pamalandong sa barangay 2
Last Friday (March 19) we went to Barangay Simon Ledesma, one of the biggest barangays of our Parish, for the Pamalandong sa Kwaresma, again to share a little insight on Lent which is meant to prepare us for Easter, to hold a holy hour and for the priests to make themselves available for confessions. Barangay Democracia also joined in. Simon Ledesma is one of the three barangays which were identified as pilot areas for our Basic Ecclesial Community program. It has a makeshift chapel standing on the lot owned by the Hallares Family together with the Day Care Center. It is the biggest place in that community, what with so many houses crowding and competing for space. I remember three years ago while preparing for the fiesta with the Pagdu-aw sang Candelaria sa mga Barangay, we have to carry the image of our Lady through the narrow pathways doing every conceivable manoeuvrings and positioning so that we can pass through.
As I said, the chapel and the Day Care Center occupy the biggest space available and because of it, most often, wakes are held there. Well people found it the most convenient place not because it is holy and therefore more conducive for prayers for the dead, but because I guess, with its size, it can accommodate a lot of tables for madjong, tong-its and even tumbo. I believe that that form of recreation has now become quite problematic. Imagine a sacred space dedicated to God and to their patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary converted from time to time into a gambling den with the dead as a backdrop. Imagine yourself gambling to the wee hours of the morning under the loving gaze of your Blessed Mother. That’s the problem when we have a borrowed lot for our chapel. We cannot be totally in control of it. But I hope people will have the delicadeza to prohibit it, though, I tell you from experience, you will have a lot of enemies by doing so and you can kiss the next barangay elections goodbye. Our only way out of this dilemma is to ask the owners of the lot to prohibit these types of activities in the chapel and in its vicinity. I also hope that the members of our urna, the cell groups would spearhead the renewal that is so wanting in this regard.
The next day, Saturday we are off to Barangay Benedicto with Barangay Luna. We held the Pamalandong at the main chapel adjacent to the basketball court or what could have been a covered gym. Barangay Benedicto is our pioneer barangay to form BEC cells during the time of Msgr. Gamboa, 16 years ago. The other, M.H. del Pilar, was eventually separated to form a new parish. The remnants, so to say, are still there though they are all getting old fast and it seems that no set from the younger generation is taking their place. That is the reason why, we chose the said barangay to be the pilot area for our BEC-Youth. Programs have been established on paper but a lot of things had to be done, and in particular, a lot of thinking, attitudes and mind-sets have to be shed off from our side if the program is to takeoff.
Barangay Benedicto has three main areas where people gather for the sacraments, the main being the chapel adjacent to the basketball court and located in the middle of the barangay. The other two are located on the way side chapel of Sitio Washington and in Sitio JBBA in the Buendia Residence. The makeshift chapel in Sitio Washington was established years back to commemorate a miracle which to this day is still celebrated in the month of May. A big fire gutted one of the houses and considering that the houses in this area are so close to each other everybody was expecting that the fire would spread in no time. The miracle was it didn’t. Only one house was gutted. To commemorate that miracle the chapel was built, and once in a while the monthly mass of Barangay Benedicto is held there and a big feast is celebrated every year on the anniversary of the fire.
Last Monday we came to Barangay Tabuc Suba Ilaya. It is part of Barangay Tabuc Suba but is separated from it by the main highway leading to the north and central parts of the province of Iloilo. In the past these are all farmlands but in time the subdivisions slowly took over these farms. But the Tabuc Suba Ilaya I am referring to are not the subdivisions there but the original tenants displaced by these farms turned into subdivisions to the fringes of these lots near the Salog River. Added to these occupants are squatters all over Jaro relocated here and it keeps on growing bigger and bigger by the day. Last year with Fr. Philip they had acquired a temporary place where they can gather to worship – the abandoned field office of Bankers Village. When they started it was just walls, but with persistence they placed a roof over it and brought down the wall that divided it at the center. It still looks like a house from the outside, but this is where they gather every Saturday for their faith sharing and every Sunday for the Mass. After having been somewhat “abandoned” for years by the Cathedral parish we can now count on this community as one of the most active in terms of participation in every parish program.
