A poem by P.B. Robosa

Grandpa and the Gabi


Grandpa cooks and eats every
part of the gabi,
savors each kind in any cooking,
consuming the roots, the stems
up to the best part,
the large waterproof leaves.
I even saw him enjoying
the fragrance of the gabi flowers.
He patiently rolls the young leaves
into cylinders and ties them
with the stem and before the rice cooks,
steams them over its surface,
later adding shrimp paste and masticating
each singularity of the plant
with his fingers
down to its very core.
I, his grandson laughs
at his innocent, frugal folly.
Stems and discarded leaves cover my plate--
I doubt the parts are edible.
I, his grandson was not yet old enough
to eat like a goat.
I will grow up in a world
tired of nibbling at the leaves
and fears the bite of the acid beneath
and throws the plant away.
Maybe I will be one to retrieve
the rejected plant from the garden,
patiently tear the leaves to small pieces,
and discover its distinct forgotten taste.

A poem by P.B. Robosa

Keeping Time

My grandmother never had much,
slender frame and thin gray hair
sang old lullabies and danced
through afternoon siestas
and wiled away time playing cards.
I still remember her calloused fingers
as she puffed on the senorita
toward her chest and out again,
watching time’s rhythm
with the melodies from the old radio
and fresh wind from the window.
I remember how she used to put pillows
on her lap for my afternoon naps.
Nothing felt better than drifting
to sleep wrapped in one of grandma's hands,
listening to her cracked, aged voice
singing, "sleep, oh, baby."
So warm, I thought I would never feel cold
again.

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

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

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

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.

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

Wartime Photo of Baao #2

The other picture of Baao which Harold L. Brodhead took was the Catholic parish church. For this photo he wrote a simple caption: 'Baao, Philippine Islands - Baao Church'. Note the fence with huge balustrades around the patio. The old convento which was destroyed by fire in 1966 is partly visible in the picture. And so is the grotto of Lourdes. The neo-baroque facade of the church with its twin belfry is a pre-war (1920s) construction, but the thick walls made of lime and ladrillos originate from the Spanish era. See more of Harold's Wartime Photos published in the internet.

Wartime Photo of Baao #1

Harold Laubach Brodhead (b. 1924 and d. 1959) from New Jersey was a technician 5th grade of the 158^th Infantry “Bushmasters”. He partici- pated in the liberation campaign of Luzon (15 Dec 1944 - 4 July 1945). While passing through Baao he took this picture and wrote the following caption: '1945 Baao, Philippine Islands, Flips and carts, many lived in the carts and toured the islands.' "Flips!" - that was how the American soldiers condescendingly called the Filipinos. Harold was obviously misinformed about the use of the carreta. After the war he joined the occupation forces in Yokohama, Japan. See more of Harold's Wartime Photos published in the internet.

Poems about BAAO by P.B. Robosa

Rignos Waves

From the window pane
rice fields stretch and shimmer
westward slivers a path
out of gaze along the winding vale.
Ancient farmers gave names
to winds from certain places
with a sense of the invisible
that I first felt and remembered
Sea from the blue sky,
thousands of sparrows dappled its face
I didn't know that there
was a word for life's desires
To leap out of itself
Now looking down and
swooping past my window
and I stand still in wonder.


Around My House


To the east sits steady
Ki Agang’s throne
A splendid blue volcano
where the sun slips in at dawn

The south sprawls a cacophony
of people, friends and kin
clump of trees and concrete
to lose cares in the busy din.

The vast north open boundless
where soothing breeze begin
and Simurai skims the clouds
and the road to dreams open

Sunsets to the west bodes peace
and balmy tranquility sleeps
at Baao lake where my people began
with God’s glory, grandeur, and gifts.

At Barlin Park

Summers end at Barlin park
beneath St. Bartholomew’s
I’d climb the stone bulwark
slippery and wet with dew
and see the town anew

then I would jump free
to the soft grass below
on scraped hands and knee
as others would follow
and roll away triumphantly

and the monkey bars will call
and we clamber up the device
arm over arm we’d crawl
through a gauntlet of pipes
till at last our breath sufficed

no one remembered home
and we wished for the rain
scanning the clouds that roam
as we cleared the grass of grain
where last summer we had lain

come at last the first raindrops
from skies turning grey and dim
I’d close my eyes to the drops
till water reach grass tips rim
and lift me off a carpet of green

The Death & Burial of Msgr. Jorge Barlin

The original Spanish article was published in the review El Santisimo Rosario, vol. XXIV (1909) p. 722; English translation by Felipe Fruto Ll. Ramirez, SJ.

