Capampangan, A to Z

 

FRIDAY, December 11, marks the 449^th year of Pampanga’s founding as a province, the first in the entire island of Luzon, by the Spanish conquistadores.

With the coronavirus disease pandemic constraining all official observance of the day to virtual, reflective (un)realities of the FB page, I dug up my archives of celebratory pieces of Aldo ning Kapampangan past. If only to have that feel, that pride the day invariably stirs.  

Here’s a rehash of top-of-mind randomness on everything and anything Capampangan with the letters of the alphabet as only guide for some semblance of order.

Arayat, naturally comes first. The mountain that lords over the plains of Central Luzon impacts the majesty, if not the primacy, of the province over the rest of the region. Abe, dear friend, doubled to oneness in abe-abe, so central in the vocabulary as in our character as a distinct race, as we have long elevated ourselves to be. Augustinians, the harbingers of the Faith enshrined as much in the hearts and souls of the native Capampangans as in their magnificent churches.

Betis, arguably the church with the most Sistine Chapel-like ceiling in all the Philippines. Bacolor, once serving as the capital of Las Islas Filipinas at the time of the British Occupation off Manila in the early 1760s. Buru –fermented rice with fish or shrimps – pungent but ambrosiac, no true Capampangan can do without.

Clark. Once the bastion of American imperialism in the Asia-Pacific as host to the largest US military installation outside continental USA, now a bustling freeport with the long-promised modern airport terminal soon to open.

Dugong aso. Long (mis)impressed as backbiting treachery, in actuality referencing to dogged devotion, okay, canine loyalty. Don Perico. Traitor to his landowning class, he fathered socialism in the Philippines, and – to me – equals in greatness the martyrdom of his brother, Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos.

Ebun, principal agro-product that formed one half of Candaba town’s iconic festival, cause of the province’s economic woes whenever avian flu comes a-calling. Everybody’s Café, unarguably serving the best in home-cooked Capampangan dishes, major contributor to Pampanga being hailed the Culinary Capital of the Philippines.

Furniture and furnishings, from the antique to the “antiqued” that gave the world “Betis Baroque” to exotic rattan, metal and cast-iron, all crafted exquisitely by the country’s best artisans.

GMA. Love her. Hate her. But there’s no denying the economic fundamentals instituted during her watch did the nation good. And she still won elections, despite her incarceration, er, hospital arrest, with or without her neck brace. Senator, vice president, president, congresswoman, House speaker – no other human has trod and triumphed through that all.

Hot air balloon. Once the only thing Clark was good at. Now, much better off in Lubao. Go, ask the balloonists themselves. H – in the Capampangan tongue – silent where present, stressed where absent. As in hay ev ha aws hin onolulu, awaii.
Ilustrado, the social class to which every Capampangan assumes himself/herself as belonging to, no matter his/her socio-economic condition. With outward manifestation in his/her being –
Japorms, showy but chic in style and fashion, ever dressed to the nines even when the pocket holds but a dime.

Kamaru, mole cricket, invariably cooked deep-fried adobo. Reputedly an aphrodisiac for the Capampangan macho.

Leguan – a living, walking celebration of beauty is the Capampangan woman, as the local ditty puts it aptly, aro catimyas na nitang dalaga…

Mequeni – a most welcoming invitation as much to the home as to the heart of the Capampangan.

Nanay. Motherhood becoming the best practice of provincial governance. Nang, a multifaceted word in Capampangan, best exemplified in Nang nanangnang ng ‘Nang? Straight translation: What is being grilled by mom?

O’t. What other dialect, or language for that matter, possesses a word comprising two letters conjoined by an apostrophe? O’t macanyan ca? O’t balamu matudtud ya mu ing meangu bie.

Parul¸ the Christmas lantern that is both shibboleth of our faith as Catholics and our culture and craftsmanship as Capampangan taken to gigantic proportions with the City of San Fernando’s signature festival. Pinatubo, from which devastating eruption triumphed, excelled, soared the Capampangan spirit to greater heights of development and glory. Presidents, three of whom the Capampangan race contributed to the Republic – GMA, her father Apung Dadong, and the widow in yellow, Cory Cojuangco-Aquino.

Qng, queca, queni, quibal, quiao-quiao, calaquian, tuquil… the Q in Capampangan words losing to the Tagalog’s K. What gives?

Religious, the first Filipino priest and nun were Capampangans. So was the first Filipino cardinal. And yes, the self-proclaimed “Appointed son of God” who claimed he stopped the earthquake is Capampangan too. Rebellious, the first major, major revolt against the Spaniards was by the Capampangan Francisco Maniago. Yeah, the province birthed and bred rebel armed groups from the Huks to the New People’s Army.

Sinukwan, the deity-king of the ancient Capampangans celebrated in December’s other festival in the capital city. Sisig, hailed as the best pork dish in the world.

Tarik Soliman, the young boy from Macabebe. Wikipedia says was “the first warrior-hero who died for our freedom.”

Universities, at least seven in Pampanga, plus scores of colleges and other higher institutions of learning, making the province a center of education in the whole region.
Virgen de los Remedios, the beloved patroness of Pampanga, whose image, with the Santo Cristo del Perdon, is taken from town to town in a crusade of penitence and charity.

Wetlands, particularly the Candaba Swamp, where the annual migration of birds from temperate countries has put the province in the world wildlife map.

X, not for the cinematic rating but for the expletives easily rolling out of the Capampangan mouth. As in bolang, buguk, tigtig, luse, murit, turak, sira buntuc just for crazy.

