Bisaya Bloggers

The last time I was in Cebu was… I don’t remember! It’s been so long ago already… Well, I’m flying tomorrow and will be back in Davao on the 30th.

The original purpose of my trip was to contribute to a journalists’ conference called Media Nation. Unfortunately, the organizers have postponed the event, giving Ces Drilon’s kidnapping as the reason. Yeah, I know, she’s been released already. Go figure!

The purpose of Media Nation, as I was told, was to discuss the Mindanao issue: particularly, the lack of media exposure of the real situation in Mindanao. The organizers’ postponement of the event is a surprising, yet typical, reaction to happenings in Mindanao. They said they needed to “process” the kidnapping (even though it was clear that Ms. Drilon was going to be released already). And the postponement was made more than a week after the kidnapping. Curious, isn’t it?

How serious about the true image of Mindanao are these Metro Manila-based media people, really?

Anyway, I’m still going to Cebu. My ticket’s non-refundable, and, while re-booking is possible, the Media Nation organizers cannot yet tell me when it will be held… Cebu Pacific’s airfare is dirt cheap, but there’s no way of booking an open ticket!

Besides, I’ve already set a get-together with Visayas bloggers. I’m going to meet with them on Sunday, 29 June, thanks to Winston, who arranged this informal meet-up. Winston and I thought of doing this so that we could share the MB experience with our Cebuano counterparts. I’d also like to take this opportunity to tell them about WordCamp Philippines. Hopefully, some of them will be able to attend.

I’m looking forward to staying at Waterfront Hotel in Lahug! I’ll blog about that, for sure.

“My,” “Mi” or “Me.” It depends on who among the three of us is texting mom. I prefer “my” as shorthand for “mommy.” Mother-daughter bonding proved to be a somewhat effective. She stayed with me for a short time February of this year. Weeks before that, my boyfriend’s mom died of her cancer treatment complications. She was a breast cancer survivor for 10 years but another lump showed up somewhere

It was depressing news for me. The 178-year old Oslob Church was destroyed by a fire which hit at dawn today. The church was was a very important element out the Southern Heritage Trail of Cebu. A landmark of the town, it was one of the few churches with an intact clay tile roof convento.

This incident highlighted two things. The first and most obvious is that fire fighters in these remoter parts of the country are ill-equipped and not prepared. Imagine, the fire station was just 50 meters away. But fire fighters and residents had to push the fire truck to the church! Second, it shows the importance and need for architectural documentation for all our heritage sites. In cases like these, if the site was documented, we could easily refer to the diagrams to restore the church.

The Archdiocese of Cebu plans to rebuild the church within the year. I hope that they restore the church to its original form, just as other countries do when their heritage sites are gutted by fire.

The teachers I remember most are, invariably, my English and Literature teachers. I remember Ms. Amelita Ros from my single year at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion on Gorordo Street in Cebu. No one was ever sleepy in her class, whether it be discussing gerunds or Gerontion.

After that I had Mrs. Rebecca Montaño for two years at the St. Theresa’s College - High School Department down on Mango Avenue. Madame Montaño had the gumption to pit sophomores (us) against seniors (really big girls) during the Forensics Club debate. We got creamed, of course, but the general impression she gave us was that we held our own quite well.

I remember both teachers as being the ones that which students were most afraid, and heaven help you if you were in their homeroom class. But for some reason, I was never afraid of either of them. In fact I wanted to be in their homeroom class, because being so meant I got first dibs on the stories or books to be discussed. Madame Montaño got us to read Collen McCullough’s The Thornbirds by implying that after we’d read it we’d never look at any Pope in the same way again.

I don’t know where they are now. They could be in heaven teaching English to a bunch of new angel recruits after all this time. I miss them now because there are precious few who are following their footsteps, and even fewer who can fit into their shoes.

The teachers I remember most are, invariably, my English and Literature teachers. I remember Ms. Amelita Ros from my single year at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion on Gorordo Street in Cebu. No one was ever sleepy in her class, whether it be discussing gerunds or Gerontion.

After that I had Mrs. Rebecca Montaño for two years at the St. Theresa’s College - High School Department down on Mango Avenue. Madame Montaño had the gumption to pit sophomores (us) against seniors (really big girls) during the Forensics Club debate. We got creamed, of course, but the general impression she gave us was that we held our own quite well.

