FEATURE

It’s a full house now

Building a home fit for

Queen, King, Elsa, twins

They were not born rich, but just enough to make both ends meet. But they were taught, every blessing comes from God and that you have to be good to deserve such blessings.

Ian Kim Cambangay, whose parents are from San Miguel, was raised in Cagayan de Oro, until he decided to try his luck in Manila.

Born and raised like a Boholano, Ian knows the value of hardwork, one that he keeps as an ace in his sleeves. And being a Boholano, one must be a jack of all trades, he added.

Working in a factory in Manila, he met a girl who would fancy his dreams.

She was Sheila Sevilla. Born from Cavite and was also working in the same factory that Ian was engaged, both steadily grew as friends. And then the chemistry worked, the zing that came in was more than enough to know they each had forever in near embrace.

It did not take long before they decided to live together.

A year later, they sired a baby girl, whom they would later enthrone as the Queen. That bundle of thrill whom Ian would come home every day was named Queen Cambangay, born August 31, 2009.

But, that was in Manila: a place where you would lie in bed with curses reverberating in the neighborhood, and wake up to exactly that same curse every street smart Manileño would dish out like an ordinary expletive.

It was just like that and you could get used to it, but with a baby, I would never imagine exposing her young mind to such, Ian, who thought Manila is too harsh for growing a baby shared.

That same though eventually had preoccupied Sheila, it is just that she had nowhere else to go while Ian was busy providing for their young family.

It was a cursory invitation, it was fiesta in Bohol and I wanted to let them see my parents in Bohol, I was surprised when they agreed.

“Sure, why not?” she said and we packed light for the brief visit, he recalled.

What was supposed to be a quick meet and greet Ian’s relatives turned out to be one that would change their lives.

“The moment I saw Bohol, I was immediately in love with the place,” Sheila said, while feeding an infant from a small milk bottle.

The baby is their fifth, or fourth in their tenth year in Bohol.

What was initially a short vacation turned out to be a decision to finally settle here, she added, not really sure if the will survive with Ian out of work.

But, Ian, or Iam Kim Cambangay was born to a business of making garden statues, animal figures, concrete decorative flower pots and has been into the family’s garden plants business.

The beginning years were slow, but then I realized I was only against a single competition in the entire island, so I did what I know would help me in the long run: persevere.

By 2012, we were blessed again with a boy, this time we named him King when he was born August 17.

Then the business slowly picked, but we had to see to it that the kids’ needs are met, and you know how it is with very young kids, he confessed.

Now also actively involved in church services, Ian and Sheila made sure their weekly schedule also involved their children.

As members of the Church of God International, having a support system in our church members also worked well with us

.

By July 7 of 2014, the couple again had their blessing in a bundle of Joy they would later name Elsa.

We were a little bit settled, and business was running well, but we still need to put up a bit more for the kids and so, formally marrying was out of the priorities. Until we realized, all our efforts could lay waste without the proper blessings of marriage.

In December of 2019, the couple again had their biggest surprise: Sheila gave birth to twins.

Elisa and Elaysa were born December 19, 2019.

The family’s plans of marrying finally had to be moved back.

The costs of having a bigger family and filling up the table took a toll on Ian, despite having only one worker in his business.

Then in January, Mayor John Geesnell Yap put up in his facebook page the announcement for the city-sponsored mass wedding.

“I saw it on facebook, you know, we are friends on social media with Mayor Baba, so I told Ian about it and he immediately agreed,” Sheila recalled.

Sheila, the bride now added, “It took us a while to comply with the requirements for the mass wedding, but, Ian’s perseverance was beyond stopping.”

Both Sheila, 32 and Ian, 38, were among the 42 couples whose marriages Mayor John Geesnell Yap solemnized at 10 AM on February 14, love day.

That day, both also invited Ian’s relatives in Bohol, and church members for the 12 slots which were part of the packaged that the City Government arranged as freebie to the couple.

Round tables with green table cloths, complete with sparkling china in a fine dining setting, silvers in folded table napkins and a two tiered wedding cake plus two bottles of sparkling wine and two boxes of gifts which form as the mayors and his wife Jane’s wedding gifts adorned every table.

