UP Los Banos: farming, food engineering, bees and bananas, community radio, and much more ...

We attended this year's homecoming and reunion organized by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA), our first since forty years ago when we graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.  Just about a dozen of us Ruby Jubilarians were able to get together, but we had fun remembering our then 'age of Aquarius' and musing if we could be still be around to be honored like the older Golden and Diamond Jubilarians, and there were plenty of them in attendance.

One of this year's recipients of the UPAA's distinguished alumni awards--Dr Rey A Elizondo (BSAE'68)-- happens to be a fraternity brother who we last saw forty-five years ago before he moved from Diliman to Los Banos to finish his agricultural engineering course.   He was given recognition for his achievements in food engineering, an area which he teaches at the California State University and the California State Polytechnic University.  His involvement in the cannery project for the Ukraine to meet international food safety standards earned him the US President's Volunteer Service Award in 2007.

There were three other distinguished alumni from UP Los Banos in the roster of  twenty awardees.  Dr Cleofas P Rodriguez-Cervancia (BSA'68, MS'72, PhD'82) was cited for her achievements in community development through research and extension services.  She's well known in the bee industry. Her name is associated with the UPLB Bee Program, and she has shown through her studies how bees contribute to increasing crop yield and biodiversity of wild plants.

Dr Agustin B Molina, Jr (BSA'73, MS'79), a senior scientist widely known in Asia and the Pacific, was cited for his focus on banana research. He has worked on the control of the most destructive diseases of banana, the conservation, characterization, evaluation and use of the Musa germplasm. and he contributed to the rehabilitation of the lakatan industry in Luzon.

Ruby jubilarian Mr Lucio N Tabing (BSA'70) was recognized for his work in rural community empowerment through broadcast communication.  As a communicator and broadcaster, he has helped and empowered poor Filipinos like the small fishermen of Laguna Lake, farmers and fishermen along the Pampanga River, the Ilongots, the Dumagats and the Aetas in Zambales and Pampanga.  His pioneering community radio 'has changed the lives of local communities, contributing extensively to many aspects of community life such as agriculture, environment, health, livelihood, cultural expression, public service and local governance.'

Their achievements and fields of specialization speak of the evolution of the college of agriculture established by the Americans in 1908, one of the original core of colleges of the University of the Philippines, "primarily for the purpose of furnishing proper higher education and training for farmers in the Philippine Islands (Copeland 1914)."

Back then, more than a century ago, three courses were offered:  "a course of six years to which graduates of the intermediate schools are admitted; a course of four years for high school graduates; and a special course, which does not lead to a degree, of a single year, for the training of teachers of agriculture in the public schools (Copeland)." Its department of forestry trained young men to become forest rangers for the Bureau of Forestry and the successful ones were given additional courses leading to a bachelor of science degree and trained for higher positions in the bureau.

Los Banos town had "one main street with a number of frame houses, besides the regulation nipa houses." There was a little hotel with hot springs, an old building used as a hospital during the Spanish regime that had been converted into a military hospital by the US Army,  and an American store patronized by soldiers. (Boyce 1914)

Copeland wrote that "nearly all of the students live in groups, each occupying a house ... most of these houses are on the campus, some owned by students, some by the Bureau of Forestry and occupied by its pensionados, and some built by a club organized for the purpose."

Around 1914, board was P10 a month, and cost of living was also around that much.  Many students were self-supporting, and "there [were] various opportunities for students to earn their way. The college employ[ed] all students who desire work, at field work at the rate of 10 centavos an hour, so long as the class work of the student [was] satisfactory."  Advance students could earn from P10 to P25 monthly as office, library, laboratory or field assistants; they could also be janitors.  "The most prosperous self-supporting student is probably the one who furnishes music for the Los Banos cinematograph,"Copeland wrote.
 
Through the years, the cool sprawling campus sprouted with academic buildings for specialized academic disciplines evolving from agriculture and forestry, and with housing units for faculty members and dormitories for students.  The one-main-street town itself has evolved into a commercial hub constantly in flux to meet the housing and supply needs of the continuing stream of UPLB students. 

Certainly, the 2010 distinguished alumni from UPLB had far more convenient and comfortable accommodations off or on campus. More so the students of today.

References.

Boyce, W.D. (1914). The Philippine Islands/Illustrated.  Chicago and New York: Rand McNally and Company.  Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/baq2895.0001.001.

Copeland, E.B. (1914, Feb.). The College of Agriculture. The Philippine Craftsman.2(8):609-619. Manila: Bureau of Printing. Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acw9599.0002.008.

UP Alumni Association. (2010). UP 2010: Galingan Pa (Yearbook).

