A response to our Tres de Abril article

It’s Holy Wednesday and all roads out of Cebu City is snarled with traffic. Filipinos always go back to where they originally came from for a family reunion, a well-deserved vacation and to reflect on the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ which is why we’re having this Holy Week in the first place.

I’m off to Bantayan Island, the hometown of my wife Jessica. We never missed a Holy Week celebration since we got married, until nine years ago when we just didn’t find the time to go. I already heard that under Governor Gwen F. Garcia’s leadership, Bantayan Island has grown and developed tremendously to the point that there is now a circumferential road around the island.

But for me, I’ve missed watching the life-size statues of the more than two dozen carrosa’s for the two big processions on Holy Thursday and Holy Friday. Just to show you how long I’ve been away from Bantayan Island, the photographs in my album is still on Kodak film. So in a way, it will be my first time to take digital photographs of the procession and the other tourism sites that I might discover for this Holy Week visit.

* * *

It’s a week after we wrote about the historic Tres de Abril uprising. I got this belated response from retired Regional Director Atty. Estrella Martinez ([email protected]). Actually this email was her response to the article she read in my column in The Philippine Star. However since I really didn’t like to write any heavy stuff, I decided to reprint this letter in The Freeman as this would be of more interest to our fellow Cebuanos.

“The undersigned is a retired Regional Director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue who is a pure and simple corn-eating Cebuana who was born in Calape, Daan Bantayan, Cebu. I am happily married to Edgar L. Martinez from Ormoc City, your classmate from USC Boy’s High. I wish to add more comments in your facts presented re: Remembering the Tres de Abril Uprising, whatever they are worth in historical value for Cebuanos who thirst for memories like this, to wit:

At the corner of Calamba (now V. Rama Ave.) and Tres de Abril Streets is a historical marker delineating the heroic exploits of the legendary rebellious Cebuanos during the Filipino-Spanish War. Please visit the site. Tres de Abril starts from B. Aranas-Lakandula Streets to Punta Princesa Street. Before this marker was erected many years ago, there stood our humble nipa house where I practically spent my childhood years since 1947 up to the time I transferred to Tisa, Labangon in 1972.

I was a living witness to the yearly celebration of Tres de Abril wherein I rubbed elbows with unsung Cebuano heroes donned in their mothballed Katipunero uniforms. Having grown up in this rough and tumble community, I innocently developed a warring consciousness brought about by the spirits of Katipunero who were still lingering in this very spot where I bum around. In this spot was my kiting dreams. A dream of becoming a lawyer.

Behind our nipa hut is the big house of the Zabala sisters, the singing sensation of the Yarrow Beach Resort in Talisay and White Gold Restaurant in the rolling 60s and I was then only their stage friend. Manny Cabase, the ever-talented Cebuano composer of “Matag Buklad sa Bulak” and other famous songs lived nearby. He is the father of Amapola Cabase, the main attraction of Magellan Hotel in the 60s as the versatile singer and musician. Amapola can play all kinds of musical instruments.

Three houses away from our nipa house was the house of a doctor who was the employer of a certain Gabriel Elorde from Bogo. The neighborhood kids were awed by his boxing prowess but it was no big deal then until he became a world-boxing champ. The late Col. Tirso H. Gador, who was my high school classmate since first year up to fourth year at the Cebu Institute of Technology, used to witness the yearly Tres de Abril celebration. Col. Gador was a strong force to reckon with in the 1986 Edsa Revolution. If he was only alive today, he could have testified as to the fiesta-like atmosphere of the annul Tres de Abril celebration.

The house number of our nipa hut was 107 Calamba Street, the very spot where the Tres de Abril marker is presently erected. Tres de Abril Street is not only the longest street in Cebu City but for me it will always be a beacon light; moreover, it is a deeply rooted tree that does not fear the onslaught of wind and rain. Atty. Estrella V. Martinez, CPA Retired Regional Director.”

These are great insights of Cebu in the yesteryears. We’re glad that some people still remember how it was back in the old days.

* * *

Email: [email protected]