Gaston Park

  

Gaston Park is a tree covered recreational area situated right at the heart of Cagayan de Oro and is one of the landmarks of the city. It sits on the ground near other landmarks such as the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral, the city hall, the city museum which is also the old water tower, the Ysalina Bridge and the Cagayan River.

The historic park is named after Segundo Gaston who was the mayor of Cagayan de Misamis, the former name of the city, from 1916 to 1919. Its location was the site of early Spanish-led native settlement, and the training ground of Filipino warriors during the Philippine-American War. It was also there where a battle on April 7, 1900, between the Filipino, led by Gen. Nicolas Capistrano, and American forces took place. In the year 2000, a marker was erected to commemorate that historic event.

Medium-sized trees of different varieties adorn the area of the circular shaped park. Among the trees are Cherry Blossoms which were donated by the Japanese. The trees with their lush green leaves and flowers give a sense of eco-friendly environment in and around the park.  

    

                                                                                                               

The fountain with pool, which is one of the park’s attractions, forms a concentric circle within the park. The circular park is divided into sections with the fountain at the center. The edge of the park is surrounded by trees and pairs of tree planted islands serve as boundaries of the sections. In between the pairs of islands are walkways. The tops on both sides of each island double as benches for visitors. The park’s floor is covered with adobe like pavements. Other attractions include Typhoon Sendong Memorial which gives a glimpse of the devastation caused by the event in December 2011, and the list of the people who perished in the tragedy.

 

People of all walks of life visit the park. The shade of the trees shelters them from the blistering heat of the sun during sunny days. Some people hang around there to relax; others stay there to meet or gather with friends. Still others go there to take pictures of themselves, friends and loved ones. Students who are off their class spend their time practicing dancing or doing other activities. The park is a place to stroll around alone or with friends, and, to some lovers, a dating rendezvous. Because of its proximity to the Catholic cathedral, the park is a convenient hangout for faithful coming to and going from the mass. 

                     

        

                                                   

During fiesta and other occasions, the park is a place where small businesspeople can display their goods to sell to visitors. The goods for sale include decorative plants, vegetables, fruits, foods, and souvenir items.

Santa Claus, the Iconic Figure of Christmas

                                      

Christmas is the time of the year when people spend much money on food and gifts to enjoy the holiday season. Their spending spree boosts economic activities with businesses having their busiest and most lucrative month of the year. People going to shopping malls are buoyed up with Christmas music and other treats that encourage them to buy things. During Christmas there is one figure that people are remarkably familiar with. He is Santa Claus. The Santa Claus is an inanimate object or a person dressed as such.

The history of Santa Claus can be traced to Saint Nicholas who lived in the fourth century in Lycia. Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of Russia, was born in Patara, a city in the ancient district of Lycia, Asia Minor which is now in Türkiye. Nicholas belonged to a wealthy family. He abandoned that status to follow the footstep of Jesus Christ. He became an archbishop of the church in Myra, Lycia and was reported to have been in the first Council of Nicaea. He died on December 6, 343 A.D. in Myra. His remains were later brought by Italian merchants to Bari in Italy. His tomb has since then become a shrine.

Saint Nicholas

Legend has it that there were three poor girls in the place where St. Nicholas lived. The girl’s father could not afford a dowry for their weddings. During that time, it was the woman’s family who would provide dowry to a man to wed his daughters off. The more the amount of the dowry, the greater was the opportunity for the woman to have a better husband. No dowry meant that his three daughters were in danger to be sold to slavery. It was said that on three separate occasions a bag of gold was tossed through the window and landed in shoes or stockings that were hung by the fire. The bags of gold enabled the father to pay for the dowries of his daughters thus averting their misfortune.  This legend projected an image of St. Nicholas as a gift giver. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of children, scholars, virgins, sailors, and merchants.  December 6 is his feast day. The eve of his festivity was celebrated by secretly giving gifts.                                                                                        

The discovery of the vast American continent by the Europeans also brought about the introduction of European customs and culture to the New World. The Dutch emigrants who settled in New York brought the tradition of gift giving on the feast of St. Nicholas who was introduced as Sinter Klaas. The feast days of Saint Nicholas and Christmas Eve are just close to each other. For this reason, the practice of gift giving on separate occasions for both festivities was made to be done only once. And the gifts are to be given on Christmas Eve.

 A shift from the traditional and Saintly St. Nicholas into an elfin figure was made in the poem written in 1882 which was attributed to Clement Clark Moore. It was entitled A Visit from Saint Nicholas.  In it he depicted St Nicholas as a pipe-smoking jolly fat man riding on sleigh that was drawn by flying reindeers. He came down to chimneys to distribute gifts. The names of the reindeer were Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen.  Later, one was added (Rudolph) courtesy of the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. American cartoonist Thomas Nast made a drawing of Santa based on descriptions from the poem.  He portrayed Santa as a rotund, white-bearded man who was covered with sooth. He had twinkling eyes, berry-like nose, merry dimples, rose cheeks, bow-like mouth, and broad face and round belly. He was clad in fur and carried on his back a bag stuffed with toys.