Remembering those PMT and ROTC days

This picture (c1920) of seminarians in what could be the Holy Rosary Minor Seminary today in Naga City reminds us of our high school PMT--Philippine Military Training--in the early '60s, when we were a cadet officer, and if we remember right, a first lieutenant.

Ours was a private secondary school, not a seminary. We relate to the picture because of the white uniform and the horses.  Our gala uniform was white too, and this we donned during formal events, and we felt great pride in white gala, well-polished black shoes and with shiny swords on a horseback during the town fiesta parade.  It was quite an advantage that we had an uncle who owned and drove a karetela for a living, and fiesta was holiday for his brown horse from his daily grind.  The stallion could not have complained, but could probably have been as proud as the young cadet officer astride his back in the long parade around the town.

PMT became CAT--Citizens Army Training--during the Bagong Lipunan regime of Ferdinand Marcos.  PMT or CAT, both were compulsory military education for junior and senior high school students. We don't exactly remember what topics were lectured to us, but we do remember we carried wooden guns, learned how to put on canvas leggings in lieu of boots, to salute properly, and to march in cadence during the pass-in-reviews. 

Our nephews, now sophomores in the University of the Philippines (UP), never had CAT.  They were just right in high school when the law was passed making it a voluntary course.  They also opted not to take any military science subjects under the CMT (Citizens Military Training) curriculum that replaced ROTC--Reserved Officers Training Course--which we went through for two years in our time.  Some of our friends attended the COCC (Cadet Officers Certification Course), and thus added two more years to their military education. Every male student had to finish at least two years of the course unless there were valid grounds for exemption like being asthmatic or physically handicapped; otherwise, he will not be allowed to graduate from the university.

In 2002, the National Service Training Progran (NSTP) was instituted by law as a response to the clamor for the abolition of ROTC.  Nevertheless, it remained as an option in the NSTP for students to take, if they are inclined to the military; otherwise, they can render literacy training service, or civic welfare service. Mayor Lim of Manila was very dead serious in a recent TV interview that enrollees in the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) have to take ROTC because he believes it is the best way to instill discipline among the youth.

For us guys who had ROTC every Saturday morning for two years in UP before martial law and the FQS or first quarter storm, our recollection would include the banana-que or turon from the iconic vendors on the Diliman campus during breaktime, the crawl on the marshy sunken garden while enduring the smell of rotten grass and the sting of insects, the pyrotechnics of popping bullets when the vintage '40s quonset hut armory burned one late afternoon, the corp of sponsors who enlivened our marching days when they're around, and the culminating bivouac to La Mesa dam when Commonwealth Avenue was still lined on both sides with madre de cacao and fields of cogon grass. We remember too the swishy gay in our company who would regale us with the latest laughables on campus during turon time--being gay was no excuse to evade the marches, push-ups and fast assembly-disassembly of rifles, and, of course,  our laundrywoman who would deliver our fatigue uniform every Friday afternoon, sometimes still soggy despite the hot ironing it went through.

 
They did not teach us that ROTC had its beginning in UP way back in 1912 with the Philippine Constabulary doing the military instructions.  Ten years later, the United States designated an American professor of military science and the first ROTC unit was established there.

The National Defense Act or Commonwealth Act No. 1, implemented by Executive Order 207 from President Manuel Quezon in 1939, made ROTC a compulsory course in all universities and colleges with more than a hundred enrollment.

Stories tell us of the heroism of patriotic ROTC boys who died defending our country as members of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) until the Fall of Bataan in 1942, or who survived the Death March, became guerillas, harassed the Japanese and paved the way for the liberation army of Gen. McArthur in 1945. It took more than sixty years for a handful of them to live and finally receive the recognition and rewards promised them by the USA.

In our case, we can recall a couple or two of our contemporaries who moved to the Philippine Military Academy during our sophomore year, and one of them rose to become Chief of Staff of the AFP during the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime.

We don't know if their 2-year ROTC military science instructions proved valuable, but a few of our friends went to another guerilla war and disappeared forever.

Your mom or grandma could have been a girl basket ball player!

Two sporting events were of world-wide interest lately:  the opening of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, still ongoing with favorite football teams still being frenziedly cheered on by rabid fans with the noisy vuvuzelas, and the NBA championship confrontation between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, which lasted up to Game 7 with the Celtics falling with a loud thud heard around the world while Kobe Bryant was hugging his MVP trophy.

Futbol is not in the popular vocabulary of the Pinoy world, and football fans in our country who are in frenzy monitoring the Mundial 2010 group rounds so that they can figure out for the betting who's going to run away with the copa  probably number less than those who voted for wannabepresident JC Reyes or Nicky Perlas.

