2010 Fiesta Celebration for the Patron Saint Immaculate Conception

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I should have been deep asleep by now, considering its already 1 in the morning of the 9th of December, 2010. I went to bed at 10:30 PM, hoping to get a decent sleep despite the noise outside, in the plaza. at 12 midnight the noise escalated, and it is still blaring right now as i'm typing here. Yesterday (December 8), was the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the whole town celebrated.

This had been a week long celebrating culminating on the eve of the 8th of December, with a live band show sponsored by San Miguel Corporation, right at plaza area, fronting the town's gym. Owing to the good weather, (thankfully, it did not rain the whole day on the 8th), they were able to set up the band at the outdoor stage. The people are truly enjoying the show, much to my chagrin since i still have to work tomorrow and i can't sleep because of the blaring music. The walls of my room seems to shake due to the volume of their sounds. My house is a good 300 meters or more from the outdoor stage, yet i can still feel the vibration of the blaring music.

Right now, they're singing lively songs which i think really made those watching them out there, dance to the tunes. However, it does not alleviate my situation since i can't even sleep a wink! well, my only consolation is that it would end soon. They're not planning to last until the morning don't they?

It has truly been a one of a kind celebration and so unusual for me. I spend the whole day and night in my room, never even bothering to take a walk at the plaza to get a glimpse of the celebration. It's unusual for me since for the past several years, i always spent fiesta time in my friends' houses. Well, for a change, i stayed at home all day, just reading and writing.

The Essence of Fiesta Celebrations

In the Philippines, every town, city, barangay and the smallest sitios celebrates the feast of their Patron Saint. The Parish Church usually leads these annual celebrations which usually includes processions around towns, novenas, religious undertakings or shows which usually depicts the lives of these Patron Saints or Jesus Himself. However, as time goes by, Fiesta celebrations has gotten a new meaning in the lives of the residents of these places.

In our part of the country, fiestas are usually celebrated with different activities spearheaded by the church and with banquets to which all are invited to feast. Every family will usually prepare large banquets for their respective visitors and those whoever happens to visit your house during these days.

The atmosphere during fiestas are so festive that a visitor would not think that the town of the family he/she is visiting is dire financial difficulties. It has already been ingrained in the culture of most Filipino families to always prepare for the feast no matter what. Some families even prepares for it at the beginning of the year or right after the celebration of the current feast.

In this contemporary times, fiestas are often celebrated with several competitions participated in usually by the resident of the place and sometimes, from people of neighboring places. There are dancing, carousels, carnivals, small-time gamblings and lots of food during this celebration. It is so fun to watch and observed since every town or city has its own distinct way of celebrating fiestas.

It is sad to note however that due to the proliferation of drugs and the use of alcohol of young people, there are always rumbles and riots or some sort of trouble during these kind of celebrations. However, if the persons in authority are active enough to make some moves to prevent these kind of troubles amongst the participants and visitors to fiesta celebrations, these festivities would be truly festive and worth the effort to attend to.

The church for sometime had intensified their campaign for a simple yet meaningful celebration of these festivities. They happen to observed that many people had set aside the real meaning of the religious celebration and focused on the entertainment and festivity for material satisfaction aspect.

It would be nice to see people prioritize going to church on Fiesta Day to participate in the celebration than focusing all their energies on their banquet preparation for visitors who don't even really give a care about the celebration, but just being there for the banquet.

Risks: The Spices of Life

I believe in the saying that life without risks is not worth living for. I daresay, Risks are the spices of life.

In choosing our path to take, we are taking a risk for we don't really know what's that path has enstored for us. Nobody can know what tomorrow will bring and nobody could truthfully say that our decisions for tomorrow has no risks attached to it.

Just like choosing our careers, we could not really know what kind of future and opportunities it would afford us. Sure, lawyers have high pays, managers work in banks or companies, teachers in school and navy's in the ships. But we are not certain if we would be included in the list of the general, that we get to work in the place meant for our chosen careers. We are taking a risk everytime we make decisions and that what makes life exciting and worth living for. Investing our money in business is a risk and if we refrain ourselves from investing for fear of making a failure then we cannot know nor taste success. In the affairs of the heart, risk is also an imposing factor. If we learned to love somebody we are taking the risk that he/she may not love us in return. Or, if they return our feelings, the risk of losing them to somebody else is still there. Life is complex and so does the people..so does their heart.

