Expressways have truly improved the quality of our travel especially en route to regions north of Manila. If you Google areas toward Central and North Luzon, you will note gleaming tollways stretching to great distances.
When you get out of the bustling and busy metropolis, you first hit the 84-kilometer North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), and then turn left to enter the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). When on SCTEX northwards, you will reach Tarlac Pangasinan La Union Expressway (TPLEX).
And yet the expressway that stands out in terms of smoother pavement and high-tech features is the NLEX. Try closing your eyes when traversing NLEX, and you feel on your reclined back the smooth and seamless tollway.
You open your eyes and grab your mobile phone to send a text – you can, without your fingers missing the right letters on a key pad! You pick up your book to resume reading – and you are like aboard an airplane, missing no lines.
The tollway signs are big and clear and really strategically located. When you approach NLEX’s toll plazas, you have efficient handling of payments in cash, EC tag, and Easy Trip.
And yet there is one feature that truly makes the NLEX a stand-out among all other expressways in the country its green surroundings and islands throughout the 84-kilometer stretch.
I recall those inspired lines of Spanish poet Federico Lorca which run: “Verde, verde quiero verde!” (Green, green I love you green!) Nothing relaxes you more, nothing feeds you heart and soul than patches of green. These are real treat from NLEX.
Paging all other expressways to do the same! After 30 minutes of your car’s tire hitting concrete and asphalt, you want your eyes to feast on a lot of green, punctuated by multi-colored blossoms along the way.
I have received some details about “Greening the NLEX,” a project for some years by the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC). Only recently, MNTC has already achieved the target of 20,000 trees with 67 varieties.
To mark the event, MPTC president Ramoncito S. Fernandez and MNTC president Rodrigo E. Franco presented a tree sapling to Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of both MPTC and MNTC, on his birthday last July.
Last year, MNTC pledged to plant 20,000 trees of 67 indigenous varieties along the NLEX to mark MVP’s 67th birthday then.
The vision to green NLEX was completed with the help of partners like SM Supermalls, Financial Executives of the Philippines, Philippine National Bank, business editors of major broadsheets, and alumni of San Beda College.
The greening of NLEX is led by a true blue man, MVP himself. This is where green and blue can blend. How about that, Mr. MVP!
* * *
The College of Mass Communication of the University of the Philippines-Diliman is now in a frenzy of activities as it gears up for the celebration of its 50th year in June 2015.
Aside from gathering the most number of the UP CMC alumni, the event has inspired the organizers to launch a fund-raising drive in order to achieve three projects: faculty development, scholarship programs and infrastructure building.
The moving spirit of these grand preparations is the UP CMC dean, Dr. Roland Tolentino, backstopped by the associate dean, Danilo Arao.
To assure broad-based support from all sectors, Dean Roland has invited Dante M. Velasco, former transportation undersecretary during the first year of President Aquino, to chair a committee that will engage all CMC alumni and CMC friends to support its “resource generation” projects. He co-chairs it with Ma. Elena V. Romero, a leading light of the UP CMC Alumni association.
Called the Alumni Engagement for Development Committee, its other members are: Professors Rica Abad, Ma. Ivy Claudio, Christine Anne Cox, and Gina Lumauig. Other alumni are involved in the larger steering committee. This time UP CMC will be heard and seen more often in all media! Velasco and Romero, both renowned media and communication counselors, will make sure of that.
Only yesterday, August 18, trustees of the UP CMC foundation board threw their support for the year-long preparation for the 50th anniversary of the premier educational center for communicators.
Tomorrow, Aug. 20, the “CMC@50 Paglunsad ng Komite para sa Ginintuang Selebrasyon ng UP CMC” will be held at the college auditorium. All 50 chosen alumni, who commit to support the anniversary initiatives, will be presented at the launching.
For many years, the UP CMC has been on low profile. This will change, according to the organizers. The college, which has produced outstanding communicators, will begin practicing “high visibility.”
That I’ve got to see!
* * *
She must be a good choir conductor and a good friend to many, because at a benefit concert held in her honor Sunday evening, Cosmopolitan Church was filled to the rafters. Shirley Nerecina, conductor of the Chancel and Pilgrims’ choirs at the historic church on Taft Avenue, suffered a stroke last June. She has partially recovered, and last Sunday, 45 days after she lost consciousness, music-minded friends thought of holding a fund-raising concert to help tide her over her recovery needs. The response was spontaneous; everybody who knows the tall, exotic conductor, showed up, with most everyone trying to give her a buzz while she smiled seated in a wheelchair.
The concert was beautiful. The Pilgrim, Chancel and Vesper choirs all of Cosmopolitan Church and the famous Manila Concert Choir, led by Professor Leonor Briones, sang with characteristic vigor. Jonathan Patadlas and Annie Mae Espina were soloists. Star of the evening was Katrina Saga, who sang four numbers. Katrina is a music graduate and for a while taught at Silliman University’s School of Music, and is now doing graduate studies a the UP Conservatory of Music and is a member of the UP Madrigal Singers.
To our dear friend Shirley, get up from that wheelchair and resume conducting your choirs!
* * *
On August 22-24, Yabang Pinoy will be showing off and selling arts and crafts that will make us Pinoys proud that we have quite a number of young creative entrepreneurs.
On these three days, Yabang Pinoy will launch the Global Pinoy Bazaar. As we saw at their mini-presentation at the Bulong Pulungan media forum last week, the entrepreneurs will be selling 200 of their local products from leather shoes to handbags, garments made of piña, sandals with soles made of palay, and customized fashion jewelry (including fascinating tiara), among others.
“Yabang Pinoy is a Filipino Pride movement under the Children’s Environmental Awareness and Action Foundation,” Maricris Sarino, Yabang Pinoy advocate, said at the Bulong Pulungan media forum last Tuesday.
“We believe that to be committed in protecting the environment, our countrymen, especially the youth, should first be encouraged to appreciate what the environment provides uslike the native materials we use for our Philippine-made products,” Patrick Joson, another Yabang Pinoy advocate, said.
The bazaar concides with Buwan ng Wika and the “Made in the Philippines Products Week,” as declared by Presidential Proclamation No. 76.
Rory Morales-Gutierrez of Ritmo Learning Lab, a content company, will be selling JoomaJam as flagship product, an Original Pinoy Music (OPM) for early learners (pre-K to 3).
Nelson Moss and Tyffanie Short of KTN Organics Marketing Inc. are selling organic beauty products.
This is one pre-Christmas bazaar you should spend time and money on.
* * *
My email:dominitorrevillas@gmail.com