But that's not the case with the NBA where almost everyone in 'Pinas including the primary school kids got glued in front of TV sets cheering on the Lakers or the Celtics and their favorite iconic players. And that happens too when the PBA or the NCAA or the UAAP or the barangay summer youth leagues from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi go into the final rounds.

We understand why futbol is almost alien to Pinoys except where Don Bosco brothers put up schools or mission houses or around open spaces where Europeans and Asians from former Old World territories gather to roll and kick the ball in their leisure days.  It was never in the athletics program of the public school system that the Americans initially implemented in the early 1900s (they have another kind of football!).

However, basket ball (that was how it was spelled in the old days) took root in the Philippine Islands a few years after it was invented in 1900. It came with the Americans who put it into the organized athletics program of the public school system.  To the American education authorities, a balance curriculum consisted of academic instruction ('the three R's, geography, history, and certain cultural and professional branches'), industrial work ('clearly defined form of vocational training'), and physical training ('physical exercises to improve physique and health').  

Physical training involved general school games like group and play yard games, and organized athletics comprising baseball, indoor baseball, boys' and girls' basket ball, volleyball, track and field, and tennis, which were the areas of competition in amateur meets within school divisions, of inter-provincial organizations and the Philippine Carnival.  Many of the rules governing the athletic games were based on those used in the United States "with special adaptation to the needs of the country."  These were all gathered in a handbook issued as Bulletin No. 40 in 1911 (revised in 1913)  to all public school teachers for guidance.    

For boys' and girls' basket ball, the Spalding's Official Basket Ball Guide for Boys was used, but with some modifications for the girls. For example, a boys team for match games consisted of five players, while the girls had six players, the extra player being known as "side center."  A boys game consisted of halves of twenty minutes each with a rest of ten minutes in between, and basket change at the end of the first half.  On the other hand, a girls game had three periods, the first and third of ten minutes each, and the second of fifteen, with a rest of five minutes between the first and second and ten minutes between the second and third; and baskets changed after each period.

Girls' basket ball could have been greatly encouraged, and this is evidenced, for example, by twenty-six girls teams (see picture above) of the Central School of Laoag. The other pictures tell us that girls' basket ball was an interesting feature in the athletic meets. 

It's possible then that our parents or grandparents who went to the public schools before the second world war had several specialized athletic teams to join in, and we are not surprised if our mothers and grandmothers were in basket ball teams.

At this juncture, we do not know how long girls' basket ball remained in the meet events before the war, or when it was dropped from the organized athletics program for some reasons, say, because girls' interest did not get to be as frenzy as the boys'.  We post-war babies did not see our girl classmates get recruited to basket ball teams although some were into softball (not baseball); we never saw tennis rackets too.

There was a revival of girls' basketball (modern-day spelling) early in the millenium, and a national team had competed in the regional and world games.  Of recent memory is the inclusion of women's basketball in the UAAP or NCAA, and we're wondering if it's still there although the championships are not as madly watched as those of the [male] Blue Eagles, Green Archers, Tamaraws, Maroons, and the like.

Well, the only time we'll see women basketeers again will be in the next Olympics in London, I guess.

References.

Bureau of Education. (1911, 1913). Bulletin Nos. 40-1911 & 40-1913.  Athletic Handbook for the Public Schools. Manila: Bureau of Printing.  Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acp1028.1911[1913].040.

Bureau of Education. (1916). Sixteenth Annual Report of the Director of Education, January 1 to December 31, 1915. Manila: Bureau of Printing. Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acs9512.1915.001.

Government Publication. (1920). Facts and Figures about the Philippines. Manila: Bureau of Printing. Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/afj2127.0001.001.

Did your Parents or Grandparents pore through the Rizal Readers?

On the 19th of June next year, the nation will be celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of the national hero from Calamba, Laguna, who was schooled at home by his mother Teodora before he was sent to the public school in Binan, then to the Dominicans and the Jesuits in Intramuros before going to Europe for further studies and his patriotic mission.

If Pepe Rizal was seven when he went to the Binan school, he and the other first graders, and the public school system in the Philippines were just about of the same age. It was only in 1860 (150 years ago) that O'Donnell, the Spanish minister of war and colonies, established the public primary school system--one for boys and one for girls--in each town in the archipelago with Spanish as medium of instruction.  Since the schools were in the town center, education was forbidding to children from far-flung barrios; hence, it was a privilege that the children of the rich families enjoyed. 

An image that continues to illustrate the value of books, or the importance of teaching young children how to read, or the joy of reading, is that of Pepe listening to his mom read to him a story from a book.  The original drawing was done by Fernando Amorsolo for the Philippine Readers of Camilo Osias in the 1920s.

