Opinion: ‘Jam Step’ in Old Bacolod Airport

I suppose that whether we like it or not, Sunday will see thousands of school-children from both the private and public elementary and high school do the Jam Step at the Old Bacolod Airport.

Not only they, but also many of their parents are also expected to join them as had already been monitored by organizers lead by Rep. Anthony Golez, (Bacolod City).

It’s nothing but a mass exercise in aerobatics cum dance which a lot of school-children having learned to enjoy and appreciate. And they have also infected their parents with the love for medically-healthy lifestyle, Golez pointed out yesterday.

University of St. La Salle students will reportedly spearhead the mass exercise at the Bacolod Airport.

Golez said one was impressed by the spectacle of USLS students doing the Jam Step recently. “Amazing, their enthusiasm for it,” he pointed out.

Attendance by schoolchildren, he stressed, is voluntary. The various groups had just made arrangements that they congregate in their schoolgrounds before being ferried by hired vehicles to the Old Airport and brought back to their point of origin.

Several mediamen at yesterday’s press conference said they were already asked by their children for their fare to and from school so they could participate in Sunday’s mass calisthenics.

Just shows you deplored the politicization of a medically-healthy exercise perfected by the DLSU when it could assure better health among young adults.

Walk for a Cause and other mass calisthenics and exercises by young kids do not need the approval of the school board nor the imprimatur of the DECS.

Otherwise, Masskara, walk for a cause and other mass exhibitions will always be subjected to approval by the school board, the solon stressed.

In a way, he added that the Jan Step was stimulated by the findings by medical health authorities that victims of cardiovascular strokes have shown that they are affected even in much younger adults as low as 30 to 40 years old. Perhaps, it is due to the sedentary lifestyle caused by the advent of cyberspace when more of our young have gravitated to a sedentary lifestyle.

Thus, we realized that we have to make up for this by helping instill among our young love for exercise that will enable better blood flow and muscular development.

“There’s nothing wrong with it. As a matter of fact, we should all go out of our way to promote it for the sake of our present generation,” said Golez.

I agree with Golez, “During the Japanese OccupationI thank the Japanese for having instilled among us schoolchildren exercises daily called Radyo Taiso.”

A lot of my former classmates and senior students still in their eighties today and still going strong. Those daily exercises helped build-up our muscles and improved flood flow. There is Nong Manuel Roxas and his sister, Edith, now both in their early eighties and still moving around hale and hearty.

So, why not join Jam Step? It is more enjoyable because of the dance steps. Here’s to a more healthy generation of young Pinoys.*