A red carper was rolled, and the aisle was bedecked with babe’s breath and photographers commissioned by the city crisscrossed and table hopped to capture the momentous event for the 42 newly weds and their families.

While Sheila, demure in a laced wedding dress guided a kid to a nearby buffet table and their church members guests took turns in swaying the other infant to sleep, Ian, still in his black slacks and neat while long sleeves

Salamat gyud kayo sa City Government, ug kang Mayor Baba ug Maam Jane [para] niining nindot kaayo nga adlaw sa among kinabuhi, Ian, who carried Elaysa in his arms said, while two more kids were properly seated and partaking of the buffet.

Dugay ra ming nagplano nga magpakasal, pero wala pa itugot sa kahigayunan, mao nga sa among pagkahibaw nga nay libreng kasal, wala na namo palabya ba, he added, while feeding their infant, dressed in laced pink dress, too young to celebrate the day, winked and dozed off to sleep again.

The mass wedding also happened in time for the Civil Registration Month, the formal wedding now makes it easier for their Queen, King, Elsa, Eliza and Elayza to be legitimized and finally be growing like any legitimate children, away from taunts on school.

All they need to do is file a petition to be legitimates in the office, said City Local Civil Registrar Virginia Incog.

And for Ian and Sheila who has everything they ever wished in life now, they have just made a full house, not by luck, but by choice. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

FAMILY PORTRAIT. Ian Kim Cambangay and Sheila Sevilla-Cambangay has since settled in Bohol knowing that raising a family in Bohol is way much better than in Manila. They were among the beneficiaries of the Kasalan sa Tagbilaran February 14, 2020. (rahchiu/PIA_7/Bohol)

The newlyweds and their kids with their friends from the church too time to have their memories captured on this memorable date in their lives. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

Amnesty for parents’ tampering

Birth records, open until 2029

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 15 (PIA)—Boy and Lenie have been dreaming of having a child for years, and it just did not happen. They found a chance when a relative, still in college, got pregnant and is due in a month. What did they do? Waited it out until she gave birth, took hold of the birth registration documents and consciously entered faulty data, to make it appear that the newborn child is that of Leni, and not of the biological mother. Problem solved.

Wrong.

What they just did constitutes simulation of birth, an act deemed illegal by the Republic Act 8552, and is punishable by prision mayor of 6 years and 1 day to twelve years.

They may not be caught there and then, but in time, the law would catch up on them, and then, their problems start.

When the child goes to school, documents would be asked. One lie would lead to another, civil registry altered, data tampered with, and that sense of digging one’s grave even deeper sinks in. 

Good thing, there is Republic Act No. 11222, or the “Simulated Birth Rectification Act,” which President Rodrigo Duterte signed last Feb. 21, shared Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Social Welfare Assistant Karen Faith Caliso.

Speaking together with Bohol Social Welfare and Development Team leader Rhea Marie Tubongbanua at Kapihan sa PIA, both social workers bared the good news that that government, as the President has promised, grants a limited amnesty to those who simulated birth records, the same law that allows rectification of such records through a simplified process that makes adoption less cumbersome.

Caliso said the law “exempts from criminal, civil, and administrative liability, those persons who simulated the birth record of a child prior to the effectivity of this act.

That also means Boy and Lenie can now be exempt from liabilities, provided they process their tampered civil registry records.

“The Simulated Birth Rectification Act now allows for adoptive parents who tampered with their child’s birth record to correct the document and legally adopt the child without fear of prosecution, as long as it is in the ‘best interest of the child’,” reiterates Tubongbanua, whose office in Bohol now accepts and processes the administrative proceedings for adoption.

By best interest, that the simulation has happened and that the child has lived with the adoptive parents for at least three years when the petition for rectification was filed according to the new law, and that the child has been consistently considered and treated as their own son or daughter, Caliso explained.

By this, not all of those who tampered with the civil registry documents can avail of the amnesty, Caliso, whose unit at the DSWD 7 is technically handling adoption cases added.

