A maritime lawyer by profession, sometimes called Frog Prince of the Philippines with currently more than a thousand of collectible frog items. Like the frogs with a reputation for leaping that is well deserved, jump with me to my froglandia as we travel and explore the world seeking symbols of divine powers of love, fertility, regeneration, rebirth, immortality, and transformation.
Kahit
di na kita nakikita sa limang pisong papel, maligayang 150th kaarawan,
dakilang SUPREMO! "Mga maginoong namiminuno, kasapi at mga kapatid: Sa
inyong lahat ipinatutungkol ang pahayag na ito. Totoong kinakailangan na
sa lalong madaling panahon ay putulin natin ang walang pangalang
pang-lulupig na ginagawa sa mga anak ng bayan, na ngayo’y nagtitiis ng
mabibigat na parusa at pahirap sa mga bilangguan.
Na sa dahilang ito’y mangyaring ipa-tanto ninyo sa lahat ng mga kapatid
na sa araw ng sabado, ika-29 ng kasalukuyan, ay puputok ang
panghihimagsik na pinagkasunduan natin, kaya’t kinakailangang sabaysabay
na kumilos ang mga bayanbayan at sabaysabay na salakayin ang maynila.
Ang sino pa mang humadlang sa banal na adhikang ito ng bayan ay
ipalalagay na taksil at kalaban maliban na nga lamang kung may sakit na
dinaramdam o ang katawa’y may sama at sila’y paguusigin alinsunod sa
palatuntunang ating pinaiiral." — Bundok ng Kalaayan, ika-28 ng Agosto
ng 1896, May Pagasa. :
Happy birthday Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr.(November 27, 1932 – August 21, 1983), - Ninoy was a Filipino Senator and a former Governor of Tarlac. Aquino, together with Gerry Roxas and Jovito Salonga, formed the leadership of the opposition to the government of PresidentFerdinand Marcos. Shortly after the imposition of Martial Law, he was arrested in 1973 along with other dissidents and incarcerated for seven years. Aquino was permitted to travel to the United States for medical treatment following a heart attack. He was assassinated at the Manila International Airport in 1983 upon returning from his self-imposed exile. His death catapulted his widow, Corazon Aquino, into the political limelight, and prompted her to run for President as member of the UNIDO party in the 1986 snap elections.
Among other public structures, Manila International Airport has since been renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honour, and the anniversary of his death is a national holiday.
Whether
or not the Mayans are correct, 12-21-12 is a very significant day. Of
all the numbers available, they chose a date when i first saw the light
more than four decades ago and made many people smile . My wish: i can
still feel my family's and friends' presence via FB the day after,
Dec.22. Before we all disappear, let me greet you with a hug and say "
WORLD PEACE" Let us leap together for a blissful
future- As Oprah Winfrey would say: "Be thankful for what you have;
you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have,
you will never, ever have enough". To those who became part of my more
than four decades of wonderful existence, the frog prince gives homage
to you.http://kapitankokak.blogspot.com/2010/12/life-starts-at-forty.html
Happy birthday to all December birthday celebrants. Ophiuchus: Dec1- Dec. 17 .. Sagittarius: Dec. 17 - Dec31. One of seven months with the length of 31
days. It starts on the same day of the week as September every year and
ends on the same day as April every year. birthstones are the blue
turquoise or zircon, and tanzanite. birth flower is the holly or
poinsettia.Please indicate your birthdate
Dateline June 19, 1978 : Garfield , the comic strip created by Jim Davis, was first Published It chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield (named after Davis' grandfather); his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie. As of 2007, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals, and held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip
Garfield is an orange, fuzzy, tabby cat born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant and immediately ate all the pasta and lasagna in sight, thus developing his love and obsession for lasagna and pizza.Gags in the strips commonly deal with Garfield's obesity and his hatred of exercise (or any form of work; he is known for saying breathing is exercise.) In addition to being portrayed as lazy and fat, Garfield is also pessimistic, sadistic, cynical, sarcastic, sardonic and a bit obnoxious. He enjoys destroying things, mauling the mailman, tormenting Odie, kicking Odie off the table; he also makes snide comments, usually about Jon's inability to get a date. Though Garfield can be very cynical, he does have a soft side for his teddy bear, Pooky, food and sleep,
If papa is still alive today, he should have been celebrating his 74th birthday today, August 2. He died at the age of 65 nine years ago, or on November 16,2003.
