inaugural World Wildlife Day 2014 / Going wild for sea turtles in Zambales, Bataan, Batangas".  The author is the Special News/Photo Correspondent-Philippines of the said paper.

 
 Our non-government organization (NGO) chairperson asked me if I am joining the trip home during the weekend to release baby turtles (they’re called hatchlings) on Monday, 03 March, and she said a representative of the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) would be coming with us.  
 

 Our  Katimpuyog Zambales, Inc., together with eighteen volunteer fisherfolks who call themselves La Paz Rangers organized our town-based PawiCare San Narciso, a pawikan (sea turtle) protection and conservation program.  PawiCare stands for pawikan care that would involve a diligent sea turtle watch by the rangers: monitoring sea turtles nesting onshore, tagging them before they return to the sea, protecting the eggs by transferring them to the hatchery we built, and releasing hatchlings to the sea, all these to help conserve the marine species and thereby helping maintain ecological balance in the fishing grounds.

The rangers went on patrol from nightfall until the wee hours of the morning, scouring the four-kilometer coastal stretch for adult sea turtles who come to nest, measuring and tagging them before they’re released back to the West Philippine Sea, recovering the eggs with extreme care and re-nesting them at the hatchery.  They tell about the night when four pawikans landed. Two patrols had to deal with four simultaneous nestings, and they could not assist each other because the nests were so far apart!

In the past, eggs were hunted for the market and the dining table.  Poaching has now ended in our town, thanks to these volunteers and the support of the barangay council and the town government. 

The nesting season is from October to March.  We thought the season has ended with the release of the last batch of hatchlings on 03 March.  Two days later, however, the rangers found a nester with 90 eggs, which they will care for at the hatchery until hatchlings emerge from their sand nest in 45 to 70 days.

During the season, especially when the eggs started hatching, friends and visitors flocked to the hatchery to see how baby turtles look like.  If they came early morning or around sunset, they possibly had a chance to release hatchlings to the sea.  It’s from them that PawiCare depended partly for material and financial support.

All in all, there were 53 adult sea turtles that laid 3,490 eggs from which 3,384 hatchlings emerged.  This was part of around 23,000 hatchlings released to the sea that DENR-EMB reported in their annual report for 2013.

Our La Paz coastal area is the favorite nesting ground of the Olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea). There are four other species that nest in other places in the country, one is critically endangered, the Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) , and the others including the Olive ridley are endangered: Green turtle (Chelonia mydas),  the Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and the Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea).   

On that Sunday trip to Zambales, I was told that the next day’s fun-filled event at our La Paz hatchery area was part of the inaugural World Wildlife Day celebration around the globe, in the 179 countries signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The Philippines would have celebrations also in three other coastal areas.   Hatchlings would be released at our site and at the pawikan center in Nagbalayong, Morong, Bataan.  Juvenile and sub-adult species would be released at Tali Beach in Nasugbu and in Anilao, both in Batangas province. San Juan, La Union could have been another site, but the season is really over and there were more hatchlings to release.

As an aside:  Nagbalayong had their 13^th Pawikan Festival on 30 November, while our La Paz group held our 1^st Pawikan Festival on 28 December, in 2013.

The chairman of an inland barangay of our town came with his family to join our coastal event.  They brought a juvenile Olive ridley that they had kept as a pet for four years. This long domesticity had made the turtle disoriented, and it was obvious when it was brought to the sea, and it had become too friendly with people.  We thought it better to bring it to the Ocean Adventure in Subic for rehabilitation.  The attending veterinarian said it may take quite some time for it to learn how to get familiar with the deep sea and how to hunt for food before it could be liberated at sea.

In Tali Beach, Nasugbu, three Green sea turtles were released, one of them a rescued sub-adult, and two were juveniles turned over by concerned citizens and rehabbed at the Manila Ocean Park (MOP) since August.  In Anilao, two juveniles were released, a Green and a Hawksbill from MOP.

All these coastal events were conducted jointly by the local community, friends of sea turtles, and representatives of DENR-BMB, the national leader for the inaugural celebration, which carried the theme “Everybody has a role in wildlife conservation.” 