The adoptive parents of a child for adoption and whose birth records have been tampered with, should have pegged at least three years before March 29, 2019, or those who had in their care the earlier than March 28, 2016, for them to avail of the amnesty, DSWD explained.

According to the government agency in charge for adoptions, just the same, even with the dispelling of the lengthy legal proceedings to have a child adopted, this new law that makes adoption now an administrative process, demand that prior to the act [of adoption], the DSWD still needs to issue a Certification Declaring a Child Legally Available for Adoption.

That also presumes that the adoptive parents, by law should be Filipino citizens of legal age of good moral character and with the capacity to support, educate, care for the child and has not been convicted of a crime involving morel turpitude. 

  

The Kapihna sa PIA on the new adoption law was also in time for the first week of February which is the Adoption Awareness Week.

Persons interested in adoption can then visit their Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officers and be appraised of the new administrative processes. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)   

DSWD’S Karen Faith Caliso and Rhea Marie Tubongbanua explain to the listeners of Kapihan sa PIA the highlights of the new Simulated Birth Rectification Act, which gives an amnesty to adoptive parents who tampered with the birth records of a child to make it look like these are illegitimate. The long process in courts have pushed parents to adopt on their own, which is why they resort to tampering of records, sources said. (rahchiu/PIA7/Bohol)

Mayor Baba officiates wedding

Of 42 at Kasalan sa Tagbilaran

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 15 (PIA)—In line with the Civil Registration Month in February, Tagbilaran City Mayor John Geesnell Yap II along with the City Hall Family solemnized the civil wedding of 42 city resident couples in a ceremony dubbed a Kasalan sa Tagbilaran 2020, on the day of hearts, February 14, 2020.

The City Government, through the mayor has earlier announced the free Kasalan, in January to inform couples who have been living together outside wedlock, to take the chance and have their kids finally legally registered as their own.

By operation of law, mayors of cities and towns, ordained ministers, priests or rabbi of any regularly established church or congregation, judges, justices of peace, are authorized to perform marriage ceremonies.

To make the event even sweeter, the day being that of hearts, the city government also gave free corsage and bouquet for the males and a bridal bouquet for the females, two layered wedding cakes, two bottles of sparkling wine, a table and food for 12, free souvenir photos and a same day video edit on the event, shared Bianca Olalo of the Office of the City Mayor.

And for a grand venue, the city hall atrium was spruced up with an aisle and two floral arches, with a red carpet rolled out and round table settings with fine china, for the wedding guests.

The whole city hall atrium and extending to the alleys of the building’s second floor buzzed with activity as camera flashes punctuated the clinking of long stemmed glasses and the happy occasion garnished by the Tagbilaran City Chorale under Dr. Butch de Juan, which flooded the venue with ambient lovesongs.  
  

The wedding banquet also featured cake slicing and a ceremonial toast by the couple.

Tagbilaran City Civil Registrar Virginia Incog in an interview said she is happy that the people responded well to the invitation to finally legitimize their living together, as this saves her office countless problems in the provision of quick services to the city constituents.

Kids born out of wedlock, even if they are born from cohabitating parents are not legally acknowledged as such and may have problems with identity and status as well as child support, inheritance, and other rights that a legitimate child gets.   

Couples, some with kids already in the elementary, and some with infants to prove their union as couples, marched the aisles and had their souvenir shots taken with the city mayor and his wife, who each gave every newly-wed wedding gifts and tokens.

For the newly-weds with kids who could only be legitimized once the parents are legally wed, Incog said, they have to file for legitimation for each child.

The Kasalan sa Tagbilaran is among the City Government’s highlights for February as Civil Registration Month. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

BRIDAL TRIKE. A newly wed couple of the City’s Kasalan sa Tagbilaran hies off in a tricycle with lucky number 13. This couple is just one of the 42 married on that day when the city government offered the mass wedding on Civil Registration Month. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

LOVE IS THE AIR. The 42 couples wed during the Kasalan sa Tagbilaran got this customary shoot at the stairs of the City Hall with Mayor John Geesnell Yap and wife Jane Cajes-Yap, as the city offered a mass wedding with freebies for those who availed of the service. (rahchiu/PIA_7/Bohol) 

City DepEd tweaks curriculum to

let culinary medicine integration

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 14 (PIA)—Reddish pink camote-top lemonade, blue ternatea, pancit kalabasa: name it and soon, high school kids in Tagbilaran City will be your food and beverage experts.