I remember both teachers as being the ones that which students were most afraid, and heaven help you if you were in their homeroom class. But for some reason, I was never afraid of either of them. In fact I wanted to be in their homeroom class, because being so meant I got first dibs on the stories or books to be discussed. Madame Montaño got us to read Collen McCullough’s The Thornbirds by implying that after we’d read it we’d never look at any Pope in the same way again.

I don’t know where they are now. They could be in heaven teaching English to a bunch of new angel recruits after all this time. I miss them now because there are precious few who are following their footsteps, and even fewer who can fit into their shoes.

I spent a day in Argao recently and was pleasantly surprised to find several dependable and free Wi-Fi hotspots. I was surprised because in Cebu City, free Wi-Fi access isn’t as widespread as they say it is in places such as Davao City.

Many shops, at least the last time I went warbiking or going around on a motorcycle to check for free Wi-Fi hotspots, just depend on the services of Globe and Airborne Access for their customers’ wireless Internet access.

But not Argao.

The municipal government has turned it’s beautiful plaza into a free Wi-Fi zone. There you are—surrounded by Spanish-era buildings, three cannons once used to fight pirates, beautiful masonry, and music that comes from cleverly-hidden speakers—and you have free high-speed wireless Internet access.

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If you’re a blogger based in Cebu, please drop by at the iBrowse Internet Cafe near Cebu Doctor’s University at the North Reclamation Area on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 6:00 p.m. We are organizing a short blogger meet-up there with the indefatigable DigitalFilipino founder Janette Toral.

Janette will be in Cebu for a workshop on Web 2.0 applications and Internet marketing on Feb. 7 and 8. She is also working on a project for bloggers’ involvement in the 2010 elections. We talked about it last year and agreed it would be great to gather Cebu bloggers to talk about blogging and the elections.

During the meetup, she’ll be talking about her project.

I’ve started projects on blogging but have lately gone off-tangent (from blogging, that is), working on a few personal projects that involved more writing and a bit of coding—using advanced customization of WordPress. After several talks of a meetup failed to push through, it will be great to finally meet Cebu-based bloggers. Please feel free to drop by at iBrowse on Thursday. If you’re going, please confirm your attendance with me.

If you don’t know where iBrowse is, here’s a map to the place.

2. You thought you are still in Cebu City, but realized nga miabot na diay ka sa Carcar. Yes, Talisay and Carcar are now cities. From N. Bacalso Ave up to Minglanilla, commercial buildings are lining up the streets on both sides. You can not deny progress.

3. Forget Talisay and free beaches. Congested na ang Talisay sa kadaghan ug people. Resorts na ang uso sa Lapulapu, pero dollar lang sab ang bayad. Kung gusto gihapon ka ug libre nga payag-payag lang, go further as in further to the South or North. But I am not sure anymore if there are places left unexplored because even Bantayan is now frequently visited. If you still have provinces and relatives maybe it is better to stick there.

4. You will also find that global na ang Cebu. Although a lot of our young and not-so-young work force are leaving us, napulihan man sab ug mga foreigners. Many of our dalagas and not-dalagas are getting married to foreigners, thanks to the Internet. Some of them are staying here in our beautiful islands. So do not be surprised if you see a lot of fair-skinned men holding hands with our morena beauties.

5. Grabe kadaghan na ug mga tawo, in fact mora na ug Manila kay sobra na sab ka-traffic. Daghan na man gud ang naay sakyanan. I think this is probably because of the proliferation of second hand units from Japan and Korea, which offers prices much lower than the brand new and branded ones. Ang uso karon, multicab. Pero naa sab mga Mitsubishi, Toyota, ug Isuzu SUV's (for the rich).

People have also flocked here because of available jobs. Once upon a time the big two in MEPZA were Timex and Fairchild, now MEPZA is so full of business locators. I should have been happy. However I have reservations that perhaps developments are too much for the area. But that’s just my personal opinion.

Police said two unidentified motorcycle gunmen ambushed Hiroshi Kosaka, 49, at a stop light on a highway in Mandaue City while on his way to the airport.

Kosaka, owner of the Hong Kong Travel and Tours in Cebu province, was with his Filipino girlfriend identified only by the police as Bianca, and a driver, Efren Rosales, when ambushed, police said.

Senior Superintendent Rodel Calungsod, city police force, ordered a thorough investigation into the killing of the foreigner.

