Wedding Magic

The sitio (sub-village) of Tamog-o in the village of Poblacion in Kibungan, Benguet was the happiest place on earth last April 14, at least for the people gathered there. In Tamog-o, throngs of community people and guests from as far as Bicol and Apayao shared lunch together and established and renewed ties after a young man and a young woman exchanged “I do’s.” For the new couple, their families and for the community itself, that day was most historic.

Under a blistering summer mid-morning sun that second Saturday of April, Epifanio ‘Jhun’ Macario, Jr. and Loyda ‘Loydz’ Malanes exchanged marriage vows at the grounds of the Kibungan municipal hall. Officiated by pastors from the Free Believers in Christ Fellowship, the wedding transformed the municipal hall compound into hallowed ground as well-wishers participated in a lively praise and worship that accompanied the wedding rites.

The praise and worship were even more enlivened by local and “imported” singing talents from the mining community of Philex in Acupan, Itogon town, whose golden voices were accompanied by electric guitars and drums. Even the shy or reluctant, who were used to often drab traditional church hymns, were enticed to clap their hands as they swayed their hips to the upbeat rhythm of the praise songs.

Weddings are usually held in churches or cathedrals. And weddings become unusual when a couple decide to wed under water or inside a jungle. But Jhun and Loydz’s wedding was equally unusual in a way.

That it was held at the municipal grounds made the wedding distinct. Other couples get married under civil rites at the municipal hall with the mayor or municipal judge officiating. But a religious wedding rite at the municipal hall ground was something new for the community folk of Kibungan.

Courtesy of supporters, flowers, palm leaves, banana plants, and ferns adorned the wedding venue. Instead of a red carpet, the path through which the new couple and the whole wedding entourage walked was blanketed with green moss and ferns.

The shaded main entrance to the municipal hall was transformed into an altar where its backdrop announces in a mural the wedding rites of two young adults who finally decided to bid goodbye to single-blessedness. Besides announcing the Macario-Malanes Nuptial of Jhun and Loidz, the mural also carried “Heaven knows I treasure you in my life” and a painting of two flying white doves about to kiss each other.

For the simple Kankanaey folk of Kibungan, the transformation of the municipal hall grounds into a wedding resort, even for half a day, was a spectacular, if not dramatic, event, which they would talk about for weeks.

After the wedding rites, the community folk and guests were treated to lunch at the Malanes’ ancestral home in Tamog-o. The celebration continued after lunch as messages of best wishes and advices from elders and more golden voices and drama talents pre-occupied the whole afternoon. Some people stayed on until the night, singing and dancing under the peaceful Kibungan sky.

The wedding of Jhun and Loydz in a way had broken the monotony of rural life in a sleepy town, which becomes noisy only during electoral campaigns or during the town’s founding anniversary in November.

But most important of all is how weddings help establish ties between in-laws and next of kin. Because of the wedding, the sisters and other relatives of Jhun Macario’s mother, who hails from Bicol, came over to witness the recent historic event. Loydz’s grandfather (the uncle of her mother) and uncles and cousins from as far as Apayao (where they migrated) and other relatives also sacrificed their time to also witness the wedding and reunite with their long lost kinfolk in Kibungan.

Such is the magical impact of weddings, which also help make us closer as a people. We don’t only improve our genetic make-up as a people through inter-marriages. Through inter-marriages, we are also building bridges and so we are in a way helping promote peace and harmony in a world still divided by walls.

Political Maturity

For their supposed “political immaturity,” Filipino voters are often easily blamed for electing people who end up making public office a public mistrust. But this is tantamount to blaming the victims of a tragedy for what befell them rather than what or who caused the tragedy.

I tend to agree with a friend’s assertion that most Filipino voters today have reached a certain level of political maturity. The problem, my friend says, is that even if they vote with their conscience and vote for principled candidates, voters are not assured if their votes get counted correctly.

This brings us to an uneasy feeling once some administration national candidates who, even if they are faring poorly in poll surveys, boast of making it on election day because of what they claim as the comparative edge of government machinery.

With the “hello Garci” scandal still fresh in the public memory, we couldn’t help but suspect that the machinery that some government bets boast about also refers to machinery, which can turn around what voters actually write on their ballots.

