The Curse of Mabalacat
It intrigues me to see Mabalacat City Mayor Cris Garbo leading a prayer group in an exorcism rite to drive away an age old curse on the place.
There is a story that passes through the history of the Balacat people about a Spanish cura who was executed in public for impregnating a local virgin. Despite his confession that the friar and the girl were in a relation the death sentence was carried out. But not before the priest- lover implored the “heavens with his bootless cries” to put a curse on the town, chief of which is not to bless it with prosperity.
I tend to believe our man from Bical (originally from barangay Tabun) was serious in his supplication to interdict the curse. The Balacats suspect that Mayor Garbo ‘s act was less of an expression of thanksgiving for closing other curses like the ravage of the Pinatubo eruption than putting an end to the unlamented 25-year reign of Mayor Boking in the town.
Mabalacat was on the way to progress in Boking’s vision of a mythical Manoma. Whichever came first, the town’s progress or Morales’s prosperity is Garbo’s mantra in succeeding pray- over sessions for the new city mayor.
******* Another tale of a curse was that of Bishop Ambo David who while assigned in Angeles City Parish put a curse on the evil of environmental pollution. Chief of the polluters were the big piggery farms in adjacent Porac town. In cahoots with the DENR people, the piggery owners played a Tom and Jerry charade with Bishop Ambo and crusader Perto Cruz whose posh restaurant patrons were the hapless victims. They suffered the miasma while being served prime steak and cordon bleu.
The complainants expected the holy man’s curse to put an end to the polluters’incorrigibility, like sending them a bovine plague. The Bishop who led a people’s march against the polluters found out the stench of corruption in tandem with pollution overwhelmed the crusaders.
Turning his efforts to the rehabilitation of historic Sapang Balen Creek in Angeles City, Bishop Ambo led a massive cleanup demo. He warned residents along the narrowing creek that a curse will be cast on destroying the waterway. Soon the visible results showed the once dying creek transformed into its robust and thriving natural wonder.
Several later it reverted back to a canal of garbage and debris. A shocking news report said that scores of young residents from Barangay San Jose and Pulung Bulo were hospitalized, all victims of toxic food poisoning. The two villages occupied the areas were tons of domestic trash came from.
Village elders said mysterious fruit bearing plants suddenly started growing on the riverbanks. The young boys got curious of the plant seed and ate them. It appeased hunger and hit them high as in a hallucinogenic state. “Is the Bishop casting a spell on the creek?” a resident asked.
***** BTW. A proclamation of the powerful “Oratio Imperata” by Archbishop Dong Lavarias is timely, urgent, and necessary. Imploring divine intercession may hasten recovery of a huge damage to the regional economy and bring normalcy to the plight of workers in the poultry business . ... Stakeholders in Region 3’s tourism industry, Clark locators, and LGUs are disturbed by unconfirmed reports of CIAC Pres. Alex Cauguiran’s planned resignation.
Whoever is cooking this intrigue reminds us of similar methods that put CDC chief Noel Manankil to trouble. Alex is leaving for Sanfo Calif. for his annual reunion with his family. Locators, friends from local domestic and international airlines bid him a safe travel and a well deserved brief vacation .... SSP ace reporter ReyNavales, perhaps, has an idea as to the plotter(s)?