St. John the Baptist, the Messenger
T HROUGHOUT the Philippines, the feast of St. John, The Baptist or San Juan Bautista is often associated with various other forms of revelries that at times turn rowdy.
In San Juan City, Metro Manila, for instance, the revelries include careless water-dousing practices that cause undue discomfort to unsuspecting visitors, and trigger trouble when victims react violently. Manila itself observes the fiesta since 1565, but with a more sombre mood now.
San Juan Bautista is also the Patron Saint of my hometown Kalibo in Aklan, the heart of the Ati-Atihan Festival annually held as tribute to the Santo Nino. It is known the world over for its merrymaking and ethnic street dancing by representatives of various Visayan tribes.
The St. John The Baptist Cathedral Shrine, built in 1804 on its present site, is a religious landmark in Kalibo. It sustained heavy damage in the intensity 7.1 earthquake that shook its foundation and destroyed its original brick walls but has since been restored.
Like the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino in Cebu, the Kalibo Cathedral attracts thousands of visitors who flock to Aklan to experience its solemnity and hear the holy Mass celebrated in the Aklanon dialect.
St. John is known as Christ’s the messenger in the same manner that contemporary media players are regarded as modern news harbingers who remain unfazed and willing to take risks amid caveats of impending dangers.
Coincidentally, on June 24, the Publishers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI), the oldest fraternity of the country’s community newspaper publishers; the Aklan Press Club, Inc. (APCI), Kapihan Sa Aklan, and the Federation of Provicial Press Clubs of the Philippines, Inc. (FPPCP) will dedicate its firstever Allen Salas Quimpo Memorial Media Forum in Kalibo.
The late Rep. Quimpo was a local leader of national stature. He devoted his energies on vital legislations on improving education and protecting the environment. He was also a strong advocate of press freedom and Asean Economic Integration.
As president of their familyowned Northwestern Visayan Colleges (NVC), he established the NVC Institute of Public Studies to undertake researches and studies that will help people to adapt to prevailing social, political and economic issues.
The forum is principally sponsored by the Aklan provincial government under Gov. Florencio T. Miraflores, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan under Vice Gov. Reynaldo M. Quimpo, and Carmen Hotel in Kalibo.