Then last Tuesday we went to Tabu Suba Proper. When I first became a priest and was assigned here in the cathedral years back this is one of the best barangays we had in terms of active involvement in the work of the parish but again this is one big squatter community. If you have time, I invite you to go under the bridge and there you can find a fine house. I say a “fine” because the roof is made of concrete (courtesy of the bridge above), it is has all the amenities any normal home has, and (this is what makes it fine) it has a beautiful veranda made of bamboo overlooking the river. If not for the pigpen and its smell you would mistake it for a vacation home. You can sit by the veranda and watch the river go by. When I visited a sick person there last year the occupant was from Makati. (Fantastic isn’t it!) I sat at the veranda for a while and I thought (or was it imagined) I saw a speedboat passing by. But the thought did not last long. The smell of the pigpen brought me back to reality.
Tabuc Suba sits right at the dike that holds the banks of the river Salog. It is not a good place to retire (for old people) nor is it a good place to grow up (unless you want your child to become an accomplished gymnast). And yet I can see children running around like they were in a normal street while I feebly balance myself so as not to fall over. And when the darkness of the night comes the danger is increased ten-fold. And that is exactly what happened days after. I was called to give the sacrament of anointing to an old woman who slipped and fell from the dike. She died after I left. Nobody made so much fuss about that fall, I had the feeling then that this is one natural occurrence.
The chapel is so small located in Sitio Matawhay beside the basketball court. I was told they raised funds during the fiesta so that they can at least repair the roof. As in all barangays it is difficult to gather people for religious activities and Tabuc Suba Proper exemplifies them all. Nevertheless we are happy to work with the few people we have.
Jaro is made up of a population divided to the extreme in terms of social and economic standing and it is difficult for us to put them together in one roof and much less to have them sit in one pew. When we say for example that the people of Tabuc Suba will gather, one should not be expecting people from Modern Homes, Remonville or Bankers Village to come to the chapel with those who live in the squatters’ area. We are not that cohesive and I think we have to learn to live with that reality for quite some time.
____________
We’re now in the Holy Week with Palm Sunday ushering what the church considers as its holiest days. I hope for our parishioners it would be so. This is not the time to go to Boracay and frolic on the beach while we commemorate the passion of Christ for our salvation. This is the time to reflect, a time for silence, a time for penance. We need to do so more than anything. We are thankful that we are given ample time to rest from the usual daily routine of work and office. But let us not use this to indulge ourselves to activities which cater to the whims and fancies of our senses. This long vacation is for the spirit, it is a time to reconnect with that which is truly essential in life.
As I said, the chapel and the Day Care Center occupy the biggest space available and because of it, most often, wakes are held there. Well people found it the most convenient place not because it is holy and therefore more conducive for prayers for the dead, but because I guess, with its size, it can accommodate a lot of tables for madjong, tong-its and even tumbo. I believe that that form of recreation has now become quite problematic. Imagine a sacred space dedicated to God and to their patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary converted from time to time into a gambling den with the dead as a backdrop. Imagine yourself gambling to the wee hours of the morning under the loving gaze of your Blessed Mother. That’s the problem when we have a borrowed lot for our chapel. We cannot be totally in control of it. But I hope people will have the delicadeza to prohibit it, though, I tell you from experience, you will have a lot of enemies by doing so and you can kiss the next barangay elections goodbye. Our only way out of this dilemma is to ask the owners of the lot to prohibit these types of activities in the chapel and in its vicinity. I also hope that the members of our urna, the cell groups would spearhead the renewal that is so wanting in this regard.
The next day, Saturday we are off to Barangay Benedicto with Barangay Luna. We held the Pamalandong at the main chapel adjacent to the basketball court or what could have been a covered gym. Barangay Benedicto is our pioneer barangay to form BEC cells during the time of Msgr. Gamboa, 16 years ago. The other, M.H. del Pilar, was eventually separated to form a new parish. The remnants, so to say, are still there though they are all getting old fast and it seems that no set from the younger generation is taking their place. That is the reason why, we chose the said barangay to be the pilot area for our BEC-Youth. Programs have been established on paper but a lot of things had to be done, and in particular, a lot of thinking, attitudes and mind-sets have to be shed off from our side if the program is to takeoff.
