In the midst of it all

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.

Life in the Plateau

Thanks to all who sent messages to my Kamuyot bag.

Ma’am Prix (and to all who are unfamiliar with it), Kamuyot is Bukidnon’s version of the tinalak. It’s made of sinamay from abaca fiber, from plantations scattered in Bukidnon’s rugged terrain. Of course, its woven mostly by indigenous women who sell it to buyers from the lowlands.

It’s a business beginning to die –unless the government and the lumad communities could save it together against fiber plant diseases haunting even planters in our beloved Davao City.

I’m in for some updates from the Bukidnon plateau.

Reflections: Home Sick

“You’re in a better place, I’ve heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I’ve rejoiced for you
But the reason why I’m broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home’s where my heart is then I’m out of place
Lord, won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
I’ve never been more homesick than now

Help me Lord cause I don’t understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I’ll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I’m still here so far away from home

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home’s where my heart is then I’m out of place
Lord, won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
I’ve never been more homesick than now

In Christ, there are no goodbye
And in Christ, there is no end
So I’ll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again

And I close my eyes and I see your face
If home’s where my heart is then I’m out of place
Lord, won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow

I’ve never been more homesick than now.” (END)

Good bye Davao!
June 2004 – November 2007

(Song by Mercy Me)

Hard Habit to Break

Eleven days have passed. It seems like months to me. For so long, I couldn’t create a post and tend to my cyber fields. I barely had time to blog, not even a minute just to link an article to this platform.

I discovered that I took my blogging time to the edge for the past days. I placed it at the last of my priorities when faced with challenging schedules and tasks.

I spent most of the last 11 days, in one hand, wrapping up my work as a Davao-based reporter. Preparing program reports side by side with the daily grind of news reportage.

On the other hand, I have to break the waters for my return to Bukidnon, a thing that I have to do, but for a while had been the epitome of postponement.

Mrs. Arroyo goes to Tamayong

How I wish my news organization owned a chopper. Better yet, I wish teleporting is real.

The thing is, I can only dream about it while transfixed to a presidential chase today. The object of our chase probably didnot even know that we exist, more so that we were looking for her.

Right in the middle of a taxi ride from SM City to Davao’s airport, I caught myself mouthing to my colleagues: “Why am I pursuing this coverage?”

Thinking ‘out of the box’ in Mindanao

Thinking out of the box should be easier in Mindanao.

Here, you will be forced to choose to be open-minded, to be culturally-sensitive, and to keep in mind a collective viewpoint rather than just a small village “I” or “mine” outlook.

Everyday will be an exposure to various learning experiences including in unlikely places.

Grassroots blogging

One of my more serious agenda at the Mindanao Bloggers Summit in October (aside from partying, listening to the A-listers, and meeting new friends) is to help spread out blogging vocabulary and technology for the grassroots level.

I intend to share an idea about how blogging can be a useful tool for communities to megaphone their local issues to the world. An example is what Iranun Kaka Ali is doing in his blog from Upi, Shariff Kabunsuan.

This agenda is born out of some parallel efforts in MindaNews, our news organization, to share technology in reporting, documentation, taking photos and others to residents of communities or grassroots.

My take on rude comments in our blogs

I have recent encounters with visitors who post comments that rudely attack other people.

One example is that reader from Valencia City in Bukidnon who posted expletives against their former mayor. He has accused the former chief executive of alleged corruption, tolerating drug trade, and spawning extra-judicial killings.

The comment was attached to “Reporter’s Notebook: Bukidnon politics: still a family affair,” which I posted on April 3. It was a report by MindaNews editor H. Marcos Mordeno.

The reputation of the mayor was really questioned, especially after losing a reelection bid.

There was this blogger, too, who vent snide on my post on Davao’s Chevrolet taxi cabs. It was annoying, to be honest, but amusing above all because it revealed the person behind the blog.

At least, she provided a link to her blog, which helped me see she was just thinking out loud.

That’s my point. Bloggers should be accountable for the comments they make.

Back to Sports in a Davao neighborhood

Today I broke free from a personal myth that I could no longer play basketball. I still can despite gaining weight and this strange feeling of distrust that I couldn’t even last a minute in the court.

We played ball early afternoon, after a hearty lunch of seafoods and grill today in a friend’s place along Jacinto Extension.

I was with a group of photographers visiting a friend to help him up with some academic requisites. While I began to feel envious of their cameras, I entertained myself with mangosteen and luckily another friend invited me out of respetar if I want to play.

How could I refuse. My last streetball game was in 1999, when we all anticipated the coming of the Y2K bug. That was eons ago.

Violins, not violence

The phrase isn’t original. But that’s what I remembered when I was in front of a scene in GSIS Heights Subdivision here in Davao City by noon time today.

I saw two men in the new sidewalk of Virgo Street while I was waiting for my turn for a pedal cab from the office to MacArthur Highway. They were playing pop music on a violin and a guitar.

I love the violin and it is the instrument I’d like to master and play everyday. To experience a performance out in the street was, of course,  a bonus.

Rewind: The reporter as teacher

My work as a reporter has introduced me to different scenarios, situations, and perspectives. Meeting people from different walks of life, color, religion, and orientation is a great learning experience.

My exposure to these diverse realities served me well. I aspire to be a service-oriented young professsional.

I have come to develop a communication skill that stems from careful study or assesment of context. This involves listening, observing, and researching on the elements.

I am a communicator. I believe communication is effective if it is mindful of details, context, consequences and character.

News-struck in Davao

Reporters breath news like its air for the lungs. In this job, we get paid for asking our sources to explain to the public about what have they.

At times, it sounds quite a relaxing job. You go to this event, you ask questions, you write and you file. After the battle in the newsroom, you get to sip your cup or cups of coffee at your favorite hangout and try to grab a life.