This as the City Division of the Department of Education (City DepED) and the Agricultural Training Institute of the Department of Agriculture (DA-ATI) formalizes through a Memorandum of Agreement the collaboration to enhance and indigenize the K to 12 Basic Education Program in the Senior High School to ensure graduates would be employable if not ready for entrepreneurship and higher learning.

City DepEd’s Superintendent Dr. Joseph Irwin Lagura signed the MOA for the City while Agricultural Training Institute -7 Regional Director Dr. Carolyn Daguio represented the agriculture agency in the MOA.

There witnessing the MOA signing were Dr. Elisea dela Torre of the City DepED’s Curriculum Implementation Division (CID) and City DepED TVL/TLE Education Supervisor Joseph Barrete with ATI-7’s Administrative Officer Lourdino Sale witnessed the ceremony held at the Coffee shop of the Panda tea Gardens and Suites, February 12.

The MOA between two government agencies focus on contextualizing the Technical Vocational Livelihood/ Technical Livelihood Education Curriculum specifically in cookery, bread and pastry, Food and Beverage and the integration of Culinary Medicine through partnerships with ATI and its partner Remnant Institute or Alternative Medicine.    

The MOA makes both parties responsible in creating a joint technical working group in making the groundwork, develop learning competencies in the mentioned areas after a 3-day Seminar Workshop, organize a monitoring and evaluation team and operationalize as well as implement the program.

For the DepED in the agreement, aside from them naming a focal person from the CID, to spearhead the project, they also prepare the matrix of activities of the project and share it to ATI, including its facilities and manpower resources.

The DePED shall also lead the review the workshop outputs and materials in the project implementation, facilitate implementation of the enhanced TLE TVL curriculum, monitor and asses the project implementation and prepare narrative reports in the program implementation for the DepED Regional Office.

For ATI-7, they too will assign a focal person to compose the joint TWG to ensure program implementation, provide the needed inputs in the write-shop to the pool of writers enhancing the TLE TVL Curriculum, make their facilities available for the City DepED educational tours, seminars, workshops, give feedback on project implementation in time.      

According to Education Supervisor Barrete, the enhanced curriculum development and implementation is a right follow on to the contextualized courses that the Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan in the elementary is now implementing in city elementary schools in line with K to 12.

“We are teaching students in the agriculture strand to do Pulayan sa Paaralan, Tilapyahan sa Paaralan and these are also mirrored in their homes,“ Barrete pointed out.

In the junior high schools, these spiral into organic food production through Edible landscaping and Urban Gardening with ATI, but then, these food sometimes lay to waste because very few know how to process these mineral rich nutritious food into the right delectable table setting for people to start eating,” Barrete continued on.

From the integration, ATI Director Daquio is optimistic that in no time at all, Tagbilaran City restaurants would be serving more beverages like herbal concoctions and other exotics.  (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

MAINSTREAMING ORGANIC FOOD IN BEVERAGES. The DA-ATI through Dr Carolyn Daquio and City DepED through Dr Joseph Irwin Lagura sign the MOA for the enhancement, indigenization and contextualization of the TLE curriculum to include Culinary Medicine so continuity can be achieved as after students have produced organic food, these are prepared into your standard table fare with extra nutritional value. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

CURRICULUM CONTEXTUALIZATION. Dr Carolyn Mae Daquio explains to City DepEds Curriculum Implementation Division chief Elisea Dela Torre the contesnt of the MOA as City DepEd Superintendent Dr Joseph Irwin Lagura (partly hidden) and Lourdino Sale look on, during the MOA signing at the Panda tea Garden and Suites Coffee shop, Feb 12. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

   

Dano: Making plains from hills

To set Sevilla modern paradise

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 12 (PIA)—Lungsod nga lamesa ray patag?

