Delayed Flights

(Mr. Eli Cinco wrote about Calbayog in his column for yesterday's edition of the Manila Bulletin. Please Chech this link. I have also featured the whole article in today's blog update)

CALBAYOG CITY – This metropolis of almost 200,000 inhabitants is sort of a blessed place. It faces the calm Samar Sea to the west which is abundant in marine life, and to the east are low-lying hills and fruitful fields fertile to every variety of rice, coconut, and vegetables.

(I’m here on my semi-annual visit to the place of my birth.)

"Who cares about shortage of NFA rice, we don’t eat it anyway," says Ricardo Sagrado, gentle and healthy-looking peddler of variety of plastic toys, hawking his wares round the periphery of tree-adorned Nijaga Park. Popular Manila fast-food chain outlets are just across the park.

Calbayog is the birth place of many exceptionally talented people who have achieved national prominence in virtually all fields of professions and vocations, earning it a catchphrase, the Talent Bank City. I will mention some of them in subsequent columns. The late playwright Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero who taught English and drama during summer classes at the revered Colegio de San Vicente de Paul in the mid-1950s, complimented: "Calbayognons are such gifted people. They are so talented."

Back to present-day realities: The most persistent complaints are those coming from traders, employees, and visitors who take round-trip flights on board the recently opened PAL Express and the mainstay Asian Spirit. Passengers are aghast over the airlines’ abrupt cancellation of flights, as well as delayed flights.

"We’ve lost business opportunities, mainly because of those irritants which the airline companies seem to take lightly," says Gertie Capistrano who owns a manning firm in Manila.

I sympathize with those businessmen. I myself was a victim of those erratic scheduling of PAL Express. My flight coming here last September 4 was supposed to take off from the new NAIA Terminal-3 at 5:50 a.m.

Following their expressed instructions where domestic passengers are to check-in 2 ½ hours before scheduled departure, I did so even earlier – at 3:15 a.m. But the problem was there was nobody from PAL Express to appreciate my punctuality. All counters were devoid of personnel, compared to those of Cebu Pacific across which were a beehive of activities.

Then at exctly 4:15 a.m., three still-sleepy check-in counter clerks, one was a cashier, took their places. They were 55 minutes late.

My boarding pass said my departure gate was No. 131, another foul-up. Calbayog- bound passengers, said a voice from the PA system, were to wait at Gate No. 132. Okay at this point. Then a girl at a movable counter who also came in late said our plane would be delayed for 30 minutes because "they are still servicing the plane." Servicing? Not a few yawning passengers asked.

Finally, we were bussed to a nearby apron where other PAL Express planes were parked awaiting irrate passengers. Our flight No. PR 91 took off at 7:08 a.m., a delay of one hour and 18 minutes.

Arriving in Calbayog Sabang Airport at 8:20 a.m., I missed a jeepney to the town of Gandara which I would have taken, but it left earlier, to visit an aging maternal uncle.

The irony of it all was, that delayed flight on September 4 to Calbayog had PAL VIPs on board.
Plane Always Late? Back to the old sarcastic derision of the PAL acronym? There’s a newer interpretation – "Pirme Atrasado an Lupad." One does not have to be a Waray to understand what this means.

‘Our Lady’s Nativity’

(Mr. Eli Cinco wrote devoted his column for today's edition of the Manila Bulletin to the Calbayog fiesta celebration. He gave me permission to feature the said column in this blog. Check this link. If it doesn't work, do read the whole article featured below)

CALBAYOG CITY – The Parish of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, patroness of this city, is celebrating the 316th annual observance of "Our Lady’s Nativity" today. This religious event is the centerpoint of the feast day that is commemorated by one of the earliest parishes in Eastern Visayas or what is administratively known as Region 8.

A fiesta event like today's basically a religious event. So all the major activities starting with the nine-day novena last August 30 which ended yesterday, and the feast day proper today are spearheaded by parish clergy officials and supported by the parish pastoral council composed of lay people.

The highlight of the commemoration is the concelebrated High Mass at 9 this morning, with Most Reverend Isabelo C. Abarquez, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of Calbayog as main celebrant and homilist. His con-celebrants are diocesan, religious clergy and visiting priests which normally number around 20. The mass itself ordinarily lasts one hour and forty-five minutes, incorporating the homily, sermon proper, offering of sponsors and city officials, and other relevant hymnal ceremonies.

Rev. Fr. Julio Gaddi and Fr. Anthony Mahinay are masters of ceremonies.

The concelebrated high mass is always looked up to by parishioners, visitors from Manila, balikbayans, and guests from various parishes and dioceses of Region 8.

It is held at the cavernous St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, a huge cathedral with five altars (its main altar with a high retablo easily measuring 50 feet in height) cross-designed that can easily accommodate more than two thousand sitting worshippers. Its interiors have been given a fresh coat of paint by the feast day sponsors.

This year’s feast day sponsors are cousins and normally they share all expenses incurred during the fortnight celebration, the snacks for novena reciters, flower decoration of altars, the wherewithals during the procession, and concededly the most lavished of all is the dinner and entertainment for "hermanas pasadas" (past sponsors), visiting Calbayognons from Manila and abroad. It is said that expenses for all these activities could easily run up to half-a-million pesos.
Sponsors are prepared to shoulder all the costs, not only because they are financially capable, but because of their "saad" (pledge or "panata" to Tagalogs) to the Blessed Patroness. It is tacitly confirmed that the patroness reciprocates by helping the sponsors with spiritual upliftment, peace of mind and enhanced family relationships.

On the other hand, the city government is just as enthusiastic staging the civic participation in the celebration. Civic and corporate establishments do their share in enlivening up the two-week celebrations.

Focal point of the civic affairs is the staging of the famous "Sarakiki" festival and parade. This costumed and choreographed presentation with a cast of more than 100, has been winning accolades and prizes in street dancing competitions in Manila, Cebu and Tacloban. It is one of the native cultural achievements of City Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento who has a number of citations and acknowledgements given him by the Department of Tourism.

Other cultural fronts that attract hundreds of onlookers are the Hadang 2008, a potpourri of musical and stage productions. It was staged last Friday at the fastidiously decorated Nijaga Park.

Already an institution, in one way or the other, is the holding of Anyag beauty and brains competition annually undertaken by civic clubs. Anyag is an old Calbayog waray term for beauty or radiance. Pretty young girls from various high schools and colleges in Samar (Western) eagerly vie for the title the grand-winner of which receives cash prize, trophy and other valuable rewards. Runners-up also receive cash and worthy items.

Proclaimed as this year’s Miss Anyag Friday night was a college girl of 18-years from Catbalogan, the capital town of the province.

Calbayog has a population of almost 198,000, but for the past week that figure has doubled, what with the influx of well-wishers, visitors, guests from everywhere, including nearby island towns, highway towns and even from the southern areas of Masbate.