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Mornings when I sit out on my porch to brighten up my day as I view my flowering gumamela bushes, enjoying the return of the butterflies, I wonder about the fireflies that used to twinkle up the garden in the evening. Where have all the fireflies gone? only to read a media report that experts now truly fear the fireflies have been dwindling in the past three years. Sadly, due to urban sprawl and industrial pollution, and the spread of artificial lighting, all now evident here in Banawa, where I live, which years earlier was an environmental refuge from city noise and pollution.
Truly, even as global warming is upon us, with floods and drought, extended heat and cold spells, among others, we continue to wantonly abuse our environment to favor modern commercial development. Latest warning development: the reported cutting of some 29 old mahogany and rosewood trees at Roma Park fronting the Manila Cathedral. Sidebar thought: there is a very old and hoary pre-war balete tree right after the Marcial Velez bridge before the Capitol Building where the road widening ends. When (and if) the road widening continues, will it also be cut down?
I remember in the States a small but very old historical tree growing out of a huge rock that stood right in the middle of the freeway. A fenced enclosure was built around it and the freeway split into two lanes around it. Travelers/drivers would sometimes stop to read the bronze tablet at its foot, recounting its history and why it was spared. Is there a lesson there for us?
This brings up historical dates we remember from August: the birth anniversary of former President Manuel Quezon was remembered last Aug. 19th and of former President Ramon Magsaysay on Aug. 31st, and the 25th death anniversary of former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. also on Aug. 31st.
And leads us to the renewed interest in and concern for our historical and cultural heritage, particularly in Cebu.
In Dr. Michael Cullinane’s lecture forum in mid-August in an overview of Cebu’s old Parian district, we learned that the name “Parian” had nothing to do with priests (pari). The area was a busy industrial area for early Chinese who brought in their goods on small craft down the then navigable Parian estero with their goods, unloading them in their establishments along the shore on the Colon side. Later, the Spaniards who arrived and ruled the country then gradually edged them out. I remember the old pre-war Casino Español was a landmark on Colon until WW II.
Spanish-influenced tisa-roofed buildings housed commercial establishments and lined Colon Street, historically remembered as the “oldest street in the Philippines.” Their pictures appear in our history books, and are now sadly abandoned and demolished, except for one moldering house at the corner of the Mabini and Lopez Jaena Streets, the historical tile-roofed balay na bato, Casa Gorordo.
When the Spanish friars established the Cebu Catholic parish with the Cathedral as the parish church, a church established at Parian (near the old fire department across from the now Castrillo Cebu historical monument) was torn down. A chapel now stands there and is the center for the annual San Juan Bautista fiesta on June 15th.
History is truly a “living past” in Cebu with its churches, remaining historical buildings and monuments, and streets named for Filipino heroes (if they have not yet been changed with more modern, even political names!).
Another cultural heritage that lives on with us, and persists to be studied and appreciated is our Cebuano language. This was the subject of earlier Hambin (Hamiling Kabilin) forums. Well, the most recent was a two-day forum, Sandurot sa Pulong (A Symposium on Language) last Aug. 21 to 22 organized by the committee on Cebuano language and culture of the University of the Philippines Cebu College. Special guests were former UP presidents: Professor Emeritus Dr. Francisco Nemenzo (from Carcar, Cebu) and Dr. Jose V. Abueva (from Bohol), who’s now president of Kalaayan College in Marikina City.
They and other speakers, including young UP Cebu College professors, spoke of some details of the Cebuano grammar and usage, stressing the importance of regional languages and thier use in teaching particular subjects starting in the grades up to college, which will be the subject for next week.
In addition, I hope to take up the subject of journalistic freedom, and people who have valiantly risen up to the challenges of these troubled and troubling days, including those who have recently passed on, leaving their legacy behind to inspire us.
Till then, as always, may God bless us all!
