The beauty of singing

That genius of a Jesuit, Fr. Horacio de la Costa once wrote an essay "The Jewels of the Pauper." He said, the Filipino people have two jewels, their praying and their singing.

He said, they are one when they pray and when they sing. Singing together is a tie that binds, and a bond that ties them.

How true! When Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide retired, in a gathering of Justices, judges and staff, Davide said there should be no speeches where mistakes could be made. He asked them to sing. And sing they did. It was bonding.

We are now developing a culture where, in gatherings, instead of speeches, boring as they are most of the time, the group sings.

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Pardon me for writing about the Sunshine Boys. But this is my group and when there's no topic to write about I write about the SSBs.

We also have two jewels. Our laughter and our singing. We always look forward to our Sunday breakfast at Butch Lopez's McDonald's to enjoy the laughter, we all know to be the best medicine. We laugh at anything, a witty remark, a good anecdote, a quip, just at anything. And we laugh to our hearts' desire. The unwritten rule, the joke may be on you. Don't complain. Laugh with them too. Yesterday's butt of the joke was Buc-an Yulo. He enjoyed it too. If you cannot enjoy it, you are not a Sunshine Boy.

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But the other beautiful jewel is our singing. I don't know how you define a good singer. We believe we are all good singers by our own definition. We do it quite often and last Saturday was the belated birthday of the Boys' Chairman Ric Yanson singing the night away.

The beautiful part was there were well wishers from Bayawan City, led by their Vice-Mayor Gaudiel, all good singers. They almost beat us. On the birthday of Mrs. Olive Yanson, we will go to Bayawan and hope to beat them in their home ground.

If you have doubts about our own singing, open your television set to Sunshine Channel Cable TV 14 and at 6 a.m. sign on, our group anthem "You Are My Sunshine" is sung.

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But, in this piece I want to pay tribute to our best singer, Atty. Marcelo "Pope" Jalando-on. In every singing session, our group emcee Monet Rojas always sees to it, it is opened by Pope with his signature song "Till" by Jerry Vale. A curtain raiser.

If the singing is opened by Willy Mirano (The Wind Beneath My Wings) or Monet Rojas (The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me), or Pompey Querubin (For Sentimental Reason), or Digoy Montalvo (South of the Border) the rest will not sing any more.

But when Pope opens the singing, everybody is inspired, especially with Bagguer Villaluz at the piano. We are happy Bagguer is back after a major operation in Manila. And also back to his TV program "Musically Yours." He lost his voice but the genius of his fingers at the keyboard is still there.

The Boys can sing only with feeling with Bagguer at the paino. He knows the pitch of everybody and only he can give Pope Jalando-on the best singing. If he cannot get it in the black keys or in the white keys, he can get it in the middle keys.

That's where the genius of Bagguer and Pope is.

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That Saturday night affair was tops, especially with the Bayawan singers challenging the Boys. It was also a good tribute to Ric, a good friend, a good father, and if we were to believe him, a well behaved husband. He sang, dedicated to "my one and only wife, Love" a beautiful song, "I Can't Stop Loving You."

The girls, when called upon by Monet Rojas to respond, rendered a chorus, by Mrs. Yanson, Mrs. Buc-an Yulo (Letty), Mrs. Ed Mercado (Gory), and Mrs. Tony Sarabia (Nelly) an apt ditty, "It's A Sin To Tell A Lie."

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All the Boys were there except five who were out of town, Willy Mirano (U.S.), Charlie Javellana (China), Alex Mirasol (New York), and Bob Chugani (India). Nordy Diploma was in Manila.

The Boys and their signature songs: Ric Yanson (My Way), Ed de Guzman (Two Young), Hermes Aguilar (Mona y Liza), Tony Sarabia (Our Love Affair), Buc-an Yulo (My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean), Jun Rio (This Love of Mine), Manolo Looez (You'll Never Walk Alone), Marianing Tuvilla (Around the World), Cito Sanson (Love Is a Many Splendored Thing), Toti Ramos (You'll Never Know), Ed Mercado (Matud Nila) and Erning Taleon (Autumn Leaves).

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We got plenty of feedback on our column on Sen. Loren Legarda on the talk of her running for President in 2010. This is good for her.

The worst part of a candidate is when nobody talks about her.

I also would like to welcome our new parish priest in Tangub, Fr. Rene Gaylon. He has been going around meeting parishioners personally. This is what a parish priest should be, close to his people.*

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