A smashing success

The 87,701 students from public and private schools of Bacolod who joined yesterday’s Jam Step aerobic exercise cum dance at the old Bacolod Airport exceeded even the wildest dreams of its organizers.

Rep. Anthony Golez and Jewel Lobaton-Primentel spearheaded the group. Health Undersecretary David Lozada represented Health Secretary Enrique Ona.

The continuous slight drizzle the whole morning until noon did not dampen the enthusiasm of the Jam Step participants.

For that matter, it could have exceed 100,000 had the 400 buses and jeepneys been allowed to enter the tarmac.

Funny, there were no traffic enforcers around. The organizers, according to Cong. Golez had earlier asked for traffic escorts for the vehicles which ferried the students to the site from various locations in Bacolod.

Still, that was unprecedented.

Incidentally, Golez Saturday had told a press conference at the Negros Press Club that he expected a crowd of 30,000 to 40,000 in yesterday’s affair.

Instead, despite the lack of traffic enforcers, exactly 87,701 managed to reach join the aerobic exercises to promote a healthy and active lifestyle.

The participants were led into praying before the start of the exercises, the rain stopped after the prayer and later settled into a drizzle.

The affair was also supported by Batang Pinoy Foundation and MTV. The University of St. La Salle was represented by a big delegations.

Several, of my grandchildren from USLS and the Jack and Jill school were at the house Saturday evening and told me that they were enthusiastically supporting the Jam Step.

Just shows you that the young, themselves, were the first endorsers of the aerobic exercise cum dance.

This was aimed at correcting what Golez said were indicators that the sedentary life among the young spurred by computers and cyberspace dance by youngsters may have been responsible for the trend of younger people succumbing to cardiovascular accidents and other communicable diseases.

Golez, himself a doctor, said medical authorities had already monitored this disturbing trend among young people. Most in the past succumbed to stroke and other cardiovascular diseases at a later age. But now, many have been recorded to have been felled in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.

Exercise is recommended to be done by youngsters to increase blood flow and to develop muscles, he pointed out.

There were attempts by some quarters of city hall to inject politics into what had originally been just a simple attempt to popularize exercises. But that failed to dampen the enthusiasm of schoolchildren for what seemed to them an enjoyable affair or activity.

What made it comical was that an official of the Parents-Teachers Association of Bacolod City tried to discourage the activity, pointing out that aftershocks endangers the schoolchildren.

Golez went out of his way to thank San Miguel Brewery for the water and food the firm had donated for the affair. There were some minor snafus, but that did not stop it.

Yesterday’s affair was already a record-breaking event insofar as Bacolod is concerned.

But Golez said Health Secretary Ona envisions a much bigger gathering of children and adults at the Luneta Grandstand in July. They also expect to submit it to the Word Guinness Book of Record as the biggest number of children gathered in one place to promote a healthy lifestyle.

“It also shows that yesterday anything is possible when children, parents and teachers cooperate for an event that they find useful and promotes a healthy lifestyle, said Golez.

***

Kudos to former Candoni town Mayor Cicero Borromeo against whom four administrative complaints had been filed. The Sangguniang Panglalawigan invoked the Aguinaldo Doctrine in absolving Borromeo of the administrative complaints filed against him for alleged violation of RA 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethnical Standards for Public Officials.

He was also accused to allegedly violating PD 705, the Forestry Code of the Philippines and several others.

Borromeo, is the son of the late Cesar Borromeo, a well-known newsman of the province.*

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