ISTAMBAY SA MINDANAO

It was a routine surf for news from places where I used to live. The order is always from the latest city, then backwards. So it was from Davao, then Quezon City-Antipolo, Iloilo, and then Cagayan de Oro.

But I was stuck in cyber Iloilo, particularly at Sun Star Iloilo’s website.

The headline reads like this as of 9:55p.m. of September 17: Police prepare transfer of ‘bad’ cops to Mindanao.

Bad cops to Mindanao? Our Mindanao is the country’s dump site? Read the rest of this entry »

Inside the crowded air-conditioned bus from Davao, the faces of the passengers looked weary and their eyes looked tired. At least 15 new passengers embarked from the busy, old Valencia City terminal. 

For a moment the vehicle looked like a wet public market, and then sounded like one.

The passengers settled in the vacant seats at the rear end of the bus, and then almost simultaneously released sighs of relief. 

It was probably the last air-con bus to leave for Cagayan de Oro before dinner.

It was not quite relieving, however, for others who have to stand as all seats were taken. Some others were left waiting eternally at the messy terminal.

Shortly after, the bus rolled off.

Still tired, most of the passengers were silent for a moment, and another. 

At the front portion of the bus, the conductor, a stocky middle-aged man with a rounded face, called on the passengers bound for Cagayan de Oro for tickets.

“Kinsa pa’y wala’y ticket diri?” he asked a column of “standing” passengers. Read the rest of this entry »

At 2a.m. the city was asleep. The road was deserted.  The early morning breeze engulfed the highway to freezing point.

Manong David, wrapped in his thick coat, was chilling and has stammered when I hailed his motorela cab for home. He agreed to a pakyaw rate of P35, a win-win between his P40 offer and my P30 bargain. 

Even if he would have offered P50, I would have taken it. That’s definitely better than be left frozen and alone in the middle of Fortich Street early morning.

On the way, he talked of that road accident somewhere, then about the MILF, and then about trying to make both ends meet.

The casual exchange paused over a topic that seemed a suggestive attempt to make me feel guilty for haggling five pesos less. 

He said the oil prices are slowly taking his sanity. He is beginning to lose hope about being able to bounce back and be able to even cross the “boundary”.

Crossing the boundary is a need of every driver. He has to cross it to be able to pay rent and earn extra money above it to be able to live.

I was able to put out courteous responses. At one point, we were trying to analyze the root cause together, something like “while we are at this, the oil firms are bloating” stuff. Read the rest of this entry »

Facade of the under construction new Malaybalay City Public Market, subject of debate of the city council as its contractor H.R. Lopez Co., Inc. has sought a nine-month extension following a delay over legal issues

The city council has scheduled to tackle in its session on September 2 the status of the delayed construction of Malaybalay City’s new public market. Read the rest of this entry »

The government has dissolved its peace panel today, according to Mindanawon Prof. Rudy “Ompong” Rodil, vice chair of the GRP peace panel, in an announcement in a Mindanao e-group, as qouted by MindaNews in this report.

“The era of peace talks is over,” said one of the reactions as qouted in the same report.

What’s the prognosis? Where do we go from where? That’s the timely question.

Indeed we were taken for a ride by our government.

In spite of this bad news, I hope something good will come out from this.

We hope, we hope, we hope that the baton will not go to the hawks and spill blood in our heart land.

Waking up to a broadcaster howling against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front one morning, I was tempted to turn the radio off.

The grain of his voice has pestered me in my space in that corner of the house.

“Maayo ng girahon sila kay gusto man diay nila og Independence!” Gusto pa gyod nila iapil ang tibuok Bukidnon aron mohimo sila og regional government!” (It’s good to go to war with them since they wanted independence. They also like to cover the whole Bukidnon in a bid to form a regional government!).

I was really forced to get on my feet even if I only had three hours of sleep yet and dialed the radio station. Read the rest of this entry »

“Iitsa, tamoka, yataki, tumbi!”  ”Iitsa, tamoka,
yataki, tumbi!”

Iitsa, tamoka, yataki, tumbi! (That’s throw, catch, step and stamp!)

I thought for a while it was a line in a Kenyan song I learned from
someplace else, but the words sounded familiar even if it was belted
out in a universal beat.

Waway Saway’s song lingered in my hearing perimeter even hours after
watching a video on it, which he posted at Youtube.com.

The song was about care for the environment in which the singer urged
the listeners to throw, catch, step and stamp on one’s fear against
caring for the environment.