Reading was a major subject in the primary (Grades 1 to 4), intermediate (Grades 5 to 7) and secondary (first to fourth year high school) courses of study in the 11-year American public school system set up in the country in 1901.  

The primary schools aimed "to give children a knowledge of letters ... to make the common people literate in the English tongue" (Bureau of Education 1909) with four years of reading, language, writing and spelling, among other subjects. After Grade 4, the pupils could choose to go to any of three-year intermediate courses of study: general course, the course for teaching, the course in farming, the trade course, the course in housekeeping and household arts, and the course in business" (Education 1912).  Grammar and composition, and reading and spelling were major subjects in the intermediate grades.

Proficiency in English was the admission ticket to the secondary courses: the pupil's "written and spoken English [must be] approximately equivalent to that of an American school boy upon entering high school."

It was thus necessary for the public schools to have basal and supplementary reading materials.  At the start, all of these were brought from America, designed for the schools there but whose material and character contents were alien to Filipino children. Subsequently, calls were made for textbooks written especially for Filipinos and well adapted to local conditions, and American publishers responded with books by American and/or Filipino authors. By the 1920s, the primary and intermediate pupils were already reading "The Philippine Readers, Books 1 to 7" by Camilo Osias, "Rizal's Own Book" as translated by Agustin Craig, and "Rizal Readers, Primer to Book 7"  by various authors.

Of the Rizal materials, "Rizal's Own Book," published and adapted for use as supplementary reading in Grade 4 in 1918, had authentic local appeal since it was written by the hero himself about his experiences in life.

Starting in 1924, the  Primer and First Reader of  the "Rizal Readers" were textbooks in Grade 1. The Second up to Seventh Reader became supplementary readings correspondingly in Grades 2 to 7 in 1925.

The books' titles were misleading actually.  In his review of Philippine schoolbooks in 1930, Frederick Starr commented that the Primer of the "Rizal Readers" "contains little else that smack of the Philippines," while "the First Reader contains little folklore, a brief article upon Rizal, and some pictures with local color." 

Starr said that the color frontispieces of the two books are portraits of Jose Rizal. From the advertisement  (above) placed by John C. Winston Company in the September 1930 issue of Philippine Magazine, allusions to Rizal can be seen only in the cover decorations of the First Reader (his Luneta monument) and the Seventh (his portrait).  

In 1924-1925, authorship was attributed to Firman and others for the Primer, First Reader and Third Reader; and to Lewis and others for the rest of the Readers.  In 1927, the Primer and First Reader were attributed to Firman, Maltby, Marshall and Estrella; the Second and Third Readers to Lewis, Marshall and Estrella; and the Fourth to Seventh Readers to Lewis, Rowland, Marshall and Carreon.

Revisions in the book contents could have come from changes in authorship, which could be the case when these were advertised in 1930 as "adapted to the Philippine Islands," whatever that meant, by Elizabeth J. Marshall, Cesaria R. Estrella, Miguel L. Carreon and Gabino R. Tabunar, the last three being all Filipinos.

Our conjecture is that the "Rizal" in the book title and the portrait in the frontispiece were dedicatory in nature, and a brief article on the hero was a simple obligatory token.

When we entered the public elementary schools, "Pepe and Pilar" was our primer in Grade 1, the Rizal Readers were no longer in circulation but the Philippine Readers was still in our reading list.  

It's no wonder then that our parents spoke and wrote in English quite well; they were required to go through basal and supplementary readings, story telling and writing what they learned. 

Their time was almost a century before this cut-and-paste and jejemon age, when the medium of instruction is Pilipino, and English is again a must to learn just like when the Americans were newly arrived with that language.  

References.

Barrows, D. (1903, September). The aims of primary education in the Philippines. The Official Gazette. 2(4):58-67. Manila:Bureau of Printing. Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acs9512.0002.004.

Bureau of Education. (1906 to 1928).  6th to 28th Annual Report of the Director of Education. Manila:Bureau of Printing.  Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acs9512.xxxx.xxx.

Starr. F. (1926). A review of Philippine School Books. The Philippine Republic. 3(10):12. Washington DC. Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acc6198.1926.010.

Copy of advertisement from Philippine Magazine (1930, September issue).  Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acd5869.0027.001.

Art Discovery: Philippine Scenes 1929-30 by John Maynard

Two things struck us when we came upon twelve drawings of Philippine scenes (all reproduced here) that the Philippine Magazine published in series from June 1929 to May 1930:  first, they were done by "a well-known English artist", and second, the artist John Maynard is a namesake of John Maynard Keynes of the revolutionary Keynesian economics, already popular around that time, who also dabbled in the arts.

