December 22, 2007 | 12:00am
All preparations are underway for the grand ball of the once active Bachelors-Femina Clubs of Cebu. Dynamic current interim president Perla Agudo-Peterson is prodding all concerned to do their parts to make the traditional December 28 BF Clubs’ annual ball a glittering event to remember….just like in the past years of glory.
The clubs started in 1919, when a small group of talented young ladies belonging to the upper crust of Cebu society formed a “comparza de las guitarras” and performed in exclusive social events. Only single women who could play a musical instrument were invited to the coterie of about 20. In the early 1930s, the “rigodon de honor” dance on the 28th of December had been taking place at the Casino Espanol de Cebu which was then on Colon St., across the Visayan Institute (now University of the Visayas). Prominent young ladies studying in Manila would hurry home to participate. The bachelors of the same privileged class, on the other hand, had their own separate club.
Years later, the two clubs merged as the Bachelors-Femina Clubs of Cebu, a social club with a grand ball on December 28 as their culminating activity, still held at the Casino Espanol de Cebu. There was a lull during the Second World War but the clubs were revived through the efforts of Bachelors Club President Domingo Veloso (1939 – 1941). By 1965, President (Atty.) Teodoro Flores drafted the BF constitution and by-laws. In 1970, the constitution was amended, making the clubs not solely social in purpose, becoming a socio-civic institution by adding spiritual-moral-cultural development among its members. That year, the charity clinic project was launched under President (Atty.) Ernesto Limkakeng. 1973 saw the addition of education, travel, sports and physical development to the clubs’ goals, through the passionate dedication of President Max Encomienda. Then, the Martial Law decades silenced all clubs.
It is indeed a joyous event, the revival of these once top caliber clubs of Cebu – the Bachelors-Femina Clubs.
