A RADIO clip from city hall, featuring Vice-Mayor Gabriel Hidalgo Bordado, commonly referred to as “pagsalingoy” with an introduction like this: “Ini an pagsalingoy sa mga nagaging panahon tangani orog na masabotan niato an mga nangyayari ngonian, has been on air at dwNX for the past couple of months.

        In fact, Joaquin “Blue & White” Perez, Jr. took note of this in his column in Bicol Mail last week and thought that such a day-after-day-after-day radio clip from Vice Mayor Gabby Bordado on the history of “Ambos Camarines” was meant “as a vehicle to prep us for his eventual 2010 candidacy for the mayorship.”

        While we do not completely disagree with columnist Perez, we give the pagsalingoy clip the benefit of the doubt and that it means well as it stirs awareness among the people of Naga about their culture and some historical events that they, especially the young must never be lose sight of. Perhaps, the Vice-Mayor was making up for the years that the Sanggunian Panlungsod of Naga never had a “pagsalingoy”.

        One “pagsalingoy” is on the public market of Naga which, when it was first constructed, was considered the biggest in the country, if not in Southeast Asia. It was such a grand honor for the City of Naga and it was good, very good as it lasted. But today bigger malls have sprouted like mushrooms in the country or even in the region. Naga’s public market was then dropped off the list, yet it was a point in Naga’s history that deserved a pagsalingoy.

        Another is on free public school education -- which used to be offered by just a couple of schools, but today more than two dozens are offering it, with a side dish called “QUEEN”. During the times of the Thomasites in early 1900s, education is given for free, truly free --- free books, free school supplies. That’s why we cannot understand why in our pagsalingoy, we are confronted with the reality that public school education that used to be given for free, now requires parents to pay.

        Still another is on Plaza Rizal. In our pagsalingoy, the Plaza Rizal was a place for family rest and recreation, its ground covered with bogitis and concrete benches were set up where small groups would exchange pleasantries in the cooling afternoon hours even as they exchanged healthy banters and engaged themselves in lively discussion on passages in the Bible with Kalamay. In our pagsalingoy we could no longer relate ourselves with Plaza Rizal since we could not anymore see the bogitis nor the benches. What we see are tents of tiangge with pirated CD’s, the ukay-ukay, and a “divisoria” with substandard electrical gadgets peddled by non-Bikol speaking traders.

        Add to this, the Plaza Quezon. In our pagsalingoy we never did see President Manuel Luis Quezon involve himself in the development of Naga. He could be the best President the country ever had but such an impression did not bring about growth in Naga. Yet he was gifted with a kiosko, named “Quezon Square”. But then why should the center of human activities in Naga such as the public plaza be named after a non-Bikolano? Perhaps we did not look hard enough in our pagsalingoy to be able to identify who among the more influential Naga personalities during the Spanish and American regime could be conferred with such an honor. If only the Sanggunian Panlungsod did look hard enough and did have the interest to seriously engage themselves in a pagsalingoy, they would not miss the figure of General Ludovico Arejola: a native son of Naga, a victim of Spanish atrocities, one among those arrested together with the Quince martires, an exile to Africa, a defender of Naga when the capital was about to be invaded by the Americans, an advocate of a federal system of government for the Philippines as early as the 1920’s, some 88 years earlier than Senator Nene Pimentel.

        If there is sincerity in the “pagsalingoy”, why are the members of the Sanggunian Panlungsod very much hesitant in giving the plaza in Naga to Arejola? Perhaps, they are reserving it to a man named Robredo.

        This is one pagsalingoy that emphasizes too clearly the incongruity of the name Quezon in Naga’s plaza; one pagsalingoy that places under a cloud of doubt the sincerity of the Sanggunian Panlungsod in giving premium value to Naga’s history.