“His two companions were unhurt in the attack,” a police officer, Gilbert dela Cruz, of the Mandaue City Police Office, told the Mindanao Examiner.“Investigations are going on and we still don’t know the motive of the killing.”

He said Kosaka’s car was heavily tinted and that he was sitting at the rear with his girlfriend, when the gunmen, both wearing a crash helmet, opened fire with a .45-caliber pistol killing the Japanese. Kosaka was to return to Japan when killed.

Extra-judicial killings are rampant in Cebu, a favorite holiday destination by Japanese and Koreans. (Mindanao Examiner)

malapascua means"bad christmas." according to the locals, there was a strong storm that sent magellan's galleons to the island on christmas day. thus he called the island malas pascua. cool, huh? the name stuck around for almost 500 hundred years!

bantayan island has been given papal permission to eat meat on good friday. we finally discovered the truth. good friday is their fiesta. i didn't know that good friday could be a fiesta. but there you go... bantayan is evidence. how considerate of whoever that pope was. how strange too. tee-hee!

and now for the true discovery: we have truly become adults on a trip. what does this mean?

1. we'd rather pay extra fifty to a hundred bucks than suffer through hordes of masses rushing to a single bus. a long time ago, we'd have stuck it out to save on cash. but what else is disposable income for?

2. junk food is not a meal anymore. there was a time i could survive on merely eating chips and biscuit or maybe a luxurious tub of instant noodles. during this trip, we had to have a decent meal. anyone who got hungry, got grumpy. and boy did we feed ourselves! and boy, did tita susan and tito peter feed us too.

3. extra bed please! and extra towels. and could you please clean the bathroom while we snorkel? thank you. gone were the days when we would plead to resort owners to allow 7-14 people fit a room for four. "overnight lang naman e." just to save money. this time, each one had to have his/her own bed and sleep comfortably. why? this leads to discovery number 4.

4. sleep is part of the vacation. there was a time in our lives when "morning the night" was part of the fun. who cares if one only had an hour sleep? we had a wonderful conversation! not anymore! the day is for adventure and after twelve is for sleep. earlier sleeping time would also be good too. i mean... we will see each other again tomorrow, and probably after this vacation. so yeah... we could use the night for sleep. and damn, we paid for the beds and the room so might as well use it.

di ba? like i said, what is disposable income for? and we have been ready for this trip since march. so.

it was quite unexpected fun really. i flew to cebu not expecting much, but with the kindness and generosity of the people it was very enjoyable and blessed. lots of laughter and lots of pictures. our snorkeling gears were utilized to the full as we checked out the coral reefs of the two islands. silly, harebrained ideas with jan as willing victim. tee-hee!

thank you, ray for arranging most of the trip.
thank you, jerry for being our kaban ng yaman, official haggler and PR person.
thank you, andy for the cheap rates and the great service.
thank you, tito peter for being jan's boyfriend and teaching us about bombs.
thank you, tita susan for the free dinners and the big discount on the lodging and showing us around ogtong cave resort. it is truly a wonderful place.
thank you, ray, jerry, mia, miah, ninin and jan for sharing the trip with me. i had such a great time and so did dixie. i haven't waken up that early for three consecutive days in quite a while. just to see the sunrise spectacle that decided to be quiet the days we were there. still lack of sleep but abundance of food and friends... always something worth having.

like what dixie said... let the pictures do the talking. soon. ;p

PAGADIAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 20 Sept) - President Gloria Arroyo praised local carrier South East Asian Airlines (SEAIR) for its commitment to help increase commercial activity and tourism in Mindanao by opening up new routes in the region.

The President recently graced the inaugural flight of SEAIR's Cebu-Pagadian-Cebu route which would make traveling easier and at the same time promote tourism and trade, the Philippine News Agency said.

The Clark-based SEAIR now flies to Cebu-Pagadian-Cebu every Mondays and Thursdays. The new route is part of the airline's expansion plans for the year.

SEAIR president Avelino Zapanta said the airline reaffirms its commitment to help increase commercial activity and tourism in Mindanao.

Since the opening of a regional hub in Zamboanga City in 2002, SEAIR currently flies daily to Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces in southern Philippines and to Cotabato three times a week.

Zapanta said SEAIR aims to bridge the Philippine islands by offering secondary and missionary routes to complement the trunk line routes serviced by other major players in the domestic airline industry.

