EILEEN E. San Juan is thinking of launching the Higalaay Festival, the new city fiesta branding, during the big meet of the tourism industry in Manila this month.
“Higalaay is our response to the bombing at Limketkai,” she said. “We make friends, not war.”
Meet the final batch of higalas below.
13. Maximo Suniel -- The First City Mayor.
The post-war years were years of peace, progress, and prosperity. The town was riding on the economic upswing brought about by the coconut industry, especially the boom in the prices of copra. In no time at all, the town of Cagayan de Misamis became the city of Cagayan de Oro.
Maximo Y. Suniel has the distinction of being the last municipal mayor and the first city mayor. He was the city mayor of Cagayan de Oro City from 1948 to 1953. When President Elpidio Quirino signed the charter of the city, he was present to witness the signing of the said charter.
14. Emmanuel Pelaez -- Author of the City Charter.
By the time he took a bow from politics—after a failed assassination attempt that made him ask rhetorically, “What’s happening to our country?” --Emmanuel Neri Pelaez had been there, done that.
Born in Medina, Misamis Oriental to a large family of eight children, he knew he had to excel to make a headway.
Running away with the top award at the Cagayan de Misamis Elementary School was his ticket to the Ateneo de Manila High School. From there he went to Cebu City where he took his Associate in Arts at the Cebu UP Junior College.
Next stop was at the University of Manila, where, in 1938, he got his law degree. That year, he took the Bar and topped it.
Thus began his distinguished career in government service that was but a prelude to his election, 11 years later, as a Congressman of his home province. His exemplary performance in Congress did not go unnoticed, and he successfully made the leap from the Lower House to the Senate from 1953-1960.
The following year, he ran as Vice President of the Republic, and won -- the first politician from Mindanao to so grace the halls of Malacañang.
From top-level politician, he graduated into a statesman symbolic of the dignity of public service. He served under the administrations of various presidents, including Corazon Aquino, who named him Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
It was Pelaez who authored the city charter in Congress. And so it was that in June 15, 1950, then President Elpidio Quirino signed Republic Act No. 521, granting the status of Chartered City to the Municipality of Cagayan de Misamis.
At the time, Congressman Pelaez thought that the term “Cagayan de Misamis” needed to be updated.
He took out the word “Misamis” and switched it with the Spanish word “Oro.”
It was the Golden ’50s, after all, and gold was the currency of global exchange even as it glowed in the riverine mythology of our ancient beginnings.
Pelaez wrote it down: “Cagayan de Oro.” Thus was our city christened into posterity.
15. Farmer -- Steward of the Earth’s Bounty.
With a total land area of 488.86 kilometers squared, and a general elevation of 10 meters above sea level, Cagayan de Oro City has 25 kilometers of coastline and one of the country’s safest natural harbors, Macajalar Bay. Some 44.7 percent of the land surface of Cagayan de Oro is classified as agricultural land.
Cradled by the bay and the mountains, the city enjoys the bounty and blessings of geography. And in this endeavor, the farmer is the steward of such grace.
Thus does the city manage to feed its population of some 602,088, strengthening its strategic importance as the gateway to Northern Mindanao—a regional hub, where governance and golf estates, as well as culture and commerce, and education, economy, and entertainment, and even transport and tourism converge and thrive.
Today, Cagayan de Oro is considered as the most competitive city in the Philippines.
16. Fisher -- Harvesting the Blessings of the Sea
Some 50 km. wide at the outset and 30 km. long, Macajalar Bay is one of the country’s favorite harbors. At about 1,000 km2, it is also a rich fishing ground, yielding a stupendous catch that has put Cogon Market and Carmen Market on the map of serious and adventurous foodies.
Xavier University is consolidating various initiatives aimed at a ridge-to-reef approach that seeks to ensure the sustainable biodiversity of the bay amid all sorts of challenges, including climate change, and its impact on all our lives.
17. White-Water Rafter -- Eco-tourism High.
A river runs through it. In December 2011, Typhoon Sendong washed away homes and residents as it swelled the Cagayan de Oro River and flushed all, all into the sea.
In an instant, the city became a city of mourning, of anger, of disaster response, of tent communities and housing projects. The city died, and rose again.
In this narrative of re-building, the White-Water Rafting Adventure ride becomes a metaphor of re-birth.
From tragedy, we turn to tourism to help re-build our city. And we reclaim the river not as a curse but as a course of action to be undertaken together.
We think of environmental management. Of sustainable undertakings. Of a city coming together for a better future, a more enlightened citizenry taking things into our own hands so that the river may flow on to better times ahead.