4/18/06

Holy Week 2006 Photo Albums

Cenaculo staged at the church patio last 12 April 2006 (Wednesday). Click on the following links for more photos of the Holy Week 2006 taken by Felipe Fruto Ll. Ramirez, SJ:
[1] Domingo de Ramos; [2] Miercules Santo; [3] Viernes Santo; [4] Soledad; [5] Domingo de Pascua; [6] Images of Baao; [7] Medical Mission

4/16/06

Requiem for the Dead at the Battle of Agdangan

In memory I was a fool deceived by
flighty passions and arrogant dreams.
Running with charlatans in uniforms
reveling in brave talk of revolution.
So marched I to the clangor of battle
death calls dressed in bold adventure

The sun must rise in the east, they say,
bring a fiery sunrise to this doomed land
where flowers never bloom and flourish
on infertile fields undisturbed by graves,
mourned and unlamented by our tears.
Water and till it with blood to let it live?

Content then I was already of my rest,
glad of my lot and place seeking only
that the land enfold me with abundance
as I pay it my love and constant labor
following the ways of my ancestors
in this land of kindness and beauty.

Fate inevitably revealed trumpet calls
from ominous clouds from the west
threatening to lay waste my fields
where my hand had lovingly borne
seeds from my table and flowers bloom
on land once laid bare and unsown.

Banners bloodied beneath Simurai
at the stairway to clouds we battened
against the intruder overwhelming
with pen, paper, bullets and Krags.
I stood with teeth and fist and fought,
‘until shot and blades our belly opened

Is there not valor in simply to love?
To clasp and embrace what is dear.
Isn’t courage a fight for lost causes?
for treasured but long lost freedoms,
for struggles to grow strong and better
for that end-greatness was our quest.

To see in my land, my children beloved
warmed soft by gold, glowing sunbeams,
running free in the fields of the fallen
over grass blown by unfettered wind,
on earth held not by might and power,
but by those who loved and tilled her.

Memory die away lost to the grave,
words, deeds finally pass and fade
So, stranger by the road, recall then
that day that I lost all, but saw at last
my sunrise, my grass green and warm
as I fell at the Battle of Agdangan.


P.B. Robosa

4/7/06

The Museum of Baaoeño Memory

Name and Address
The Museum will be called "Museum of Baaoeño Memory/Museo ng Pang-alalang Baaoeño/Museo kan Pangiromdom Baaoeño/ Museo kin Pangrorom Taga Baao. It is located at the Second Floor of the Coop Building of St. Monica Academy, Baao, Camarines Sur.
Organizational Structure
The museum will be a joint project of the St. Monica Academy and the SMA Alumni Association with a continuity clause that it will be maintained by the Spirit of 78/82 with Mr. Paulix Robosa as its Curator even if the batch is no longer the SMAAA host. SMA shall provide the site of the museum and The Spirit of 78/82 through Mr. Paulix Robosa as volunteer curator will undertake the duties of such position for the proper operation and maintenance of the same. The curator will organize appropriate activities for the promotion of Baaoeño arts and culture and will link with appropriate government agencies for grants and other sources of funds.
Museum Objectives
1. The collection and exhibition of Baaoeñana materials and artifacts i.e photographs, historical and cultural documents, literature, visual art works.
2. The promotion of Baaoeño arts and culture through occasional exhibits featuring museum collection and Baaoeño artists and artworks.
3. The acquisition of archival materials regarding Baao and its people from sources all over the Philippines and the world, and to make them available to students and researchers.
Tentative Dates of Opening
June 29,2006/August 23, 2006/ December 8, 2006

4/5/06

Another Poem by Luis G. Dato

Day In the Farm
by Luis G. Dato


I’ve found you fruits of sweetest taste and found you
Bunches of duhat growing by the hill,
I’ve bound your arms and hair with vine and bound you
With rare wild flowers but you are crying still.


I’ve brought you all the forest ferns and brought you
Wrapped in green leaves cicadas singing sweet,
I’ve caught you in my arms an hour and taught you
Love’s secret where the mountain spirits meet.

Your smiles have died and there is no replying
To all endearments and my gifts are vain;
Come with me, love, you are too old for crying,
The church bells ring and I hear drops of rain.

4/1/06

Projects: Agdangan & Dato Monuments

Our projects are receiving quite an attention, from an e-mail of a Baaoeno expatrate living in the U.S. who heard about the project in Agdangan, I sent the following reply:

"The project at Agdangan has taken years to evolve, It's started when I researched an unrecorded battle that took place there and it's called The Battle of Agdangan. This research was given an award by the National Historical Institute ( if you looked around my house, the large painting I had on the wall depicts this battle) For a while, the Municipio and I commemorated it every February 25 instead of the Edsa revolution which falls on the same day. This commemoration was forgotten because of changes in local politics and also because it was confused with the Massacre of Agdangan which is an entirely different event and falls on October 17. I hesitated requesting an official marker from the NHI (although they already agreed) because we still have no official site to place the future marker. So to make this happen (This would make Baao again as a historic site) and to stop the confusion between the "Battle" and the "Massacre" we decided to put a Monument commemorating this two events with two markers one for each said event. The monument will be called "The Monument of the Victorious Fallen" with the statue of the an Angel of Victory between two walls at right angles forming a "V". On one hand she holds a sword to indicate the Battle of Agdangan marker, on the other hand she holds a torch for the Massacre marker. Both markers will be placed on the wall/leaves of the "V". The Barangay council of Agdangan has already designated a place and it is supported by the Mayor and we placed a tentative date for the inauguration on October 17, 2006, the 62nd anniversary of the Massacre of Agdangan. We estimate the monument to cost around 1,000 dollars."

About the Barlin Centennial, we're at the one month countdown. We're now preparing the Program and making list for those to be invited as participants, feel free to make suggestions. The mayor was about to start constructing the marker except for some last minute consultations with Tyong Tiday who needs to ask permission to the owner of the lot. Anyway everything came out positively except for this minor delay and he asks for some modifiactions on the marker which we are having made now. We would like to have him play a major role in our unveiling of the Luis G. Dato monument sometime in July, so we have informed him about this because he was one of those who organized a testimonial for the late poet when he was alive.

Thank you. Paulix Robosa