Hermanas Mayores 2012

September 22,2012.Quezon City,Philippines. The 320th Fiesta Celebration for Our Lady's Nativity in Calbayog City,Philippines on September 8,2012 has been a fruitful year for Calbayognons especially for the family of this year's Hermanas Mayores; Maria Myrra Querol Emerson,Maria Oledan Querol and Lucia Oledan Querol respectively. First, I would like to tell you something about Maria Oledan Querol.Aside from being a mother to us Eleven children from our late father Paulino Querol Sr, my mother is a grandchild of the late Placido Rama of Cebu. Her being deeply religious is precisely because of her upbringing taught by her elders who were once connected with Calbayog diocese since the early 1900's. The late Placido, inspite of his good fortune in Cebu, migrated to Calbayog thru the help of Spanish priest assigned to Calbayog by the Archdiocese of Cebu. Since then, he became the first Calbayog Catholic Cemetery Administrator,Altar assistant to the Spanish priests saying masses in Latin at the Three altars of the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in it's early years. Not only that he assisted the priests in saying masses in Latin but he was also being tasked as the chief cook for the Bishop's palace for decades until his death in Nineteen Forty Seven(1947). He relinquished his tasks being an eldest son of his family in favor of being an assistant and cook to the priests of the Diocese of Calbayog. That's how deeply religious he was.And he succeeded in teaching his Three daughters and finally his First granddaughter in the person of Maria Rama Oledan Querol. The next hermana is Maria Myrra Querol Emerson.She is the Third child among the Eleven children of Maria Rama Oledan Querol. Like her mother she also got a blood of a deeply religious family.She lives now in Monterey,California,USA with her husband Frank Tours Emerson who himself has a brother priest serving in the United Kingdom. Lastly ,Lucia Oledan Querol is the Fifth among the Eleven children of Maria Rama Oledan Querol.She is single and now lives in Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada. In behalf of our family ,I would like to say thank you for all Calbayognons who in one way or the other helped make this year's celebrations a more meaningful and joyful to all of us.

A Representative

January 30,2012.Banning, California.

Since I started to write on this blog,I keep reminding myself
to feature no political figures or make at least a hint
related to politics.This blog is solely intended for small
ideas on my experiences related to universal themes such as;
leisure and places I had visited or environmental issues
that I love to advocate and something that will cater to all
irrespective of place in society or range of ages who would
wander to my web.

But today, kindly allow me to tell you something out of my
original genre to honor someone who is a friend to me since
my childhood.This guy happens to be my former classmate in
grade II. In my recollection of him, oftentimes in that era
in late Sixties,I can still remember a schoolmate,classmate
and a seatmate who was kind and generous.
Being a son of a city engineer at that time one could tell
that he was way ahead of us who were not so blessed with
a family having a good resources like money.

But still,he kept his manners and like most of us in his
class he acted as if he was just an ordinary kid like us.

While his mom was working at the same school that we attended
as a librarian, I can still recall today how grateful we are
that at that times when we were eating our snacks during recess
she would tell us to read books at a time.

For grade II elementary students like we were it was
really a big break to tinker,hold and read large books like
World Atlas,Encyclopaedia,Almanacs and so forth that
were available in our school aided by the USAID.

Forty two years later to be exact,we were at (Rick Torrijas)
a common friend's house in San Diego,California eating
and recollecting our journeys in life that made him to
represent our Ist district in Samar that made possible his
current U.S.A. visit in his capacity as a member of the
Philippine Congress' Defense,Disaster and Rehabilitation
and lastly in the most powerful Appropriations
Committee of the Lower house.

Good for you I told him and please continue to work for our
city of Calbayog and for Samar and the Philippines as a whole.

He advocated the implementation of Clean Air Act in Calbayog.
I felt elated to learn that my hometown is now upholding the
Global law that most of my former co-workers at Haribon
advocated so long a time in the early 1990's who collaborated
for the drafting,advocating,lobbying in the halls of the
United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) under the
leadership of our former Environmental Lawyers (ELAW).
For which in 1992 A World Treaty on Environmental Protection
was signed into law by no less than Twenty One heads of state
in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil's "World Summit for the Environment
Protection" on April 22,1992.

Lastly, I am hoping that Congressman Mel Sarmiento will deliver
his part of the Bacon for what he is now attending in his
current official visit to the United States as a Representative
of our Ist district in Samar or Calbayog in particular.
Kudos to you.