BELOW THE LINE By AMBASSADOR JOSE ABETO ZAIDE Ambassador José Abeto Zaide One of our most peripatetic artists is Manuel Baldemor, a tubong probinsya, who has reached to the four corners of the globe. While he has an ongoing exhibit at the Art Circle Gallery at Shangri-la Mall titled "Welcome Spring: An Exhibition of Paintings,”  Baldemor was moved to do another  --  this time a chronicle of how he was affected by the devastation of Taal which he put into canvass. But these oeuvre do not have the peripatetic colors of Baldemor. Instead, you see the purple patch of a poet affected by the devastation.  The collection of 24 canvases are somber, meditative, and asking the heavens what has been forsaken. And yet there is an occasional “usbong,” that sliver of hope that sprouts out a leaf that promises that we will come out of this. “BulkangTaal: Arise Batangas,”  a week-long exhibit of  Baldemor works at the Central Atrium of the SM Mall of Asia, just ended.  A large chunk of the proceeds will go to the relief of disaster-stricken residents.   The exhibition, with new additions, continues with more of other works that the artist had made for his continuing exhibition which will tour other SM Malls like the Tagaytay Highlands, Taal Vista Lodge, and other SM outlets.

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An old man remembers. UNICEF artist Manuel Baldmor did the commemorative postage stamps on the 60^th anniversary in 2007 of Philippines-France bilateral relations.  Our Paris embassy is the only one with a sorbetero ice cream as imaginative decor and service tray at the embassy residence. The Philippine Embassy in Paris also has the most the most welcoming counter with a Baldemor  L’Equipe Philippine Walang Ka-Paris counter. This artist has bequeathed more to the embassy.  Everyone know the Basilica of St. Therese imposing on the hill of Lisieux, its granite interior spotted with mosaic. The marble side altars were donated by pious contributions from Quebec, Croatia, Poland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Scotland, Germany, Portugal, Columbia, Ukraine, Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Belgium, Cuba, and even as far as Zambia.  But the loudest silence was the absence of an altar from the self-professed “only Catholic country in Asia.”  Too late to rectify it, my wife Victoria and I sulked over this void on the drive back to Paris. I mentioned this to the Vatican Observer to UNESCO, H. E. Franceso Follo, who would do something about it.  One weekend, Msgr. Follo and his deputy Mme. Florence Mott from Lisieux, invited us to lunch with the rector of the St. Therese basilica, Msgr. Bernard Lagoutte.  With my secretary Adel Verzosa Renaud filling in the blanks between my pied noire French and the rector’s school English, we hit it off.  There was a hearty repast, a St. Therese cake dessert (a trinity of crust/lemon/cream accented by Carmelite brown rosary on the side), quenched with Normandy water (cider) and heady wine.   After lunch, we visited the relic of St. Therese and toured the basilica.  Negotiating the second landing, we turned a corner where the rector pointed to a 3 x 5 meter wall that he said he could assign to a Philippine mosaic.  It was not an invitation; it was a challenge.  Heady wine must have screwed my courage when I bit my tongue to accept. The hard part was for us to put money where our mouth is.   We tapped Manny Baldemor, who visited Lisieux incognito, the better to imbibe the spirit of the place.  But nothing can be hidden to providential plan; and he would be discovered and would end up sharing a repast with the rector, and prove a willing convert. Two months after, Manny returned to present his study for the mosaic to the Lisieux confraternity.  The design was signature Filipino  --   “People Power,” the Blessed Mother Mary with the sun as her halo and three stars on triangular white field, the populace and army in a sea of red and blue.  St. Therese was prominent with her bouquet of roses, and in the center, a Filipino couple with their child  --   a metaphor of the Holy Family.   Praise was effusive, and Msgr. Lagoutte said that he would now engage a French mosaic artist to team with Baldemor.  As I feared, this epic mural would cost one decimal point more than our modest means.  “Beaucoup trop cher,” I said, and the rector smiled knowingly, swinging his right wrist loosely.   His faith in us seemed greater than our strength.   But then again, if Filipinos cannot come up to this, we would count for very little. Archbishop Ramon Cabrera Arguelles advised against soliciting donations for the mosaic from the Philippines where there is more evident need.  He suggested asking a lady of consequence at the Vatican to sponsor the project.  But I was of a different mind.  More important than a grand benefactor is the participation of as many Filipino parishioners as possible.   Fr. Gil Apuli, the shepherd of Filipinos in France, and Elpidio Caimoy agreed; so did Leo Mojica of ABS-CBN TFC and leaders of the Filipino community who all pledged the support of their members. The first to make out-of-pocket contribution were my wife Meng and Edita ‘Baby’ Buñag, wife of José Mario Buñag, the former revenue commissioner and Supreme Court nominee.  Together, they paid in 3% of the price tag.  Three months later, Baby hijacked classmates touring St. Petersburg and Stockholm to detour to Lisieux; and she succeeded in hiking the paid-in contributions by another 15%. The mosaic was unveiled on 18 October 2009, the 20th year of the Filipino chaplaincy in France.   Filipino parishioners and pilgrims made it happen.  At the first simbang gabi mass that year, Fr. Apuli asked for a second collection for the People Power mosaic in Lisiuex.   Pa-piso-piso lang; kaya natin iyan!

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I mentioned the foregoing long anecdote to illustrate the aphorism that when the going gets rough, the tough get going. And Manny Baldemor and the Filipinos would, if anything, give until it hurts. FEEDBACK: [email protected]