But there's nothing more in the magazine about the artist other than that descriptive note in the captions to the artworks, although he illustrated Frank Lewis Minton's "Indarapatra and Suleyman, An Epic of Magindanao" in the September 1929 issue, and also wrote of  and illustrated his "Impressions of the Manila Vaudeville Stage" and  "Impressions of the Manila Theater" in the October and November 1929 issues, respectively.   These "impressions" sound like Ricky Lo's (and before him, Joe Quirino's) take on showbiz characters today.

This John Maynard can't possibly be the British economist John Maynard Keynes whose revolutionary ideas were overturning classical economic thinking at around that time too.  Keynes was also interested in the fine arts, literature and the theater.  He collected works of modern artists like Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse; supported the Cambridge Arts Theater; and enjoyed the company of, and belonged to, the Bloomsbury Group of writers. 

Today's digital search engines do not yield anything about this Maynard either although there are plenty of references in the cyberworld on Keynes and some other namesakes.

Who was this John Maynard then? Where are the original twelve drawings? Who's keeping them?

Sources:

Maynard, J. (1928, June to 1929, May). 'Wash-out' drawings of Philippine scenes in 12 series. Philippine Magazine.  26(1) to 27(12):Various pages. Manila: Phil. Education Company, Inc.  Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/acd5869.0026.001

Stopping by Hacienda San Benito, Double Happiness & SBMA

Unless they boarded a Yangco launch/boat for Olongapo, Subic, San Antonio, San Narciso and Iba on set days of the week, this was how it was for the pre-WW2 generation travelling from Manila to Zambales: bus to Dinalupihan, Bataan and then the mountain trail to Olongapo. 

In December 1928, Walter Robb, editor of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal before the war, wrote about making a "felicitous decision" with his friend to "motor to Dinalupihan, in Bataan, hike over a stiff mountain trail from there to Santa Rita, Zambales, get from Santa Rita into Olongapo either by carretela or motor car, and back from Olongapo to Manila by a comfortable night boat."  The experience, he said, "is not too ardous or too prolonged to anyone in good health; on the contrary, it is invigorating."

Long before he hinted on his presidential ambition, we asked Sen. Richard 'Dick' Gordon in a chance encounter if his paternal family owned a farm in Santa Rita, and he confirmed they did.  J.J. Gordon, an old-timer, according to Robb, and we surmise, from the American forces that came in the early 1900s, owned Gordon's Chicken Farm, the landing place of hikers from Hacienda San Benito.  He could be Dick's grandfather.

“We left Manila about 11 o’clock Saturday morning and motored to Dinalupihan at pleasant speed in three hours," Robb wrote.  They checked in at Hacienda San Benito, which could have been the quarters of the monks that tended the Dinalupihan Estate of the Archdiocese of Manila during that time. 

“Next morning at five, when we were ready to start, hot coffee and three-minute eggs waited us. The brother who presides over the kitchen served them graciously and waved us on our way. Who makes this trip should not fail of visiting Hacienda San Benito and its hospitable monks. The thing to do would be to start from Manila in time to reach Dinalupihan about 9 o’clock and the hacienda about ten, and, after lunch, to tramp across the mountains to Santa Rita during the afternoon ..."

Aetas served as their porters and mountain guides.

“In going overland to Olongapo, the trail beginning at Hacienda San Benito winds westward over the mountains and debouches in the outskirts of the town of Santa Rita. The trail involves a hike of about five hours. Going up the mountains, the trail follows Crooked river; going down on the other side it follows the Santa Rita river and dispenses it in the shallows of the ford. As soon as one is up the opposite bank, he encounters a village road which leads him to the corner, turns him to the right and leaves him at Gordon’s place [Gordon's Chicken Farm]. At this cabaret the traveller may bathe, wet his parched whistle, lunch, and order a motor car in which to drive to Olongapo.

"After lunch we motored to Olongapo, spent Sunday afternoon and evening there, until it was time to go aboard the ss Masbate, which sailed for Manila at 10 p.m. and, affording a night’s sleep in clean cots on the upper deck, landed us back in town [Manila] at 6:30 o’clock Monday. ...”

Not very many people could have commuted to Zambales this way.  The Yangco launches could have been more convenient especially for tradesmen who transferred goods from Manila to some towns in Pampanga, Bataan and Zambales, and cheaper for the young who had the privilege to study in Manila.  There were daily trips to Pampanga and Bataan towns on the rim of Manila Bay, and to Zambales ports on Tuesdays (Olongapo and Subic), Thursdays (Olongapo, Subic, San Antonio, San Narciso and Iba), and Sundays (Olongapo, Subic and San Antonio).  The launches to Olongapo left Manila by day and returned at night, and the fare was P5.70 one-way.

