Tension in Roxas City Politics Escalates

The tension between Senator Roxas’ Liberal Party and Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante’s Ugyon Kita Capiz continues to escalate in magnitude and intensity.

Just recently, Roxas City Mayor Vic Bermejo, together with 38 chieftains of the city affirmed their support to Bolante during a meeting at Villa Patria Resort. Together with Bermejo were his running-mate Councilor Dennis Altobano, and candidates for councilors: former City Councilor Teresa Almalbis, Tiza Brgy. Kagawad John Heredia, Lauro Lima, and Nonoy Albar.

On LP’s side, Mrs. Judy Araneta Roxas met 164 of the city’s 329 barangay councilmen at the Governor’s Mansion last Saturday. In the meeting, Mrs. Roxas extended her gratitude for their support to LP, despite the fact that Mayor Bermejo and Bolante have already established an alliance. Mrs. Roxas will continue holding a series of meetings to win back the other local officials before November 30.

Historically quiet: the unknown heritages of our Mother Town

The Roxas City Bandstand: The epitome of the best that the past has to offer.

We pass through them every now and then. We always have a glimpse of them, even to the point that we even don’t bother to take a note whether or not they really matter. But even though we think of them as a part of our heritage or not, still, they are as historic as much as we value the Santa Monica Parish in Pan-ay and it’s resident, Southeast Asia’s celebrated big churchbell.

Sites like the The Roxas City bandstand, unknown to others, are as old as the city itself. While Calle Revolucion and Tadiao Bridge in Pan-ay have their marks in our country’s history books, though to this day, they remain relatively obscure and their historical importance unknown to most of us.

We esteem our province too little, but taking another look and you will see that Roxas City and Capiz are actually home to some of the countries most historically significant sites. And for this, let’s take a peek at some of our province’s bridge to the past.

The Roxas City Band Stand

Standing even before the municipality of Capiz was chartered as a city, Roxas City bandstand is a quintessential pre-war infrastructure that epitomizes the richness of culture and architecture of our country. Typical of every town-capital, the band stand, built in ornate architecture, became the center of town life of the past, as it is the center of city activities today. It had before served the venue of the coronation of the fiesta queens and it also graced celebrations that color the everyday life of the past.

Tadiao Bridge

Before you reach the municipality of Pan-ay, you have first to pass through the Tadiao Bridge. Though no historical mark emanates the image and importance of this bridge, word-of-mouth, and a glance at a reliable source unveiled the fact that Tadiao Bridge is where revolutionary leader Gen. Esteban Contreras defeated the Spanish troops in Capiz. Tadiao Bridge was indeed a strategic location that aided the then-scarcely armed revolutionary troops in their efforts to successfully drive the Spaniards out from Capiz.

Calle Revolution

Calle Revolucion, according to the Provincial Tourism Office, is considered as the country’s second oldest street in the Philippines. It is today a national road that you could pass through whenever you enter the town proper of Pan-ay. Indeed, it is only fitting for the street to be the country’s second oldest since it is in shores of Pan-ay that the Spaniards landed and established the second Spanish settlement in the country after Cebu.

Roxas City Celebrates All Saints' Day

It was all Saint’s Day yesterday. All the people in Roxas City found themselves treading the same path. If the age-old maxim says all the roads lead to Rome, well, forget it! For here, every November 1, all the roads lead to the cemetery.

What is peculiar about this VERY Filipino tradition is that it’s supposed to be the day of the saints, not day of the dead. But that’s what we’re used to here. Much more, I can’t yell at people and tell them to go home and return to the cemetery on November 2.

Anyways, expect for clichés to converge. People from all walks of life have one and only aim on this day: and that is to visit the dead and offer them prayers and bunches of blooms. Never will you be able to see the kind of reverence that Filipinos give to the dead. The elders always say that the dead has this power and ability to intercede between us and God and that if you pray for your dead loved one, he’ll for sure guide you and protect you at all times. And as a part of the overflowing faith of the Filipinos, reverence to the dead is like a ritual that should never be forgotten, at least once a year, least bad luck strikes!

