Blessings

It was refreshing to watch the Buglasan street dances yesterday afternoon. While there were only ten contingents out of a possible 25, it was nevertheless a success by all indications.

Thousands of people turned out to watch the parade and be a part of the Buglasan festivities. The outcome was surprising, because amid all the preparations for the event, the threat of sabotage by terrorists loomed in the background. That, however, seemed the least of everyone's worries. It was also very comforting to know that so many security personnel were deployed in Dumaguete to ensure the safety of the public. At the Perdices Coliseum, for instance, I saw Army soldiers wrapped in their hammocks sleeping the entire day for the entire week last week. The reason for their seeming hibernation was that they were deployed to various stations at night to ensure that the festival would go on without a security problem.

Also, while the Buglasan street dancing competition was going on, a Coast Guard patrol boat kept cruising the length of the Rizal Boulevard.

It was a wonderful reminder that life is good in Oriental Negros and that we, as a province, are abundantly blessed.

It is a timely reminder, indeed, for it comes at a time when many of our doctors want to become nurses just so they can leave for greener pastures abroad. Then there's the Supreme Court decision saying that the E-vat is legal and will be implemented starting in November. We should brace for price hikes in most commodities.

We just had too much bad news these past few weeks that we forget our blessings. We were expecting the news of the visit of President Arroyo last week to at least land in the national newspapers. But the rally dispersal where prominent personalities were "cannonized" in Mendiola, such as former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Senator Jamby Madrigal and former Rep. Oscar Orbos, got the lion's share of the publicity. There was no more space left for the "good news" of the Buglasan Festival.

But we who were witness to the more than one week of festivities can take heart in knowing that the Buglasan was a big success. While the nation and the rest of the world may not have known about how the festival went, we can rest assured that all the hard work that everyone put into these activities didn't go for naught.*

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