Bago gets top billing in
NCAA’s Agung magazine

An article on Bago City “Home of historical and natural treasures” received recently top billing in the National Commission on Culture and Arts magazine Agung.  It was written by Zenaida Aguirre Jimenez.

That puts Bago among the places tourists and foreign students should visit in Western Visayas.  Agung is prominently circulated among culture buffs and history students and scholars.

It is also circulated among Philippine embassies abroad, helping market Philippine culture and tourist spots as well as historical sites.

Ms. Jimenez started off with her recitation of the great Bagoeño national figures starting with General Juan Araneta, the Negrense hero and leader who freed the island from Spanish rule.

Then, there was UN secretary Rafael Salas, undersecretary general of the UN, the highest administrative post attained by a Filipino.  Salas was also executive director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.

Then, Ms. Jimenez mentioned the late Senator Ramon A. Torres who authored the eight-hour labor law and founded the Ramon Torres Memorial National High School where he taught for seven years.

Another illustrious son was Speaker Jose Y. Yulo of the House of Representatives.  He also became Justice secretary and later, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Few Negrenses are aware, for example, that President Manuel L. Quezon’s Secretary Jorge B. Vargas, also came from Bago.

So did former Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto, governor of the DBP, PNB president and Philsucom chairman.

Ms. Jimenez described Bago in lyrical language.  And she points out that it is one of the jumping points to start a sojourn to the acme of Mt. Kanlaon.

Among the city’s festivals cited by Ms. Jimenez are the Cannon Festival which commemorates the historic bluff whereby the Southern Army under General Araneta managed to convince the Spanish garrison in Bacolod that they were equipped with the brand new Murata rifles and well-oiled field guns.  It turned out later that these were palm fronds painted to glisten like brand new firearms and the artillery pieces were rolled sawali mats painted black and mounted on carabao carts.

She also mentions the fluvial parade of St. John the Baptist, the annual Agro-Industrial Fair and Exhibit and the Babaylan festival.

She describes the Babaylan as a doctor, herbalist, artist, medium, adviser, agriculturist, “and more, all rolled into one very interesting character.”

The Babaylan, she describes also as the keeper of rituals and spirit agents.

She finally talks about the Balay ni Tan Juan, the museum that has become a must for visitors to the city.  It houses the rich heritage of the people of Bago City.  And it also holds the cultural objects from the poblacion and the different barangays of the city.

Actually, the museum is a joint project of the Tan Juan Museum and the Nippon Foundation.

I’ll write more about the Ms. Jimenez’s Bago City writeup and how it contributed to projecting the suburban city of Bacolod as primary destination or those interested to know more about the history, arts and culture of Bago.

* * *

Actually, we shall know whether the rice crisis is actually true or just media hype to justify the price increases among the traders of the prime staple.

While the President claims that there is no shortage of rice, Secretary of Agriculture Arthur Yap admits that the country’s production has not yet kept pace with the producing countries of the region.

In short, we must face the possibility of Filipinos going really hungry by the end of the year.*

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