The Illustrious Msgr. Jorge Barlin Imperial
Dominican tertiary, first native bishop of the Philippines

In this Review, we said something about the life of this renown prelate, a Dominican tertiary, who had lived defending us and died loving us. Now we shall say something about his death in order to mourn him and beg our readers to pray for his soul.

The illustrious Filipino prelate was not yet old. He was born in Baao on April, 1850. He was every bit a ‘Spaniard’ and a Dominican. He was consecrated bishop of Nueva Caceres on June 1906. When he came to Rome in May of this year 1909, for the purpose of making an ad limina visit, he became grievously ill in the Eternal City and suffered with great courage until he died on the fifth day of September in the college of the Spanish Dominican fathers at Via dei Condotti [see photos], comforted by all the sacraments and the special apostolic blessing sent by His Holiness Pius X.

Vested in episcopal regalia, his body was waked in the church. The day after his death, a solemn funeral Mass was celebrated. The Reverend Father Jeronimo Coderch, Consultor of the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and assistant to the Most Reverend Master General of the Order of Preachers, officiated. The aforementioned Reverend Father General Jacinto M.^a Cormier intoned the final prayers of commendation for the dead.

Various cardinals, bishops, superiors general of religious orders, secular priests, and devout members of the Roman nobility attended the funeral.

The cadaver of the virtuous Dominican bishop was placed on an elegant funeral car and brought to the cemetery of Campo Verano, and laid to rest in the chapel owned by the Dominican Fathers in that cemetery.

May the illustrious prelate rest in peace!

A Poem by Luis G. Dato

The Spouse

Rose in her hand, and moist eyes young with weeping,
She stands upon the threshold of her house,
Fragrant with scent that wakens love from sleeping,
She looks far down to where her husband plows.

Her hair dishevelled in the night of passion,
Her warm limbs humid with the sacred strife,
What may she know but man and woman fashion
Out of the clay of wrath and sorrow—Life?

She holds no joys beyond the day’s tomorrow,
She finds no worlds beyond her love’s embrace;
She looks upon the Form behind the furrow,
Who is her Mind, her Motion, Time and Space.

O somber mystery of eyes unspeaking,
O dark enigma of Life’s love forlorn;
The Sphinx beside the river smiles with seeking
The secret answer since the world was born. 

A poem by P.B. Robosa

To An Old Statue of Barlin

I'm seen all around as everyone knows
on my shoulders the birds launch to fly,
and my feet are crowded with swallows,
the last stop to the place where they die.

My pillow is the moon slowly rising,
and the wind sprinkle my clothes with sand,
these eyes that seek out what meaning,
to the torn and forgotten toils of my hands.

my pulse muffled and chained and mellow,
someday it will burst out through this cast
like flowers planted amidst grass down below,
someday picked, like names from your past.

Till then, I'll hide my soul in this rock,
With the spit and scratches in the paint,
And yield to the flood of your neglect,
With my proud demeanor well spent.

And you may cover me then with darkness,
sweep my base with a flick of your wrist.
Under my shadow, this accursed harness--
To watch over you and all that there is.

Barlin Centennial

The Centennial of the Episcopal Ordination of The First Filipino Bishop, Jorge I. Barlin of Baao, Camarines Sur.

