Iloilo blazes with bright lights

Sighs of relief were heard all over Iloilo City and the rest of Panay. The reason: Christmas will no longer be gloomy. The energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) issued a provisional authority to the Panay Electric Co. Inc. (PECO) to amend a purchase power agreement with Panay Electric Corp. that forestalled power interruption in Iloilo province.

That word from the ERC buoyed up the spirit of Ilonggos. "The ERC is aware of the detrimental effects of a massive blackout in Iloilo City, thus it resolved to issue a provisional authority allowing PPC to recover the cash necessary to generate power.

The order provides a temporary relief to PPC while the ERC is still evaluating its amended PPA with PECO," said chairman Rodolfo Albano in a statement.

The ERC approved an initial estimated amount of P1.25 per kilowatt hour for operation and maintenance based on PECO’s application, 35 centavos per kwh for interest expense on debt and P4.1921 per kwh for fuel cost. Altogether, this additional rate totals P6.512 per kwh.

That, temporarily at least, ends the threat by PECO to shut down its operations because of its inability to meet payment obligations.

Sports tourneys

Bacolod continues to draw in sports enthusiasts though not in big contingents as the recently-concluded Southeast Asian Games. But yesterday, the Western Visayas Private Schools Athletic Association games kicked off at the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (UNO-R) with some 1,000 athletes from all over Region 6 participating.

Rep. Monico Puentevella delivered the keynote speech at the opening rites, which was highlighted by the performances of the University of St. La Salle and the UNO-R Integrated High School pep squads.

Fr. Emilio Jaruda, OAR, WV-PRISAA president; Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia; and Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon welcomed the delegates and officials participating in the four-day tournament.

Last Sunday, the 2005 Palarong Panlalawigan also opened at the Pana-ad Park Stadium in Barangay Mansilingan. About 3,000 athletes and officials attended the opening ceremonies keynoted by Provincial Board member Emilio Yulo III, chair of the SP education committee.

Again, Gov. Marañon, Mayor Leonardia and Rep. Puentevella welcomed the officials and participating delegations to the provincial meet with the theme "Excellence in Sports for Unity, Peace and Progress."

The education department’s physical education and school sports heads led the oath-taking of officials. The NOHS Brass Band performed during the opening rites.

Competitions in athletics, swimming, taekwando and table tennis will be held at the Pana-ad. Archery and boxing will be staged at the Paglaum Sports Complex while badminton will be played at the Bacolod Arts Center.

In the Prisaa games, Negros Occidental’s contingent will defend 12 titles — women’s athletics, men and women’s chess, men and women’s taekwando, women’s swimming, men’s badminton, men and women’s table tennis, men’s lawn tennis and women’s volleyball.

Lower key but still equally interesting is the ongoing Paralympics in the 3rd ASEAN Para Games in Manila where FIDE Master Sandar Severino of Silay City bagged his third gold medal.

Severino, 20, the highest ranked chess player form Negros Occidental, added another gold medal to his collection by leading the RP team in the visually-impaired and physically-handicapped team championships.

He could capture another gold — his fourth — as he emerged with four points after the third round of the blindfolded chess players in the competition.

That immediately drew comments from Silay City Mayor Carlo Gamban.

"We are very proud of him. His victory is a great honor for the city," said Gamban in an interview with the Visayan Daily Star sportswriter Cedelf Tupas.

In short, Bacolod continues its drive to promote sports tourism. And that promotion program reached its climax recently with Bacolod hosting several important events of the Southeast Asian Games that drew into the city thousands of sports enthusiasts form all over the country as well as hundreds of delegates from all over Southeast Asia

50th year as priests

Saturday and Sunday, two members of the pioneer class of 1946 of the Sacred Heart Seminary commemorated separately the golden jubilee of their sacerdotal celebration.

Both Fr. Manuel Porquez and Msgr. Marcos Pilar, HP, were my former classmates in that pioneer class. The reason why I had to attend both celebrations was there are only five members of the class of 14 still alive — the two priests, former DepEd regional supervisor Felix Garzon Jr., the missing Fr. Antonio Santes and myself.  

The thanksgiving Mass of Fr. Porquez was held at the Lopez Sugar Corp. in Paraiso, Sagay. That’s 75 kilometers north of Bacolod City, where the priest once served as chaplain while concurrently serving as parish priest of the Our Lady of the Rosary Parish of Barangay Paraiso.

Retired Bishop Nicholas Mondejar, San Carlso Bishop Jose Advincula and Canlaon City auxiliary bishop Modesto Salvador attended the thanksgiving Mass of Fr. Porquez. There were also about 30 clergymen from both the Bacolod and San Carlos dioceses.

Msgr. Pilar’s thanksgiving rites were held at the Sacred Heart Shrine in Lupit. It was attended by some of the top lay leaders of the Bacolod diocese with no less than Bishop Vicente Navarra delivering the homily.

Later in the evening, the faithful and the seminary community presented a cultural program for Msgr. Pilar.

Although he has retired as chaplain of the Riverside Medical Center, the Torre family was so impressed by his spirituality and service that they gave him a room at the upper floor of the hospital as his quarters.

Msgr. Pilar, incidentally, was the soloist tenor of the seminary scholar cantorum which was originally under the baton of the late rector, Fr. Prudencio Mayoral.

The point is that most retired priests suffer from a sense of insecurity as pointed out by Bishop Salvador.

That’s one question that has been bugging both the clergy and the laity of both dioceses. And it may take sometime for the clergy and laity to come up with a formula that could bail out aging clergymen from the insecurities of the winter of their lives as they wait the summons from God whose call they had accepted.