OF DEVOTION AND PARADES

OF DEVOTION AND PARADES
By: Atty. Remelisa G. Alfelor-Moraleda
University President
University of Northeastern Philippines
Iriga City

Last June 22, 2009, which was incidentally my birthday, the Bicol Association of Catholic Schools (BACS) came out with a statement saying that, after reflecting on the issue, they decided that all their member-institutions will no longer participate in this year’s Penafrancia Fiesta Military Parade Competition.

I have to say that this did not surprise me at all. I have been getting varied reactions from most of these Catholic schools regarding the said Competition in the past years and I believe that it is about time that they came out with a statement that reverberated to every corner of the Bicol Region, and commenced the debate raging now about the separation of the church and the state.

The University of Northeastern Philippines (UNEP) already arrived at the same decision way back academic year 2007-2008. We don’t have to elaborate on the circumstances on why or how we were able to reach this decision. However, in this article, I will instead outline on how a school, sectarian or otherwise, may be able to discern their position on this matter.

Our University has joined this event for many years already since the 1980s. In fact, our contingent has always been one of the most awaited features of the Parade. Observers, devotees and guests from everywhere in the Bicol Region lauded our participation, whether we brought home the bacon or not. And why not? The University has always given its all in providing the best performance in this competition.

For years, we have always participated with a passion of a Manny Pacquiao training for his next boxing bout. We had always taken this competition seriously. Getting the best trainors, reasonably spending as much as we can, confident that our preparation is enough to come out with a performance that is worthy of our reputation.

However, as in any endeavor, one comes to a point where one re-examines why we participate in an event that seems to have already paled in meaning. We carefully deliberated on our reasons why we should participate and tested it against our reasons why we should not.

Regrettably, we arrived at a decision that announced to us that there is no relevant purpose anymore in continuing to participate in this event.

How did we arrive at this conclusion?

1. The first argument that is always used by the organizers of this event is that the Penafrancia Military Parade Competition is an expression of our devotion to Our Lady of Penafrancia. We can not argue with this statement. An expression of devotion is relative to the person who is expressing that devotion. It is subjective and is not capable of an objective examination. However, is it not a better expression to participate instead in the Translacion which is a truly religious activity? This is the time allotted by the Church to focus on the devotion to Ina and the start of her 9-day Novena. Ina is the star of this show and as a University that encourages such a devotion, this is a better way to drive the point rather than let them participate in a Military Parade and off-tangently hope that they drop by the Church also on their own.

The University has already done this in the past several years. We have organized our students to participate in the Translacion with great success. After the activity, we encourage their teachers to discuss their experience in class and truly this has been a more effective way than attending the Military Parade, which to our mind just grazes the target of providing avenues of expression of our devotion to Ina.

2. There is also the argument that the Penafrancia Military Parade is an effective medium to market and promote our school. Actually, we have anchored our involvement in the competition in this argument, every year, to justify our participation. We have studied this as part of drafting the marketing plan for our school, however, we found out that it is more cost effective to do our marketing more directly through ads in tri-media. We have implemented this and true to our study, statistics show that advertising in tri-media is more effective than participating in this event. Definitely, this argument does not hold water.

3. It has also been argued that the Penafrancia Military Parade Competition promotes inter-school camaraderie. To be honest about it, there is no inter-school camaraderie that happens among student-participants. The students are trained to be focused on the competition and do not have time to interact with student-participants of other schools. Besides, this is more effectively fulfilled by other activities such as participation in the PRISAA, Tertiary and Secondary Schools Press Conference Competition and other academic and related activities, not in the Penafrancia Military Parade.

4. It has also been argued that the Military Parade Competition instills discipline and meaning to military training. Well, to be frank about it, the discipline that they say this competition instills is supposed to be already innate in the participating school and just expressed in the competition. If a school contigent does not have discipline in their school, it will always show in their performance in the competition. Again, this argument does not hold water.

On our part, we have also several reasons that point out a stronger argument against not joining the competition.

1. Participation in the competition is getting more expensive every year. For our participation in the 2006 competition alone, we had to spend around more than P400,000.00, almost half a million for trainors, uniforms, make-up, allowances, transportation on the day itself, meals and other incidental expenses. For the uniforms alone, we had to spend more than P100,000.00 for the band alone. It should be noted that majorettes and band members are scholars of the school and therefore cannot afford to buy their uniforms on their own. The University spends for it. This does not include the revenues that are lost in scholarship programs for the band and majorettes. This also runs into the hundreds of thousands.