The video showed Gali (”fellow” or Binukid equivalent to Cebuano’s
“Bai”) perform in an international audience with fellow Talaandig
artist Balugto Necosia in a peace concert in South Korea’s tourist
favorite Naminara Island. Read the rest of this entry »

Monologue in front a TV report on the Lanao Norte attack

This is a time to be old,
and a time to be young
a hesitation we cannot flaunt.
In this time of Mindanao
I know I am home,
but I know I am not at home.

Who would want to breath the threats in your life?
Who would want to see blood on the streets?
Who would want to be a target at any time?

Do we want peace?
What kind of question was it that they ask?
Do we want peace?
What kind of answer do they want from us?

We wanted it all our life
We wanted it every time we sleep and we wake up
We wanted it in the past and we wanted it now!
We wanted it. We needed it!

Dare not to play with our fate
Dare not to toss hope and crash hope
Dare not to toy with our homeland
Dare not to keep us wait any longer.

Give us what we ask for.
This is a time to be home.

Participants take time to smile and relax for a date with posterity (Photo by Skippy Lumawag courtesy of Mindanews)

The formal sessions of the 4th Mindanao Media Summit just concluded early afternoon today, 09 August 2008.

The theme: “Mindanao 2020: The vision begins with us”, is placed in an imposing tarp at the back draft. It was a reminder to me as a member of the group who took on “drafting” the vision from the participants. “Where are the other members of the styling committee?” I asked myself.

I ate a late breakfast today as I stayed late for my recent attempt to write a narrative report. So when I entered the summit hall, I have to do some catching up on who did what the night before.

I caught up on the secretariat who were busy calling the rest of the group for the picture taking.

Meanwhile, I picked the shiniest plate on the buffet table and proceeded to feast on hotel breakfast. In my peripheral vision and hearing I could hear Jocan talking me to drop the breakfast for a moment and smile it out in the photographic firing squad.

I managed some sips of brewed coffee and few scoops of the one-serving steamed rice and the hard-boiled egg and beef curry sud-an. I have to or I couldn’t move a muscle to say “cheese”. Oh, I went there seconds later as I have to squeeze in my summit shirt. I went there to see if the pool was really tempting enough for some laps of swimming, to regret I didn’t plunge when I could last night.

The last day of the three-day gathering of Mindanao media’s “decision-makers” started with quaint picture taking by the poolside of the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Lanang, Davao City.

It was supposed to capture for the future the faces of the news professionals who participated in the summit in a step to improve capacity as stakeholder to peace and development in Mindanao. Read the rest of this entry »

Justice delayed is justice denied and in Bukidnon, whose courts are swamped with cases, resetting a trial today would likely mean waiting for 2010, an official of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines has warned.
Anastacio Rosos, IBP Bukidnon chapter president, said the problem has hampered the speedy dispensation of justice in the province’s four regional trial courts.

He said the lack of judges caused each of the four courts to have a load of at least 1,000 cases, affecting specially the hearing of criminal cases. Read full report here.

He said one indicator is that the courts’ schedules had been filled up, that cases

to be reset for hearing could be scheduled in 2010.

Rosos said IBP found the whole year of 2009 is filled with court hearings. He said they have started plotting out schedules for 2010.

Three-year-old Philippine Eagle “Kagsabua” was killed by a local airgun shooter near the village where
he was released just four months ago inside the Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park, an environment official said.

Felix Mirasol, community environment and natural resource officer, confirmed to MindaNews Wednesday that witnesses have identified the culprit described as a young man who failed to attend information
drive on the Philippine Eagle (pithecophaga jefferyi).

Mirasol is the Mt. Kitanglad Protected Area superintendent.

Kagsabua was last sighted on July 7 and was known to be missing between July 8 and 10, Mirasol said. He said a search operation was immediately launched. Read the rest of this entry »

This is another attempt to return to up-to-date blogging.

First and foremost, thanks to those who are behind the Top 100 Mindanao Blogs of 2007.

Nakatunga nalang ang 2008, ayha pa ko naka comment ani. I’m trying to convince myself that it’s “Better late than never!”

I am glad that Istambay sa Mindanao was included in the list, despite being stagnant most of the time.

Blogging has good prospects but my new work terrain here in Bukidnon required realigning priorities.

After publishing 32 issues of our weekly local newspaper Central Mindanao Newswatch, I have mixed reactions. Read the rest of this entry »