Later the image of Santa Claus has further evolved into a man wearing attire that is all in red, and the name Saint Nicholas has evolved into Santa Claus.  The celebration of Christmas has crossed continents and cultures. It has become a secular tradition that is celebrated the world over. Indeed, the children will be hanging their stockings or shoes on the wall or Christmas tree on Christmas Eve expecting that Santa Claus will stuff them with toys. And Parents should not let them down.

 

 

Why the Philippines Needs Anti-Political Dynasty Law

 

                             

“The state shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibits political dynasties as maybe defined by law,” says Section 26, State Policies, 1987 Philippine Constitution. The congressmen and senators are therefore required to pass laws to implement that provision. However, after three decades they are yet to act on it. Instead of fading out, political dynasties have grown bigger, dominating the political landscape from Luzon to Mindanao. 

The country has had leaders from political families from the national to local levels since its independence from the United States. However, issues such as poverty, corruption, underdevelopment and others persist, and people think that their leaders or their political systems have failed them. It will be an exaggeration to say that political dynasties are the root cause of our problems, but certainly it is one of them. Eliminating one of the issues which is political dynasty is a step in the right direction to move this country forward.  It is imperative for the legislators to pass anti-political dynasty laws because: 1) They are mandated by the constitution to do it, 2) the people expected them to do their duty, and 3) the good of the people must prevail over their self-interest. Below are some more reasons to have an anti-political dynasty law:  

Political dynasties treat government offices like family business. The head of political dynasty is not content with having an elective position all alone. He wants to share the privilege with his family. This will result in a family with members holding multiple government positions all at the same time from the national down to local levels including the barangay. An example of dynasties monopolizing public office is the senate where there are four pairs of siblings who are senators which is equivalent to 1/3 of the total number of 24 senators in that chamber. 

Political dynasties undermine our electoral system. Most often, politicians from political families are among the rich in a community. They have the name, the money, and the political machineries for an election. Over time, long entrenched politicians who mostly belong to political families would learn the tricks of winning elections. These include vote buying and patronage politics such as giving ayudas which are aimed especially to lower income groups who comprised the largest percentage of voters. For these reasons, it is hard for a qualified and well-intentioned candidate to beat them. Candidates from dynasties always win elections because the playing field is not level on the side of their opponents.       

Political dynasties hijack the party list system- The party list system is introduced in the 1987 constitution to enable the underprivileged and underrepresented sectors to have a voice in congress. However, political families also intruded into the party list so that some of its representatives came from dynastic families. This creates a situation where two or more representatives come from just one family or clan. This situation has defeated the purpose of party list representation in congress. 

Political dynasties breed corruption. Long serving politicians such as senators and representatives who belong to political families have a say on government infrastructure projects under their jurisdiction. This will make them in contact with DPWH officials, other government agencies and private contractors involved in project implementation. Over time, their connections make them close to each other, and it’s highly likely that kickbacks and commissions will become a secret deal in their transactions. In the flood control investigation by congress in Bulacan and other parts of the country hundreds of billions of pesos are wasted through corruption. Most of those involved politicians came from dynastic families. It is not just enough to punish the culprits since people who will take their place might be as corrupt or more corrupt as the people they replace with. Fixing the system might be a better way to prevent the wrongdoings from persisting.

What can be done to check the growth of political dynasties:                                                                

Massive information campaigns should be conducted to educate the people about the negative effects of political dynasties. This can be done through the social or mainstream media and even through the ordinary people since nowadays information can be easily accessed with a cell phone. Church, civil society, schools, students and the youth particularly the millennials and Gen Z generations should be tapped for this endeavor. Their clamor will make the topic of anti-political dynasty an issue in the 2028 election which will make voters support anti-political dynasty candidates. If majority of them win, then a law could be passed in the next congress.

If above method fails, then a people’s initiative will be another remedy. People can make laws they want if the lawmakers are negligent or unwilling to perform their mandate. The initiative needs the verified signatures of 10% of total number of registered voters in the Philippines, with at least 3% of total number of verified registered voters for each legislative districts.

The last resort is a constitutional convention. This time there will be delegates who will deliberate not only on political dynasty but also on other matters of importance. There will be amendments or changes to the 1987 Constitution as the delegates may deem appropriate under the circumstances.

 

The Legacies of the French Revolution to Our Democratic Principles

 

                        

The French revolution from 1789 to 1799 was one of the bloodiest in history which resulted to the abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of the French Republic. The provisional rulers of the revolutionary government proved to be more despotic and brutal than the king they deposed. They executed the reactionaries, the political opposition and even turned against each other to settle their differences. As a result, thousands of people were summarily killed or executed with the infamous guillotine, the beheading machine that was associated with the bloody revolution. However, despite their radicalism and brutalities, the leaders of the revolution were highly committed to their cause to bring about social change, and they had the spirit of nationalism in them. Because of their ideals, most people supported them. The in-fighting of diverse groups within the revolutionary government made it unstable. The ineffectiveness of the civilian rulers to run the government led to a series of coup d’état that later made Napoleon Bonaparte, a military commander, as the ruler and dictator of France.                                                                        

Napoleon made wars with other European countries to export the ideals of the French Revolution. He was at first victorious. But later the combined forces of Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria finally defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. And the Bourbon monarchy was briefly restored to the throne by those victorious countries.                  