For the ROTC and CAT participants, we also have to spend for their meals and transportation on the day itself. The parents only shell out for the uniforms of their participant-children. Some parents save money by borrowing uniforms or renting it from others at a much lesser fee than providing their children with new ones. They also have to give their children allowances to defray expenses that they may incur while in Naga. The competition therefore also means more expenses for parents who are already burdened by the high cost of quality education.

Truly, participation in the parade has become impractical for us in the University of Northeastern Philippines, for our students and for our parents. Of course, as an institution, we can still afford it, but should we continue to spend onerously for an event, the objective of which can already be fulfilled effectively by other activities at a lesser cost?

2. Preparation for the competition has been physically draining for our students and our school. When we were still participating, preparation starts in May when we start drafting our operational plans for the year. Training starts in July. Student-participants train every day in the afternoons after class, increasing to a frantic crescendo as the competition draws near. Our majorettes and band members miss classes in the last two weeks before the parade as we let them focus on the competition. Therefore, they had to work harder than their classmates when they get back to their classes after the competition. Is this sacrifice worth it? We are compromising the academic performance of these students in order to perform our best in the competition. Is this fair?

3. There is also a problem of coming up with the right number of students to participate in the military competition. After the passage of the NSTP law which makes military training voluntary for students, there is a patent decrease of students choosing military training for their NSTP requirement. We had to make military training a requirement for our Criminology program as part of their curriculum to be assured of the numbers needed to come up with a contingent for the parade competition. This should also be addressed by the organizers of the event, something which until now, they have ignored.

4. Lastly, although admittedly we have no proof or evidence of this argument, we still want to express that we have great doubts in the carrying out of the rules of the competition. Through the years, although there seems to be great effort in addressing the concerns of the schools in terms of having a fair and just competition, still the issues prevail and continue to hound the organizers of the event. Our school cannot continue to subject itself to a competition whose organizers are suffering from a reputation of bias and lack of integrity. I regret having to say this, but this is the view of most of the school authorities in the University and we cannot discount this. Of course, I acknowledge that this is a subjective opinion, but like in any democratic country, we expect that our opinion also be respected. This is why we have declared and maintained that unless and until there is a revamp in the organizers of the event, we will continue to forego participation in the Penafrancia Military Parade Competition.

These being our sentiments, our institution proposes therefore the following recommendations:

1. On the issue of economic factors, we suggest that the LGU also defray some expenses of the participant schools by giving a mobilization fund that can somehow ease the burden of the participant schools. For example, maybe covering the transportation expenses or the meals of the participants would be a great help. It is should be noted that some schools ask the parents to defray the cost of transportation and meals. In our case, our school spends for it. We can take the case of the City of Legazpi which gives a token assistance of P10,000.00 to at least defray the cost of transportation everytime we are invited for a competition in their city. I hope the City of Naga considers this recommendation and follow the example of the City of Legazpi.

2. On the issue of the dwindling numbers of students participating in the ROTC program, the organizers can decrease the number of required warm bodies to come up with a contingent. I really do not know how they will do this, but maybe they can also promote the ROTC program in the schools.

3. On the issue of the integrity of the organizers, it is also necessary for the City to evaluate the performance of the organization carrying out this event. Is there a need for change? I also urge the City to conduct a consultation participated in by the schools to get their opinion regarding this issue.

Having said all these, we would like it to be clear that our school is not against military parade competitions. In fact, we have been conducting military parade competitions for several decades already during our Activation Day celebrations. However, we are one with the Bicol Association of Catholic Schools in saying that the military parade should not be conducted within the 9-day Novena to Our Lady of Penafrancia. We should focus more on Ina and on our faith and not in endeavours that actually has even the capability of eroding our faith to Ina.

We would also like to clarify that our school is not calling for a complete boycott of this competition by other schools, but rather a call to re-evaluate our purpose for participating in this event. I just hope that this article be able to aid the schools in reaching a decision that is just for all concerned.

With that, I still say, Happy Penafrancia Fiesta to all of us and may we just continue to respect each other’s opinion as what is expected in a free and democratic country.