Born to that tease of her town, Sevilla Mayor Juliet Bucag Dano said, maybe, not anymore soon.

During the press conference after launching the 150 days of celebration for the 150^th founding anniversary of the town by July 7, 2020, Mayor Dano admitted that Sevilla, 36 kilometers from the capital city, is nestled high in the mountains accessible only by winding roads that follow gulleys to the town center and through old trails that connect it to other towns.

But that may not be the same, anymore.

Now with road concreting projects that are making her town closer to the main highway, she said she will continue to create the vertical infrastructure that will open the town to bigger traffic in anticipation of the opening of their nature-based tourism.

“It might be destiny, but who would imagine that then Mayor Abundio Dano was the mayor when the town celebrated its Centennial for its founding. Now, her daughter, Juliet will be taking the reins in keeping the town’s gallops to the 150^th anniversary,” cites launching ceremonies guest and Sevilla resident Department of Trade and Industry Regional Director Asteria Caberte.

A popular taunt for the town where there are few plains in sight being on the mountain slopes, Sevilla, in fact used to be in sitio Panas, a rockslide or a stone smoothened by the cascades of the Loboc River.

Created as a town by order of the Spanish Governor General Carlos dela Torre on July 7, 1870, Sevilla was a name picked by the governor general to officially rename Barangay Panas of Loboc into a new town.

During the American Period however, soldiers going after the guerillas burned the town center down in Panas, which pushed the survivors to transfer the center across the river side, in its present day location in then Sitio Maraag.

She was small girl then, when his father, Abundio led the town as the mayor in celebrating their foundation day’s 100 years.

His reign found the town finally getting its crucial link to the winding highway in Loboc, as well as  the road links to Sikatuna, Balilihan, Bilar and Makapiko, widening up its cart trails into tar covered roads or just plain opening up of roads, blasting cliffs to carve out roads that finally allowed access to four wheeled vehicles and regular bus trips.

Now in her time, the daughter intends to continue what her father has started.

There have been several challenges in my reign, we intend to put up more flat infrastructure, she said citing the concreting of Pastor Digal to the cemetery road, Cabangcalan to Calinga-an Road, Lagtangan to Calinginan Sur, and the 15 million 600 meter extension as well as the P20 million Sevilla Sikatuna concreting project, the lady mayor told members of the media during a press conference.

Next on her sights is that crucial link from the town center to Bilar, which should become a critical link for tourists to the Chocolate Hills once the road widening project of the Loboc-Bilar forest highway gets on.

Still on are other road concreting projects like the critical farm to market roads funded by the Department of Public Works and Highways and the DTI like the Sevilla to Hanopol road and the Sevilla to Balilihan Road, she said as a matter of factly. 

How does she envision Sevilla after her administration?

God-fearing, disaster resilient, peace-loving community living in a modern paradise, she said quite ambitiously.

But all big things start small.

A town boasting of having two bishops: Crispin Varquez and Socrates Messiona, the town also claims to have kept a strong tradition of support for priests and religious men, the church of the Lady of Guadalupe Extremadura itself a witness to a recent ordination of a priest: Marcelino Digal of the Missionaries of the Infirmed.

We do have a strong sense of religiosity and you see people bringing in kamote, saging and just anything to support an ordination, points out Caberte.        

We might be slowly losing it, but when I come home and hears the 6J) PM bell, I’d shout to stop people from walking. In our times, at 6:00 bell, we stop, recite a prayer and go on our way later, she added. 

We’d like to keep it like that, Dano said

To keep her town disaster resilient, apart from the training that the people are getting in disaster response considering the potential landslide areas the town has and the inundation of the Loboc River that has the potential to wash out communities, part of the town’s 150 days of preparing for the 150^th anniversary is a Rescuelympics. 

It is basic rescue contest, by barangays which would be competing on disaster response simulation, explained 150 Founding Anniversary Core Organizing Board Gil Tape, during the launch earlier.

Sevilla has also invested in disaster rescue equipment in the past years, thanks to a provision of the Disaster Law, Mayor Dano reports.

