2012 PSAA HOMECOMING: well done!

The 2012 PSAA Homecoming roared with sounds from the 60s and the 80s, thus facilitating a bittersweet trip down memory lane for the golden (Class '62) and silver (Class '87) jubilarians. But as the night wore on, the musical evolution peaked with Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory and Adele's Rolling in the Deep, making the youngblood dance like there was no tomorrow.

Though it started quite late, the program was short. Alumni sang the hymns of St. Paul and Purisima School and honored the jubilarians with certificates of appreciation, commemorative pens and mugs, and tribute videos. A certificate of appreciation was also given to board passer alumni as they brought honor and prestige to Purisima School, especially Engr. James P. Lacia who, after graduating cum laude at UP-Los Banos, placed 7th in the 2011 board examination for civil engineers.

The tribute video for the golden jubilarians was specially affecting because it brought Purisimians back to what was Purisima School like in the 60s and how it was to study in the SPC-run Catholic school in those years. In their nostalgia-steeped responses, Silver Jubilarian Salome A. Herrera-Villaruel and Golden Jubilarian Hermenegildo P. Pimentel Jr. both expressed their gratitude to Purisima School and to the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres for instilling in them the core values that to this day have guided them to become better persons. Pimentel shared how their batch heaped honor on Purisima School when it ranked first in Surigao del Sur in that year's National Test through their valedictorian Rufina G. Luna (RIP). He added that another batchmate, Pedro L. Cejoco Jr., got perfect in Physics, an unprecedented feat at that time.

This year's homecoming was made livelier by a Davao-based band that the golden jubilarians made possible through Mr. Aldrin Montero. Mayor Henrich M. Pimentel, himself a semi-Purisimian, provided a new drum set that he and his "crew" personally set-up.Kudos to Ms. Salome A. Herrera-Villaruel, PSAA president, who prodded on despite the non-support of most PSAA officers. It was her perseverance and patience that rewarded her with what Purisimians considered as the best homecoming ever.

a specter of death in tago

There’s a specter of death in Tago. And everybody believes it’s all because a tagkaro has been tweeting a death knell for almost a month now.Whether tagkaro is crow or raven in English, the fact remains: it’s a messenger of Death.

According to old folks, when a tagkaro makes a sound, someone’s going to die.In DREAMS, my short story published by the Philippine Free Press, I wrote about omens, thus: "And so it was with relief when Anna learned much later that every death in the island village of Kinabutan involved a premonition--- a black butterfly; the scent of candles; the accidental breaking of a plate or a glass; a dog baying in the dead of night; someone dreaming of a wedding, or falling teeth, or riding a boat; amimispis murmuring in the dark corner of the house; even the passing of clouds over a crescent moon."

At a time when you seldom see birds dotting the Tago skyline, it makes you wonder where this tagkaro comes from, why it sounds at dusk, how much is its quota, what is its process of selection.Iyo Acoy and Longlong Bagohin left for Manila after the tagkaro has already claimed at least 15 lives in Tago alone. When 'Yo Coy and Longlong died in Manila, my friends sent me a text message if I had heard the tagkaro sing a requiem in some metallic corner of MOA or a grassy space in Serendra. Perhaps it did, but I must have missed it as I was busy flipping over the price tags amidst the frenzy of a mall-wide, midnight sale.

Somebody had suggested, just to end this scourge, to launch a bird-hunt, a sort of “To Kill A Tagkaro”! But then an old man said that it’s all for our own good to do otherwise.“Don’t even dare shoo the tagkaro away because if you do that, it will multiply. And if it happens and they launch into a symphony, may God have mercy on Tago!”And so what is there to do? Let’s just pray, he said, that soon it will go away on its own.Makes you wonder if the tagkaro is a pet let loose by firms offering funeral services. In which case, it makes you wish for a bird-flu outbreak.

(Note: Photo stolen from the Net)