Culinary conceit

 

                                                                                                    Image from FEATR

IS PAMPANGA the Culinary Capital of the Philippines?

How can it be otherwise? What with the sangguniang panlalawigan passing unanimously Ordinance No. 863 on Feb. 26, and Gov. “Delta” Dennis Pineda approving it on March 7, both this year, declaring the province as such “for so many reasons” not the least of which is Pampanga’s “long uninterrupted reputation for being home to culinary talents – from the chefs who cooked for the Malolos Congress in 1898 to the chefs who prepared the meals for the athletes of the 30^th Southeast Asian Games in 2019.”

The ink on Delta’s signature hadn’t even dried yet when former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led her three cabalen congressional cohorts in filing House Bill No. 10014 seeking the declaration of Pampanga as the “Culinary Capital of the Philippines” in recognition of the province’s “formidable culinary history” and to further boost the province’s thriving gastronomic tourism. Their proposed measure literally turning into a bill of fare with a banquet of the choicest Kapampangan dishes at the House, delectably digested by their peers.  

Were legislation the only determinant to a culinary capital entitlement, then Pampanga is it most assuredly, its political leaders having jumped the gun on all other provinces in the country.

But is it? Is it even within the powers of Congress to legislate taste?

De gustibus non est disputandum. A truism I have kept from my seminary Latin that has withstood the test of time. Indeed, the self-evident truth that “about taste, there is no argument.” 

In matters of gustation, I find as much predilection for the Kapampangan begukan as for the Bicol sinilihan, for the Ilocano dinakdakan as for the kinilaw de Oro and Dumaguete’s binakhaw. Or for chicken, be it inasal, kulub, lechon or pinaupo.  The gourmand in me couldn’t care less of the origin of the food on-plate, all that matters is its tastiness. I leave anything above that to the snootiness of the gourmet.

Why, a taste of ambrosia to me may just be a cause of nausea to another. I suddenly remember the Bicolano journalist Ben Gamos who, despite working in Pampanga all his life, never found the “usual” Kapampangan food beyond plainly edible – “panlaman lang ng tiyan” Whenever ribbed of his proclivity for laing and Bicol express over sisig and tocino, he was wont to riposte: “Kanya-kanyang poor taste lang ‘yan.” Of course, the inference goes both ways. Yummy to one, yucky to the other.

Concededly, Pampanga is a culinary haven. Conceitedly, Pampanga is gustatory heaven. Just about everyone that has come to dine in a Kapampangan home – from the humblest hut to the grandest mansion, or in a Kapampangan eatery – from the lowliest carinderia to the classiest gourmet restaurant, attests to that indubitability. By and large.  

Food, glorious food, has long defined Pampanga in the nation’s cultural psyche, affirmed in one generation, reaffirmed in the next. So niched, shall it remain.

Still, does that make Pampanga the Culinary Capital of the Philippines, meriting national legislation at that?

Currently breaking the internet is Erwan Heussaff’s FEATR on Kapampangan food. It is – to me – the most substantial take on our culinary excellence yet, seasoned, so to speak, with the perspicacity of contextualization by culturatus Ruston Banal and Jam Melchor, founder of the Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement. Every cabalen worth his palate ought to see, indeed, savor this cultural fare. It is a nourishment to the Kapampangan soul.

At the end of the video feature came the inevitable: Is Pampanga the Culinary Capital of the Philippines?

“A question that is impossible to answer. It’s impossible to self-proclaim that [title] because …there’s such beautiful diversity when it comes to Filipino food to claim that one place only can represent the country as its culinary capital.” Heussaff, definitive and succinct here.

And en punto: “It’s very difficult to say. Yet, I do believe that [Pampanga] is one of the most important provinces that we have when it comes to food alongside provinces like Cebu or regions like Western Visayas.”

Talking of Western Visayas, its regional capital Iloilo City was included last October in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) for Gastronomy, a “recognition granted to applicant cities for their culinary history, tradition, culture, and identity – which integrates education, science and technology, crafts and farming industries, and environmental endeavors that contributed to the sustainable gastronomic heritage.”

Notwithstanding this recognition from no less than UNESCO itself, Iloilo City did not endeavor to be declared – by law – as the “Gastronomic Capital of the Philippines.”

