Holiday musings, etc.

Christmas Day and the days before and after that celebration were mostly devoted to family concerns.

So far, there was no major event that could have distracted my attention from the celebration of the Christian holiday – what with 10 of 11 children around plus 20 to 24 grandchildren. That certainly required focus on familial affairs.

There was hardly any time to catch up with the news. Luckily there was not much that deserved to be commented on. Just like the controversial reinstatement of Dr. Domingo Vega as director of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital.

De Vega earlier had been suspended to give way to an investigation by the health department into alleged irregularities in the handling of funds of the Western Visayas Regional Hospital.

Dr. Francisco Duque, the health secretary, had apparently cleared Vega of anomalies, including the controversial orders for oxygen tanks that led to his suspension and that of the hospital’s chief administrative officer.

Another thing that caught my attention was the P10,000 bonus ordered by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but the Philippine National Police could come up with only P7,000. The P3,000 counterpart of the PNP will not be granted for lack of budget.

One begins to wonder whether part of the deficit may have involved the vast amount of money spent by the “euro generals” and seized by the Moscow airport police and still un-returned by Christmas Day.

A spokesman, of course, claimed that PNP savings were to be used to pay the balance of payments to police retirees. But why should the police retirement fund resort to other sources other than its own savings and earnings to cough up the payment of police retirees?

Well, I thought that the Senate may be able to shed further light into that question and related issues.

For the moment, I concentrated on sorting through the pile of gifts at our home – first, the gifts of parents to their children; second, those of the offsprings to their parents; and then, of brothers and sisters to one another. Visitors were surprised to see a pile of Christmas gifts at the foot of the belen and altar of our home.

Another thing, churchgoers of Our Lady of Candles Church at Capitol Heights gazed with astonishment as my grandchildren and children formed a circle around where I was seated as they lined up to kiss me during the Kiss of Peace of the Mass.

Although we were not the only big family in that parish, it was amusing that we were possibly the only family who went to attend the Mass together in such a large number. Credit goes to Salvacio Espina Varona who had asked every family member to join the Mass with the rest of the tribe.

Well, it was not really bedlam. There were a lot of happy movements. And plenty of fun, especially when the children (or grandchildren) presented musical numbers that drew from their mothers the comment “There were 17 participants and 17 voices – they are not really Espinas, are they?”

We certainly missed Rolando Jr. and his wife, Mercy Carili, who are both in Dublin, Ireland and could not come home for Christmas. And there was also the recent loss of my younger brother, Graciano, who died and was buried just a week before Christmas.

And hovering over the entire family was my late wife, Dr. Lourdes L. Espina. Despite her having left us eight years ago, she is still the binding tie that has kept us together.

But there was also tragedy. Not really big. Only the reported collapse of a floating cottage in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental during a Christmas party.

Luckily, there was no reported fatality in the mishap at the Seafront Resort purportedly owned by Cadiz City councilor Ray Vijandre in Barangay Daga that city.

Local clothes dealers were reportedly at the height of their celebration when the floor of the cottage collapsed. The injured were brought to the Cadiz City emergency clinic and the Cadiz City District Hospital.

Well, to all my readers, cheers for the season. And may Christ bring you and rest of the world the peace that God promised to all.