The airline now flies to 15 local tourist destinations -- Manila, Caticlan (Boracay) and Cebu in Visayas; Clark in Northern Luzon; Busuanga, Cuyo, El Nido, Puerto Princesa City and Rodriguez in Palawan province, Camiguin, Cotabato, Sulu, Pagadian City, Tawi-Tawi province and Zamboanga City in Mindanao.

"Our Cebu-Pagadian route will make traveling for tourists and businessmen easier. Pagadian City has become more accessible, now only 35 minutes away from Cebu via SEAIR," Zapanta said.

Pagadian City is a first class city of Zamboanga del Sur and is the regional center of the Zamboanga Peninsula, the largest province of Western Mindanao.

It serves as gateway to the cities of Ozamis, Iligan and Cotabato.

"As the only local commercial airline offering inter-Mindanao flights, we at SEAIR feel that we have been a factor in the growth of commerce in the region. Our future focus is to develop tourism and international routes out of Zamboanga and Davao," said Zapanta.

For its Cebu-Pagadian route, SEAIR uses its 32-seater Dornier 328 aircraft -- the latest in a long line of technologically innovative aircraft manufactured by Germany’s Dornier.

The Dornier 328 is one of the fastest and most advanced jet propulsion in the world.

Aside from local expansion, SEAIR is positioning itself to enter the international market after its appointment as one of the official carriers for the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia, Philippines East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region.

Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said 2007 is a milestone year for Philippine tourism as more than 1.5 million foreign tourists arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in the first semester alone, an almost eight percent growth over the same period last year.

With more local and national efforts to promote the Philippines, the rate of tourism influx can go higher in 2010, he said.

PROGRESS DOESN'T ALWAYS pave the way for a smooth-sailing life. Road congestion continues to be the bane fo urban living.


Regarding this problem, here's a reprint of my opinion column in the op-ed page of Sun.Star Cebu (4th of September, 2007):








All the way


TOUGH luck, but it’s not totally berserk to bring the “tartanilla” back.

For many motorists in Metro Cebu, getting kicked by a horse might be no more tragic than being trapped in the midst of traffic. With the former, at least, one would hurtle away from one spot to another really quick. Broken bones, too, couldn’t be more dismal than the headache and heartburn triggered by mayhem on the road.

As it is, finding a way out of the woeful state of our major streets soon looks as farfetched as discovering a unicorn.

Putting the cart before the steed, it seems, has long been the way of Cebu’s movers and shakers gone helter-skelter in pursuit of progress. No wonder Paul Villarete, the Cebu City planning and development officer, must have felt like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were just a snort away.

“Almost as many cars run in Metro Cebu as in Manila, but Cebuano authorities are not improving the major roads,” Villarete rued in a recent forum on Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST). Only an escape artist like Houdini could have wiggled free from the cramped streets in Cebu City against these odds: at least 8,329 units of public utility jeepneys (PUJs); 5,788 units of taxis, and 952 units of buses and mini-buses.

Through all this, of course, the air doesn’t go straight to anybody’s lungs like mountain mist and ocean breeze.

Thumb your nose down, too, at Desiderata; there’s just no way you can go placidly amid uncollected garbage, flash floods during rain, the procession during fiesta, and the stream of mourners on the heels of a hearse. (Was the death due perhaps to road rage, cancer by recurrent inhalation of traffic fumes, or the burst of a blood vessel arising from existential anxieties only a traffic jam can cause?)

As if it’s not enough that there’s a shortage of new infrastructure improvements in the city in the face of its burgeoning motorists, making matters worse is the dearth of discipline: the uncurbed issuance of franchise for public utility vehicles, the surplus of motorcycles as public transport, as well as drivers and pedestrians who are up and about like they got nine lives.

Horse sense and time are of the essence, true. And while Villarete’s proposal for a “a high-occupancy bus” or mass transport system is long overdue, better count on the bureaucracy to get going in the back of the snail and the turtle.

And because such a proposal can be green-lighted only with the prerequisite of political will, could the vote-fueled leadership steel its stomach to buck the backlash from displaced PUJ drivers come election time?

Elsewhere in the world—particularly in Stockholm, London, and Singapore — the race is on to steer clear from clogged thoroughfares with eco-friendly innovations. By tapping the resources of corporations like International

Business Machines (IBM), these megacities have come up with the “biggest green initiative coming down the road these days,” according to New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tomas Friedman.

