Bong O. Wenceslao
Wenceslao’s road to the journalism profession was circuitous. While still with Southwestern University’s campus publication The Quill, he was offered a reporter’s slot in the Visayan Herald (now defunct). He worked part-time in dyLA.
But a bigger concern drew away Bong, as colleagues call him: the fight against the Marcos dictatorship.
Some seven years later, he was back, more serious about resuming his journalism career at dyLA. But as writing was his real passion, he left broadcasting to be a reporter at The Freeman. In 1997, he joined Sun.Star Cebu.
As a journalist, he believes he is no longer out to radically change the world but merely to make a difference through his writing. His columns reflect his causes: freedom, nationalism, justice. Twice, he was awarded best in column writing by the Cebu Archdiocesan Mass Media Awards.
Columns
Power point presentation
I WAS among those invited by Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to her power point presentation last Wednesday at the Cebu International convention Center (CICC), an activity primarily meant to answer questions on the controversial Balili lot purchase and Capitol’s recent move to develop the area (the governor termed it “restoration”).
Pacquiao, religion and coincidence
THE boxing news-sharing website Pinoy Greats (pinoygreats.com) used to be solely dedicated to reports about Filipino boxing icon Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao and aptly named Pacland (mannypacquiao.ph) until its owner had a run-in with the handler of Pacman’s own website.
A recent thread in its public forum section stirred a debate when it tackled Pacquiao’s transfer to another religion in relation to his loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in last Sunday’s bout in Las Vegas. One entry: “Manny didn’t kiss the rosary and kissed the canvass instead.”
Will history be kinder to Gwen?
I WON'T say the filling up with limestone by Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia of the controversial Balili property in Tinaan, Naga City is illegal. That will be up to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas to decide now that the political opposition in the province has filed charges against the governor. What I can say, however, is that the filling up of the submerged portion of the lot only compounded the governor’s problems.
A walk along Osmeña Blvd
DARKNESS had blanketed Cebu City when I decided to take a purposeful walk along virtually the entire stretch of Osmeña Blvd. It was that time last Wednesday when efforts to find a topic to write about went for naught. In such instances, I free my mind by taking a stroll.
Typhoons in my mind
WE LIVE in the Philippines, which is within the Pacific typhoon belt, and so each of us have stories to tell about the typhoons that we went through growing up. The depth a storm is etched in our subconscious is proportionate to how destructive it is.
Hontiveros and Casiño
I AM still stomped as to why two factions of the Left are engaged in a “war” to annihilate each other when both are pushing for unselfish causes. I had a “chat” with a friend identified with the party-list group Akbayan and was surprised when she expressed the hope that the militant Left won’t use violence against them, notably in the countryside.
Learning curve
I FIRST heard about the school in the ‘80s, when I was an organizer of the youth-student movement in Cebu. Carol, a fellow organizer, would talk about the members of the Student Christian Movement (or was it the Student Catholic Action?) of the Philippines in “IHMA” in Minglanilla town. IHMA stands for Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy.
The ‘Usahay’ story
THE Supreme Court ruling that a Col. Greg Labja of Davao City composed the popular Cebuano song “Usahay” and not Juanito Gonzales Angus a.k.a. Nitoy Gonzales of Tudela, Cebu prompted me to take a second look at “Usahay-Original Version-Leni Alano” uploaded on the Youtube website by “Philclassic” on Dec. 13 last year. The post has a little backgrounder on the song, including a 1979 twist when a slightly different version of the song became a hit.
The everyman as saint
VERY little is known about the life of San Pedro Calungsod, so chances are the value of what has been gathered about him so far is being exaggerated. The Cebu archdiocese may not admit it, but it is obvious that the Calungsod story is incomplete and what we have are not enough to give us a full picture of the kind of youth he was.
The Cebuanos’ perception of Calungsod’s character, for example, is based on conjectures and not on real description by people who knew him. I would even say that who we believe Pedro was is mainly based on priest-researchers imagining of his person.
A plea for Canoy, Gullas
I REMEMBER going to Poro town, the birthplace of my mother, years ago upon the invitation of Dr. Aguido Magdadaro, who dared fate by opening Mt. Moriah College, which offered tertiary education to islanders who could not afford or don't have the time to go to school in the Cebu mainland.
I went home from that experience convinced of the need for government to offer higher education opportunities to rural folk. Magdadaro would later set up the flourishing Cebu Sacred Heart College in Talisay City.