In my blog “KAMATIS” LOVE AFFAIR OF PONCHING AND LINDA GORECHOI wrote that if I will submit the love story of my parents to “Maalaala Mo Kaya,” I will use the title “Kamatis.” The wedding line, “Till death do us part” will be replaced by “But death will not set us apart.” All throughout their more than thirty years of marriage, we never saw them engage in physical fights. Although we were accustomed to Mama’s masungit and mataray lines, we knew that was just how they expressed their emotions: only through words and eye contact. Laging sinasabi ni Papa: Bago pa man magkasala si mama sa kanya (siguro sa pagiging mataray ni Mama) pinapatawad na nya si mama. If mama was angry, Papa would just step back. Di nya sasalubungin emotion ni mama.
When we were growing up, I remember times when Mama scolded us, “Buti nga kayo di nyo naranasan ang magtinda ng kamatis sa palengke.” Then she would cry. Perhaps, this was her way of saying that whatever the benefits we were enjoying then were due to their hard work..This is something that children have to realize: that parents will sacrifice a lot for the future of the kids. If mama would say the “kamatis” story, Papa, on the other hand, would tell us stories when he was still a security guard in a government agency before they got married in July 1968. Papa was a security guard by day and a student by night taking up library science. When he graduated, he proceeded to be a librarian in the same office until he retired in early 1990s.
People wonder why we have several stuff in our house which Papa did not want to dispose, especially the shoes. Papa justified this by saying that while he was growing up, he never had the luxury of owning new ones since both he and mama came from a family with very modest means. He tried to instill this in us such that long before ukay-ukay became famous, we were already wearing secondhand clothes and shoes, sleeping on beds, sitting on chairs and sofas that papa bought from the secondhand shops in Bangkal. Seldom did we wear brand-new clothes, except maybe during Christmases when our Titas bought us clothing on an installment basis - one Tita would buy us pants while another took care of the shirts. Never mind the shoes, andyan naman ang Bangkal. We became the walking models for ukay-ukay.
My mother, fondly called Mama Linda, died last year on May 17, 2002 due to pericarditis and lymphoma or cancer of the lymph nodes after almost a month of confinement at the Philippine Heart Center. A year and six months later, my father, Papa Ponching to many, died last year, November 16, 2003 a Sunday, due to pneumonia after being bedridden for almost eight months brought about by complications arising from an operation on his brain (hydrocephalus).
Mama should have turned 71 this month , May 14, 2012. It was ten years ago when we were able to greet her for the last time a Happy Birthday as well as Happy Mother's Day.
My mother, fondly called Mama Linda, died on May 17, 2002 due to pericarditis and lymphoma or cancer of the lymph nodes after almost a month of confinement at the Philippine Heart Center. and three days after she celebrated her 61st birthday.On April 14, 2003, papa was rushed to Las Piñas City Medical Center after falling down from the stairs — a day short of the one full year from mama’s hospitalization. A year and six months after mama’s death, my father, Papa Ponching to many, died November 16, 2003 a Sunday, due to pneumonia after being bedridden for almost eight months brought about by complications arising from an operation on his brain (hydrocephalus). I have told relatives and friends that Papa could have been dead during the second week of April due to the gravity of the hydrocephalus if not for that incident when he fell from our stairs. Maybe Mama pushed him so that the hydrocephalus and tumor could be detected.
In my blog “KAMATIS” LOVE AFFAIR OF PONCHING AND LINDA GORECHOI wrote that if I will submit the love story of my parents to “Maalaala Mo Kaya,” I will use the title “Kamatis.” The wedding line, “Till death do us part” will be replaced by “But death will not set us apart.” All throughout their more than thirty years of marriage, we never saw them engage in physical fights. Although we were accustomed to Mama’s masungit and mataray lines, we knew that was just how they expressed their emotions: only through words and eye contact. Laging sinasabi ni Papa: Bago pa man magkasala si mama sa kanya (siguro sa pagiging mataray ni Mama) pinapatawad na nya si mama. If mama was angry, Papa would just step back. Di nya sasalubungin emotion ni mama.
They have a reverse role: Mama took care of the financial well-being of the family while papa was in charge of the spiritual and emotional needs of the children. Mama was the breadwinner and Papa was the house caretaker.