“Congestion pricing—charging people for the right to drive into a downtown area—is already proving to be the most effective short-term way to clean up polluted city air, promote energy efficiency and create more livable urban centers, while also providing mayors with unexpected new revenue,” writes Friedman.

Progress, in the long run, is about giving the will and imagination a full rein. So as not to be left behind, it’s up for Metro Cebu’s leaders to hold no horses with an open mind.

Click here for more info. Magkitakita ta sa Sugbo!!!

WHO SAYS INCARCERATION is a drudge? Not the dancing prisoners of Cebu who recently went out in the open with their terpsichorean skills and caught the world's eyes.

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 04 Jul) – Police mounted a manhunt for the killers of a broadcaster who was shot in the central Philippine province of Cebu.

Geruncio Mondejar was shot and wounded on June 30 in Mandaue City and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital in the province, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said.

Mondejar, a commentator with the radio station dyRB, was waiting for a ride when two motorcycle gunmen shot him at close range.

The local media watch dog, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, condemned the killing, despite President Gloria Arroyo’s creation of a task force that will investigate murders of journalists in the country.

"Not a hundred 'Presidential Task Force Against Media Harassment' can stop attacks on journalists," the NUJP said.

Mondejar is the fifth journalist killed in 2007.

Last month, gunmen also killed a radio broadcaster Vicente Sumalpong and wounded another journalist Vema Andam, of the state-owned Radyo ng Bayan, in Tawi-Tawi province in southern Philippines.

More than five dozen journalists have been killed in line of duty since 1986 after the fall of the dictator President Ferdinand Marcos.

The killings are part of a culture of impunity in which political assassins and the killers of journalists are seldom punished, the CMFR said. (Mindanao Examiner)

CEBU (Mindanao Examiner / 05 Jun) – Umani ng malaking batikos si Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña mula sa publiko dahil sa pagpapatigil nito sa konstruksyon ng isang maliit na paaralan dahil lamang sa diumano'y bengansa.

Nagalit umano si Osmeña sa Barangay chairman ng Lahug na si Mary Ann de los Santos ng sabihin nitong walang naitulong ang mayor sa nasabing lugar sa kasagsagan ng kampanya umano sa nakaraang halalan.

At dahil doon ay ipinatigil nito ang pagpapagawa sa paaralan na sana’y magagamit ng mga mahihirap na estudyante sa nasabing barangay.

Nais umano ni Osmeña na humingi ng tawad si Delos Santos sa pahayag, ngunit nagmatigas ang lider ng barangay at sa halip ay naglunsad ito ng “Piso Mo, Eskwelahan Mo“ fund drive at naguumapaw naman ang simpatya ng publiko sa kanya.

Nagambag-ambag na rin umano ang maraming mga residente upang makapangalap ng salaping magagamit sa pagtatapos ng paaralan. Nakarating naman ito sa pandinig ni Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia at agad naglabas ng resolusyon ang Provincial Board at nangakong magbibigay ng P5 milyong pondo bilang tulong.

Kaliwa’t –kanan naman ang batikos na tinanggap ni Osmeña sa naging desisyon nito. Tinanggal rin diumano ni Osmeña ang gasoline subsidy ng naturang barangay.

Pinuri naman ng publiko si Garcia at mga pulitikong tumugon sa sinapit ng Barangay Lahug.

Nais rin umanong humingi ng tulong ng mga taga-Barangay Lahug kay ex-Makati Rep. Mark Jimenez dahil kilala ito sa kanyang pagkamaawain at matulungin sa mga mahihirap, partikular sa mga bata. (Mindanao Examiner)

I've become a workaholic for a brief period but managed to go to Bantayan Island, Cebu last summer. It's a really great place to visit especially during summer time when the white sand and clear waters are highly accentuated by the midday sun and the weather is supportive of water adventures such as island hopping. We went to a small island which the locals refer to as Virgin Island. It's a 30-

CEBU (Mindanao Examiner / 01 May) – Patuloy na tumataas ang krimen sa lungsod ng Talisay at alarmado na umano ang publiko sa halos pagiging inutile ng pulisya na mapigil ang mga karahasan.

Talamak umano ang holdapan at snatching sa mga mataong lugar. Hiling naman ng mga negosyante na magdagdag ng police beat patrol at mga undercover cops sa ibat-ibang lugar upang mapigilan ang paglaganap ng krimen.