I do not eagerly share this belief with the elders. The reason why I can’t help but visit the church is to pray to God and hope that my long-gone loved ones are now at His kingdom, resting in peace and enjoying eternal life with Him.

And as for the crowd, they just keep on getting more and more, that when nighttime arrived, there was a commotion rushing to and fro. Lights are all on and it seems that this Filipino holiday is always here to stay, just as it has been for centuries now.

Time to Pause, time to rethink, time to revisit Roxas City

It’s Saturday right now. And every Saturday, Roxas City and her inhabitants are lazily tucked within her nightful of sleep. It’s really worth note taking that even at seven o’clock, on October days like these, students, to be exact, seem not to bother whether or not the sun has already risen. What matters most is to for these temporal vacationers to make the most of their short-lived annual sem-break for one, two, three, or four years from now, never will they ever experience the right to have a vacation. When they’re all professionals and when they’re too engrossed minding their filled pockets and empty lives, they’ll have the word vacation on their vocabulary.

Sem-breaks like this, I will never have. Six months ago, the moment I stepped down from my graduation stage, I have forevermore relinquished my rights to have this to-die-for sembreak. So even now, even though everyone around me are still lazily tucked on their beds, unconsciously salivating and dreaming of the best dreams they can have in the world, here I am, scribbling on my laptop, trying to make a living and trying to find the life of my own. But I’ll make amends, and I’ll make sure that three to five years from now, I’ll still be enjoying my life and have time to myself. Here in this small yet serene city I call home, here I am, finding ways on how to live and enjoy life to the fullest.

Thank You President Cory

The citizens of Roxas City and Capiz were shocked with the announcement of the passing of former President Cory Aquino. A democracy icon tagged as the Woman in Yellow, Mrs. Aquino died 3:00 am, Saturday, Aug. 1. Her family was around her, saying the rosary, when she breathed her last due to cardiac arrest. Mrs. Aquino had suffered from colon cancer since last year.

Throughout the city center, yellow ribbons can be found hanging on trees, lampposts, and pillars, signifying the local government’s condolences for the loss of the former president. The Philippine flag is at half-mast, done only when a Philippine president or a dignitary of great honor has died. Likewise, the provincial capitol hung a streamer on its balcony saying “Thank You President Cory,” in gratitude for the president for all that she had done to the Filipinos during her brief but telling term as president.

Tomorrow, to coincide with her necrological service and burial, a requiem mass will be held 9 am at the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Destination Roxas City: The Roxas City Bridge

Long before Henry Ford’s Model T could make their trip to the shores of the Philippines, Roxas City Bridge (then known as Capiz Bridge) has been standing mighty and proud connecting the two islands that comprise what is now the heart of Roxas City.

The Roxas City Bridge was built between 1908 and 1910, when the American’s bridge-building hysteria was at its height. The construction took place during terms of two governors, Antonio Habana and Jose Cortez Altavas, and during the administration of Capiz Town’s president, Pastor Alcazar (1908-1912). The country’s resident commissioner to the US House of Representatives that time was Manuel Luis M. Quezon, with the American-run Bureau of Public Works (the precursor of today’s DPWH) taking care of the construction of bridges and other public infrastructures across the country.

The bridge was constructed in line with the American’s belief that “what could be linked with a bridge was indeed connected.” The bridge withstood the bombings of World War II and thereafter, it remained virtually unaltered or renovated. Thus, to this day, the bridge you see upon passing on it is almost exactly as it was more than a century ago.

Tanco spearheads healing mass for Cory

Yesterday, the Provincial Government of Capiz, under the stewardship of Governor Victor A. Tanco, spearheaded a healing mass for the speedy recover of Former President Corazon C. Aquino. The said mass was held 10:00 am at the Immaculate Conception Metropolitan Cathedral.

The former president has been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer May last year. She was admitted at Saint Luke’s Medical Center last month after she lost her appetite. Her condition has been rallying from now and then but it is unsure whether she would be fine in the days to come.

Late last Tuesday this week, the Aquino family divulged to the press that Mrs. Aquino’s condition had been stabilized, with her blood pressure and condition back to normal.