Center for Kapampangan Studies

Fr. Bustillo continued narrating Felipe Sonsong's interment he witnessed on 12 January 1686 in Agana, Guam: "Since all revered him as a saint, the Governor (of the Marianas Islands) with all his soldiers attended his burial, the Governor himself with Sergeant-Major Don Joseph de Quiroga and two adjutants carrying near the body from the fort where he died to the church recently erected near the sea. Two other adjutants received him into the grave from the hand of Captain Joseph dela Cruz and Adjutant Joseph de Carabajal."

Manila Galleon captain Damián de Esplana was the Marianas governor mentioned in Fr. Bustillo's report. He is regarded in Guam's history as a peacebuilder in the Marianas. In the 2001 book "A History of Guam" by Lawrence J. Cunningham and Janice J. Beaty, Esplana accidentally arrived in Guam via a galleon (en route to the Philippines) in 1674 due to a storm. Since he was the highest Spanish official in Guam, he became the fourth Marianas governor. Later on, Quiroga succeeded him in the governorship a month after Sonsong died.

The surname of Bro. Felipe Sonsong, a 17th-century Filipino martyr of the faith, came from the old Kapampangan word, sungsung, which meant "an exchange agreed upon for a commodity in a barter system." Fr. Diego Bergaño, OSA recorded in his 1732 Vocabulario de la lengua Pampanga that the ancient Kapampangans used sungsung as an idiom as well, to wit, "to go against something, like inclement weather." Perhaps, the wisdom behind this idiom was the calculated risk in braving something ahead.

With the Grace of God, we will sungsung this catastrophe brought about by typhoon Katrine to the Philippines.

National history is nothing but the sum of local histories, just as national culture is the amalgam of all local cultures and national language should include all local languages. We can never underestimate the significance of historical events and historical figures from every region, province, city, town and village—which is why local studies centers like the HAU Center for Kapampangan Studies (CKS) are supported by national government agencies like the NCCA, the NHCP, the National Museum, the National Atchives, and the National Library.

Everyone is invited to the book launch of the newest edition of Joel Mallari’s TALABALDUGAN: English-Kapampangan and Kapampangan-English Dictionary with an Introduction to Kapampangan Lexicography. The author is a former researcher of the HAU Center for Kapampangan Studies. It was CKS that published the book’s first edition in 2012. The launch is on Oct. 30 at 5 p.m. at Café Juan, Holy Angel University. Admission is free.