Nuong kamakalawa lamang ay isang anak na babae ng municipal councilor sa lalawigan ang nabaril matapos na ito’y tumangging ibigay ang kanyang cell phone sa holdaper.

Nabaril sa kanyang dibdib si Trixia Mejias, 19, at anak ni Minglanilla Municipal Councilor Concordio Mejias. Kasalukuyang nasa pagamutan ang biktima.

Sakay umano ng pampasaherong multi-cab ang biktima ng harangin ng holdaper ang sasakyan at nilimas ang lahat ng pasahero. Ngunit binaril nito ang babae ng ito’y nagmatigas. (Mindanao Examiner)

CEBU (Mindanao Examiner / 03 Apr) – Tuliro ngayon ang pulisya matapos na mapatay ang isang traffic enforcer sa lungsod ng Mandaue.

Hindi pa mabatid ng pulisya kung sino ang nasa likod ng pagpatay kay Romeo Muñez, 38, kamakalawa sa Barangay Looc. Binira ito ng isang lalaking sakay ng motorsiklo.

Nabawi rin ng mga pulisya ang mga basyong bala ng .45-caliber pistol. Hindi naman mabatid kung sino ang nasa likod ng atake, subali’t talamak ang extra-judicial killings sa Cebu na ibinibintang naman ng mga kaanak ng maraming biktima sa mga awtoridad.

Hindi rin mabatid kung may koneksyon bas a trabaho ang pagpatay. Ang biktima ay miyembro ng Cebu City Traffic Operations Management.

Nanawagan naman ang pulisya sa sinuman nakasaksi sa naganap na makipagtulungan sa mga awtoridad upang maresolba agad ang krimen. Hindi nagbigay ng pahayag ang pamilyang Muñez. (Mindanao Examiner)

CEBU CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 06 Mar) – Nadakip ng pulisya ang umano’y tatlong lalaki na kilabot na tulak ng damo matapos ng isang operasyon sa Escalante City sa lalawigan ng Negros.

Sinabi ng pulisya kahapon na nasamsam rin ang mahigit sa apat na kilong libra ng marijuana mula kina Mark Estilloso, 20; Henry Villarin, 21; Rolex Villanueva, 21, rin sa isinagawang buy-bust operation sa Barangay Langub kamakalawa.

Matagal na umanong minamanmanan ng mga awtoridad ang tatlo dahil sa maraming reklamo mula sa mga magulang na talamak ang bentahan ng damo sa nasabing lugar.

Itinanggi naman ng tatlo ang akusasyon sa kanila kahit nahulihan na ng damo.Sasampahan umano ng kaso ng pulisya ang mga suspek dahil sa paglabag ng Republic Act 9165 o ang Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002.

Nanawagan rin ang pulisya sa mga magulang na bantayan maiigi at gabayan ang kanilang mga abak upang hindi ito mawala sa mabuting landas. Nagbabala ang awtoridad sa nga nagtutulak ng damo at droga na sila’y mabubulok sa bilanguan kapag nahuli. (Mindanao Examiner)

CEBU (Mindanao Examiner / 27 Feb) – Matapos ng halos 200 kaso ng sunod-sunod na pamamaslang ng mga umano’y vigilantes sa Cebu sa loob ng 2 taon ay buong tapang naman na sinabi ng pulisya wala ng magaganap na summary killings.

Ito’y matapos na batikusin ng United Nations at Estados Unidos ang walang habas na pagpatay sa mga political activists at mga inosenteng sibilyan sa bansa.

Umabot na sa mahigit 800 ang mga aktibistang napapatay at hindi pa kabilang ditto ang mga diumano’y vigilante killings sa Cebu, Davao at Zamboanga.

Sa Cebu ay ibinibintang ng mga kaanak ng bitkima ng pamamaslang sa mga awtoridad ito. Ilang ulit naman rin itong itinanggi ng pulisya.

Ngunit kamakalawa lamang ay dalawang lalaki ang itinumba ng mga di-kilalang armado gamit ang .45-kalibre sa Cebu.

