The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) wants young Filipinos all over the country to take the lead in promoting, protecting and conserving cultural heritage.
Ave! I speak this word, thick with meaning and emotion, in honor of my very good, no, my very great friend, Minyong Ordoñez. To others, HGO. To some, Mr. O. Or simply, Minyong.
John P. Delaney, SJ—I first saw Fr. John P. Delaney, SJ, in 1949 at the Padre Faura campus, still war-torn amid rubbles caused by American bombings in 1945.
At the start of the American regime, a young ilustrado named Pio Gozo from Majayjay, Laguna, married Eugenia Estella, a comely village girl from barrio San Isidro. Thus our Gozo family tree took root.
On Feb. 2, 1936 ON a cold and foggy morning, I was born in a farmhouse at the foot of Mt. Banahaw in Laguna.
I first saw my stepfather-to-be in 1942, when I was eight, during the Japanese time. He was attending the town fiesta of Majayjay. I saw him approaching on our pathway, dressed in clothes I’d never seen.
“Ayyy! Kanduleee! Biyaaa! Dulooong!” THIS hawking singsong was heard aloud in the streets of Majayjay daily, except Sundays and Mondays. The hawking sound belonged to Ka Tinay, my fish vendor friend, when I was growing up in the 1940s and ’50s.
In Majayjay, the music played at funerals was unusual and unforgettable. The sound was a cross between a dirge and a kundiman, with a touch of jazz in between.
I was taken aback when Duardo told me that Eking had joined the Huks. In 1948, Duardo, Eking and I were barefoot boys growing up in Bulac-Bulac, Majayjay, Laguna. I was 12 and in Grade 6; Duardo was 13, an errand boy and school dropout; and Eking was 15, another school dropout whose days were spent working as maghahakot using his workhorse during farm harvests.
The sight took my breath away. It was drops of blood of Gen. Emilio Jacinto who was wounded in 1899 in the battle of Maimpis river in Majayjay, Laguna.