That old mountain trail could have been widened and macadamized before the second world war--hence, the zig-zag and hair-pin curves of the concrete road--bringing the end of the Yangco transport by sea.  One war story we heard was of the bombardment of the zigzag while the Japanese were escaping from the liberation forces that landed on the beach in San Narciso, Zambales.

For post-war babies like us, it was a long Victory Liner bus ride along the Zambales provincial road, up the Zambales-Bataan mountain pass, then down to the Bataan provincial road until it connected to the McArthur Highway in San Fernando, Pampanga.  We knew we're half the journey once we passed through the Apalit-Calumpit bridge, and a needed break in Malolos was at hand.  Food was not a problem though; hawkers boarded so often between Guagua and Malolos.  We certainly had excellent bladder control and we knew relief was coming shortly after the air was cleared of the smell of tanning leather in Meycauayan and of brewing malt in Polo, and one saw Bonifacio with his flag and bolo in Balintawak. Disembarking was at Grace Park, which everybody now refer to as Monumento.

Then came the first stretch of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) from Balintawak to Tabang, a distance undisturbed by the trademark Meycauayan and Polo 'scents', then further north to San Simon and/or San Fernando, which some years later interconnected to the Olongapo-Gapan road. 

We were never aware that there was a Hacienda San Benito in Dinalupihan.  When we became a conscious traveller, the Victory Liner buses were already stopping by Cleluz, where the drivers and conductors enjoyed complementary meals for bringing busloads of paying restaurant and foodstall customers.  It had always been fifteen minutes for comfort food, leg-stretching and a trip to the wash/restrooms.

Cleluz later became Double Happiness. Pundits would say 'Triple' Happiness if they did something more to ease a body discomfort in the restroom aside from using the urinal.  We remember that Cleluz was fiesta-noisy when two busloads of us workers in the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant disembarked for the balut, the barbeques and the comfort rooms.

Recently, the Subic-Cubi-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) opened and became an alternative to the Olongapo-Gapan road.  This time, Victory Liner gives travellers a short relief break at the Dau central terminal, or they can wait until they reach the Subic Bay Metropolitan Area (SBMA) or Olongapo City within thirty minutes.

Travelling to Zambales certainly is no longer a problem, time and comfort-wise.  With the SCTEX, the hassle at the busy hub of Sta Cruz, Lubao, Pampanga is already a part of history.

---------------

P.S.  The picture shows fisherfolks of La Paz, San Narciso, Zambales hauling in the net, commonly called daklis, where they get and share among themselves one third of the catch; the owner gets the rest.

References:


Kemlein, H. (1908). Kemlein & Johnson’s guide and map of Manila and vicinity; a handbook devoted to the interests of the travelling public. Manila:Kemlein &Johnson. Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/ahz9507.0001.001.

Robb, W. (1928, December). Olongapo: The Jewel of Subic Bay. The American Chamber of Commerce Journal. 8(12):5-7. Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/aaj0523.1928.001.

_______. (1928, December). Another Week-End Outing from Manila. The American Chamber of Commerce Journal. 8(12):7-8. Retrieved from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/aaj0523.1928.001.

Operation Tuli, The Rite of Summer

Hot months 2010 are just like any Philippine summer when fathers and mothers cajole their sons that now is the perfect time to go through that rite of passage (“it’s not that painful, sonny/anak/hijo!”) that lolo, tatay/father, kuya and every guy in the village/barangay/the whole archipelago, well, almost, went through in their own good time.

It’s possible that their boy may not even need any convincing at all. Because he’s come to need some bragging rights some classmates already have when he goes back to school next June: he’s been cut down there, and no longer suput. He wants his turn to bully too. These days, if he knows any better, and without peer and parental pressure, myths and superstition, and some cultural quirks to contend with, he may stop to ponder ala Hamlet – to be or not be cut! – and reason out with his father why he has to make a choice. Medical science has given him enough reasons to say no, I’d rather be suput all my life.

Unless he’s a Jew, and this reminds us of Joel Stein, Jewish writer/columnist of Time, contemplating if he’d rather defy tradition and not have his son circumcised by a modern-day mohel when he comes to this world. He got to know that there are pro- and anti-snipping groups like the Jews Against Circumcision, and that Nobel laureates Francis Crick and Jonas Salk petitioned the World Court to end circumcision! Stein says his son would not even get to be embarrassed with his foreskin intact all his life because in America, a lot of guys do not even know whether they’re cut or not anyway. Needless to say, he argued with his wife and lost!