Sinigurado naman ni acting Cebu City police chief Patrocinio Comendador na wala ng vigilantes sa lungsod. Karamnihan sa mga pinapatay sa Cebu ay pawing may mga criminal records na karamihan ay mga magnanakaw. (Mindanao Examiner)

NO LESS THAN survival of the species, if not its spirit. That's what the language issue ought to be for those waging war against the marginalization of the mother tongue and its imminent extinction. For all true-blue Bisdak, here's my latest column in the opinion page of Sun.Star Cebu (5 December 2006 issue) :

NATIVE SPECIALTY. That's what the University of San Carlos dishes out starting today as the Dalit Bisaya 2006: Cebuano Cultural Festival kicks off with an exhibit featuring slide shows, among others, at the Trade Hall of SM City.

Vicente Sotto's play Elena will also be staged as well as a free concert-- featuring Pilita Corrales, Dulce, Jimmy Marquez, local bands and USC's choir and dance troupe-- that will wind up the three-day affair.

But the most delicious part of the whole feast will be the Symposium on Cebuano Heritage on December 2 at 1:00 to 4:30 pm at the Theodore Buttenbruch Hall, USC Main. Slurp up to your ears, here are the papers to be presented:


1) "Ethnography, Blacksmiths : A Glimpse of Cebu’s Past” by Jocelyn B. Gerra, Executive Director of Cultural Heritage Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc.

2) “Cebuano Tangible Heritage: Issues and Concerns” by Arch. Melva Rodriguez-Java, Director of the Conservation and Heritage Research Institute and Workshop (CHERISH) of the University of San Carlos

3) “The Future of Visayan,” by Dr. Francisco Nemenzo, former President, University of the Philippines

4) “Bisaya in the Global Filipino Nation” by Dr. Jose V. Abueva, President of the Kalayaan College in Marikina City

Kitakita ta, Bay!

TO MAKE Cebu worth the tourists' winks, those calling the shot for the metro have been at sixes and sevens about hosting the forthcoming Asean Summit. But there's more than meets the eye, or so fancies my recent column in the Opinion Page of Sun.Star Cebu (21 November 2006):


Where’s the Way to Sugbo Cultural Park?

What dreams may come for this so-called Queen City of the South remains to be seen, but City Hall is all eyes for no less than the spectacular. Never mind if the city’s overseer has been losing sleep in preparation for the Asean Summit; what matters is he wouldn’t wind up a somnambulist after going deep in trance for his visions of development.

All perked up for the forthcoming arrival of foreign guests and tourists this December, the city has been looking slick all the way. See, the center isle of the city’ major roads where the summit itinerary goes has been spruced up with the sleight of the landscape artist’s hands. Yellow paint has streaked out the sidewalk’s eyesores, too. And direct from France, a “state-of-the-art lighting technology” made of aluminum and glass will soon take the breath away of passersby and motorists along Fuente Osmeña to the Provincial Capitol.

Prospects are bright, too, for the relocation Department of Tourism (DOT) in a Banaue Rice Terraces-inspired edifice slated to rise at Kawit Point in the South Road Properties (SRP). With Cebu getting the President’s thumb-up as part of the Central Philippines super region, tourism is expected to take the city and the whole island by storm.

Upbeat about blazing cool sights in the city, the Mayor also mulls over the blueprint for improving Linot-od Falls in the mountain barangays of Taptap and Tabunan. Streamlining the scenery around it by putting up cable cars and other amenities would make it ideal as a picnic spot.

It’s a welcome possibility, indeed, in a city so short of parks and public spaces for recreation. So far, what comfort the city can offer to its denizens and tourists smack in its hustle and bustle (Plaza Independencia, Fuente Osmeña, Cebu Business Park in Ayala, and the Family Park in Talamban) is niggardly compared to the breezy vista of Luneta in Manila, for instance.

Now that City Hall is in the mood to set up landmarks that would raise the stakes for the city’s pride, why not aim higher and pave the way for a long-overdue oasis for Cebuano culture?

On this site will rise the Sugbo Cultural Park, or so this column wishes to see a billboard announcing soon its realization right in the heart of the city (perhaps somewhere in the SRP). Where green is the breeze whistling over the verdure and grass as the harvest of finest Bisdak sensibility gets celebrated. Where tourists and locals alike would gather not only to laze the hours away, but also to visit the park’s museums, art gallery, mini-theatre for a showcase of art films as well as poetry readings, play productions, concerts, etc. Where the trees would be renamed in loving memory of Cebu’s creators of literature, music, visual arts, dance, etc. (For example: Narra Vicente Ranudo, Acacia Martino Abellana, Molave Minggoy Lopez, or Mahogany Sandiego)

Beyond the cosmetic change of the city, indeed, there are more meaningful and enduring metamorphosis that would also spell its soul long after it has realized its dream for progress.