When we were growing up, I remember times when Mama scolded us, “Buti nga kayo di nyo naranasan ang magtinda ng kamatis sa palengke.” Then she would cry. Perhaps, this was her way of saying that whatever the benefits we were enjoying then were due to their hard work..This is something that children have to realize: that parents will sacrifice a lot for the future of the kids. If mama would say the “kamatis” story, Papa, on the other hand, would tell us stories when he was still a security guard in a government agency before they got married in July 1968. Papa was a security guard by day and a student by night taking up library science. When he graduated, he proceeded to be a librarian in the same office until he retired in early 1990s
We did not have money but we had the respect of people, especially the fact that two of their sons entered the priesthood, Fr. Philip and Bro. Stephen. At first Mama could not accept the fact that two sons chose to serve the lord but later realized, according to Papa, that they gave up two sons but regained the whole religious order as their new sons and daughters. Tuwang-tuwa sya pag tinatawag sila na Papa and Mama Gorecho. They had five sons and one daughter, two entered the priesthood, i became a lawyer and the other son went into photography, the business which Papa engaged into while he was alive.
As a young kid, I fondly remember that we were always waiting for her birthday since it was also the summer outing of the reyes clan that usualy coincide with the company outing of RICEL, the export company of her sister, our Tita Elsa Parreno. We had several pictures of beacheneering then with my cousins and titas/titos. Smiles, laughters, stories over somewhat endless food. And of course, the mahjong set will not be absent.
I belong to the more than 40 “apos’ or grandchildren of Damaso and Maria Reyes. I never met my lolo who died before I was born but his absence was greatly compensated by the love and caring that Lola Maria has given to her grandchildren. Their children (Mario, Bert, Odol, Elsa, Julieta, Linda, Malou, Elvie, Mel, and Tita) followed the proverbial phrase “ go and multiply” thus out we came, the 40 plus grandchildren.
(note: this article was written in December 2010 when i celebrated my 40th birthday)
"Life begins at forty." A popular saying that i have now to see for myself as today, i now belong to said age group.
I always wondered what's the rationale for said phrase. Upon browsing the net, i learned that one's 40th birthday welcomes you into the beautiful "middle age." as eighty is known as the expected life expectancy of a person, generally speaking. This age does not have the casual immaturity of the youth, nor does it have the constant dependency of old age. You can enjoy your 40th birthday in quiet reflection on the four decades of a beautiful life. It is the time for you to enjoy the little moments rather than focus on bigger events.
The number forty has many Old Testament Biblical references:
•the forty days and nights God sent rain in the great flood of Noah (Genesis 7:4);
•the forty days Moses spent on Mount Sinai with God (Exodus 24:18);
•the forty years the Hebrew people wandered in the desert while traveling to the Promised Land (Numbers 14:33);
•the forty days Jonah in his prophecy of judgment gave the city of Nineveh in which to repent (Jonah 3:4).
•the forty days and nights Elijah spent walking to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8);
AND, Jesus retreated into the wilderness, where he fasted for forty days, and was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-2, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-2).
So what are the significant events in my four decades of existence? Perhaps, this piece is a sort of biographical journey of where i am now. Just click the underscore to see the links of the blogs and pictures thereof.Come leap with me through time..
DECADE ONE: (1970 to 1980) THE GORECHO UKAY UKAY KIDS
I was born December 21, 1970 to Ponching Gorecho and Linda Reyes, second in their five siblings. A Sagittarian under the Year of the Dog. Mama said that among her children, she had the most difficult time in giving birth to me because i have a "big head." Before i was to be baptized in January 16, 1971, they said that my lolo wanted a pinoy name for me using the calendar, which he wanted to be PROCOPIO. Thank God lolo's suggestion was not granted by mama and papa or else i will have the nickname "PROCKY" . My Reyes clan seriously practiced the biblical saying "go and multiply" as we were 40 plus cousins. On the other hand, i attempted to make the family tree of the Gorecho clan as i usually tell people that i am proud of my Boholano roots. The Gorecho is a Galician surname meaning it was patterned from the inhabitants of Galicia , Spain .
We are five kids, four boys and one girl . Papa too had the same number of siblings: they are four boys in a row and the youngest was also a girl. I was the counterpart of Papa being the second to the eldest. People wonder why we have several stuff in our house which Papa did not want to dispose, especially the shoes. Papa justified this by saying that while he was growing up, he never had the luxury of owning new ones since both he and mama came from a family with very modest means. He tried to instill this in us such that long before ukay-ukay became famous, we were already wearing second hand clothes and shoes, sleeping on beds, sitting on chairs and sofas that papa bought from the secondhand shops in Bangkal. Seldom did we wear brand-new clothes, except maybe during Christmases when our Titas bought us clothing on an installment basis - one Tita would buy us pants while another took care of the shirts. Never mind the shoes, andyan naman ang Bangkal. We became the walking models for ukay-ukay.
