Philippine Travel Notes

Hey I'm going to show and tell you one of my favorite areas in Leyte as of now - that would be the "government center" in Palo. Why? Because the buildings look good (already) except for that of DTI near the NFA warehouse over at the highway, and DENR of Leyte Province across the MacArthur Landing Memorial. Their offices are still in ruins. But speaking of DENR, that is where my "show and tell" can be found... many BOATS! Overwhelmingly ang dami, that's why I like passing by this place. It kind of re-assures me that indeed, government is helping fisherfolks! Where are the boats? Look at the arrows! Let's describe the arrows... The lower left yellow arrow points to MacArthur's landing memorial and park. All the rest of the arrows point to many many boats! The upper left arrow is best for photo-ops as the boats are just beside the highway. This is before (and approaching) Oriental Hotel. Here, I took a closer photo of those kids strolling on thei...

These are just some of them actually, as there had been many. But it is already more than 9 months after super typhoon Yolanda(Haiyan) and they're still here! This one named M/V Eva Jocelyn really made a very high climb up from the normal sea water level. Its nose now even touches the main road that trucks and buses must avoid it! It is a big and heavy metal thing in the first place, so even a heavy truck will probably easily crumble to pieces on impact hehe! Thus, better to avoid her, especially at night! M/V Eva Jocelyn is the most prominent amongst these big ships since she is the one that went a bit too high and far from the sea. I imagine that would have been some 400 or so meters from the water's edge, and the height is unbelievable! No no no no, I do not wish to discuss here how many houses this ship crushed or how many lives were wasted here. Look at the red arrow on top of the picture. It is not a street lamp. It is that of the ship! then look at the neon-green lin...

I went for a quick meetup at this town before proceeding to Marabut right after that. Not so many chances to look at this-or-that , but I tried my best kahit mabilisan lang! If their munisipyo will be our basis, we might say thankfully it was not that affected by Yolanda, though I saw many ruined houses. But, no storm surge here. Landlocked ito! I think that municipal building is a bit new and made well with good engineering and proper mix of materials - nakatayo pa eh! It looks like a sturdy concrete block to me! Yet those banners tell me, Pastrana was also affected. Tinulungan din e! They won't have sought help kung di naman sila nasalanta, diba? Maybe at other parts of town. Looking around, well, just across that building, I saw signs of Yolanda's wrath. At the left edge of that picture, after the monument, are the skeletal remains of their covered court. Just bended or twisted steel rods, which must be difficult to remove. Well, you can see their stage at r...

That's five months and two days after Yolanda/Haiyan. Or this could have been Only then was I able to wing air tickets to Tacloban , I'm not so sure na. Basta, I knew regular commercial flights have returned sometime ago, yata ! As you would have read from my previous posts, I've been in and & out of the region after the storm (since 29NOV) , but by boat to Hilongos , Catbalogan , Calbayog , Ormoc . Thus, I was curious 'how would Tacloban look from above', 5 months after Yolanda. A mere 11 minutes after takeoff from Cebu, here I was above Tanauan, Leyte as the plane banked left, positioning for approach to Runway 36 of Tacloban's DZR Airport. Too many new silvery roofs, reflecting sunlight glare as our plane pass above them. I have seen those on my recent (land) travels, but they are more evident from above. These days, we have to be cognizant of 'roof colors' while traveling in Region 8. It is an indicator of what happened to them, t...