(A lecture-testimony to the fellows of the 2nd Lamiraw Creative Writing Workshop in Calbayog City, Samar, 22-24 September 2005)

ON THE WAY to this workshop, there was no turning back to the facts revealed in the headlines of Cebu's newspapers: A policewoman stationed at the Women's Desk (where the complaints of abused women are heard) was murdered by her own husband. A 12-year-old girl was also killed after her own father and her uncle allegedly took turns raping her. Masked men, in vigilante fashion, remained on the loose after leaving corpses of suspected criminals. Meanwhile, the governor of Cebu had joined the Cardinal's call for an end to the bloodshed between two warring fraternities. On the political front, the city mayor and a congressman from an adjacent city were locked in a squabble on jurisdiction over a reclaimed strip of real property. Elsewhere, of course, the primetime news had been cranking up cliches ad nauseam about the doggone state of our nation: leadership crisis, the circus in Congress, a ping-pong of allegations about corruption, protests galore, and restlessness about an impending oil price increase.

These news, come to think of it, are a rehash of a reality reported in newspapers, say, twenty years ago. The personalities may have changed, but the circumstances remain. Talk about bad news, and there's really nothing new about this notion of badness under the sun: rotten politics, reckless policies, regrettable interpretation on the concept of public service.

Obviously, some lessons we were supposed to know in kindergarten have been outgrown or, worse, forgotten. From these horrible happenings, certainly, we have not yet learned. Or how come we seem cursed to repeat all these things too bad and too boring as they remain true in our times. Strange, indeed, in the face of this so-called enlightened times in the summit of human achievement, in this era of information technology. So strange that the recurrence of this phenomenon patent in our headlines and primetime scoops might as well be the contents of the X-Files any Martian gone astray on earth would contemplate as an interesting subject for an essay on the human condition.

That we are apparently trapped in this vicious cycle worthy of any struggling writer's indignation, that we are running in circles, indicates a failure of imagination. That we appear stuck and trapped in a labyrinth means we have not yet found the way out of the dark. That, indeed, the idea of transcendence and breaking through barriers remain fancy notions devoutly to be wished despite our inventions, our books, our songs.

Failure of imagination is also apparent in the way our leaders and society at large remain in the dark on matters of social renewal and progress that are always the favorite topic of editorials and opinion columns in newspapers and campus publications as well as in socially committed literature. Bad roads, worsening economy, institutional apathy and a sense of drift and despair: these are also metaphors of one simple fact: our limited vision.

How to look at the world in a new light? This continues to be the challenge of every writer, and this is no less of a wrestle than tilting at windmills.

Though World War II, the Holocaust, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki seem like rumors from the past, if not a figment of a nihilistic imagination, this generation can't be deaf to the demonic roar of its own times: the 9/11 tragedy and the horror of a planet plagued by its its inhabitants carelessness and recklessness that flung our world into the pit of imminent extinction.

Against this backdrop oceanic for an existentialist to drown in, our writings might as well be paper boats, a desperate contraption and artificial imitation of Noah's Ark through the deluge of our worries and our nightmares about doomsday scenarios straight from the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” These cataclysms are really redundant when we reckon that these natural calamities are just variations on a trite theme of “man's fall from grace,” or how this flood of human misery is symptomatic and symbolic of a world damned by a tide of intolerance, enmity, and inequity. Where hatred and hunger, poverty and politicians are facts of life that also hint of the state of our cultural state of being. Where estrangement from our moral moorings and a dislocation of our sensibility are a commonplace.

Failure of imagination is a matter we may ascribe to our politicians and policy-makers. But this is something we delude ourselves or hope to believe we are exempt from as we dare to play God with the purging and transformative power of the written word, out of that cloud in our head we call creative writing.

This is one power worth struggling for even as we try to tame this wild and larger-than-life creature called literature, as we stubbornly attempt to discover meaning in life as well as find life in meaning. That meaning might be found as we conscript ourselves to a crusade for our culture, or when steadfastly and stubbornly assert our identity even if such identity is shadowed by forces more formidable than us and threatens to wipe out our singular voice with which we hope to amplify our authentic experience to