Cheers, jeers for ‘Boss Boy’

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

January 31, 2009

STO. DOMINGO, ALBAY—Thousands of angry depositors may revile the owner of the Legacy Group for defrauding them, but residents of this town have nothing but praises for Celso de los Angeles Jr., who is also the town mayor.

He’s “Boss Boy” to his employees.

For the town’s residents, what is important is that their mayor is doing his job well and that his performance is not being affected by the problems of his businesses.

“I do not care about Legacy because that is another side of him as a businessman. We are not affected anyway,” said Ed Balana, the municipal environment management officer.

Balana said De los Angeles has assured municipal employees that it was his personal problem and that he had nothing to hide.

“He told us that what we should do is to serve the community.”

Action man

According to Balana, late last year the mayor announced he had a problem and did not intend to run away from it.

“He is not the type of person who would do things to put his name in a bad light, but circumstances happen,” he said.

He described De los Angeles, “Boss Boy” to his employees, as an “action man.”

“He wants things done as fast as possible,” Balana said.

He said the physical transformation of the town in De los Angeles’ first 100 days as mayor included the renovation of the Plaza Pugad Lawin in front of the municipal hall, the renovation of the town gym, improvements in the public market and street-lighting projects.

“He also plans to transform the second floor of the market into a community hospital since there is no hospital in the town,” he said.

Balana, who is also the municipal cultural and tourism officer, said the mayor is also focusing on the resettlement project in Barangay San Andres, where residents living in the danger zones near the Mayon Volcano have been relocated.

Not everyone is happy with the way the mayor is running the town, however.

A market vendor who refused to be named said she regretted having voted for De los Angeles.

Jueteng collector

“I was made to believe his good intentions for the town,” she said, but under the mayor, the market rental has risen from P330 to P3,000.

De los Angeles first arrived in Sto. Domingo in 2005 to develop a property he had bought in Barangay Calayucay called the Black Sands Beach Resort, which is also his residence.

De los Angeles was interested in politics and two years after his arrival he successfully ran for town mayor.

De los Angeles, a great grandson of Laureano “Kapitan Moy” Guevara, the Marikina mayor who established the Marikina shoe industry in 1887, had unsuccessfully sought Marikina’s lone congressional seat in 2001.

A graduate of the Asian Institute of Management, he is said to have worked in the United States for almost a decade before returning to the country in 1997. He acquired Legacy Plans, the first of the Legacy companies, the same year.

Luis “Chavit” Singson, the deputy national security adviser and the main government witness in the impeachment trial of deposed President Joseph Estrada, named De los Angeles as Estrada’s jueteng collector in Ilocos Norte.

Cashing in

According to Balana, the 2007 mayoral election in Sto. Domingo was hotly contested and De los Angeles’ residency became an issue but he won anyway.

A tricycle driver, who did not want to be named, said he knew of people who received rice and money from De los Angeles during the elections.

“Barangay leaders received P2,000 while the others received P1,500. His rival gave only P300 to P500,” he said.

He said that during the campaign, tricycle drivers who joined the De los Angeles motorcade were given P500.

“Some people who also went to his house in Calayucay received money from him, and he always gives rice,” the tricycle driver said.

He said De los Angeles also distributed motorcycles, which recipients could pay back on installment.

But, according to the market vendor, those who borrowed money during the elections and were given motorcycles were made to sign blank sheets of paper.

The source also claimed that De los Angeles lent people P5,000 and said that if he won, he would forget about the loan.

“But he still collected on the loan, with interest,” the market vendor said.

She said most of the people in this town were either being paid by De los Angeles or were afraid of what he could do to them.

easter wallpaper photo

my second wallpaper photo

Legacy owner blames BSP, media, global crisis for woes

By Joanna P. Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

STO. DOMINGO, ALBAY–INterference by regulators, unfair media reporting, extortion, and adverse global economic developments are among the factors that led to the closure of the rural banks of Legacy Group, according to its chair emeritus Celso de los Angeles Jr.

“I have a story to tell. I have the records to show,” he said in an interview with the Inquirer at his Black Sands Beach Resort in Barangay Calayucay here late Sunday afternoon.

De los Angeles, mayor of this town, was given the honorary title chair emeritus as founder of the Legacy Group.

He admitted that what happened to his companies was “very painful.”

“But it would be criminal for me to continue, knowing that I would not be able to deliver,” said De los Angeles, a graduate of Asian Institute of Management and great-grandson of Laureano Guevara, the Marikina mayor who established the Marikina shoe industry in 1887.

“So when I knew that it was impossible already. I had to cut it,” he said.

De los Angeles said a lot of people questioned his decision, asking why it was so abrupt.

