Philippine Travel Notes

Alright alright, its high festival time down south again and I haven't even blogged about my experience last year! Anyway, got info from a friend and here goes... The 2010 Tuna Festival Month of September put together by the Tuna Festival Council headed by Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio and the GenSan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (GSCCCII) started on a high note last week. Guided by the theme "Go Global GenSan: We Are Ready for the World", the jampacked month-long GTx (GenSan Tunafest experience) kicked off on September 2-4, 2010 with the conduct of the 12th National Tuna Congress which broke records in terms of the number of attendees and exhibitors at its Tuna Congress Exhibit held at Family Country Convention Center. On September 3, 2010, former Senator Mar Roxas came in behalf of Keynote Speaker President Noynoy Aquino to inspire the participants consisting of local and international tuna and fishing industry leaders and stakeholders. The annual Kara...

"Ay kalabaw may 'gerapee' sa taas", so shrieked a panicky jolly lady when she tried to reach for her bag from the adjacent overhead bin. And passengers laughed at her boisterously loud surprise. Remember the white bear in Butuan ? Maybe I spoke too soon! I mused then, what else would I encounter next. And here I was, in barely 3 months, encountering another animal on a flight to Mindanao! That when we landed at General Santos City! But this one, a "tiger" and not a "gerapee"(giraffe) has a lovelier story than the bear. It stole everybody's smiling attention as it silently sat up there. I learned that the owner was seated somewhere in the last rows. But there was no more available space in the area so the crews took the tiger to a vacant bin just about above row 7 as passengers boarded. I was row 11 (emergency exit) and did not see the animal earlier hehe. Maybe they boarded way ahead. The little big dear occupies a whole bin, so the stewradess ...

Talking about the weird confusing location of Cotabato (City), people naturally also talk about ARMM. Why? Because said ‘region’ is part of the confusion that is Cotabato! Just an addition, in fact. And, as promised in the previous story, let’s talk about what I’ve learned about Cotabato and ARMM so far… Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Again, as said in a previous blog, its “IN Muslim Mindanao” not “OF Muslim Mindanao” as many I know would mis-describe it. You will agree that those two little words (in and of) matter a lot especially to the learned folks I asked about ARMM and Mindanao. One professor tells me that “in Muslim Mindanao” says there is an autonomous region amongst places where majority of residents are Muslims. On the other hand, she says that “of Muslim Mindanao” seems to construe that the autonomous region is the only Muslim-populated area in Mindanao – which is not. If you didn’t get that (I had a hard time), we can always say… “whadeveeer” hehe! But if Cotaba...

This topic started with this article Yes this is the baby Jesus and that name is actually spelled as Niño w/ the “ñ” but I opted to write this with the normal letter “n” as some web browsers on earth are still crudely configured not to recognize such a letter. Just remember, it is pronounced as “nin-yo” and not “ni-no”. Ah there are also 3 towns in this country that sport that name. And what a cute co-incidence, these towns are located one in each of the main island groups – meaning Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Cute eh? Two are officially identified as using the completely spelled “Santo” while one officially uses the abbreviated “Sto.” First off, we have the town of Santo Nino in the midst of the province of Cagayan (Region 2). This is a farming community and actually still holds its previous name of Faire, still used by quite a lot of local people to refer to it. Then there is the town of Sto. Nino in the province of Samar (yes, Western Samar, Region 8). This town is comosed of two l...

This topic started with this article Have you been to Carmen? Carmen who?! Ha, there are 6 towns in this country that bears that name? Which came fist, the name of these six towns or the opera bearing the same title? We will know soonest! Curiously enough, these towns that bear the name Carmen are all in Cebuano-speaking places. First is the town of Carmen in the island province of Cebu (Region 7 – Central Visayas). Yes, the town is just about 40kms from Cebu city and just after Danao City! Oh yes, guns are still an industry in Danao, but thats a different topic hehe. Carmen in Cebu is a hub of small boat builders and the womenfolk weave sinamay. Well yes, there are caves and falls and that famous monastery up in the mountains. And of course, there is the M Lhuiller hacienda that you pass by going to the monastery. The next Carmen is a town right in the heart of the island province of Bohol. Yes, this town is your destination if you want to see and experience the Chocolate Hills. And w...

This topic started with this article Still in the province of Aklan, northwest of Balete and about 9 kms south of Kalibo, there is a town called Banga. It’s just like Balete actually. Nothing to see there except that the main campus of Aklan State University is there. The university has a “stations-of-the-cross” with life-sized statues as you go up a hill called Manduyog. Period! Now its namesake is a town in the province of South Cotabato. Landlocked and situated in the very middle of the province, it is a big town being just next door to Koronadal City. Interestingly enough, most of its residents speak Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, a similar language spoken in Banga, Aklan!