ONLY IN MINGLANILLA

A Bee at the Main Plaza de Minglanilla

Am proud of my hometown Minglanilla.  It has a Bee in the plaza, a Gothic-inspired church edifice and a modernist municipal hall.  At over 150-million pesos revenue, it is a legitimate candidate for cityhood.

Minglanilla is known as the Sugat Capital but which is no longer the case today.  Sugat, which literally means the meeting of the Risen Christ and the Sorrowful Mother, has evolved into a mole in the tourism-inspired Lenten festivities of my town called the Kabanhawan Festival.

A blob Municipal Building

My hometown never fails to make it on and off the headlines.  Early last year it was possessed by a scandal involving el padre y la bella mujer.  And in July, a local paper reported that undefeated Mayor Selma is giving up politics in 2013!

Minglanilla is still that place where one could take a ride at the middle of the highway.  Pedestrians here are forced to play tubig-tubig (an indigenous game) with buses, multi-cabs, and pedicabs.  Vendors and habal-habals (illegal means of transport) are lining-up the main thoroughfares narrowing down the streets.   

A light-traffic situation at the town center

For whatever reason, traffic lights installed just late last year have been perpetually(?) turned-off. And only six enforcers are left of what used to be the Minglanilla Traffic Commission.  The coming solutions are the completion of a multi-million-peso public market and the diversion road still in the sky somewhere.

Church-goers in Minglanilla could be late for Mass even if they do come early to Church but not because of traffic.  Local Church time, as claimed, is ahead of standard time and that there are also days that Masses are started earlier than the Church's time. 

A Church with Gothic-elements

Worried about her condition, a lady told me that she raised this point to a member of the Team of Pastors and was told well, this is our time - (and you just have to follow it would be just as logical). 

So my advice was for her to come thirty minutes before the scheduled Mass time and to bring along a packet of biscuits if she desires Communion. This is because anyone going early to Church fasting could become really hungry after an hour of Mass, reaching home thirty minutes because of traffic.

Church Canon 919 commands Catholics to ABSTAIN from any food or drink, with the exception only of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before receiving the Holy Eucharist.  It is a mortal sin to deliberately break the pre-communion fast.   

Minglanilla is unique in many ways political and spiritual.  But rest assured, politicians here are sweating it out peacefully this election and the cinco padres are enjoying the serene atmosphere of media for now.