Sharing ourselves with others in the spirit of friendship is also a risks. We could be hurt in the process for we would open ourselves to the vulnerability of rejection and betrayal.

But as we always say, life is taking risks. Its the spices that makes life worth truly living.

Living the life of an internet savvy Roxasnon

Being an Internet savvy is described as having the expertise, the ability, the competence of steering one's self in the world of internet.

WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION

Accessing the internet is an experience that most of the townspeople of Roxas may have never heard of yet, much less experience, firsthand. This holds true for its residents especially living in the hinterlands where cellphone signals are scarce or even non-existent. However, with the advent of broadband and wifi, many residents are now enjoying their first on hand experience with the internet and the loads of information it offers its users.

The internet provides us a gateway to a new dimension, a new world where you can obtain information in just a click, talk to somebody face to face who is halfway around the world, view places where you could only dream and hope to visit personally someday, meet new people you would never have met without the internet and do things which we can only dream of doing before.

Indeed, being internet savvy is a plus to everyone, not only in the career aspects( you can earn while doing things you enjoy in the internet) but also for additional information and knowledge which we can use in our day to day life and dealings with family and other people alike.

THE REALITY

Even though the town of Roxas has no landline telephones yet (government owned telephone lines are installed within the center of the town but it has limited usage), connecting to the internet while staying in the town is now possible with the installation of a wifi connection from Smart network or the plug-it smart broadband. The plug-it is very handy and you can access the internet with it, as long as you have a laptop or desktop and a cellular phone signal in the area where you will be accessing the net.

A year ago and more, you can hardly find someone living in this town in facebook, twitter or friendster. Nowadays, you can greet acquaintances, pm and chat with friends who are just from this small municipality in the internet.

THE DREAM

At present, the municipality has not yet created its own interactive website, due to less prioritization of top town officials. However, with the advent of the new management and the broadening vision of making this town one, if not the topmost developing municipality in the province, it is greatly anticipated for that Roxas would soon become map-visible in the world-wide-web, through their own town interactive website. Until then, natives of this town who are now residing in other regions of this country and those who are outside the Philippines would have to suffice themselves with mere peeps and glimpse of their native town in some of the facebook accounts and of course, here in my blog.

Changes in our Lives

Change they say is the only thing that doesn't change in this world. There will always be constant changes in our daily lives. As a dynamic individual living in an evolving society, where success is measured by one's financial capacity and position in the community, change would be our constant shadow.

For people who likes the comfort that familiarity brings, change in any way, is always an intrusion. An intrusion which is often treated with wariness and distrust, for the possible disruption that it may bring to their otherwise familiar lives and sometimes with hope too, for the possible goodness that such change may bring to their otherwise, stagnant lives.

THE PAST

Likewise, the people of the town of Roxas have mixed feelings and opinions on the immense changes to this place. For one, for almost three decades, this municipality had been ruled in peace by the F family. From the father down to the oldest son and his wife, then back to the son, they have interchangeably ruled as local chief executive of this town. The people have become so used to these family and they have easily won the support of the people through their kindness and humility. Of course, as human as they are, they have their own imperfections and shortcomings as government officials but these were inadvertently shadowed by their magnanimous hearts, towards helping their constituents.

THE TRANSITION

Now, the people has to get used to the fact that there is now a new management, a Local Chief Executive who originally hails from another town but who have made Roxas his home since then. So many presumptions and prejudgments were formulated and disseminated by word of mouth before the official assumption to office of this new leader. Some are good but most are incline to biases garnered from vineyard-news-sources, passed on from one person to another, added to and subtracted as they please. There is really no other way to determine the truth of the matter, except to experience firsthand the leadership and management style of the new Chief Executive.