June 29, 2005 - June 29, 2006

On the Late Morning of June 29, 1906, inside the University of Santo Tomas at what was then the Dominican Church of Sto. Domingo, multitudes gathered under drizzly weather on an event never seen by Filipinos in three centuries of Catholicism. The event was the Consecration of the Bishop of far away Caceres on whose elevation to the purple ended the centuries-long yearning of the Filipino Clergy for recognition of their capacity to reach the fullness of the priesthood. Msgr. Jorge I. Barlin's consecration ended too a turbulent period in Philippine Church History that wrought havoc on the changing Filipino conciousness of nationalism, it ended the question of whether the Filipinos can truly be trusted to govern themselves, if not yet politically then ecclessiastically. Bishop Barlin's role as Apostolic Administrator has proved his capacity to hold his flock together even amidst the onslaught and encroachment of a Nationalist Church fast gaining favor among Filipino minds resentfull of any foreign influence. His consecration too was also a beginning; the Filipino began to find that they can live well enough with even the foreign heritage of their past and yet retain the nuances of their race, that they can live in harmony, albeit uneasy, among nations, the hierarchy of the Universal Church and all that was brought by the birththroes of the 21st century--- and yet maintain their Filipino identity.

April 23, 2006 1:00 pm at Baao Covered Social Hall

Local Conference: "The Consecration of Bishop Barlin and its Impact on Philippine History and Filipino Identity."

To be followed shortly by the unveiling of the Bishop Barlin Birthplace Marker

Brought to you by:

BAAO LGU + SMAAA + Spirit of 78-82 + Baao Historical Society

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/09/06]

Paulix, Understandably, you're already committed to push through your Barlin Conference Souvenir Program by May. Then you should. As you say, that won't close our option to still do a Kaiba Barlin Centennial Yearbook. We'll see. Nonetheless, do email to me your BCSP ad solicitation letter please. Yours, -- Jun Ramirez

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/08/06]

Tiyong Jun, I misundesrtood completly after I read your letter a second time. You mean't to marry the Centennial Book with the Kaiba newsletter not separate it. From my reply I mean't we cannot compromise and make midstream adjustments with the Conference souvenir program we have already started working on and which we cannot delay release not later than May to be over with it and devote ourselves to our other objectives. What i also meant about the Kaiba Yearbook/Barlin Centennial Book is make it a separate publication, a much better one than what we have planned and set into motion here. But to make it worthwhile back it up with research and wait for whatever materials that may come up from the activities this year. Thanks Again. – Paulix B. Robosa

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/06/06]

Paulix, Thanks for your reply. Just some clarifications: * Barlin Centennial Book and Kaiba Souvenir Program. My idea is to marry the two, not to publish separately. Instead of page ads, line ads (but same revenues for Kaiba,) hence, less printing cost of ads (notice: in past souv progs much of the cost of print would go to ad pages); savings on ad printing goes to printing of non-revenue pages for articles (only the names and addresses of advertisers will be printed, so that in one page there may be a hundred names.) The line ads can sell because of the quality of the hard-bound, glossy, colored, book of collector's value. The Barlin group (call it, say, the Barlin Centennial Committee chaired by you, or, if you will, the Baao Historical Society run by you as Executive Director) should also sell ads and be allowed to keep say 70%, and 30% goes to 'share in printing cost.' If the Barlin Group has other attached selling orgs under it, e.g. SMAAA, then its 70% share may be split in whichever way desired. If we can have more accurate costings we can refine the revenue and cost sharing scheme. * Conference. I noted you already plan to cut down the sessions to just half-day. Good. I recall i once attended a Lenten recollectionin our parish. Not truly exciting topics to listen to. But after each 30 min. topic/talk the participants were treated to classical music played by a live string quartet. We lasted thru five talks without noticing it. * I have gotten a txt from Fred saying he's on his way here; will see if i can have a chat with him. Got to sign off now. Keep the mail going. -- Jun Ramirez

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/04/06]

Tiyong Jun, The Centennial is generating quite a stir now in Naga when they heard of our preparations. Danny G. is very interested and the Seminary Museum is helping me get one of their historian priests to be among the speakers, USI is sending people and everyone I talk to in Naga wants to attend (serious? needs to be seen.) Your right, maybe we had more time if we started last year when it would really be a centennial, to bad I have only this year to get a go at these. I'm now looking at half day conference with Danny Gerona and Fr. Rex Alarcon, we will try to see if we can do away with some of the plans anyway nothing is definite yet but I'm afraid we will have to push through with the souvenir program as letters and solicitations have been sent and the target for its publication is at a latter date anyway and it will be our only source of fund for the Conference. GOOD IDEA for the Kaiba Souvenir Program I'm all for it and we will have enough time to gather more materials, its good if they can even sponsor my research on Barlin this whole year so I can write a definitive biography and a more extensive compilation of source materials that are now disappearing(its 100 years old) Naga is really working on their June 29 celebration but as things appear they'll probably come to me for some materials. The museum idea suddenly lost support from the USI brass, they are now thinking of improving their own "dead museum" when they saw what the students was about to bring to SMA (Why do we give away good Ideas that others can use for their own)But no matter I have plentyof materials to spare only I regret I lost 15k for the mounting and framing, I"ll see Fred today. Thanks, see you Easter -- Paulix B. Robosa