Religion is out of the picture for Christians even if we know that Jesus the niño was brought to the mohel like any other male Jew, past or present, to be cut in a ceremony called Brit milah eight days after his birth. It’s obligatory under Jewish law ever since the day God commanded Abraham to circumcise himself, his son and slaves to seal their covenant (Genesis 17:9-14). The Roman Catholic Church used to commemorate the Feast of Circumcision of baby Jesus on the 1st of January, later on the first Saturday, more or less the 8th day from Christmas. Thus, it should not surprise if there were guys or even girls who were baptized as Circumcision because it looked like a saintly name in the calendar of yore for that particular day.

If he reads his Bible, any father should know that the New Testament already says Christians are no longer bound by the old laws. Acts 15 recalls the protests of the baptized converts (of course, Jewish) to the acceptance of the uncircumcised Gentiles to the new church, but the first church council in Jerusalem said circumcision is no longer a requirement. Paul had to state this position again in his letters to the Galatians (6:12-16) and the Philippians (3:2-3), as the issue kept hounding the early leaders as they proselytized among the Gentiles. The Romans and the Greeks abhorred getting cut.

It’s no wonder that when the Spanish colonizers started arriving after 1521, and with the missionaries chronicling their venture here in Yslas Filipinas, probably all of them uncut, the world got to peek behind the loincloths of the native people, who to their surprise and/or repulsion were circumcised. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (1569) tagged the Luzon people as Moro heathens who do not fully know their laws except ‘practicing circumcision and refraining from pork.’ Franciscan Pablo de Jesus (1582) wrote to Gregory XIII that the native men practiced circumcision ‘from of their relationship with the Mahometans of Borneo,’ and he found some who traced the custom ‘to their very own remote ancestors.’ Miguel de Loarca (1582) noted that the Pintados and the mountain people circumcise themselves ‘for their health and for cleanliness;’ he also found an abominable custom among the [Pintado] men of ‘bor(ing) a hole through the genital organ, placing within this opening a tin tube, to which they fasten a [tin] wheel like that of a spur, a full palm in circumference.’ 

Antonio de Morga (1609) said if Spain did not come earlier, Luzon could have completely fallen under the spell of the Mahometans of Borneo who traded with Manila and Tondo. Circumcision in Islam is without prescribed ceremony. Among the rich and the royals, there could be celebration and feasting. Cutting could be any time from infancy to adulthood. British William Dampier visited Mindanao in 1697, and he described the ceremony that accompanied the circumcision of the Sultan’s son, thus: 

"They circumcise the Males at 11 or 12 Years of Age, or older; and many are circumcised at once. This Ceremony is performed with a great deal of Solemnity ... They [chose] to have a general Circumcision when the Sultan, or General, or some other great Person hath a Son fit to be Circumcised; for with him a great many more are Circumcised. There is notice given about 8 or 10 Days before for all Men to appear in Arms, and great preparation is made against the solemn Day. In the Morning before the Boys are Circumcised, Presents are sent to the Father of the Child, that keeps the Feast; which, as I said before, is either the Sultan, or some great Person: and about 10 or 11 a Clock the Mahometan Priest does his Office. He takes hold of the fore-skin with two Sticks, and with a pair of Scissors snips it off. After this most of the Men, both in City and Country being in Arms before the House, begin to act as if they were [engaged] with an Enemy, having such Arms as I described. Only one acts at a time, the rest make a great Ring of 2 or 300 Yards round about him ... He holds his broad Sword in one Hand, and his Lance in the other, and traverses his Ground, leaping from one side of the Ring to the other; and in a menacing posture and look, bids defiance to the Enemy, whom his Fancy frames to him; for there is nothing but Air to oppose him ... At last, being almost tired with motion, he flies to the middle of the Ring, where he seems to have his Enemy at his Mercy, and with two or three blows cuts on the Ground as if he was cutting off his Enemy's Head. By this time he is all of a Sweat, and withdraws triumphantly out of the Ring, and presently another enters with the like shrieks and gesture. Thus they continue combating their imaginary Enemy all the rest of the Day: towards the conclusion of which the richest Men act, and at last the General, and then the Sultan concludes this Ceremony ... "

We can say then that our rite of circumcision goes back to ancestors who got influenced by the ‘Mahometans’ from Borneo. The uncut missionaries and the later ones who came cut (American Columbans, for example) did not give this a bother. After all, the Pinoy did not give it religious significance, doing it only for social and hygienic reasons. He was more concerned with who’s the cutter, what’s the method, and therefore, the style.