Might the gastronome Heussaff have had this at the back of his mind when he pondered the impossibility to the question: Is Pampanga the Culinary Capital of the Philippines?

The Philippines’ first in the gastronomy category, Iloilo City joins in the prestigious recognition Baguio City as UCCN Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2017, and Cebu City as the country’s inaugural UCCN Creative City of Design in 2019. 

Crafts. Folk art. Design. Realms of culture and innovation where Pampanga excels too, but unrecognized, alas!

No harm to Kapampangan pride there as a whole, only a prick on our culinary conceit.

 

Bali, now? It’s Bolinao!

BETWIXT AZURE sea and verdant forested mountainside –  

The whisper of the cool breeze,

the soft murmur of the waves,

The swish and swoosh of trees,

of wind soughing in the canopy of leaves,

The buzz of bees from bloom to bloom fleeting,

birds tweeting, chirping, trilling –  

Nature’s own orchestration, symphony supreme.

Far-off horizon in honey gold bursting,

into flaming orange melding,

wisps of grey clouds wafting,

approaching darkness presaging.

The glory of Creation unfolding

right at the day’s ending.

Lyrical, mystical, romantic

at G Resort, can’t help but wax poetic.

ALREADY ALLURING unto itself, thus the perfect vacation home, G Resort makes the perfect springboard for a tour, aye, immersion, in Bolinao’s myriad attractions, including cool waterfalls and enchanting caves, wind-swept and wave-washed rock formations, a giant clam sanctuary, a lunch cruise on a native raft along the Balingasay River – the country’s second cleanest waterway, food – glorious seafood, and the iconic Cape Bolinao lighthouse.

No Bali vacay, as yet? Bolinao makes the best bet. 

Finding fine-feathered friends  

NOT ONLY to the trained eye but even just to the curious one has G Resort become an avian viewing spot. Aside from the “usual” swiftlets, rock pigeons, small gulls and herons, “exotic” finds at the resort are warbling white eyes, woodswallows, Asian glossy starlings, Coppersmith barbets, pied triller and oriental magpie-robin, captured here in their fine-feathered glory. Photos: Nelson Gonzales   

Sunset like no other

NO WORDS. Just marvel at the splendor of the setting sun. Photos: Bong Lacson/Nelson Gonzales

  

Loboc, be like Balingasay

SEAFOOD GALORE ala boodle on board a thatch-roofed bamboo-floored balsa pulled by a small motorized banca on the Philippines’ second cleanest river. A profusion of different varieties of mangroves and fruiting nipa palms along the river banks. The grilled sungayan, delectably unforgettable. Photos: Nelson Gonzales/Bong Lacson

 

Cape Bolinao lighthouse

HISTORIC AS it can ever get – built in 1905 by a trio of American, British, and Filipino engineers, the second highest – topped only by Cape Bojeador lighthouse in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, showcasing a 360-degree view of the West Philippine Sea. Atin ito! Photo: Bong Lacson

 

Rocking and rolling

ROLLING SEA crashing against jagged rocks. Banca for four swaying as waves crest and fall. Rock formations for exploring, climbing, or just viewing. Oh, did somebody just jump off that cliff? Photos: Nelson Gonzales/Bong Lacson

 

 

May Day, Mayday evermore

MABUHAY ANG uring manggagawa!

Sahod itaas! Presyo ibaba!

Cries as old as capitalism itself reverberates across the country every May 1, May Day. But for the total absence of violence once intrinsic in the celebration of the day – heads bashed, limbs cracked, and backs smacked at each strike of the truncheon during police dispersal of rallyists; molotov bombings, etc. – the current celebrations make like any other of the previous ones.

The government still long in promises and short in deliveries of the “packages” to ameliorate the state of the workingman.

The labor sector demanding inherent rights to live in dignity, that is to work in order to live, rather than the other way ‘round.

The capitalists smug with their ever-spiraling profits.

Stasis. Raising to life anew the twice-dead Marx – in 1883, mortally; in 1991, ideologically with the demise of the Soviet Union. Thus: “Capital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking blood from living labor.”
That line in Das Kapital finding manifestation in the poetic protest of Shelly’s Song to the Men of England, fittingly the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and therefore the polluted fountainhead of labor:
“Men of England, wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care
The rich robes your tyrants wear?
The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps;
The robes ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.
Sow seed – but let no tyrant reap;
Find wealth – let no impostor heap;
Weave robes – let not the idle wear;
Forge guns – in your defense to bear.”

