By the Jal-o River

A storm in a tea cup. That's the impression of most of my priest-friends concerning the release of the 2003 SWS Survey about the present state of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines as the latter tries to come up with its so called Catholic Vote in time for the May 13, 2013 elections. The good Archbishop emeritus of Lingayen-Dagupan however sees it differently. But then that is his opinion. The Roman Catholic chapel in Sitio Duduemon, Calizo, Balete In my interactions with the clergy, I have maintained that the 37% attendance during Sunday masses is almost realistic and questioned the basis in claiming the 64% turnout recorded in 1991. As we all know, the survey registered among others the following data: 81% of the Philippine Population are Roman Catholics 80% are of majority age (18 years old and above) 29% consider themselves very religious 37% go to church to hear mass at least once a week compared to the 64% in 1991 9.2% think seriously of leaving the Chur

My town, by local standards, has marked milestones over the years. The most prominent of which is when it was included among the 15 elite municipalities throughout the entire country to receive the much desired Seal of Good Housekeeping Award way back in 2010. Such feat it has maintained since then. Other towns in Aklan look at us in revered admiration whenever we are gathered together in certain occasion. Some, perhaps out of curiosity or of resolve to elevate theirs into our league, voiced out in wonder: Why is it that despite your poverty, you've done so much for your people? Responding to it, I simply state a fact: it is so because we are one.  The baffled sophisticated inquirer however would not settle for such a simple answer. He wants complicated yet verifiable systems or approaches that brought us into such pedestal. So perhaps, the following "road maps" could satiate his curiosity and inspire him to replicate the same in his area of jurisdiction: 

Back at the National Archives of the Philippines in 2010, I was tempted of scanning the renowned  Catálogo alfabético de apellidos of Governor General Narciso Claveria (©1849). The limited time and the objectives of my visit however prevented me from taking that detour.  For those who are not familiar with it, the  Catálogo  is a book published in 1849 that covers all the surnames used in the Philippines. It was published as an effort to address the complexity of collecting taxes by mandatory assigning surnames to those who until that time were still without one . The way it was implemented was however compelling as it was strictly imposed by the local authorities. Thus, the offshoot is noticeable in many a community, take for instance in our town, Balete.  Balete, Capiz was established in 1804 according to the book,  Historia Geografica, Geologica y Estadistica con Datos Geograficos, Geologicos y Estadisticas de las Islas de Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao y Jolo, y los que Corresponde