Paolo Valenciano and the Salamin Band, Jenny Miller, a TV personality, and Rayver Cruz, mainstay of the TV adventure series on ABS-CBN Rounin, will perform in an evening concert on Aug. 2, Charter Day of Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, a press release from event organizers said.

The concert to be held at the football stadium is free as a culminating activity at the week-long Charter Day celebration.

The Udyakan sa Kabankalan will be held at 1 p.m. on the same date with the participation of four private schools and eight public schools in the city. They will compete in creative folk dances reflecting the culture of Kabankalanons, the press release said.

Mayor Pedro Zayco Jr. said this is the most significant Charter Day celebration because it marks the 10th year of Kabankalan as a city. The Kabankalan City Cultural and Tourism Foundation, Inc., with Dr. Enigardo Legislador, Jr. as chairman is spearheading the celebration, the press release added.*

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'Music for a tree' Aug. 10

A reforestation program called "Music for a Tree" will be held Aug. 10 in Bacolod City by the Green Alert Environmental Network, to highlight the declaration of Mt. Kanlaon as a Natural Park under the National Integrated Protected Area Systems Law or the NIPAS Law, a press release from organizers said.

The event aims to bring many different voices working together, inspired by the creative and wonderful talent of these local artists and their thoughts on the environment. It also hopes to unite different organizations, schools, private institutions and individuals and various artist and musical groups to give significance to Mother Earth, and showcase about 30 bands in Bacolod City performing different musical genre for the earth, the press release said.

Recently, about 200 fruit bearing and endemic seedlings where transplanted by almost 170 participants in Ramonito Maravilla High School, Barangay Estefania, Bacolod City.

A memorandum of agreement was also signed between the Barangay Council of Estefania and the organizers to take care of the seedlings so they can survive.

The gathering will also be commemorate Noel Tragico, Neil Perez and a Belgian Julian Green who died during the August 1996 explosion in Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park.

Those who wish for more information may call the Music for a Tree secretariat c/o Green Alert Negros Environmental Network at Tel. Nos. 09192813350 or 09163600386, the pres release added.*

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IN PONTEVEDRA
Healing mission set

The healing missions with Fr. Fernando Suarez are scheduled 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 6 and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Aug. 7, at the St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Pontevedra, Negros Occidental.

Parish priest Fr. Alfredo Gamarcha is inviting those interested in joining the mission. Another mission is scheduled 7 p.m., at the Carmelite Church in Mandalagan, Bacolod City. The missions will be conducted under the Mary Mother of the Poor Foundation, which also conducts retreats and seminars.

Suarez, a Filipino engineer from Batangas, is a member of the Companions of the Cross order in Canada. More than half a million sick people in the US, Philipines, Central America, Europe and other parts of Asia joined his missions last year, Fr. Jeff Shannon, CC, of the mission team said.

Suarez became a priest in 1997. He felt he had God's gift of healing as early as at age 16, Shannon said. It became more pronounced in 2003.

Shannon says that Suarez only prays with people after the celebration of a healing Mass. It is the real presence of Jesus in the eucharist who heals and He is using Suarez' hands to heal the sick and the broken-hearted, he added.

He discourages people from coming to him for healing outside of the context of the mass, Shannon said.

"I have witnessed on many occasions the blind able to see, the deaf able to hear and the lame able to walk, and cancer disappearing - these are the most powerful healings that often take place on the spot," Shannon also said.*

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