 

At the Ninoy Aquino Park and Wildlife Center in Quezon City, the day’s programme organized by the DENR-BMB included a forum on wildlife research development focusing on the state of Philippine birds, herpetology, mammal research, barcoding of life, and Philippine flora.

These were our country’s response to the call of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to “go wild for wildlife, protect diversity, halt trafficking,” in his first World Wildlife Day message.   He reminded that “[f]or millennia,people and cultures have relied on nature’s rich diversity of wild plants and animals for food, clothing, medicine and spiritual sustenance. Wildlife remains integral to our future through its essential role in science, technology and recreation, as well as its place in our continued heritage.”

The UN General Assembly proclaimed 03 March as World Wildlife Day on 20 December 2013 during its 68^th Session.  It’s now a special day in the UN calendar. That also marked the day the CITES was signed 41 years ago in 1973.

The inaugural celebration gave the international community opportunity to “celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora; raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that wildlife provides to people, and of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime, which has wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts.”

While John E. Scanlon, CITES Secretary General, invited everyone to the celebration, he reminded also that wildlife today suffers from habitat loss and is gravely threatened by illegal trade.  He spoke of “collective responsibility - as citizens and consumers - to bring the illegal wildlife trade to an end.”

Netizens worldwide were mobilized under the hash tag #WorldWildlifeDay and the slogan “let’s go wild for wildlife.”  People heeded the call, and special events were organized in the 179 CITES signatory countries.

China was reported to have started mobilizing their first Word Wildlife Day celebrations as early as January 2014 in schools, zoos and nature parks, and in public and private venues.  There’s an interesting account about the launch of a campaign in Liaoning Province to have restaurants there take away the names of exotic animals from their menus. In the CITES news updates, former NBA star Yao Ming, a member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was reported to have proposed that China should make ivory sales illegal.

Thailand promoted public awareness programs on wildlife conservation in the non-hunting area of Chonburi Province to protect endangered species and restore forest areas.  In India, they held several village-level awareness programs about wildlife in tiger reserves to stop wildlife crime. 

The main event in Zimbabwe was held at the Hwange National Park, its largest protected area, with the theme “Wildlife Protection for Community Empowerment and National Economic Development”.   They could not forget that last year, 115 elephants were lost in Hwange and vicinities due to wildlife cyanide poisoning.

Kenya had “Our Wildlife, My responsibility, My Heritage” as theme, and their focus was to stop illegal wildlife crime.  Last year, they lost 50 rhinos and 300 elephants to poachers.

Peru launched the national campaign on illegal wildlife trafficking.  The country is one of 12 mega-diverse countries in the world with more than 25,000 flora species, about 10 percent of the world’s diversity. Some 400 species including the huge Andean condor are facing extinction.

 

“Everybody has a role,” our DENR-BMB strongly reminds, “in conservation.”  The agency has listed threatened Philippine flora and fauna, which can be critically endangered species (like the popular tamaraw, dugong, Philippine eagle, Hawksbill turtle, Philippine crocodile, among others), endangered (like the four other sea turtles), vulnerable (like the Philippine eagle-owl); other threatened species like the Philippine tarsier; and other wildlife species, non-threatened but may become threatened due to causes like predation or loss of habitat.

The CITES list contains all the threatened species of wildlife in the world.  “While the threats to wildlife are great,” Ban ki-Moon said, “we can reduce them through our collective efforts. ... I urge all sectors of society to end illegal wildlife trafficking and commit to trading and using wild plants and animals sustainably and equitably. Let us work for a future where people and wildlife coexist in harmony. Let’s go wild for wildlife!”

Fr. Diego Cera, the Las Piñas Bamboo Organ and the “Hanging” Historic Pipe Organs of Bohol

Note:  A slightly different version of this story appeared in the 07-13 March 2014 issue of the FilAm Star, a biweekly published in San Francisco.  This writer is the Special News/Photo Correspondent Philippines of the paper.

For Pinoys like me who seldom wander any farther than Baclaran on the bay side of Metro Manila, my first visit to St. Joseph’s Church in Las Piñas for the 39^th International Bamboo Organ Festival was a learning experience in commuting geography.

