The fountain and a dream
Fuente Osmeña will turn 100 tomorrow. It is almost painful to see how insignificant the celebrations are today compared to that fateful afternoon of Feb. 17, 1912. It took no less than Gov. Gen. William Cameron Forbes and the young Speaker of the Philippine Assembly, Sergio Osmeña Sr., together with a retinue of officials from Manila as well as from the municipality and province of Cebu, to turn on the faucet that marked the provision of potable water to households for the first time in the then-municipality of Cebu.
Earlier in the day, they inspected Buhisan Dam, the source of the fountain’s water. The dam’s water, flowing through the Tisa Filter Plant, was tested on Feb. 13, 1912 (hence the confusion that Fuente turned 100 last Monday) to make sure that the pipes that had been laid out could withstand the pressure.
The formal inauguration of the fountain was a different matter, and if you watch my “Kabilin” episode on the dam and fountain, you would see pictures of a large crowd dressed in the formal all-white paja attire of the period gathered near the fountain. If one also reads James Halsema’s biography of his father, E.J. Halsema, builder of the dam and fountain, you would read into the extreme significance of both to the health, security and well-being of Cebuanos. From then on, Fuente was also the venue of the Cebu Carnivals—in fact one can surmise that this annual event was born immediately after this fountain was built, for there was no carnival or agro-industrial fair to speak of with such magnitude before then.
Today, not even a National Historical Marker is installed in either of these two, despite the fact that they would have very much qualified, and the task of obtaining these from the National Historical Commission would have been extremely easy, given so much documentation available. The Cebu City Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission should have applied for these. They should have also requested Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to overprint the still-extant 50-peso New Generation currency notes that bear Osmeña’s portrait as well as that of the fountain itself with a slogan and a corresponding logo announcing the centennial. BSP does this for centennial events like the one for the University of the Philippines in 2008 and the quadricentennial of the University of Sto. Tomas last year. Even the New Generation Series II P50 notes, which alas no longer carry the fountain on its design, can also be overprinted in the same manner.
All is not lost, however, as we are still in the early months of 2012. I sincerely hope that CHAC will begin the steps to ensure that both dam and fountain get the national historical recognition they so richly deserve.
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Watch “Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria” at SM Cinema, part of the Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival. Directed by the young, award-winning director Remton Zuasola, this film is an adaptation of a written work by Ma. Victoria “Bambi” Beltran. The film won the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Music in the 2011 Gawad Urian for its highly engaging plot and cinematography. Remton Zuasola, who directs episodes of my “Kabilin” show on SugboTV when he is not busy with other projects, has once again wowed the jurors with this magnum opus.
I first heard of Remton when I chanced upon his award-winning short film “To Siomai Love” as I was busy excavating in Boljoon town when he came over to shoot some other short film there. Donna Isadora Gimeno, who topbilled “To Siomai Love,” returns to this full-length film to play the young Eleuteria, who is about to leave for Germany to marry an older guy. Set amid the Baliw-Baliw Fiesta in Olango Island, the movie juxtaposes the imagery of the baliw (idiot/fool) and the life-changing choice that is about to overturn an otherwise simple life ahead of Eleuteria. Emotionally moving yet at times funny (due largely to the antics of her anxious father, played by Gregg Tecson), this film has once again exposed Remton’s genius at experimentation, shooting the entire film from start to finish continuously (no cuts) using just one camera! This is one major work filmmakers and film students alike will be talking for years to come.
Congratulations to Remton and the entire “Eleuteria” cast and crew!
