‘Parade of Lights’ kicks off Zamboanga Hermosa Festival

by Liza Abubakar-Jocson, Manila Bulletin

ZAMBOANGA CITY – A Parade of Lights kicked off this year’s Hermosa Festival– Zamboanga City’s annual festival honoring its patron saint Nuestra Señora La Virgen del Pilar – on Saturday, Oct. 1.

One of the floats competing in this year’s ‘Parade of Lights’ in Zamboanga City.  (Zambo LGU photo)

Twelve floats decorated with sparkling lights sponsored by business establishments, schools, barangays and other private organizations were paraded in Zamboanga streets.

Said floats were also rated by judges for the prizes given by the Zamboanga government.

The floats lighted up Mayor Vitaliano Agan Avenue, Mayor Climaco Avenue, JS Alano and Valderrosa Streets.

The parade culminated at Paseo del Mar where Mayor John Dalipe distributed cash prizes to this year’s winners.

The P200,000 cash prize for this year’s top winner went to the Tau Gamma Phi.

Other winners were the Don Pablo Lorenzo Memorial High School winning P150,000; Kuya’s Lechon P100,000, Brent Hospital P70,000; and College and Barangay Arena Blanco P50,000.

The Zamboanga Hermosa Festival/Fiesta Pilar will culminate on October 12 with a mass, novena and procession in honor of Our Lady of the Pillar, Zamboanga City’s patron saint.

‘Karding’ infra damage reaches P304M – NDRRMC

by Martin Sadongdong, Manila Bulletin

Super Typhoon “Karding” has dealt P304 million worth of damage to infrastructure as the extent of its destruction becomes clearer nearly a week after it left the country.

Brgy. Salangan in San Miguel, Bulacan still submerged in flood on Sept. 26, 2022 after the onslaught of Super Typhoon Karding. (MARK BALMORES / MANILA BULLETN)

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Sunday, Oct. 2, that the estimated cost of damage to infrastructure by Karding, which left the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) last Sept. 26, already reached P304,245, 310.

There were 43 infrastructure projects that were damaged or destroyed by Karding in five affected regions namely Ilocos Region (1), Cagayan Valley (Region 2), Mimaropa (Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan or Region 4B), Bicol Region (5), and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

Twenty-seven of the damaged infrastructure projects were found in Cagayan Valley which cost P280 million. CAR has eight damaged infrastructure projects, Ilocos Region has six, and one each in Mimaropa and Bicol Region.

There were also 58,172 houses that were damaged by the typhoon in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon (Region 3), Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon or Region 4A), and CAR. More than 51,000 houses in the affected areas were partially damaged while around 7,000 where completely destroyed.

Meanwhile, agricultural loss was pegged at P3.053 billion in six regions – Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Bicol, and CAR. A total of 104,500 farmers and fisherfolk were affected by the typhoon while production loss was recorded at 159,867.35 metric tons.

The number of affected Filipinos due to Karding also grew to 1,072,282 or 299,172 families.

As of Sunday, there were 3,098 individuals or 821 families who have yet to return to their homes. They were temporarily staying in 26 evacuation centers.

The death toll related to Karding stood at 12, five others were still missing, and 52 individuals were injured.

The NDRRMC also said that a total of P57.89 million worth of relief assistance was provided for the typhoon victims in the affected regions.

The assistance came in the form of family food packs worth P16.57 million; financial aid worth P10.96 million; and non-food items worth P536,294.34. Some P29.6 million was also spent by the member-agencies of the NDRRMC to help the typhoon victims but they were not itemized and listed only as “for verification.”

Filipina wins prestigious global award

By Conrad M. Cariño

October 3, 2022

DALAREICH Polot became the first Filipina to receive the Goldman Sachs/Fortune Most Powerful Women Global Award.

The 34-year-old from Bohol, known as "Bohol's Chocolate Princess," told The Manila Times she learned over the weekend that she has been chosen for the award along with an Egyptian woman.

"I didn't... expect that they would choose me because I'm competing with other graduates from different countries," she said.

Polot was referring to the Goldman Sachs 10,000 women program that aims to empower women entrepreneurs globally. She is one of the 200 Filipinas who have benefited from the program, having been part of its 2011 alumni.

She said the program was handled in the Philippines by the University of Asia and the Pacific (UAP), and she was one of the last five who attended the program.

"I am extremely honored to be the first Filipina to be conferred this prestigious award at 'Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit' in California in the next few days," she said in a post in her Facebook page.

"They (UAP) sent me an application in the last week of August where you can write your 'Pay it Forward' project for your chosen community. In the Philippines, only me was given an application form," she added.

Polot will fly to California this week to receive the award, which includes a dollar-based grant for her project.

"I'm also eager to listen and network with women leaders and CEOs that I will meet during the summit. I'm so looking forward to engaging with women leaders who will be at the event which includes Melinda Gates, US government women representatives from different states, women CEOs from Fortune 500 companies network and many other amazing women who I usually just read in books or watched on TV," she said.

Polot helped communities in Bohol that were ravaged by Typhoon "Odette" late last year. Bohol was one of the areas that bore the storm's brunt.

"My parents even cried [after learning of the award] because they know I'm always outside the house since the typhoon doing many things in faraway towns and even didn't put [those efforts] on social media," she said.

She admitted getting tired at times, "but I can't just watch the people without homes and having lost their livelihood."

Polot co-founded Dalareich Food Products and started Ginto Chocolates, which produces artisanal chocolate products and helps cacao farmers in Bohol produce quality raw materials.

Loving without measure

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

THAT’S how love should be if it is true. That is to say, if it is the love that flows from the same love which is the very essence of God and that is also meant for us, since we are God’s image and likeness.

We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where Christ was asked what God’s greatest commandment is. That is to say, what God really wants us to do and ultimately to be. (cfr. Lk 10,25-37)

That’s when Christ clearly said that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

The response of Christ clearly indicates that we ought to give everything to God out of love. In other words, it’s an all-or-nothing thing, an incredible ideal to attain but for which we actually have been given all the means. 

We just have to do our part which, of course, will take some time and some process. The important thing is that we should try to put our mind and heart into this responsibility, and no matter how things go, we should just move on. God is always understanding and patient with us, “quick to forgive, slow to anger.”

We need to realize that true love has a universal scope. It is all inclusive. We are meant to love our neighbor, who is actually anyone and everyone, including those we do not know, and those who are strangers and are even our enemies.

Let’s also remember that our love for God is expressed and is proven by our love for others. St. John in his first Letter said as much, “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (4,20)

In this regard, we have to see to it that we are always thinking of the others, and of how we can serve them in any way. This will prove our love for God, since love is deeds and not just sweet words.

Obviously, to pursue this ideal will always be a work in progress, requiring a lot of patience and prudence. Before anything else, it will require that we be more and more Christ-like because only then can we really have this inclusivity of charity. Let’s hope that we be game with that.

The inclusivity of charity for sure is not an anything-goes matter. The truth cannot be compromised, but we have to understand the truth not as a fixed, frozen thing that can be fully captured by our articulated doctrines, laws and principles. The truth is a living thing, as living as God himself who is precisely the absolute truth. As such, it is dynamic and wrapped many times in mysteries and spiritual and supernatural realities.

It’s not that our doctrines, laws and principles serve for nothing. They are necessary, but as a guide to the truth, and not as truth itself. They will always need to be read, understood and followed with the proper spirit that can only come from God. They need to be continually updated, deepened, and polished.

It is with these parameters that we have to approach issues like whether we should be dealing with people who are non-believers, public sinners, those in what we call are in irregular situations, and even those who are in open enmity with the Christian faith.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com