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/03/06]

Dear Paulix, * Help. True, there's a risk you might spread yourself too thinly. You may wish to get some help from our Baao Historical Society. I'm sure Fred can help you. He mentioned some plans also for April 23rd - the ususal "concert", i believe, which i'm not very much in favor of, but which i couldnt object to because i do not yet have the time to work on an alternative program. Rather than some band concert i would rather have a more serious, scholarly stuff apropos to the late bishop. Fred is flexible enough to consider other ideas. And, it seems he has gotten a pledge of financial support from Jun Boncayao. I suggest you and Fred mobilize the parish and civic groups. Fred is part of the Mugmates yahoogroups, so he gets to read this mail. * Museum. In your prior email you mentioned SMA backed out from their venue offer. I thought of offering one of the upper units in our Verandah Building as alternate and temporary site. It's good the sisters have given the go signal. * Conference. You plan to have a whole day session with four (?) speakers. I'm afraid no one, no matter how keenly interested in Barlin or history, will have an attention span of 6-7 hours and the patience to listen to speeches the whole day. I suggest you limit it to half day. Besides, you save the expense of a lunch, if you must serve one. I also suggest that you limit each talk to 35 minutes, allow a Q&A of 5 minutes each, introduction of speakers of 5 mins. The gap of 15 mins. will be taken up by the opening and closing remarks, and, I strongly propose, musical numbers to keep the proceedings more lively. The speakers can write their papers ad infinitum, to be distributed to the more mature audience, but their speeches should be no more than 35 or so minutes and re-styled to suit the diverse audience. * Centennial Book. You will need a lot more time to do it. Instead of trying to publish it early and "in time" for the dates you mentioned, why not first focus on the preparations for your different activities, implement the plans well, document them, complete with pictures, get all interesting materials, generate the ads all through the months, then go for a late year book launch? / Manila Kaiba. I suggest you make the Barlin Centennial Book the 2006 publication of the Kaiba organization in Manila. In other words, we'll ask the Kaiba Board to give us the franchise to publish their 2006 Souvenir Program. You see, they are very good at 'soliciting' advertisements, but understandably poor in layouting, editing, graphic designing, etc. In short, they generate the ad revenues, we co-publish with them a nice, glossy, full-color coffee-table book that would contain the articles we want. That way, we expand the reach of the Barlin Centennial celebration up to Manila and overseas, we create more awareness, and even widen the circulation of the book. * I have other ideas. Too bad, i'm too busy with work here and may not be home till Easter. But, let's get the email going. Your plans are all very good and deserve all the support. Thank God we have people like you in Baao. Regards -- Jun Ramirez

Barlin Centennial [update: 03/02/06]

The Museum at SMA is now go, they just had misinterpreted something, I'm now working closely with the USI poeple with this, I might get 15K from them for the project the place for the Museum will be the existing Coop Building behind the grotto which might need some work, the important thing is that it will be started and if it goes on for years it would be a rich repository of antique household and farm implements, photographs of Baao and its people and an ever increasing collection of Baaoeno Art and Literature. Very worth while project do you think? We are now looking at installing a Marker for Luis Dato too, it his birth centennial this year also, July 4, 1906 is is birthday, He is well known in Philippine literature why not in Baao, When are you coming to Baao so we can talk this out, the project might be too big for us to handle and concerns all Baaoenos, I'm ill equipped to mobilize so many people and the SMAAA are manned by the younger set quite concerned only with the year end ball, they think I'm being too idealistic i might bite in more than I can chew. What do the people there think? Thanks – Paulix B. Robosa