The townspeople should give the new leader a chance to prove himself and his vision for this town. He will only be as good as the townspeople would allow him to be, for if they would closed their minds and hearts to him, no matter how great his endeavors are, he would only be as remarkable as they would want to believe.

On the other hand, perhaps the supporters of the new leader should not be too harsh in generalizing everything in relation to the past administration and labeling them as bad, corrupt and weak. The past administration has its own bad and good points. What is perhaps very noticeable is the fact that due to the kindness of the past leader, some of his followers and supporters had gone astray and went beyond what is legal and good for public service. Some of these supporters had abused the kindness of the past leader by selfish motives and hidden agendas. A poignant lesson to be learned from their story, To be kind and good is not enough to be an effective leader – you have to have a political will.

EXPECTATIONS

These presumptions do not seat well with the present administration. They face a lot of challenge, to negate all these conjured up stories and disappoint the expectations of those who prejudged the new leader. As we all know, nobody is perfect. Each of us possesses some trait or character which we would say as our strong points but we also have attitudes and habits which characterized our weakest points, vulnerable to criticisms and judgment. We could not expect the new administration to change the system and ways of the local government which had been practiced for almost 30 years or so, overnight. This would certainly takes time and effort. The ascent towards a progressive and well-developed town, with its residents enjoying a fairly high standard of living and the government being able to deliver the basic services to people with great efficiency will be a very accessible goal.

For now, there is nothing that the people can do except to support the undertakings of the government which are for the benefit of the majority of the public, if not for everyone. The people should open up their hearts and minds for the changes and for the coming other changes, which are for the benefit of the people and the town, in general. Should the new management do otherwise, well, three years is not that long enough and come judgment day in the next election, the results would tell and they would reap the rewards of their labor for the next two years or so.

 

ROXAS...IN A NUTSHELL

The town of Pres. Manuel A. Roxas is strategically located at the center of the Provincial Agricultural Industry Center and the Dipolog-Dapitan-Katipunan-Roxas-Manukan Industrial corridor of the province of ZANORTE.

>LAND AREA: 20,625 hectares
>POPULATION: 37,117 (2007 survey)
>PEOPLE: Christians 86.50%, Subanen .40%, Muslims .16%, Others 12.95%
>PRODUCTS: coconut oil, coffee, pasteurized fresh milk, "andres-andres" shells
>TOURIST ATTRACTIONS: Villa Valle Springs, Tulbong Falls, Cyrstal cave

Six of its 31 barangays are located along the coastal areas of the Zamboanga Peninsula. The rest of the barangays are located inland going up to the hills and mountains separating ZANORTE from Zamboanga Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay.Its land is categorized into the following: 55% agricultural lands, 32% highlands, 3% coastal, 3% build up, 1% swamp/marshes and 6% industrial lands.

Located 19 kilometers away from the province' capital city - Dipolog, Roxas is a 2nd class municipality, founded on June 17, 1967. It is the home of the SeaOil Philippines Depot and Wilmar Edible Oils, which are two of the major revenue tax source of the town.

The Local Government of Roxas has been given the authority to manage, operate its own port under a MOA entered into with the Philippine Ports Authority. At present, the Port is only catering to cargo ships but it is already in the process of readying its facilities and area for incoming potential passenger ships and fastcrafts. The port's advantage lies in the fact that it is located just about 500 meters away from the National highway.

The town celebrates its town fiesta every December 8 and founding anniversary every 17th of June. The town has a large town plaza located right in the middle of the municipal edifices in the heart of the town. The town has a mini-gym and a recently built administration building. The town suffered a major setback when a raging fire razed down the town's municipal buildings, taking down with it other various government offices, equipments and vital documents. For more than four (4) years, the municipal seat was temporarily housed in the town's mini-gym.

Roxas now has its own fire department, manned by BF personnel detailed from BF Dipolog's main office. The LGU purchased a long-delayed firetruck which it donated to the Bureau of Fire Dipolog but stationed at the Roxas Fire Dept.

For now, the town's officials are trying their best to rebuild and develop the town to keep up with the challenge of providing only the best; the best services and best opportunities for the residents of this town.