“Because by continuing it further, I would put an innocent investor at risk, take his money, knowing that there is no more chance for me to return it. That is criminal,” he said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) ordered 13 insolvent rural banks of the Legacy Group closed a few days before the Christmas break last December.

The BSP found that the rural banks had failed to fully service withdrawals and had engaged in unsafe and unsound practices.

Interference

The rural banks held a combined P14.03 billion in insured deposits in 132,642 bank accounts that each held amounts at or below the P250,000 limit of Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

De los Angeles said that because of the interference by regulators, Legacy was not allowed to implement its business plans.

“Why do we have credit cards? Legacy motors? Real estate companies? Because these are the outlets. That in itself, the entire corporation of the Legacy Group, is proof of the business plans that we have,” he said.

Panic

De los Angeles said media reports also created fear and panic among his investors.

He said that in August 2008, newspapers started publishing stories “with propositions like ‘anticipating massive withdrawals’ … ’should the banks close.’”

He said these stories credited the BSP as their source.

“But the BSP did not deny. They have a duty to come out and say ‘no, we are not the source of the false information,’” De los Angeles said.

As a result, “people believed the newspapers and panicked.”

“And any bank subjected to this, will fall,” he said.

Extortion

“Some people think that we are oozing with money, they made a career at extorting money from me,” De los Angeles said, adding that he would disclose the names of the extortionists at the Senate.

He appeared at a Senate hearing on preneed companies yesterday.

In June and July last year, he said the extortionists engaged in black propaganda saying that he was a murderer, that he was relieved of his chairmanship of National Home Mortgage Corp. because he took money from it, that his banks were closing any time–”little things that could shatter your trust.”

“I was made an ATM. Borrow one million, then special audit. That was what they did every time they needed money. If not, they would harass [me],” he said.

“Then finally, they made a proposal: Hire us as consultants and we would make all your problems go away,” De los Angeles said.

He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers last September and other adverse global economic developments created more fear among Legacy investors and officers.

Nograles

Asked if he was a friend of House Speaker Prospero Nograles, the Legacy Group founder said he had many friends.

“But it doesn’t necessarily mean that they would intercede for me,” De los Angeles said, adding that he knows where to draw the line.

“Assuming Ric Tan was telling the truth that Nograles was backing me up, the Vice President was backing me up, do you think I would find myself in this situation?” he said.

“Why was I not able to get an emergency loan, not even P50 million? Do you think if that was true, my banks would be closed at this time?” he said, referring to Ricardo Tan, former PDIC president.

De los Angeles said that if it were true, then he would not have any problems now.

Dinner

He said Nograles had investments like those of other investors, but had no single share.

“I pity him for being dragged into this. He doesn’t deserve that kind of attack,” De los Angeles said. “The truth is, he is also a victim because he still has an investment with me, which I have not yet paid.”

De los Angeles denied that he had dinner in 2005 at the Edsa Plaza Shangri-La Hotel with Tan, Nograles and George Regalado.

Tan had claimed that Nograles asked him to go easy on the PDIC probe of the Legacy rural banks because of De los Angeles’ ties with several administration allies.

“Why would I talk to Ric Tan when he was not with the BSP, and I did not have any closed banks at that time?” De los Angeles said.

Without due process

De los Angeles said he was “judged without being accused, without due process.”

BSP officials went on an “interview spree” talking about the Legacy issue, according to him.

“Never mind that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is nothing to them. Basta De los Angeles, guilty,” he said.

He clarified that the double-your-money plan offered by Legacy rural banks was not a Ponzi scheme.

“Those who are bankers will know that a depositor will go to one teller and after 30 minutes, that money will be given to teller No. 2 and will be used to pay the withdrawal of another depositor,” he said.

“The difference between a Ponzi [scheme] and a bank is, a bank has an authority to solicit deposit, while Ponzi did not,” he said.

Double your money

He said the Legacy Group had business plans from the very start. “And we have corporations that are highly regulated and closely monitored by authorities.”

De los Angeles said those saying that the double-your-money scheme was unsound were only looking at one side of the coin. “You have to look at the outlet. It becomes unsound if you do not have an outlet,” he said.

De los Angeles said the double-your-money concept was not unsound in itself.

“It was not invented by me. Many big banks have double-your-money schemes. The question is what is the outlet?” he said.

He said the question was: “Can your outlet pay for double-your-money?”

If the business plan shows that it can, it’s not unsound, according to the Legacy Group founder.

Blame

De los Angeles said his associates and executives were claiming that one reason the Legacy Group collapsed was his turning his back on it.

“Even if I had to turn back the time, I would not change a thing and still choose to serve Sto. Domingo,” he said.