DECADE TWO: (1981 to 1990) THE BAGETS NERD AND UP AKTIBISTA
In 1984, I finished primary school at Gen. Pio Del Pilar Elementary School as salutatorian. Four years later, I became the Valedictorian of batch87 of TAKLA , the slang for Sta. Clara Parish School, which at that time is known as the "only catholic school for boys" in Pasay. It was our growing up period, aptly depicted by the then BAGETS movie. In 2012, our batch will celebrate our 25th year silver anniversary, which will coincide with the 50th year of TAKLA.
Then from 1987 to 1991, i became one of the so-called "Iskolar ng Bayan" as part of the UP Diliman studentry when i took BS. Economics. Basically, I became attached to three main organizations , Economics Society or ECOSOC, Philippine Collegian or KULE, and SAMASA Alliance as well as the College Editors Guild of the Philippines or CEGP .My relatives and friends usually asked me "bakit ka ba naging aktibista". Perhaps my answer will be because UP is the perfect place to grow in all aspects, whether it be politically, socially, etc. Yes, I myself became part of UP Activisim movement. And i am proud that it made me a better person. Perhaps, members of the various generation of activism has their own way of reminiscing such so era."Iba nung panahon namin"...My passion for photography likewise developed.
DECADE THREE: (1991 to 2000): THE LAW STUDENT - JOURNALIST
I entered UP College of Law in 1992 and earned my law degree in 1998. I shifted from the day class to the evening class to be part of the "working student" species of lawyers. I write for TODAY as one of their regular reporter as well as international news agencies like Reuters, AFP, AP, UPI and others covering a wide range of topics such as environment, human rights, politics, peace process, agriculture, agrarian reform and many more . Take note: my daily schedule is writing in the morning and the afternoon before going to UP to attend my classes in the evening. Then I go home where I read the assignments for the following day during the almost two hours trip of the bus going to Las Pinas. In between my work and classes, I still go hiking with my friends called the Squakings or SKWAKS
In August23, 1997 i was kidnapped which i wrote in my piece "Face to Face with Crime" “SIGE, tumakbo ka na ng mabilis at huwag kang lilingon at baka barilin pa kita (Run, Run fast and don’t turn back or I’ll shoot you).” The words could be apart of a movie script, but these were in fact words of my abductors . To me, words of freedom.
In April 1999, i am officially Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho, the lawyer, after the Supreme Court posted the successful passers. I chronicled my experience in taking the 1998 bar exams in "Notes in Bar Exams."
In the same year. my elder brother, my Kuya Welthy or now Fr. Philip, was ordained as priest. Two of the Gorecho sons entered the priesthood, the other the youngest son Melvin/ Beng or now called Fr.Stephen. At first Mama could not accept the fact that two sons chose to serve the lord but later realized, according to Papa, that they gave up two sons but regained the whole religious order as their new sons and daughters. Tuwang-tuwa sya pag tinatawag sila na Papa and Mama Gorecho.The story has it that if there is one priest in the family, the whole clan is blessed up to the third generation. In our case, we not only had one but two brothers into priesthood who belong to the same order, Oblates of Allaince of Twin Hearts (OATH). In some instances, they celebrate latin mass. Indeed, our faith and their vocation guided us.
DECADE FOUR: (2000 to 2010): THE LAWYER AND THE FROG PRINCE
In 2001 started collecting frogs which were featured several times in different TV programs such as Mel and Joey and SaPulso, thus earning me the several titles such as Frog Prince, Atty. Kokak and now Kapitan Kokak.Perhaps this froggy character is perfect for my penchant to travelling and taking of jump shots.
May 17, 2002, my mother died of lymphoma, three days after she celebrated her 61st birthday. One and a half year later, or on November 16, 2003, Papa followed after he died due to complications of diabetes. I wrote a piece called "Kamatis Love Story of Ponching and Linda" to immortalize their love to one another
In 2001 i joined the law firm, Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law office which is now on its 34th year with a battery of eighteen t lawyers : four partners plus seven in manila, three in iloilo, one in cebu, one in cagayan de oro and two in davao.. Hoping for a more prosperous 35th year in existence. 2011 is my tenth year in the office. I am now head of the seafarers' department wherein one of my focus is delivering paralegal lectures on seafarers' rights to the various stakeholders, the seafarers and their families as well as the maritime schools. Ironically, even if our firm deals with intellectual property, i am an afficionado of Quiapo DVDs.
As Cicero said : This wine is forty years old. It certainly doesn't show its age. (Latin: Hoc vinum Falernum fannorum quadragenta est. Bene aetatem fert.).