I got to know two ways of getting there.  The first route involved a fast leg, the light railway travel end-to-end from Muñoz, Quezon City to Baclaran, where I took the Zapote-bound jeepney that crawled through heavy traffic on Parañaque’s artery road, which links up with P. Diego Cera Avenue of Las Pinas.  I was cautioned to be wary of signboards because the one with a Coastal Road tag goes straight to Cavite and does not pass through Las Pinas “bayan” . 

Another route I took during the festival week was from Alabang in Muntinlupa City, this time on board a Zapote-Baclaran jeepney, where I had to keep my cool by engaging the driver in cheerful banter as he wrangled with slow heavy traffic until we hit P. Diego Cera Avenue.  

Who is P. Diego Cera?  If commuters do not know that the “P” is Padre, I am not surprised if they think of him as one politician or distinguished citizen whose memory a past city council resolved to perpetuate by naming a street after him.

Fr. Diego Cera de la Virgen del Carmen is associated with the church and Bamboo Organ of Las Pinas.  He was 28 years old when he came to the Philippines with the Mission XXV of 13 Recollect priests that left Cadiz, Spain in December 1790 and arrived in Manila in February 1792 after a one-year stay in Mexico.

Three years later in December 1795, according to the historical accounts, he was assigned to head the church of Las Piñas, newly separated from Parañaque by the Superior Decree of November 5, 1795.  It was already a civil town of the province of Tondo since 1762.  This means it already had a casa tribunal and town civil officials, but it was not yet a parish, it had no church, and remained tied to the religious jurisdiction of Paranaque.

The good priest would build the stone church during the period 1797-1819, when the population was around 2,000 and the tribute collection amounted to 455, according to the census of 1818. In 1879, when the young Fr. Exequiel Moreno del Rosario was the cura parroco, the town had grown to 4,700 with a capacity to pay more than a thousand tributes.  It was in his honor that the plaza fronting the St. Joseph’s Church across the P. Diego Cera Avenue was named after his canonization.

Obviously a musical man, the untiring Fr. Cera built for his church the now world-wide famous Bamboo Organ in 1816-1824 using 1,031 pipes, almost all made of bamboo (902) and the rest of tin (127).  He made a solid windchest that could have been hewn from a narra tree trunk of 3 to more than 5 meters circumference.

He built two actually, the other one he sent to the Queen of Spain.  In the American Chamber of Commerce of Manila Journal of December 1927, a report averred that “Father Cera did not build the organs with his own hands, but retained the services of a Filipino craftsman of the parish. The skill was fortunately perpetuated in the family, and when, a few years ago, it was decided to repair the organ at Las Pinas, a descendant of the original craftsman was found who was able to effect the repairs.”   That craftsman could have been an expert in wood works.  Quite a number of helpers could have helped in the bamboo works, in the collection, cutting and curing of the bamboo pipes. 

In 1973, the entire bamboo organ was shipped to the Klais organ factory in Bonn, Germany for complete restoration.  Except for a small damaged part of the windchest, nothing was replaced in this extraordinary work.  The same bamboo pipes that Fr. Cera tuned almost two hundred years ago still produce those majestic musical sounds one hears during church services or during the annual International Bamboo Organ Festival.

The first festival came after the return of Fr. Cera’s pipe organ to its niche in the stone church in 1974.   

This year’s musical event held recently was the 39^th, which, like the past festivals, featured local and foreign musical artists:  American Colin Andrews, Austrian Johann Trummer and Filipino Armando  Salarza (organists); Germany’s Carsten Linck (guitarist); Musika Sophia (recorders); Villancico Vocal Ensemble, L as Piñas Boys Choir, and Tiples de Santo Domingo (voices); Eudenice Palaruan, Carl Paolo Hernandez, and Eugene de los Santos (conductors).

Three evenings were allotted for the El Siglo de Oro (Spain’s Golden Age from the 16th to the 18th century) program, which highlighted late renaissance music, sacred and secular villancicos, and baroque compositions from Spain and Germany.  In another evening, Colin Andrews treated concert goers to Spanish compositions he played on the bamboo organ and to J.S. Bach on the auditorium organ.  The night billed as Dos Coros de Tiples (the boys choirs of Las Pinas and Santo Domingo) was highlighted by the world premiere of the choral compositions Tago-Tago by Jed Balsamo and Duo Seraphim by Joy Nilo, conducted by Carl Paolo Hernandez and Eugene de los Santos, respectively, and accompanied in the organ by  Armando Salarza.