Barangay Benedicto has three main areas where people gather for the sacraments, the main being the chapel adjacent to the basketball court and located in the middle of the barangay. The other two are located on the way side chapel of Sitio Washington and in Sitio JBBA in the Buendia Residence. The makeshift chapel in Sitio Washington was established years back to commemorate a miracle which to this day is still celebrated in the month of May. A big fire gutted one of the houses and considering that the houses in this area are so close to each other everybody was expecting that the fire would spread in no time. The miracle was it didn’t. Only one house was gutted. To commemorate that miracle the chapel was built, and once in a while the monthly mass of Barangay Benedicto is held there and a big feast is celebrated every year on the anniversary of the fire.
Last Monday we came to Barangay Tabuc Suba Ilaya. It is part of Barangay Tabuc Suba but is separated from it by the main highway leading to the north and central parts of the province of Iloilo. In the past these are all farmlands but in time the subdivisions slowly took over these farms. But the Tabuc Suba Ilaya I am referring to are not the subdivisions there but the original tenants displaced by these farms turned into subdivisions to the fringes of these lots near the Salog River. Added to these occupants are squatters all over Jaro relocated here and it keeps on growing bigger and bigger by the day. Last year with Fr. Philip they had acquired a temporary place where they can gather to worship – the abandoned field office of Bankers Village. When they started it was just walls, but with persistence they placed a roof over it and brought down the wall that divided it at the center. It still looks like a house from the outside, but this is where they gather every Saturday for their faith sharing and every Sunday for the Mass. After having been somewhat “abandoned” for years by the Cathedral parish we can now count on this community as one of the most active in terms of participation in every parish program.
Then last Tuesday we went to Tabu Suba Proper. When I first became a priest and was assigned here in the cathedral years back this is one of the best barangays we had in terms of active involvement in the work of the parish but again this is one big squatter community. If you have time, I invite you to go under the bridge and there you can find a fine house. I say a “fine” because the roof is made of concrete (courtesy of the bridge above), it is has all the amenities any normal home has, and (this is what makes it fine) it has a beautiful veranda made of bamboo overlooking the river. If not for the pigpen and its smell you would mistake it for a vacation home. You can sit by the veranda and watch the river go by. When I visited a sick person there last year the occupant was from Makati. (Fantastic isn’t it!) I sat at the veranda for a while and I thought (or was it imagined) I saw a speedboat passing by. But the thought did not last long. The smell of the pigpen brought me back to reality.
Tabuc Suba sits right at the dike that holds the banks of the river Salog. It is not a good place to retire (for old people) nor is it a good place to grow up (unless you want your child to become an accomplished gymnast). And yet I can see children running around like they were in a normal street while I feebly balance myself so as not to fall over. And when the darkness of the night comes the danger is increased ten-fold. And that is exactly what happened days after. I was called to give the sacrament of anointing to an old woman who slipped and fell from the dike. She died after I left. Nobody made so much fuss about that fall, I had the feeling then that this is one natural occurrence.
The chapel is so small located in Sitio Matawhay beside the basketball court. I was told they raised funds during the fiesta so that they can at least repair the roof. As in all barangays it is difficult to gather people for religious activities and Tabuc Suba Proper exemplifies them all. Nevertheless we are happy to work with the few people we have.
Jaro is made up of a population divided to the extreme in terms of social and economic standing and it is difficult for us to put them together in one roof and much less to have them sit in one pew. When we say for example that the people of Tabuc Suba will gather, one should not be expecting people from Modern Homes, Remonville or Bankers Village to come to the chapel with those who live in the squatters’ area. We are not that cohesive and I think we have to learn to live with that reality for quite some time.
____________
We’re now in the Holy Week with Palm Sunday ushering what the church considers as its holiest days. I hope for our parishioners it would be so. This is not the time to go to Boracay and frolic on the beach while we commemorate the passion of Christ for our salvation. This is the time to reflect, a time for silence, a time for penance. We need to do so more than anything. We are thankful that we are given ample time to rest from the usual daily routine of work and office. But let us not use this to indulge ourselves to activities which cater to the whims and fancies of our senses. This long vacation is for the spirit, it is a time to reconnect with that which is truly essential in life.
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