This, finding close parallel – hence, affirming the universality of the sufferings of workingmen – in the poignancy of the lines of poet-patriot Ka Amado Hernandez in his Bayang Malaya:
“Bisig na nagsaka’y siyang walang palay;
Nagtayo ng templo’y siyang walang bahay;
Dumungkal ng mina ng bakal at ginto ay baon sa utang;
Lingkod sa pabrika ng damit ay hubad ang mahal sa buhay.”
Lest, it be still misconstrued – as indeed it has long been – that the workingman’s struggle is pure communist thingy, the Church has had its own take on uplifting the laboring mass. As indeed, Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum of 1891. Thus:

“The following duties . . . concern rich men and employers: Workers are not to be treated as slaves; justice demands that the dignity of human personality be respected in them, … gainful occupations are not a mark of shame to man, but rather of respect, as they provide him with an honorable means of supporting life.
It is shameful and inhuman, however, to use men as things for gain and to put no more value on them than what they are worth in muscle and energy. (#31)”

Further back into history, St. Ambrose, the fourth century bishop of Milan, took the Parable of the Dives with this censorious swing at the rich:

“The earth was established to be in common for all, rich and poor; why do ye rich alone arrogate it to yourselves as your rightful property?   
You crave possession not so much for their utility to yourself, as because you want to exclude others from them. You are more concerned with despoiling the poor than with your own advantage. You think yourself injured if a poor man possesses anything which you consider a suitable belonging for a rich man; wherever belongs to others you look upon something of which you are deprived.”
Deprivation is the eternal state of the worker. That is fated in capitalist societies, engrossed as they are in “…production not merely the production of commodities … (but) essentially the production of surplus value.”
As Marx furthered: “All surplus value, whatever particular (profits, interests, rent) it may crystallize into, is in substance the materialization of unpaid labor.”
As it was, so it is: “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working Men of All Countries, Unite!”

May Day, mayday, Marx evermore!

 

 

That canard of a canine bloodline

 

“WITH THIS historical marker from the Philippine national government, the truth can now be told: Macabebes did it to avenge all kinds of persecution committed against them by their fellow Filipinos, culminating in the burning of the town and the massacre of 300 townspeople inside the church. No, it wasn’t dugong aso after all that made them do it—it was vengeance. It was never an act of treachery, but an act of revenge.”

Thus, Center for Kapampangan Studies director Robby Tantingco succinctly exacted, indeed impacted, the truth to the long-held canard of a canine bloodline in the Kapampangan right at the commemoration of the 125^th anniversary of “The Burning of Macabebe” on April 27. 2024.  

Tantingco could have spoken with the voice of an angel: Soon as the marker from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines was unveiled, a mongrel  strayed in front of the assembled guests, moving Robby to enthuse: “As this dog leaves the scene, may the tag dugong aso also stop hounding Kapampangans once and for all.”

No other contemporary Kapampangan of note has done as much as Tantingco in expunging that blot in the Kapampangan character, advancing his advocacy at every opportunity, given or not.

Like in November 2018, on his Facebook page: “Have you noticed? There is hardly any Filipino anymore who calls Kapampangans dugong aso. We have successfully asserted ourselves and changed the conversation to the other narratives of the multi-layered story of our amazing people. So, once and for all, and to put the last nail on the coffin of this subject matter, let us stop blaming the Macabebe Scouts alone…for the capture of Aguinaldo in Palanan in 1901…”

That last nail, the historical marker hammered last Saturday. 

Least a Kapampangan bias, all of historical fact whence Tantingco speaks, complete with mug shots and briefs of the dastardly deeds of the actual Aguinaldo betrayers, identified as Spanish Capt. Lazaro Segovia, Ilocano Cecilio Seguismundo, and Tagalog Maj. Hilario Talplacido.

“And yet it was the foot soldiers, the Macabebes, who bore the brunt of the nation's anger which resulted in the unfair racial profiling of all Kapampangans as traydor and dugong aso." So lamented Tantingco.

