Sag-ob

Sag-ob (v.) - (Cebuano) to fetch water.

Access to water is a problem in rural areas. Shortage of potable water has also become a problem due to deforestation and pollution. Photo taken in Sitio Balungkot, Dansolihon, Cagayan de Oro City.

Half-empty; Half full

Panglantaw sa baybayon

In archepelagic Philippines, it is an irony that its municipal fisherfolk of about 10-million are among the poorest of the poor. Photo taken in brgy. Tup-on, Medina, Misamis Oriental

Driftwood

Photo taken in brgy. Manapa, Buenavista, Agusan del Norte.

You wouldn't understand

The picture says it all. Taken in downtown Butuan City the capital of the CARAGA Region.

Children of Jabonga

In the haste of daily living, we often forget to listen to the silence of dawn, the early morning chirping of the birds, miss the energy sunrise delivers and the beauty of sunset and even fail to listen to our innerself. Photo taken in brgy. Mandagooc, Jabonga, Agusan del Norte where people still live simple lives enjoying bliss and placidity.

KILAW

KILAW - (v to eat raw, n kinilaw) It's a feast every after good catch in fishing communities. It is said that as a vestige of the communal nature of sustenance fishery, which basically is still a hunt-gathering economic activity, coastal dweller share a portion of the day's catch for consumption and the rest for selling. Fish fresh out from the sea is sweet.

It is believed that the kinilaw has been with us since the pre-castillan period. The artifact? - shells of tabon-tabon, an indigenous and unique kinilaw ingredient in Mindanao were found near tuna bones in a midden in the Balanghai site. Perhaps a perfect pulutan to laksoy/ nipa wine (Jess Yuson's book: Inumang Pinoy). Tabon-tabon (Hydrophytune orbiculatum) is endemic in Mindanao. It looks like chico on the outside, but with hard shell, its meat is scraped, pressed to extract its milk and presto, it gives the kinilaw a tinge of bitter taste, it is believed to fight off bacteria in fresh fish meat.

In this photo, they are preparing kinilaw from the abundant tamban catch (Sardinella sp.) which is abundant in bays especially near estuaries. Remembered debating with a lot of people who refuse to believe that the fish inside the sardines can (i.e. Young's Town, 555) are actually the lowly tamban pressure-cooked and drowned in tomato sauce then sealed in that humble can.This photo was taken in Tubay, Agusan del Norte, Philippines.

Beer Hug

Sitting alone in some hole in the wall,

beer bubbles in lips bursting,

smoothly flows, to guts and in brains overflow.

Bitter memories, personal realities,

inebriated, pain, pangs of rejection

in the torrents of denial washed away.

Tired body, battered soul rests,

slips into the dark coldness of the night.

Then I hug myself tight.

Town disturbed by mining

The tranquility of Tubay, a small and sleepy fishing town in the northeastern side of Butuan Bay in the province of Agusan del Norte, Philippines is disturbed by a controversial mining operation which threatens its rich fishery and aquatic resources. Government projects with funding from Official Development Aid (loans and grants) have been implemented in the town to install sustainable coastal resource management systems (e.g. establishment of fish sanctuaries and mangrove reforestation areas, alternative livelihood for fisherfolk) only to be threatened by destructive mining operations that is supported by the powers-that-be of the town and the province. The Archdiocese of Butuan where Tubay is a part of is vehemently against the mining operations in the said town. For updates on mining advocacy, you can log on to http://atm.blogsome.com. Sunset photo taken in brgy. La Fraternidad, Tubay, Agusan del Norte.

The real Bata in billiard

Efren Bata wannabe with innovative billiards table and stick made of madre-de-cacao branch. Photo taken in Salay, Misamis Oriental.

Child Play

Child play in fishing community is fun and food. Photo taken in brgy. San Jose in Talisayan, Misamis Oriental. In the background is Sipaka Point.

Sunset in Gingoog Bay

Panginhas or seashell gathering in Luyong Baybayon in Talisayan town, Misamis Oriental. In the background is the island paradise, Camiguin.

Sunset in Gingoog Bay
By BenCy Ellorin

Waves gently kissing the beach
on an ebbing sea,
In the horizon the sun waving goodbye
Even Sipaka which proudly stands
in this side of the bay
is cooling down,
as fogs gently hug its peak.

Sound of outriggers rings in the air
as the amihan breeze
starts to touch the senses
in the distance,
fishers start to silhoutte
behind the waves,
their flickering lights
bringhope to their loved ones.

(Written sometime in 2003 by the writer while working as community organizer in the coastal communities of Gingoog Bay in Northern Mindanao, Philippines. Sipaka point is the northwestern tip of Gingoog Bay. Amihan is vernacular of northeast monsoon wind.)

Expressions

Expressions

If my hands were gifted
I would have drawn an
image of my feelings.
But I am a writer
I express it in words
with a pen and paper.

(written on May 22, 2004
at 31,000 feet above sea level,
on a flight to London)

Consequence

I am the consequence of who I am.

Diminishing democratic space

Diminishing democratic space

With almost everybody, except perhaps to authoritarian regimes like Burma saying that human rights are being run roughshod in our beloved Pinas by the spate of extra-judicial killings and political persecution by the GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO Administration, our democratic space have been diminished to the minutest.

Economic opportunities are slacking and lacking. About twenty or thirty years ago, a hundred thousand Pinoys going out of the country for that proverbial green fields is already called a MASSIVE BRAIN DRAIN.

Now twenty seven years or so after Martial Law, we have a Justice Secretary who denies that the more than 800 lives and counting of political activists and journalists sumarily executed by hooded motorcycle-riding human beings are not summary execution by but are merely "unexplained murders or execution." Pray hell on high waters, this official is not denigrating into the abyss of his once brilliant mind that those responsible of killing fellow Filipinos for their political beliefs are aliens.

Our democratic space after Martial Law have been diminished largely due to one person's intent at self-preservation after serious allegation had been hurled forward about her winning legitimately as the president of beloved Pilipinas in 2007. Now she thinks that killing her political opponents is fair game. And anybody who thinks she did not win in the 2004 presidential election are targets like lameducks worth only an assasins bullet.

The Phoenix is landing

The Phoenix is landing

A firebird believed to have nestled from a volcano

to fly with its golden plumage for a thousand years.

The golden drip of its quill a testimony of its flight

and a reflection of life,

and burn in sweet cinnamon twigs.

It is hello and goodbye,

The Phoenix is landing…

Till the next Phoenix and its new flight.

-Alberto Vicente, 08-23, 2007