ORATIO IMPERATA, The Prayer of These Difficult Times

Oratio Imperata

God our Father,
We come to you in our need
To ask your protection against the 2019 Corona Virus
That has claimed lives
And has affected many.

We pray for your grace
For the people tasked with studying the nature and cause
Of this virus and its disease
And of stemming the tide of its transmission.

Guide the hands and minds of medical experts
That they may minister to the sick
With competence and compassion,
And of those governments and private agencies
That must find cure and solution to this epidemic.

We pray for those afflicted
May they be restored to health soon.

Grant us the grace
To work for the good of all
And to help those in need.

Grand this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever. Amen.

Mary, Help of all Christians, pray for us.
Saint Ralphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Roch, pray for us.
Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us.
Saint Pedro Calungsod, pray for us.

My Simple D-I-Y Disinfectant For Corona Virus and Other Germs

With supermarket racks empty of rubbing alcohol and sanitizers, we're all forced to be creative.

So, what I did was google on how to make your own disinfectant, and it was very easy.😀

And what I needed were available at home: bleach and water, and a spray bottle!😷

1. Get a one-liter bottle and add two (2) tablespoons of bleach; I used Zonrox since we have them at home.

Measurement: 2 tablespoons of Zonrox bleach + 1 liter of water

2. Get a clean spray bottle and fill it up. Then spray on surfaces, chairs, tables, doorknobs, smart phones, laptops, light switches, TV remote, and other appliances that have handles, while wiping them with a clean cloth.

The disinfectant will kill the pathogens. And it's the sodium hypochlorite ingredient in the bleach that does the job.😎

Charity begins as home, they say. So does cleanliness. 😄

(The sign at our door made by the kids at home!)

And we wash our hands upon getting home, and clean the things we bring inside!🙏

Philippine History: Chapter 25 - Former Governor Melecio Severino's Contribution To Victorias

Chapter 25 - Former Governor Melecio Severino's contribution to Victorias

In Chapter 6 of this Victorias History blog, I wrote how, in 1902,  the former provincial governor Melecio Severino helped the people of Daan Banwa (Old Victorias in the Philippines) retain the status of their village as a town.

That time, the American Governor-General running the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands issued an order that poor towns, including Victorias, should be relegated to a barrio of its neighboring towns as they were too poor to be considered as towns. (Read the old names of Victorias here).

Using the Magnanud River as the boundary, Daan Banwa would have been divided between Manapla and Saravia; the northern section was Manapla and its southern section was Saravia. (The earliest record I found that Daan Banwa became a barrio of Saravia was around 1848; it then became a town in 1898 - read blog here).

But things would have turned out differently for the people of Daan Banwa had Señor Melecio Severino heeded the lamentation of his wife, Señora Felicitas Villanueva.

September 29, 1902, a Monday and the day when the town leader, Sr. Eliodoro Tongoy, and town secretary, Sr. Esteban Jalandoni, left for Bacolod to salvage the town's status, started with all things going wrong for the two offiicals, although this day later held a moment of one man's benevolence and sympathy for the people of Daan Banwa.

Earlier that day, at around four in the morning, as the two officials were making their way along the Malihaw River on a boat that would bring them to Bacolod, a sudden gust of wind threw them off the boat (more details of the mishap on Chapter 6). And in Bacolod, during their visits to the governor's and a lawyer's offices, their mission became impossible as the day went on.

Daan Banwa seemed doomed to be just another barrio in the island. 

That was until they bumped into Señor Melecio Severino.

In the sala of the house of Don Basiliso Villanueva and seated at the chairs made of hardwood and done in colonial designs, Sr. Tongoy and Sr. Jalandoni discussed the problem of the people of Daan Banwa.

And although we now know that the two accomplished what they initially set out to do, the rampaging cholera epidemic at that time almost caused Sr. Severino to delay his trip, or maybe had it canceled altogether.

According to the report of Dr. Victor G. Heiser, the Chief Quarantine Officer of the Philippine Islands and its Director of Health during the US occupation, a cholera epidemic swept the Philippines in the early 1900s. The disease surfaced in March 20, 1902 and lasted for two years. When cholera cases disappeared by March 8, 1904, there were 109,461 deaths from the disease. And that time, Bacolod was not spared.

So, when Sr. Felicitas, the wife of Sr. Severino, heard that her husband was planning to leave Bacolod for Manila, she expressed her fears.

The couple's dialogue went like this:

Sr. Melecio: "Señora, isa ca labing dacû, himpit cag mataas nga catungdanan sang tawo, maga pilit caron sa acon sa pagbiyâ sa imo sing mga pila lamang ca adlaw".

Sra. Felicitas: "¿Nga-a diin ca macadto?"

Sr. Melecio: "Sa Manila. Cay ang banua co nga pinalanggâ, ang banua nga nag tib-ong sa acon sa cahitaasan sang cagamhanan sa pagka-governador sa sini nga provincia nga amo ang banua sang Victorias, yara caron sa dacú nga calilisdan, cay paga pihacon sang mga banua sang Saravia cag Manapla sono sang orden sang General..."

Sra. Felicitas: "¿Baya-an mo aco sa tungâ sining maca siligni caron nga camatay diri sa Bacolod?"

Sr. Melecio: "Señora, saligui cag la-umi nga ang Dios dili nga mas-a mag tugut nga may calalat-an nga mahanabô sa isa ca tawo nga naga ampin sing tusuc sa iya taguipuso-on, sang casaquit nga pala-abuton sang isa ca banua nga naga cabuhî bisan imol lamang sa iya caugalingon nga pangitan-an."

Sra. Felicitas then left the room as she wiped her tears. Even though she feared for her husband and her family as the cholera epidemic was sweeping Bacolod and the country, she was proud of her husband and the honorable deed he was about to do for the people of the Old Victorias. In other words, not even a pandemic could stop one man's compassion for his people.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Weeks after Sr. Severino left for Manila, the people of Daan Banwa rejoiced when the town leader received that telegram bearing the best news they heard since November 1898 when Daan Banwa became a town as ordered by the governor of the Republica Cantonal de Negros.

Señor Melecio Yorac Severino, a resident of Silay, was born on December 4, 1866. He was an important member of the revolutionary movement, using his fine writing skills to create propaganda against the Spanish colonizers and their abuses. The movement is now being celebrated as Cinco de Noviembre in Negros Occidental.

In 1912, he was elected as Representative to the National Assembly. As a solon, he opposed the adoption of English as medium of instruction in Philippine schools.

It was said that, sadly, Sr. Severino died of a heart attack on May 16, 1915. He was just 48.😢

As he is part of the history of Victorias, the people of the Daan Banwa, as well as the Victoriahanons of today, owe Sr. Melecio Severino and to Sra. Felicitas Severino y Villanueva a debt of gratitude for their contribution to this town. 🙏 

Note: Words written in neon green are links. Do click them.

Chapter 26:  Why April 26, instead of October 7, is the Feast of Our Lady of Victory in Victorias City

Complete history blog: "Ang Kasaysayan sang                                                Victorias"