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The Miss Caramoan 2007 contest was just one of over a dozen major activities of Balik Caramoan 2007. In photo Ms. Norify Teoxon Tendenilla, Miss Caramoan 2007, receives her prizes from CRANE president Dominador Alarkon, Jr. and executive vice president Dr. Dolly Roa Perez, Balik Caramoan 2007 overall chairperson. |
By quoting from a verse in his message, Rev. Fr. Rodolfo P. Sales succinctly and precisely describes the pervading feeling of those away from their hometown:
“Oh that I had wings of the wind
To fly home, to sail home, to be home
I cannot wait, time forbid
I cannot wait to be home, to be home”
Commending the Balik Caramoan 2007 project of the Caramoan Residents Association in Naga City and its Environs (CRANE) on May 1 to 8, 2007, the parish priest of the Parish of St. Michael in Caramoan, Camarines Sur also said that the undertaking provided “the opportunity to once again be back home after a long while of having been away to revisit the past with fondness and nostalgia and rekindle the relationship reluctantly left behind.”
So filled indeed with such emotion, as another song goes, was the historic activity that established Caramoan according to the Department of Tourism as the first town in Camarines Sur to ever initiate a homecoming effort of the magnitude. The entire 8-day period had to be filled with varying extravaganzas, from sports, cultural to religious events and crowd-drawing shows to impress upon Caramoanon expatriates that the town is no longer the sleepy, sluggish settlement far away from the educational and commercial hub.
It has come of age and is now abreast with development strides, especially with the tourism development thrusts of the government moving inexorably in the direction.
The Caramoan coastal road is now being pursued, although in a mysteriously slow pace, and the provincial government is said to be keenly bent on putting up an airport near the town proper obviously for affluent tourists who would not want to agonize through the long road or sea travel.
It was a daunting and awesome task voluntarily assumed by CRANE in the hope that Balik Caramoan 2007 would not just strengthen the bond among Caramoanons, however divided they may be by some inevitable personal differences, but also motivate and spur participation and involvement in the on-going development process.
Little did CRANE officers know that Balik Caramoan 2007 would require astronomical overall funding of close to P2 million and that even if it was an election year the amount was extremely difficult to raise. In fact, no politician actually shared in the cost except for minimal advertisement fees in the souvenir program where some candidates bought spaces with a total cost of only P42,000.00. The souvenir program itself which was mostly in color and glossy paper had cost P206,000.00.
The dismal financial horizon, however, considerably brightened up after the Caramoan municipal government under then Mayor Francis Benemerito with the support of the Sangguniang Bayan led by Vice Mayor Juan A. Cordis, Jr. increased the funding assistance requested by the organization from P200,000.00 to P300,000.00.
On personal representations made by Dr. Dolly Roa-Perez, overall chairperson of Balik Caramoan 2007, Gov. L-Ray Villafuerte committed to extend another P300,000.00. Dr. Perez also convinced San Miguel Beer Division to be among the major sponsors and the business entity chipped in P150,000.00.
CRANE president Dominador C. Alarkon, Jr. succeeded in getting the support of Department of Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano through DOT Regional Director Maria O. Ravanilla which also sent in P250,000.00.
The Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) which was hoped to be a major sponsor gave notice that it was granting only P25,000.00. At presstime, the assistance from the Camarines Sur provincial government and the PAGCOR had not been received yet according to Dr. Perez.
On the overall, even if the Camarines Sur provincial government and PAGCOR could already make available their checks CRANE would still be in the red by no less than P100,000.00.
More than the arduous preparations which lasted for months, the funding requirement thus loomed as the most formidable facet of an activity like Balik Caramoan 2007.
But with the heartwarming success of the undertaking now indelibly etched in the minds of those who witnessed part or all of the 8-day festivities, many Camarines Sur and Bicol towns may be titillated to follow suit. After all throughout Bicol only one other town in Sorsogon has held an activity like Balik Caramoan 2007.
Coincidentally, the recent visit of Bicolanos belonging to the Bicol National Association of America only served to underscore the necessity of what CRANE has done under Balik Caramoan 2007.