Not all towns celebrate their milestones , the decision to celebrate the 150^th by a small town came through upon seeing that even with this, the town has produced a lot of successful professionals, the milestones, by this we honor those who helped make this town what it is now, Dano adds.

But, will a modern paradise necessarily change the town’s ambiance?

Not necessarily, they said.

The Sevilla in our mind is that same place we keep in our memories: of people living a life so simple and uncomplicated, basking in the arts and nourished by it, as well as in touch with its cherished traditions that we want our people to keep and cherish, according to a key town official.

It is that and a bit different, officials explained.

In the town’s 150^th founding anniversary billed as Centenario Y Media, the move to bring back the locals to its roots shows.

In the 150 days to usher in the Centernario Y Media is the search for the most beautiful, most elegant and yet most representative of the town in Miss Sevilla 2020: a homegrown pageant showcasing the beauty, brains and heart of the women of Sevilla.

In the field of music, is Bangga Sa Banda: Sevilla Battle of the Bands which is a competition of local bands envisioned to revive the town's natural musical heritage

Paugnat 2020: Sevilla Inter-Barangay Sports Tournament, which is set to start in the summer of the year and culminate during the Katukuran week, it features an inter-barangay competition on Basketball for men and Volleyball for women.

Also in is Lungsod Kong Gihigugma: An Inter-School Sevilla Heritage Theatric Play Competition - a title derived directly from a line of the Sevilla Hymn, this event is a pioneering concept dramatizing the heritage and history of the town with the goal of raising local cultural awareness and identity

Ugmad Sevilla: Agri Fair and Trade Expo is a week-long showcase of Sevilla's agricultural and indigenous products aimed at promoting the town's local products and industries

Sadya Sevilla also showcases the Katukuran Street Dancing Parade: foundation day street parade showcasing the heritage of Sevilla expressed through creative costume design and indigenous dance

Also in is Sevilla Rescuelympics 2020: a tournament of the different baranggay disaster response volunteers showcasing its capabilities to respond to emergencies

The anniversary also features Misyon Alibyo: an inter-disciplinary medical mission to serve the health and medical service needs of Sevillahanons

PinakaSevilla also takes place: a Community Integrated Development Competition - an initiative conceived to serve as a platform for incentivizing the implementation of key sectoral programs, projects and activities of the Municipality with the ultimate goal of pushing these programs forward towards quantifiable progress.

Also in is Kapanginabuhian: a Job Fair for Sevillahanons - a comprehensive jobs fair tailored especially for the employment needs of Sevillahanon job-seekers

In the field of performing arts again is Step Up Sevilla: Bangga Sa Binag-ong Sinayawan - a dance tournament of local dance performers showcasing Sevillahanon culture in different genres of dance

Then in local tourism, there is Suroy Sevilla: Inter-Barangay Travel Video Creative Competition - a creative video-authoring competition which shall feature the potential tourism assets of each barangay of Sevilla.

Looking back at the colorful past, the town also puts up Duwa 2020: Inter-Barangay Indigenous Games Tournament - a different sports tournament aimed at reviving the indigenous games once popularly played by the children of Sevilla.

Then, there is Garbong Sevillahanon Awards - an awards event that shall recognize and pay homage to the achievers of Sevilla in different disciplines, local and elsewhere (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

AT THE HELM. Leading the preparations of the 150^th Founding Anniversary of Sevilla town is Mayor Juliet B. Dano, who dreams of making this nook of Bohol into a modern but yet a hidden paradise. On its 150^th, the town is looking at rolling its flat infra to make Sevilla accessible to tourists to perk up revenues to fund their change economic landscape. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

COUNTDOWN STARTS. Sevilla Mayor Juliet Dano and Vice Mayor Richard Bucag unveil the countdown marker to the 150 days ushering in the Centenario Y Medya to commemorate the 150^th founding anniversary of the town, last Saturday, Feb 8. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

COMMITTING TO THE 150^TH. Sevilla Mayor Juliet Dano solemnizes the oaths of commitments from the members of the Kasaulogan150 Core Team who pledge to work for the success of the commemorative events, during the launching last February 8 in Sevilla. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)