Contemporary music  was provided by Jed Madela and the World Championships of the Performing Arts (WCOPA) artists in an evening concert under the trees in the church courtyard.

The latest bamboo organ concert affirmed that the Fr. Diego Cera musical legacy is very much alive.  After all, the pipes have not come down again for repairs during the past 39 years.  It is diligently maintained by a company that bears his name, the Diego Cera Organbuilders, Inc., whose avowed mission is to continue the pipe organ making in Las Piñas started by the builder of the Bamboo  Organ thereby helping bring back pipe organ music to Philippine churches.  

The company was founded in 1994 when two young men, Cealwyn Tagle and Edgar Montiano (he passed away in 2002), returned from Europe where they learned every aspect of the craft from master organ builder Helmut Allgaeuer in Gruenbach, Austria, and from Johannes Klais Orgelbau in Bonn, Germany.  They came home in time to install what Tagle calls their “thesis”: the St. Joseph auditorium organ they designed and crafted in the Allgaeuer workshop.

Tagle started singing with the boys choir when he was in Grade 3, and was its prefect during his senior year in high school.  Upon graduation in 1988, he was selected to go to Europe on scholarship to become an organ builder.  Montiano followed two years later.

Aside from taking care of the Bamboo Organ, the Diego Cera Organbuilders have built new tracker organs and restored historic pipe organs including that of the Manila Cathedral and the San Agustin Church.  They have also exported pipe organs to America and Europe.

When I visited their shop, the new Vladivostok organ is being constructed.  I saw the newly restored parts of the Palo, Leyte church organ, which was ready for installation when typhoon Yolanda struck.

Tagle said they have to import mirante wood from Malaysia since they can not use the local almaciga, which is best suited for wood pipes, because there is no supply in the market due to the logging ban. For the metal pipes, they have to import tin and lead alloy for the metal pipes.  The organ craft is also labor intensive because of the precision work involved.  Nevertheless, Tagle and company strive to make pipe organs more affordable to churches and individuals.

The Diego Cera Organbuilders were involved in the restoration of the historic organs in Bohol before the intense earthquake hit the province and wreaked the antique churches.

Tagle is very concerned with the surviving pipe organs, those “hanging” on the remaining walls that withstood the strong tremors in the Baclayon, Loay and Loboc churches.  He strongly feels that they must be rescued soonest to prevent them from getting lost forever. 

Tagle’s company restored the Loay organ in 1998.  Five years later in 2003, they fully restored the pipe organ of Loboc.  With the support of the Ayala Foundation, they did the Baclayon organ in 2008.

“It is safe to play the Baclayon and Loay organs,” Tagle said, “even at their present state.”  He is very concerned with the Loboc instrument because the wall may collapse anytime.  “But the walls have to be reinforced first,” he emphasized, “to ensure the safety of workers who will disassemble the organ on site.”  

It’s a sad fate for the Loon and Maribojoc pipe organs that went down with the churches.  Loon was the biggest outside Metro Manila after San Agustin in Intramuros, and was already scheduled for restoration before the earthquake.  The Maribojoc had complete parts but they are all now buried in the rubble of the church.

Tagle thinks that the Baclayon was constructed under the direction of Fr. Diego Cera because he found the design and manner of woodworks similar to those of the Las Piñas Bamboo Organ.  He was prior of that town in 1815 and 1821, Bohol being under the Recollect province. 
  

The good priest’s legacy could also be of personal significance to organ builder Cealwyn Tagle.  Both of us think he may belong to the genealogical line of the original craftsman who helped Fr. Cera build the Bamboo Organ and that descendant who repaired it in the early 1900s. That’s because he had heard from his mother and her relatives that their great-great-grandparents of the Lara family were furniture makers when Fr. Cera was in Las Pinas, and they could have helped build the iconic Bamboo Organ.  

EDSA@28: "Where have all the flowers gone?"

NOTE:  This is a slightly different version of the photo-essay that this blogger wrote for 28Feb-06Mar issue of Fil-Am Star, a weekly newspaper published in San Francisco, CA for "Filipinos in Mainstream America."