In France, the revolution resulted to the enactment of laws and adoption of systems that paved the way for the establishment of democratic government. Although France was not the first country to make those laws that expanded a person’s rights and freedom, its examples are the most influential in the world.

Following are some democratic principles that came about because of the French Revolution which are adopted by many countries of the world:

Constitutional government- is one that operates under a set of fundamental laws which is called a constitution.

Representative government- is one that is run by officials that are elected by the people. High government positions are not bestowed by reason of birth.

Merit-based civil service system- non-elective positions or jobs in the government are given to those who are most qualified and talented. It is not given by virtue of one’s birth or connections to the authorities.

Separation of church and state and the abolition of privileges of the clergy and the upper class- the clergy held immense power in pre-revolutionary France. The church had a strong influence over the king so that it could expect from him decisions and policies in its favor.  This resulted to the church having vast properties and the clergies along with the nobilities having so many privileges. The revolutionary government of France cut those influences and privileges and even confiscated the properties of the church. Separation of church and state is now the norm of many governments around the world.

Freedom of religion- no religion shall be considered as a state religion. People are free to believe in any religion of their choice, and they are not compelled to believe or not to believe in any religion.

Freedom of the press- is the right of those in the communication media to disseminate information that is of public interest. This freedom is one of the tools for transparency in government activities.

The Napoleonic Code- is a document that was written in the aftermath of the French Revolution. It embodies some of the democratic legal principles that are now adopted in the courts of justice of many countries, especially in the resolution of criminal cases. These principles include:

·       presumption of innocence until proven guilty

·       equality before the law

·       right to legal counsel

·       trial by jury in a criminal case

·       right of habeas corpus

·       provision for a fair trial

The French Revolution’s motto of “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” or  “Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood” will always be a cherished ideals to our democracy.

 

 

Christmas Trees in the Philippines

 

                                                         

One of the traditions during the Christmas season is the setting up of Christmas trees in homes and public places. The practice originated in Europe and was brought to the Americas by European immigrants. The Philippines being a former colony of Spain and the United States has adopted to the western culture and traditions including the celebration of Christmas. Originally, the setting up of Christmas tree was practiced by Lutheran and protestant Christians. Although it was not a Catholic practice, Filipinos nevertheless adapted to it. 

                                 

In 1982, Pope John Paul II introduced the Christmas tree custom to the Vatican, and since then Christmas tree has become an integral part of Vatican Christmas celebration. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of it as part of normal decoration in Catholic homes. The Popes declarations validated the Catholic faithful’s Christmas tree tradition.

When I was little, Christmas tree always decorated my family’s home during the Christmas season. My mother preferred to have a fresh cut natural pine tree to decorate on. It was adorned with different colored baubles, stars, tinsels, and paper ornaments. Christmas lights were added later as years went by.

In my elementary school it was customary for our classrooms to be decorated with Christmas tree during the yuletide seasons. Since pine trees were hard to come by, we went to swamp where mangrove trees abound. We then brought the tree to school and stripped it of its leaves. Its trunk, its branches and its twigs were then wrapped with green crepe paper, and adorned it with tinsels, baubles, cards, bells, and stars.

Over the years, the use of natural trees for Christmas decorations has gradually become out of fashion because of government policy of tree protection and the difficulty and hassle of cutting off trees and bringing them home. Taking their place are the artificial trees that are mostly imported from China. What is good about it is that they are easy to install and are recyclable for the next Christmas season. Some even come with decorations already on them.

Christmas trees are also displayed in public places such as big malls and other establishments. In SM Downtown and SM Uptown mega malls in Cagayan de Oro giant artificial trees with elaborate adornments and lightings are a sight to delight with. These decorations give ambience of a joyful Yuletide season inside the malls.

Although some Christian sects consider Christmas tree as pagan in origin, some denominations including the Catholic consider the Christmas tree as compatible to Christian tradition. For them, the green tree represents the tree of life which is the full eternal life that God wishes to lavish on humanity. The lighted candles which were replaced by electric Christmas lights today are the shining lights of Jesus. The star on the top of the tree symbolizes the star of Bethlehem, and the angel represents the Angel Gabriel.

 

Related posts:

Parol, a Traditional Philippine Christmas Decoration https://lapasan-myblognoel145.blogspot.com/2014/12/parol-traditional-philippine-christmas.html

The 13 Round Fruits and Other New Year’s Eve Customs in the Philippines https://lapasan-myblognoel145.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-13-round-fruits-and-other-new-years.html