san roque labing bulahan

If you are facing the main altar, you can see the antique side altar (technically we call it the retablo) at your left, the altar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Train your eyes way up the altar just below the big eyes with the rays (that is the symbol of God the Father) and you will see a small statue of St. Rock (San Roque). The saint may not be so popular today but he was in the past. Proof of which are as follows: Barangay San Roque has for its patron its namesake. Tabuc Suba Proper is under the patronage of San Roque too. And so is Benedicto and San Vicente. People in these barangays still go in procession around their barangays during this month of August singing the gozos of San Roque, Labing Bulahan, complete with a caller who would shout the next line of the gozo so that people can join the singing. (In those days there was no photocopy machine and besides only a few knew how to read – the reason why the caller shouted the next line so that people can follow the song while the procession moved from one house to the next.) People nowadays in those barangays may have thought of this yearly exercise as a lovely (and fun) alternative to being glued on television watching telenovelas for the rest of the year, but their ancestors did not. They were dead serious about this. Why? A little history will help us understand.


The reason is a teeny weenie culprit – a virus called smallpox. During those days our ancestors called it buti. Like everything else bad (there are good things too), smallpox was brought to our shores by a lone sick soldier coming from foreign soil, specifically from Mexico in 1574. He was carrying the virus. Coming from Europe, it went to Mexico and wiped out one third of its entire population. From there it followed the Acapulco trade route to Manila through that lone soldier. Smallpox even now does not have a cure. One can only prevent it through vaccination. It is said that in those days, once the disease is contracted the chances of survival is only at best 35 percent which explains why Msgr. Gamboa used to say that when it struck Jaro, every morning, during the onslaught of the disease, two men pushing a cart would call out on the streets (sin-o may patay da!?) for any who may have died during the night. They would pile them up in the cart and bury them.
In 1803, when the daughter of then Charles IV (Maria Luisa) fell ill to smallpox, the king commissioned Dr. Javier de Balmis to bring the vaccine to the Spanish colonies on state expense. The vaccine arrived in the Philippines in 1805. The people were so thankful to the king they erected a statue in his honor which can still be seen in front of the Manila Cathedral (Plaza Mckinley).
The joy however, was short-lived. The vaccine did not deliver the intended result of eradicating the disease. The American take-over made matters worst. With the surplus of vaccines from World War I, 95 percent of the inhabitants were inoculated but mortality rate increased 65%. Ironically the least vaccinated places reported the least death! In the 1918-1920 epidemic, out of the population of 10 million, 71 thousand died. The problem must have been in the vaccine itself. In fact some governments at around this time stopped compulsory vaccination and ironically the disease disappeared in their countries!
Though we have nothing to fear now from smallpox (it was eradicated as a naturally occurring infection in 1980), except when used as a biological weapon (which explains why even now the armed forces and police personnel of the United States are inoculated with the vaccine [an improved version]), the fear it created and the fatalities that occurred including the much ballyhooed panacea becoming the very instrument for the spread of the disease, people had nowhere to go except to have recourse to St. Rock. He is the saint called during times of epidemic. Well, Rock died because of an epidemic! He contracted the disease in Rome while serving the hundreds of people downed by an epidemic, when, as a son of a governor and a mere visitor in the city, he could have all the excuses to go somewhere else. But he served the sick and when he became sick himself he hid himself in the forest thinking that the people who would care for him would be better off caring for others rather than pay attention to him. And so a dog cared for him. Eventually he died.
St. Rock did not stop caring when he died. During the epidemic of 1918-1920 he cared for our ancestors when all hope for a cure failed. And that is why we continue to invoke his patronage in our time, what with SARS, A(H1N1) Virus, Dengue, HIV and the many deadly diseases that continue to struck fear in our hearts despite the many medical strides our generation made. By now we have come to realize that indeed, despite these many advances in every field of human endeavor there are still things we cannot control. Probably a reminder that we should be humble.
To the people of Barangays San Roque, Benedicto, Tabuc Suba Proper and San Vicente, for our sake, continue the good that you do. Invoke for our parish the help of Sr. San Roque. Encircle our parish with your nightly processions singing his gozos. When we could not join you physically, we join you in spirit and in intent, knowing that your holy endeavor continues to bear fruit in us even without us, even without our knowing. Thank you for praying to Sr. San Roque, thank you for praying for us as we join you in your hymn of praise – San Roque, labing bulahan!