Rightly, and reasonably, Robby: “How could the Macabebes, who never served in Aguinaldo's army and therefore could not have betrayed him, be branded as traitors, and not these three defectors? They were merely doing their job as hired soldiers of the American military, and were actually exacting vengeance on a man they hated with all their heart and soul (for killing Andres Bonifacio whose roots were in Macabebe, and for ordering the burning of the Macabebe church).”

Commented I to Robby’s post: From another perspective, the Macabebe scouts should even be hailed as heroes. Aguinaldo's messianic delusions deprived the revolution of its father, Bonifacio and its only real military brains, Luna.

Of this shameful sobriquet slapped on the Kapampangan, I have also written a handful. Indulge me now with this one from way, way back.

…DOGS ARE clichéd as man’s best friend, yet they tend to get the choicest cuts in the worst insults. “Gone to the dogs,” for instance.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago riled the usually cat-cool Sen. Panfilo Lacson not so much for calling him “Pinky” as for branding him as Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s “attack dog.” Warranting a reply in kind from the former top cop. A case of “dog-eat-dog” there?

“Tuta ng Kano.” So, the militant Left derided Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cory Aquino and all those who followed them to Malacanang down to Cory’s son BS.

Even the venerable Carlos P. Romulo, who served eight Philippine presidents – from Quezon to Marcos – and who himself sat as president – of the Fourth Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 1949-1950, was not spared of a similar epithet. No idle urban legend but a revealed truth to student activists of the First Quarter Storm was Chou En-Lai’s dismissal of Romulo as “America’s running dog” at the Bandung Conference of Asian and African nations in 1955 that helped crystallized the Non-Aligned Movement.

At the time of Cory too, I remember the Malacanang Press Corps raising a howl over a presidential factotum’s obvert reference to them as mongrels when he directed his staff to “feed the kennel” whenever his office issued press releases.

For too long a time, a collective insult, indeed, a curse, to the whole Kapampangan race is the branding dugong aso.

In 1981, the political leadership of Pampanga – from Gov. Estelito P. Mendoza, Vice Gov. Cicero J. Punzalan, down to the mayors led by the “Big 5” of San Fernando’s Armando Biliwang, Arayat’s Benigno Espino, Magalang’s Daniel Lacson, Sta. Ana’s Magno Maniago, and Sta. Rita’s Frank Ocampo, along with Angeles City’s Francisco G. Nepomuceno, raged and ranted rabidly at then Olongapo City Mayor Richard J. Gordon for citing the Kapampangans as dugong aso in the context of regionalism’s ill-effects to nationalism in his nomination speech for Ferdinand E. Marcos in the KBL party convention at the Manila Hotel.

Actual physical threats were even thrown Gordon’s way in addition to some persona non grata resolutions. (Gordon’s topping Pampanga in the senatorial contest of May 2013 is some vindication of the forgiving-and-forgetting nature of this race.)   

Lapid

Even as dugong aso stuck to the Kapampangan, the insult accruing thereat has largely dissipated. This is owed to an extent to then Gov. Lito Lapid, as we wrote here sometime ago:      

“Ikinagagalit nating mga Kapampangan ang pagtawag sa atin ng ‘dugong aso.’ Subali’t ito ay ipinagmamalaki’t ikinararangal ko. Sa katapatan, wala nang mauuna pa sa aso: sa kanya iniiwan ng amo ang tahanan nito, pati na magkaminsan ang pagtatanggol sa kanyang pamilya. Subukin mong saktan ang amo, at tiyak, dadambain ka ng kanyang aso. Ang katapatang ito ang iniaalay ko sa inyo.” 

Before a beaming President Ramos at the Mawaque Resettlement Project site in 1997, Lapid pledged his loyalty in gratitude for the new lease on human decency, on human life itself that El Tabaco bestowed upon those the Mount Pinatubo eruptions devastated, displaced and dispossessed.
Thence, the Bida embraced FVR’s Lakas-NUCD with a fidelity his wife could only wish he committed to his marital vows with as much devotion, if not intensity.
Lapid there made a rarity: loyalty being an uncommon commodity in politics. So, what is it that makes politicians and adulterers one and the same as a dysfunctional radio? Low fidelity on a high frequency, dummy…

There too was Lapid giving a novel and noble meaning to the derogatory dugong aso impacted in the Kapampangan psyche, extolling it as the virtue of katapatan, of dogged loyalty to an elder, to a superior, to a friend. No mean feat for the uncolleged Lapid.