Yabang, the single characteristic that defines the Capampangan most, among other ethnicities, er, tribes, er, other Filipinos.

Zest for life. Joie de vivre best expressed in Oyni’ng bie!

Luid ya ing Capampangan!

 

 

McDo and me

A RECORD of the Guinness sort was achieved this Monday with the biggest McDonald’s store in the country opening at Megaworld’s Capital Town in the City of San Fernando. As in nothing bigger, everything smaller, anywhere else in PHL.

No simple record though but history did I consciously make with my mere attendance to the event. As in only me, not anyone else there present. No conceit there as that privilege made possible simply by my senior citizenship and my media ID.

I very much doubt if anyone else at McDo-Capital Town’s launch was also at the opening of the first ever McDo store outside Metro Manila a nigh short of 40 years ago.

The exact date I cannot now recall, but it was in the pre-EDSA Uno 1980s – Ferdinand E. Marcos was still president, Estelito P. Mendoza was governor of Pampanga, and Fred Halili was mayor of a Mabalacat municipality that was still far from Boking Morales and farther from a city – that McDo set shop in Dau. Primarily for the American market of US servicemen and their families at nearby Clark Air Base, then still the bastion of American imperialism in the Asia-Pacific.

Indeed, as feasibility-studied, McDo-Dau drew the American clientele, but along with them those ideologically vowed to oust them from P.I. shores. By any means, less fair than foul, as it turned out.

Murder most foul

Exact date now, Oct. 27, 1987, USAF Staff Sgt. Randy Davis “had just crossed MacArthur Highway after an early breakfast at McDonald’s in Dau when he was shot dead.”
My banner story in People’s Tonight and dispatch to the Associated Press reported that Davis was one of three US servicemen and one American-looking Filipino gunned down in simultaneous attacks around Clark by urban partisans of the New People’s Army that day.

Scourge of the environment

Nearly three years after, it was McDo that was “attacked” – no, not by the NPA but by the press – for being “a scourge of the environment.”

So was McDo denounced in Pampanga Press Club Resolution 3-02 dated Sept. 30, 1990 after “three fully grown acacia trees were felled and a few others ‘pruned to the trunk’ to make way for the parking lot of the food chain” at the Dolores-MacArthur Highway junction in San Fernando.

“Senator Heherson Alvarez, chair of the natural resources committee, and DENR Secretary Fulgencio Factoran Jr., to whom the PPC resolution was addressed immediately took action and McDo was made to plant 10 seedlings for every tree it cut at a DENR-designated area and also helped sponsor a number of environmental campaigns.” So, we recalled in our book Of the Press (1999).    

It was I, as PPC president, that stood as the complaining party during the confrontation at the DENR office.

In an ironic twist of fate, the McDo representative was none other than my college journalism professor Nancy Harel nee Ladringan who recruited me to write for The Regina, the student publication of the then-Assumption College which editorship I later held. Nancy was head of Harel & Associates, McDo’s ad agency.

Contactors

McDo-Dolores junction made its mark as the place to be in Pampanga’s post-Pinatubo 90s.

Contractors, constructors and their retinue of contactors, and public works engineers made the place their veritable boardroom. I remember the late Ed Aguilar, alias Dan U. Pan but famously known as Macky Pangan, who made a virtual home of McDo-Dolores exclaiming only God, or the devil in this wise, knew what crooked means and corrupted schemes were crafted over Big Macs in the implementation of Pinatubo-mitigation projects.

Macky, it was too, that chaired and moderated the informal media forum at the place regularly attended by incumbent local officials, political wannabes, as well as has-beens and never-would-bes.

It was in one of these fora that I first met Macky, engaging me in a heated discussion on who would win the 1995 Pampanga governorship: he, bloviating on the “sure win” of  his cabalen Don Pepito Mercado; I, quarterbacking for Lito Lapid, japing on the reduction of the don to a pipit after the polls.

Senior-unfriendly

And who else but Macky, along with this paper’s resident poeta laureado Felix Garcia, that would revive my adversarial stance vis-à-vis McDo-Dolores in 2014.

On two different occasions I made a scene at the place for its unfair treatment of us senior citizens.

One, I snatched the “Priority Lane for SCs and PWDs” sign from its perch at the cash register and slammed it on the counter after a queue of giggly college girls and a gaggle of workers were served ahead of seniors.   

Two, I took an SC lady to the head of the long line of non-seniors, again, at the priority lane, and demanded that she be served first, lecturing everyone on the rights of the elderly.

Both environmental and social issues obtaining from McDo-Dolores came top of mind, as I joined other pressmen in the impromptu mediacon after the rites opening McDo-The Biggest.

Impact to community

Alien to the usual goodwill-hunting questions of why in the City of San Fernando – Because of its strategic location and its people; how many will you employ – 300(?); how big is it – 2,200-square meter lot, 1,000 square meters of floor area; what are the other amenities – modern McCafe, a no-touch drive-thru facility, alfresco dining, self-ordering kiosks, a meeting room, and a dedicated party area, I asked – this is not to rain on your parade, I prefaced – the environmental impact of the site raised so many meters above the surrounding flood-prone community.

I stand 5 feet 10 inches, at street level the ground of McDo-The Biggest is way over my head.

One of the execs promptly answered: They were given the approval to raise their ground with the city government and DPWH assuring them that the street level would also be raised in the future.

That’s for the future, I said, what’s for the present?

A lagoon to collect rain water to mitigate flooding.

Yeah, it would really be most unkind of me to rain, moreso to storm, on their parade. So, I stopped asking.    

The Chicken McDo with rice was not as bad. The brew at McCafe was even better.