In the old hometown, unless one was brought to a doctor, or to the Puericulture Center, in our time, and their equivalents today from Batanes to Tawi-tawi, any boy would enter manhood through any of four cutting methods described by Generoso S. Maceda in 1935:

"Tuli sa batakan.-The operator provides a polished piece of wood preferably a guava tree branch, carved and flattened at one end. The length is about 1, ft. One end of it is driven into the ground at the same elevation as that of the penis when the one to be operated squats on his thighs. The foreskin or the prepuce of the penis is then drawn to the flat point of the erected apparatus called the batakan. The operator also in a squatting position, picks up the knife with one hand and places it lengthwise on the surface of the drawn foreskin. With a stick on the other hand he gives a sharp blow. If he does not succeed in the first blow he gives the second until he exposes the head of the penis."

"Tuli sa itak.-A well-sharpened bolo (itak) is provided for this operation. The point of the bolo is inserted lengthwise between the prepuce and the head of the penis while the handle drops to the ground. Both the operator and the one to be operated are in a squatting position. With the left hand of the operator drawing the prepuce on the edge of the bolo towards him, he strikes the prepuce with a piece of banana leaf petiole in his right hand until he succeeds in exposing the head of the penis. Medicine is applied, the wound dressed, and the operation is finished."

"Tuli sa gunting.-A pair of sharp scissors (gunting) is necessary for this method. One point of the scissors is inserted through the opening of the prepuce. Then the prepuce is stretched lengthwise on the edge with one hand and with the other slitting is accomplished. The wound is treated, dressed, and the process is over."

"Tuli sa bao.-This method is an imitation of the Chinese way of circumcising their boys. It is commonly known as tuling intsik. Of all the mutilations described above this is the most sacrificial one because above all, the wound is circular in nature and besides the time needed in healing is quite long, for the cut borders of the prepuce could hardly be kept together as they are not sutured. The instruments needed are a polished coconut shell (bao) with a hole in the center and a razor. The prepuce is inserted through the hole and is stretched forward so that the head of the penis rests behind the hole of the shell. The victim holds the shell firmly with his two hands, while the circumciser with his hand holding the stretched prepuce amputates it crosswise. The wound is treated and dressed and the person is considered circumcised."

We think the tuli sa bao would be equivalent to the modern-day clamp and scissor - the German cut - where nothing of the foreskin remains, and the Pinoy would carry a Nazi head between his legs forever!

These days, anti-circumcision advocates look at babies cut at birth as mutilated, their human rights violated so very early on. That’s the reason why the strong movement for parents to let their sons make the choice later on in life.

For us who got German cut, losing the tip of the foreskin apparently is a loss of the most sensitive parts of our organ, more sensitive than the ‘most sensitive area of the circumcised penis’ (Sorrells, M. et al, 2007). We also lost about “about one-half of the erogenous tissue on [our] penile shaft [because] the foreskin [that] protects the head of the penis and is comprised of unique zones with several kinds of specialized nerves ... important to optimum sexual sensitivity” (Taylor, J., etal, 1996).

The issue about high incidence of infections and cancer among the uncircumcised has already been debunked. Cleanliness and hygiene are personal concerns. We have not heard women who have uncut partners raise a howl.

So, can we now give young boys in our families the pros and cons of getting cut, and let them make the choice as they grow up? That would spare Pinoys in America additional health expense, and forget about making it an excuse for a balikbayan visit.  Down with Operation Tuli! -◊◊-

 
References:
 
Blair, E.H. & Robertson, J.A. (1905). The Philippine Islands 1493-1898. 3:54-61 (Legazpi, M.L.); 5:34-187 (Loarca, M.); 7:64-78 (Salazar, D.); 16:25-210 (Morga, A.); 21:111-318 (San Nicolas, A., Jesus, L., & Concepcion, J.); 34:316-324 (Jesus, P., O.S.F.); 39:21-120 (Dampier, W.); 50:37-98 (Colin, F., S.J.), 99-182 (Combes, F., S.J.), 183-296 (San Agustin, G., O.S.A.), 296-374 (San Antonio, J.F., O.S.F.), 43:103-112 (Ortiz, T., O.S.A.) and 51:277-324 (Appendix). Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Company. Available from the University of Michigan Digital Library Collection ‘The United States and its Territories 1870-1925: The Age of Imperialism.’

Maceda, G. S. (1935, Dec). Some methods of circumcision in the Philippines. The Philippine Journal of Science. 58(4). 513-517. URL http://name.umdl.umich.edu/ACT3868.0058.001 in the University of Michigan DL Collection.

Sorrells, M. et al (2007) & Taylor. J. et al (1996). Cited in Recent Medical Studies on Circumcision of the Circumcision Resource Center at http://www.circumcision.org/index.htm.

Illustrations from Maceda (1935).