But for the title “Of dogs and men,” there is very little I remember of a column I wrote in The Voice in the late ‘70s. It would have made a most relevant read in the subject I am discussing here. The ending of that column though is something I cannot possibly just easily forget, having consigned it as much to the mind as to the heart and put out at every opportunity that calls for it, like now.

A lesson in loyalty – of dogs, as well as of men – perfectly captured in that blurb of an award-winning Lino Brocka movie: “Sa bawa’t latay, kahit aso’y nag-iiba. Sa unang latay, siya’y magtatanda; Sa ikalawa, siya’y mag-iisip; Sa ikatlo, siya’y magtataka; Sa ika-apat, humanda ka!” 

Caveat canis. Yes, there is more to what the Latins of old put up at their gates than its literal meaning.  

 

Electoral migration

POLITICIANS CAN and do switch parties as a matter of course. Shift voting domiciles as well. It is not disallowed by law. Motives, moral or otherwise? Freedom of will is well guaranteed not only in the fundamental law but even in the Good Book. Unless it impinges on another’s, of course.

Hence, the public surprise that greeted the transfer of voter registrations of BM Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab and her father “Tatay” Bong Pineda from Lubao town to the City of San Fernando last week caught me by surprise. Aye, the surprise surprised me. There ought to be no surprise about something so mundane, so normal.

Why am I not surprised?

For one, Tatay’s active engagement in the last barangay elections in the city – specifically in the home village of the sitting mayor where her husband was a candidate – was an all-too obvious indication. Especially when he personally delivered bounties to the barrio folk after the triumph of his chosen, and vowed more, much more from his philanthropic cornucopia.

Two, the reported construction of a Pineda residence in one of the city’s barangays is public knowledge, even sans any foto or social media post.

Then too, it is not the first time that an incumbent official – from Lubao, at that – transferred voting rights to the city. Still remember then third-termer town councilor John Susi making a failed bid for the city council in 2022?

Doing his own Susi also last week was Angeles City councilor Dr. Alfie Bonifacio who switched voter registration to Barangay Calulut. After the dentist finished his first three terms, he ran but lost for the vice mayoralty. Maybe, he learned so much from there that with the impending end of his second three terms, he decamped to San Fernando.

There is indeed nothing surprising about politicians transferring their voter registration. It is a fairly common practice. Call me a sucker but I will not disapprove of anyone who, after serving well and fair one constituency, would wish to serve a new one? Service, after all, knows no bounds.  

Former BM Dinan Labung who had had his precinct in Bacolor town from his days as capitan del barrio through his triumphant runs for the provincial board and failed tries for the third district congressional seat and partylist representation cast his vote in Sta. Ana town in the last barangay elections. His express end-in-view – the mayoralty in 2025.  

Then, there is the ultimate electoral migrant – Lito Lapid. Domiciled in Porac in all his terms as Pampanga governor and first term as senator, Lapid ran for Makati mayor in 2007 against then-last termer Jejomar Binay on the platform “Baka naman gustong makatikim ang tiga-Makati ng lutong Kapampangan.” Binay’s winning margin over the Bida was considered the largest ever in an election in the city. In 2016, Lapid ran against incumbent Angeles City Mayor Ed Pamintuan – and lost, also by a huge margin. He has since reverted voting in his beloved quarryland.

Come to think of it, the first electoral migration I came across hereabouts involved a working journalist – the dear lamented Rizal Policarpio of the national vernacular daily Balita. I cannot remember now if it was in a pre- or post-EDSA 1 election, that the one we fondly referred to as “The Other Rizal” ran for the mayoralty of Mabalacat against the legendary Fred Halili.

What I cannot forget was Rizal joining the rest of us in Halili’s regular press conferences during the campaign; the mayor indulging him in his tirades against his administration; and even providing Rizal with a showboat for his campaign. The elder mediamen later prevailed upon Rizal’s intent to file an election protest over a hundred or so – some insisted only 30 – votes he garnered.