Machinery also includes money. And there’s no doubt, government has the advantage of disbursing funds to aid or influence election results. The “fertilizer scam,” for example, is also still fresh in the public memory, at least for those who don’t have amnesia. The “fertilizer funds” disbursed during the 2004 presidential campaigns became scandalous and questionable after it was found out that congress representatives in non-agricultural districts were also given millions in fertilizer funds.

Additional pork barrel funds are often released and increase in government workers’ pay is often announced during the electoral campaigns. These are part of government machinery.

This early, meanwhile, no less than Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales pledged to give barangay (village) captains in Ilo-ilo P10,000 each if they give a clean sweep for the administration’s 12 senatorial bets. Even if the P10,000 for each barangay captain would come from Gonzales’ own pocket, the controversial promise from Gonzales tells much about how government is using its machinery of which Gonzales’ office is a part.

Since Gonzales’ offer has already been out in the open, our hope is that the barangay captains won’t play Judas. Let’s hope these barangay captains and the electorate of Ilo-ilo won’t be blinded by a few pieces of silver.

So I often cringe each time the electorate, including you and me, are often blamed for our “political immaturity” in electing candidates who end up squeezing us like lemons.

After the Marcoses were ousted in February 1986, one of our aspirations was that the electoral institution in this country would unfold as one of the true pillars of democracy. But election commissioners, with backing from some top guns, screwed up the public clamor to computerize our elections. The commission prefers our antiquated election system, which is vulnerable to irregularities such as vote-padding.

So are Filipino voters immature? Tell that to the marines.

Prayers and Topping the Bar

Lawyers swear the bar is the most difficult, if not the most torturous, exam on earth. The torture starts during the preparation until the actual exams. The Latin words that they have to memorize and the volumes of books they have to read is torture enough. Reading is important for everybody who values continuing education. “Reading,” Francis Bacon says, “maketh a man.” But reading volumes of books to the point that one deprives himself of required sleep, leisure, and other activities for mind-body-and-soul balance is torture indeed.

The torture continues during the exams staggered on four Sundays. After the exams, the examinees cannot just sit back and relax. Waiting for the results, which get released after five to six months, is part of the agony. I know somebody who secluded himself in his wife’s village while waiting for the bar results. He showed up in town only when the result of the bar came out and he was one of those who passed.

Under this torturous situation, the best weapon, as new bar topnotcher Noel Neil Malimban of the University of the Cordilleras proved, was prayer. Having reviewed all by himself in a one-room space, Malimban would have been likened to a prisoner in solitary confinement. But he was not alone in that single room. Besides his law books, he had company from an infinite resource, which he tapped through prayers.

Prayers and meditation have long been part of the lives of sages, spiritual teachers and practitioners of all various faiths. One spiritual teacher says prayers and meditation help cleanse the mind from all the confusion and illusion of this material world in the same way that water and soap can cleanse one’s physical body from dirt. So a prayerful and meditative person, the spiritual teacher says, can think clearly and can say what he means and means what he says. It thus follows that if one thinks clearly, one can act accordingly.

After using some brain wave devices on Buddhist monks, scientists recently have conceded that prayers and meditations have a positive impact on a person’s mental and physical well-being. Of course, the sages and spiritual teachers have long known this fact besides other phenomena, which scientists have not yet discovered through their gadgets.

In resorting to prayers, Malimban had actually tapped an infinite resource, which actually helped him through the torturous road toward becoming a bar topnotcher. Prayers and meditation must have helped cleanse the dust from Malimban’s mind so he could think clearly as he remembered clearly what his law professors at the University of the Cordillera had taught him.

It is thus not surprising that when he was taking the bar exams, Malimban felt it was lawyer Reynaldo Agranzamendez, UC acting president and law dean, who formulated the questions in the exams. All the tips from Agranzamendez and other law professors came into play when Malimban was reviewing for and taking the bar exams. Malimban clearly remembered the advice that he must be straight to the point and concise in his answers to the questions.

There was no doubt that Malimban studied hard and had an excellent discipline as he was also a working student. He definitely needed a lot of stamina and multi-vitamins on which, he said, he probably overdosed. But he also prayed hard. This must be his secret, and his topping the bar exams was a good testimony on the strength and power of prayers.