Visayanian reunion
Lawyer Eddie Barrita, the perpetual president and one and only officer of the Visayanian Staffers Association, is calling on all past and present staff members of the school publication of the University of the Visayas to the organization's one and only activity in a year --the Friday-before-the-Sinulog reunion at the Ecotech Center in Lahug.
The Visayanian Staffers reunion is the most predictable reunion in the whole universe. The people who attended the first reunion are the same people who are expected to attend this year, give or take a few whom God has probably finally summoned to account for their antics while in UV, or humored for now with just a pair of creaky knees and fading eyesight.
But the great food remains unchanged in greatness, consistent with the taste and appetite of people who cut their teeth in life in UV. There is always the staple inasal, utan bisaya, balbacua, linat-ang manok bisaya nga kinawat didto sa Cabadiangan (kung sa Compostela, amo; kung sa Liloan, ilang Eddie). There is dugo-dugo, tinuwa, ug sinugbang isda. And there is mongos and mais kan-on.
There will be a few drinks to pass around, although this deep into the millennium, they will now be largely just for show, and to kickstart the singing. Visayanians love to sing. Those who cannot sing love to listen to those who can. Singing is also the pretext to start the process of electing Eddie for yet another presidential term.
Eddie loves to drink. When he drinks he cannot refuse singing. The moment he starts to sing, somebody shouts "I nominate Attorney Barrita for president!" Somebody shouts back "I second the motion!" Still another screams above Eddie's singing "I move to close the nomination!" At this, the hands of everybody go up. Somebody slams a palm on the table and Eddie is reelected to wild applause just as he finishes singing.
Democracies around the world could learn a thing or two from Visayanian elections. They are remarkable in their utter lack of opposition, resistance, and opposition. The unanimity of choice they exhibit, I humbly predict, will one day make all elections irrelevant. The unrelenting desire of Visayanians to elect Eddie and Eddie's unwavering capacity to accept the presidency will one day become the norm for increasingly busy societies.
There is also a band Eddie keeps resurrecting from the Visayan Institute that plays great music you no longer hear often. It is music that Jesse Bacon, lawyer Frank Malilong, and I cannot sing. We are the non-singers in the group. But Attorney Malilong and I console ourselves by telling each other that we are the best English language writers in Cebu.
As to Jesse, the late Cerge Remonde used to claim the national paper he writes for only has three copies reaching Cebu, and that was before Ninez wrote 30. Still Jesse never misses a Visayanian reunion. Such loyalty, so unrequited, is unheard of in the annals of UV. The Visayanian reunion is a microcosm of the inherent greatness of UV, Pa-UV-UV lang pero UV g’yud diay. As Eddie would say: Birds of the same feather are birds.
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