February 25 this year, the 28th anniversary of the People Power or EDSA Revolution of 1986, was a special holiday in the Philippines but it was for schools only.  Being a Tuesday, it was a regular working day in government and in the private sector.

Commuters to their workplace in the morning could have noticed that the People Power Monument was adorned with yellow flags and the yellow flowers, and a wreath-laying ceremony was going on led by Vice-President Jejomar Binay. 

 

They could have missed the festive crowd of past celebrations.  For the first time, the anniversary observance was brought outside Metro Manila to Cebu City, where the peaceful encounter or “salubungan” of the military and the civilian contingents was re-enacted with popular movie actor Dingdong Dantes as then Gen. Fidel  V.  Ramos, and Sen. Benigno ‘Bam’ Aquino IV as his uncle then Senator Butz Aquino of the August Twenty One Movement (ATOM).   

 According to reports, President Benigno Aquino III chose Cebu as commemoration venue because this was where his mother Cory called for civil disobedience and where she stayed with the Carmelite sisters during outbreak of the EDSA revolt. 

 

Outside of government-sponsored anniversary events, there was the call of the Million People March to Scrap Pork Barrel movement for a “Black Tuesday at EDSA.”  It urged their followers on social media to assemble at the EDSA Shrine in black and express indignation against RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. 

 

 While there were not many who came to advocate “Stop Cyber Martial Law”, “No to E-Martial Law” or “Junk RA 10175,” this is a hot issue in social media discussions.   To netizens, the specter of the oppression of the freedom of speech and information looms from the Supreme Court ruling on online libel even if it declared  three provisions of the cybercrime law unconstitutional -- unsolicited commercial communications, real-time collection of traffic data, and restricting access to computer data. 

 

This reminds us of the noose around our necks when the Marcos dictatorship controlled mass media, the wealth of the nation, and the coffers of government.  We learned more about our government and the lifestyle of those in power from reportages in foreign publications, reproduced and circulated through network of friends of friends by multiple “Xerox” journalists, an underground real social media of those times.

 

Breaking loose was what we did twenty eight Februaries ago.  We knew it was a military rebellion that Cardinal Sin called for the people to support. But It transformed into a truly civilian uprising when the multitude of Filipinos secured Camp Aguinaldo and later Camp Crame in support of the secession of Defense Secretary Juan Ponce-Enrile, AFP Deputy Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) from the Marcos government.

 

 In the midst of that peaceful revolution on EDSA, somebody picked my pocket. By today’s spending standards, the money contents were not much.  A Protestant minister who found it empty in a gutter mailed it back to us some time during those euphoric days after Ferdinand Marcos, his family, and his trusted cronies were flown out from Malacañang Palace to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

We were too busy with the camera, and with so many revolutionaries milling around during that bright, sunny 25th day of February and getting into multiple body contact every so often, we could not have noticed somebody's sticky fingers fishing for our wallet in our back pocket.

It was not a heavy price though for the victory that came afterward. We soon forgot about it when word got around that the dictator had fled, and we went honking down the avenue on board a good friend’s Volks Beetle exchanging cheers with other sweat-drenched, exhausted yet ecstatic souls along the way.

 

The dictatorship was ousted and democracy restored, but for the past twenty years it has been a rough roller coaster ride through coup d’etat attempts, infuriating brown-outs, a second EDSA revolution, uneasy peace in the south, natural disasters, impeachment cases, allegations of plunder and pork barrel scams, widening gap between the rich and poor, from the first presidency of mother Cory to the incumbency of her son Noynoy.

It looks like the spirit of the 1986 EDSA has dimmed in the minds of the veterans of that revolt, more so among those who are still in government service.  We can understand if the generations younger than 28 have not found meaning in the people power history.  The lessons learned from that political experience have not been imparted to them.

 

We remember that at the EDSA@26 commemoration at the People Power monument, people wrote down on big white boards their personal stakes for the country:  “Anong Taya mo Para sa Pilipinas Natin?”

People wrote: jobs, peace in Mindanao, iteration of Aquino’s “daang matuwid”, etcetera, virtually a wish list from the peaceful revolution of 1986.  Has the Revolution failed? Or, did we fail the Revolution?