‘Adeste Fidelis’
“O, come, all ye faithful, glorious and triumphant…” as four days from today, we shall once again observe the coming of the Lord as a Little Babe in a manger in Bethlehem.
Last Monday at dawn, we, in the Philippines, began the tradition of the Misa de Gallo, the early morning novena Masses at cock’s crow, in preparation for Christmas Day.
And here in Cebu City, our Archbishop Jose Palma led off with celebrating a well-attended Mass at the Archbishop’s Palace. Christmas this year, as in that first Christmas Eve, comes in the troubled wake not only of natural but also of human turmoil.
So this Bystander-ing week, we share with you more of our activities with local civic and, mostly, women’s organizations.
Dec. 12th last week, we of Zonta Clubs of Cebu I and II in a joint meeting, viewed a video presentation of our successful fund-raising cultural activity and the awards we received in our current major thrust against human trafficking.
Then, Saturday, the 14th, this Bystander spent the day between our Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) Cebu Council’s Handog sa Pasko 2013, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the SM City Cebu Event Center, and the Women’s Kapihan, which I host from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. over radio station dyLA at their studios in Pier I every second Saturday of the month.
At the Handog’s colorful cultural contests, we awarded the following first prize winners. For the choral elementary, Pardo Elementary, Cebu City South District 2; choral secondary, Mandaue City School for the Arts; ukelele elementary, Canjulao Elementary Lapu-Lapu City West; rondalla elementary, Pardo Elementary, Cebu City South District 2; rondalla secondary, Pardo National High School; dance elementary, Mabolo Elementary, Cebu City North District 4; and dance secondary, Argao Community Scouts, Argao I.
For our Cebu GSP Fund Development, Christmas Queen ‘13 was Camella Trinidad; Christmas Princess ’13 was Amor Singh. For our GSP Fund Drive ’13 Draw results, five major and 10 consolation prizes were awarded.
The annual GSP Handog sa Pasko is both a cultural and fund-raising activity for our Cebu Council’s members’ Girl Scout personal and character-building activities to be tomorrow’s active community women, leaders and citizens. Congratulations, all!
And now for our monthly Women’s Kapihan last Saturday, Dec. 14th. Our topic for discussion was more on Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC), and the 18-day Campaign to End Violence Against Women observed from Nov. 27th through Dec. 12th last week. To remind us, VAWC refers to “any act or a series of acts committed by any person against a woman who is (a man’s) wife, former wife, or against any woman with whom the person has had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a common child, or against her child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, within or without the family abode.” Forms of VAW include physical, sexual and psychological, as well as economic abuse.
Of our panelists, including Cebu Women’s Network (CWN) officers, and board and regular members, CWN treasurer Malyn Paradero shared her recent activities with the Tabuelan, Cebu –Tokyo Model Payag project of our CWN and the Cebu Rotary Club, which chose Tabuelan for their work. Her talk was aided with a video presentation of their work in the supertyphoon ravaged town of Tabuelan, with the barangay members bereft with their dead and their mass graves. For their help, Tabuelan extended their thanks for the aid of central Cebu civic workers.
We learned that the recently organized 18-day Philippine campaign against Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) highlighted Nov. 25th as International Day against VAW, and the 29th as International Women Human Rights Defenders Day; Dec. 1st as World Aids day, the 3rd as International Day of persons with disability, the 10th as International Human rights Day, and the 12th as World Anti-Trafficking in Persons Day. And that this year’s theme of the activity is “End VAW Now! It’s Our Duty!”
The panel discussion included how far we have gone in the elimination of VAWC, have our laws and ordinances passed helped improve the status of women in our society, and particularly in Cebu, how effective was the 18-day campaign to end VAWC?
Our Bystander-ing next week will include reports on our Cebu GSP Council’s board meeting last Tuesday, and the launching last Wednesday of Erlinda Kintanar-Alburo’s book, “Romancing with Words: the Life and Works of Greg M. Mercado (1919 – 1967)”, at which I was invited to deliver a short talk on my working with Greg at Cebu’s pioneer Radio Station dyRC.
Until next week, then, may God bless us, one and all, with a joyous Christmas!
