Events: Jam Step Craze Will Put Bacolod City on the Map

An official of the Department of Education (DepEd) who talked about the Jam Step, an aerobics exercise which has generated some amount of controversy in Bacolod City, traced the history of the exercise routine which is starting to be a craze among youths and students, including elementary school pupils in Bacolod saying, it has been given the go-signal by DepEd officials and even by Health Secretary Dr. Enrique Ona because it is beneficial health-wise to young men and women, but requested her name not to be divulged because she would not want to be embroiled in the controversy. Aside from it being a healthy activity, it will put Bacolod on the world map.

More so, education secretary Armin Luistro has given the go-signal to the aerobics as a hedge against one being later subjected to cardio-vascular diseases such as heart diseases and strokes.

What Dr. Anthony Golez, Bacolod’s lone district Congressman is promoting, along with the DepEd and the DOH is quite proper, the official said.

Once children start at a young age doing Jam Step, they would continue to practice it when he or she becomes an adult. It could also change the mindset insofar as having a healthy lifestyle is concerned.

“There is no disadvantage of any kind when one engages in a healthy exercise routine such as the Jam Step because it is legitimate and promotes a healthy lifestyle,” the official adds.

Jam Step November last year in some schools after school officials acquired a copy of a DVD with music focusing on the exercise routine. It became very popular in due time and school officials later requested the University of St. La Salle pep squad to perfect the aerobics routine. This started the Jam Step aerobics trend which became very popular in due time. As a doctor, he, the school official said that if a doctor like Golez believes it has immense benefits, then it must be positive for school kids, too. It also does not take one’s time too much because the routine lasts only for a short time, at best 5 minutes and could be undertaken during the flag ceremony.

In order to also help promote tourism, by having it known in Guinness Book of World Records and primarily so that it could be promoted further, it was proposed that the Jam Step routine could be done in busy Lacson St. The holder of the Jam Step with the most number of children in participation was India. It could disrupt traffic movement in such a crowded place and it was decided to be held in the old airport.

They then decided on another site, the old Bacolod City airport now owned by Filipino-Chinese Chamber taipan Lucio Tan, who has readily given his approval to the idea.

An inter-agency meeting on the matter was then called and City Administrator Roger Balo was invited, but when the meeting to discuss the matter was called, he did not show up. City representative or those who could be designated by Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia also did not show up until this day.

The project at the old airport entails a number of 60,000- 100,000 children to participate and would involve a large portion of the student population in the city. School administrators and the school kids are themselves eager to perform and to be able to break the world record now held by India.

Unknown to many, it has also generated a lot of interest in puroks and barangays of Bacolod City and this could become a craze. There is no intent that it be used for politics.

It is unfortunate that Mayor Leonardia has not shown a bit of interest in cooperating with organizers. Instead, he recently initiated a clean-up project as a diversion.

But in some events, unknown to many, the city government tried to make it appear that there were a big number of participants but actually these were trucked to the NGC. An example is the New Year countdown.
On the reason that activities should be approved by the school board as some councilors have suggested, this is not really so.

In a perusal of the school board’s powers and responsibilities, there is nothing which suggests that it should intervene in activities such as these.

Among the school board’s responsibilities include only determining the annual supplementary needs and maintenance of public schools set up in fact by DepEd, the city government has hardly even divulged the budget for the school board which comes from a supposed Special Education Fund (SEF) which should come from a percentage of the amounts collected from Real Property Tax (RPT) except for a limited number of years, recommends changes in names of schools and construction of classrooms and the like.

It is traditional politics rearing its ugly head and schools actually do not want it, said the DepEd official.

“There is hardly anything wrong with Jam Step. It will promote many things primarily health, and teachers, students and pupils in elementary schools are excited to undertake Jam Step,” said the official.

“D-Day at the old airport will be on Sunday, February 12 and everybody is raring to go,” she added.*