From Mabalacat, Rizal moved to Angeles City and made a losing run for the city council; his campaign distinguished by the oversized Philippine two-peso bill with his picture juxtaposed over that of the national hero used as leaflet.

Whoa! Is there some kind of jinx attached to electoral migration? No, not in the case of Rizal which was a losing proposition ab initio. But the unbeatable Susi in three runs for the Lubao council, subsequently disqualified from running in the City of San Fernando where – in the public view – he never had a chance.

The hex appears more real with the ultra-popular Lapid landsliding all pretenders to the Pampanga governorship and landing top half in his first try at the Senate, only to be avalanched himself by the man readily ridiculed as “Nognog” and later bested by EdPam.

Certainly, oddsmaker will make a good deal out of this come election time in the City of San Fernando. In Sta. Ana as well. But degla or not, the outcome still remains in the hands of the electorate. 

Wanna bet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unholy Week

 

“ONLY THE SICK, the vain, and the faddists still fast during the Holy Week.”
So the preacher-poet of Que Sio, Que Tal told me. And come to think of it, he is right. Fasting, and abstinence too, are not the only Holy Week practices that have gone to oblivion.
Less a mark of religiosity than a sign of (old) age is that feeling of indignation at (mal)practices of not a few of the (un)faithful during these supposed to be the holiest of days of the year.
The kids instantly scoff at every incantation of “No, we did not do those when we were younger” when – aghast! – in-your-face with patently irreligious acts passed off as sublime spirituality.
Maundy Thursday’s self-reflection induced by the soft, angelic Cant Gregoria before the Blessed Sacrament in a dark corner of the village church is pierced by the flash and whirr of digital cameras and myriad ringtones of mobiles toted by the throngs doing their visita iglesia rounds.
The object of their faith: not the body of Christ exposed in the santissimo sacramento but the monumento where the little golden ciborium is mounted.
Last year, of the many paparazzi, I took note of two Saudi-looking wives, read: jaundice-gold ornaments hanging all over them, prodding their little daughters to move further back to the monumento to get a more panoramic view. Beholding the photos, how papa would have drenched with tears the Arabian sands at this saintliness of his little darling! Oh God!
Then, there was this gay-looking gaily dressed quartet – I have noticed them for the past three Jueves Santos without fail – focused on the monumento from different angles while furiously scribbling notes and sketching on small notebooks like judges in some contest. Come now, have we a monumento competition going on? The most nature-inspired, the most futuristic, the most, err, gay?
Did those “visitors” ever come to pray if only for a minute? I very much doubt it. They – like the many others who barely bended their knee – had to rush to six or twelve other churches to complete their rounds of seven or 13. For the indulgencia to be granted.
In the scheme of things currently practiced however, the seventh or thirteenth church visited makes only the penultimate stop. The final – and longest – stop for the faithful is always Jollibee or McDonald’s. There in their own santissima cena, they feast on fries and burgers, spaghetti and chicken to stock on physical strength in anticipation of the requisite Good Friday fasting and abstinence.
Ah, how they fast and abstain from meat in the true (?) Catholic way – only one full meal on the day of days – a lunch of crabs and lobsters, prawns and oysters! Ah, Epicurus be praised!
Good Friday. My morning jog at the acacia-canopied village square has to take detours through the grass as the lane gets swamped by a horde of shirtless flagellants preparing for their penitential rite.
The plak-plak sound at the strike on the backs of penitents of the bundled bamboo strips at the end of their abaca whips provided the cadence to my jogging pace.
This struck me as a paradox of the faith: not a few of the Kristo wannabes imbibing markang demonyo for strength to carry their assorted crosses, or survive the bleeding under the burning summer sun. Yet a number puff on cigarettes.
With their backs “bladed” literally, or scratched with wooden brushes having broken glass for bristles, the magdarame start – to the rhythmic plak-plak – a procession of blood, the cross bearers in front and a multitude of their families, barriomates and usiseros bringing the rear.
Last year, being an election year, not a few of the flagellants sported arm bands and headbands prominently displaying the names of candidates. “Penitential” politics be damned!
Later in the day, after reverently hanging at the cathedral’s iron fence their black veils and crowns of woven vines of cadena de amor, the flagellants’ new spirituality gets further renewal with bouts of spirituous devotion to San Miguel, not the archangel but the blue one called GSM. Truly, bilog ang mundo. Maging sa penitensiya ng mga tao.
Black Saturday, the faithful flocking the churches for the Easter Vigil are nowhere near in force and in determination with those at the cathedral of compulsive consumption – SM, its two-day closure “in oneness with Christendom’s observance of the holiest of days” only serving to further whet the shopping appetite of its own hordes of fanatical believers.
From the abyss of the apostasy of my youth, I wrote a poem that ended thus:
“comic calvary,
a joker made of jessie.
pray, wail,
god is doomed
in the damp darkness
of nietzsche’s tomb.”
No. God is not dead, Zarathustra. Christians have only put other gods before him.

