A month of remembrance
Today, 40 years ago, Ferdinand Marcos officially declared martial law with Proclamation No. 1081 dated Sept. 21, 1972. We broadcast the news over dyRC, Cebu’s premier radio station, where I was then working as a broadcaster since it opened on Sept. 21, 1947, exactly 25 years before. We did not understand what the proclamation implied, until it was actually implemented two days later on Sept. 23rd with the closing of the station together with other stations all over the country.
And then there was broadcast and other media silence as well for a time, until things returned to a changed order. And today, 40 years later, a robust media will be remembering what the country had gone through then.
So significantly now, in the week starting last Sept. 16th through tomorrow, the 22nd, Cebu media celebrates the 18th Cebu Press Freedom Week. It was launched with a Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Carmelo Diola last Sunday. He reminded media practitioners of the special role entrusted to them by God, to contribute to the development of the Philippines as a democratic country, “that developing democratic space requires a religious context.”
The Cebu Press Freedom Week calendar of events includes, after the opening parade, professional gatherings of media executives, as well various media practitioners, educational fora, recognition and awarding of outstanding media performers for their works and activities, and not to forget, social gatherings for bonding and cooperative activities.
Last Monday night, I was invited to the Opening Fellowship Party at the City Sports Club with the theme, “Christmas in September.” It was a fun party, with Christmasy presentations by Christmas decor-bedecked groups and prizes for all.
When I came in earlier, I was glad to see our Cebu Daily News publisher and editor in chief Eileen Mangubat who went in with me but had to leave later to return to the newsroom to finish work.
Among the numerous tables, I chose to join The Freeman’s Flor Ynclino, Dr. Nestor Alonso, Joe Recio and Carlos Cinco, who later on chose to join in some of the merrymaking. As a true Bystander, I chose to sit and watch the fun going on. Bobby Nalzaro was table hopping, greeting colleagues and friends. I also was glad to see Nini Cabaero of Sun.star.
A sumptuous dinner was laid out on a buffet table. There were prizes galore in cash and in kind for performing groups, and raffle prizes as well. The fun lasted until after midnight. When it broke up, I was ready to take a taxi with my accompanying helper, but Choy Torralba, who resides in Guadalupe, offered to drive us home in his car, God bless him! Choy is a long-time media colleague whom I remember knowing first when he participated in some media activities at station dyLA
And now, as media currently reports, with the Middle East particularly troubled today, Pope Benedict XVI went on a three-day visit last weekend to Lebanon, a country with the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East. There he appealed for religious freedom in the Middle East, “calling it fundamental for stability” in a region bloodied by sectarian strife. Speaking to government officials, foreign diplomats and religious leaders in the presidential palace in Mount Lebanon in the southern suburbs of Beirut, he held up Lebanon, still rebuilding from a recent devastating civil war fought on sectarian lines, as an example of co-existence in the region.
I watched on television his Sunday Mass on Beirut’s Mediterranean seafront attended by 350,000 worshippers and leaders of Lebanon’s Christian and Muslim communities. He said, “May God grant to your country, to Syria, and to the Middle East, the gift of peaceful hearts, the silencing of weapons, and the cessation of violence.”
Here in the Philippines, also this week, Eid’l Fitr, the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast, marked the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan. It is a time of forgiving, and thanksgiving among Muslims as they strengthen ties with family and friends, give gifts and alms, and feast together.
Then here in Cebu last Friday, a week ago, novena Masses for Our Lady (“Ina”) of Peñafrancia, patroness of Bicolandia, began at the Capitol Parish Church on Escario Street. The Masses will be held until tomorrow, September 22nd, to be followed by the Fiesta Mass on the 23rd, to be celebrated by Bicolano priests.
The Fiesta holds special memories for me because my late mother, a Bicolana devotee from Naga (now a city), would tell me stories about Our Lady of Peñafrancia including Her fluvial procession on the Naga River on the way to Her Basilica Minore. When I could eventually got to visit Naga, I visited Her image in church there, remembering my mother’s loving stories about Her.
And now, we look forward to the forthcoming canonization ceremonies for Blessed Pedro Calungsod. Very little is known about him. He was reportedly Bisaya. At 14, he went with some Jesuit priests as missionaries to Guam. Three years later, he and Blessed Diego Luis de San Victores were killed by angry natives.
He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000, and will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on Oct. 21st this year in Rome in a ceremony attended by a vast entourage of Filipinos, among others.
Back to today, Sept. 21st, we of the Cebu Council of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines are holding our third executive council committee meeting at our headquarters in Banilad, under our newly elected council president Ida Yting.
Till next week then, as always, may God continue to bless us, one and all!