(First published March 26, 2008)

Biz Icon 2023-Hospitality: Lucita 'Chie' Lozano Antonio

 

DIVERSE GUSTATORY delights. Premium accommodation. Giada’s Group of Companies veritably makes a good definition of the hospitality industry in the Metro Clark area, its myriad enterprises more than measuring up, indeed excelling, in the highly competitive market.

Niji, reputedly the first and original Japanese restaurant in Central Luzon – established in 2004 – has stood its ground even with the onslaught of sushi-sashimi-ramen-sukiyaki entrants in the city. It even opened a second branch in 2023.

Songdo Korean Restaurant is a mecca of gourmet food, pleasing even to the most discerning palates with its generous serving of fresh banchan and 19 choices of premium – authentic – wagyu, including salchisal, ansim, chaeggeut deungsim, and kkotsai – the top picks in its meticulously prepared menu.   

Craving Pinoy comfort food? Silyo: Tinape ampong Lutong Bale – by its very name – is the place to go to. Being bowled over – silyo is bowl in Kapampangan – cannot get any more literal with silog breakfasts, meriendas of lugaw, pansit, sotanghon, lelut balatung and lelut mais, not to mention full meals of asado and bistek, served in bowls.

Giada’s Bakery specializes in fresh home-baked bread catering to international tastes – from baguette, pita, and ciabatta to buns and rolls, mamon, pan de sal and ensaymada – and all-time favorite cakes and pastries. The bakery counts hotels and restaurants in Metro Clark as clients.   

One person corporation (OPC) Golden Spoon owns and operates Giada’s Bakery and Silyo.

Zii Milk Tea came after extensive product studies in its area of origin, Taiwan. From the classic black pearl and watermelon, the product line has expanded to refreshing juices, smoothies and frappes. To as far as serving seasonal delights Zii fruit salad in summer, and Zii batirol during the Yuletide season.   

Giada’s Food Corp. is another OPC under the GGC that operates an AA meat-processing plant and the Giada’s Meat Shop, now a leading provider of premium fresh and processed meat products among hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets in the Metro Clark and greater Pampanga areas.

Ms. Chi Supermarket, sited off the city’s commercial centers, provides for the basic everyday needs of the ordinary folk – from coffee and bread for breakfast to snacks and drinks, to utensils at lunch and meals for dinner.

Prime City Resort Hotel, right at the heart of Angeles City’s entertainment and shopping district, prides itself of prime hospitality and premium service and amenities with its 90 rooms ranging from mezzanine to deluxe, executive and presidential suites.

Garden View Hotel is more of the boutique type at 26 rooms, its location near the city’s business centers most convenient to the corporate traveler.

Both Prime City and Garden view are “powered” by G Towers.

Extreme Sea-Air Logistics is an international freight forwarding company specialized in inbound and outbound cargo handling, transport, and customs releasing.

Food. Restaurants. Hotels. Logistics. At the helm of this veritable business empire is Lucita Lozano Antonio, famously Ms. Chie, GGC founder and CEO.  

The how-to-succeed-in-business playbook harps on four principles: Create don’t compete. Offer quality product or service at a fair price. Build relationships with customers. Never stop learning, adapting, innovating, and growing.

The scope and scale with which the GGC ventures have grown are an attestation to the efficacy of those precepts.

It is a Filipino core value though that Ms. Chie chose to be the cornerstone of her entrepreneurship – “Malasakit,” compassion in English – with every letter standing for virtues – Motivation. Adaptability. Loyalty. Attentiveness. Sincerity. Appreciation. Knowledge. Integrity. Trustworthiness. Truly, chi.