He said he had not been involved with the operations of Legacy since he became mayor of the town in 2007. “When I left Legacy, it was very healthy,” he said.

De los Angeles noted that most of the depositors were insured by PDIC. “If PDIC does its job, they will be paid,” he said.

“Jueteng”

De los Angeles denied that he was involved in “jueteng,” an illegal numbers game.

He was earlier tagged by former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson as one of the jueteng collectors of former President Joseph Estrada.

The Legacy Group founder said the only thing that linked him to jueteng was a check he gave to Atong Ang, a former gambling partner of Estrada.

De los Angeles said that at that time, he had just arrived from the United States and his business was lending.

“Atong Ang was one of my clients. I would give him a check and he would give me a postdated one, including the interest,” he said.

He said maybe at that time, Ang was remitting money to the former President and the check was given to Estrada.

“I’m in the business of lending and I don’t know what they do with the money,” he said.

De los Angeles said he was one of those who led in the campaign against jueteng and “that’s also why I’m being threatened in Albay.”

2,000 stranded in 6 ports in Bicol

LEGAZPI CITY-RAINS AND STRONG WINDS put sea travel to a halt in the Bicol region on Saturday, stranding at least 2,000 passengers in six sea ports, the Office of Civil Defense said.

In Albay province, at least 1,009 passengers were stranded at the Tabaco City port and 15 passengers were stranded in the ports of Legazpi City and Pio Duran.

At least 450 passengers were stranded in Matnog, Sorsogon; 260 in Virac, Catanduanes; and 53 in Pasacao, Camarines Sur, the OCD said.

At least 18 trucks, 29 small cars, six passenger buses and seven fishing vessels were also forced to stay put in the port.

The OCD said the sea condition was rough and not favorable for small sea craft to travel, while larger sea craft were alerted against big waves.

Landslide

A road in Matnog town became impassable to vehicles for two hours Friday night because of a landslide that took place in one of its villages.

Quoting a report from Matnog Mayor Guilermo So, the OCD said the landslide took place at about 8:30 p.m. in Barangay Gadgaron.

The report said the local government of Matnog sent equipment to help in clearing operations.

The landslide damaged the side of a dump truck parked nearby and injured a bystander, said Efren Nalugon of the human resource department of the Sorsogon Terminals and Arrastre Services Corp., which was near the landslide area.

He said the landslide was caused by heavy rains, which softened the soil in front of the Medicare building.

The injured bystander was only identified by his nickname “Batikong” Gardon.

He was immediately brought to the Medicare building for treatment and was already safe, according to Nalugon.

In Cagayan de Oro City, at least seven houses were destroyed when heavy rains caused a river that traverses the villages of Carmen, Macasandig, Gusa, Consolacion, Macabalan and Tibasak here to swell Friday morning.

Criselda Joson, city administrator, said the total number of families displaced was not immediately known and that social welfare officials are still consolidating the figures.

Floodwaters were so deep they almost submerged homes, according to residents.

The flooding also reached urban villages but no casualty had been reported so far, according to Joson.

“It was so sudden. We are still expecting the water to rise by Saturday afternoon. We are closely monitoring the residents on Isla de Oro and Isla Bacsan,” Joson said of the 7 a.m. flooding.

Fanny Pabito, acting social welfare officer, told the Inquirer that officials immediately responded to the needs of the evacuees.

Pabito said food packs were sent to residents of Carmen, who fled to the West City Central School.

Power cut off

Amor Sanchez, president of the employees union of the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co., said power was cut off to prevent any accidents.

In Iligan City, hundreds of families also fled their homes when floods hit some lowland barangays of the city on Saturday. Joanna P. Los Baños and Roy Gersalia, Inquirer Southern Luzon and Grace Albasin and Richel Umel, Inquirer Mindanao

http://services.inquirer.net/mobile/08/09/03/html_output/xmlhtml/20080902-158276-xml.html

Joanna Los Baños
Philippine Daily Inquirer

September 02, 2008

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—A man who pretended to be a Philippine Daily Inquirer top executive tried to extort money from Inquirer’s Southern Luzon Bureau here Tuesday afternoon.

The man, who identified himself as Felipe Olarte, Inquirer’s vice President for Advertising, called the bureau’s landline number at around 2:30 p.m. and asked that his call be returned through his cell phone since he was out of the office.

According to him, he just came from the office of Vice President Noli de Castro and they have agreed to be co-sponsors of a Legazpi-based reporter, who was about to have a heart transplant at the Philippine Heart Center in Manila on the same day.

However, he said that the hospital had a mandatory requirement—a deposit of P10,000 to P20,000, which he asked to be deposited by the bureau to a Bank of the Philippine Islands account that he would provide later in the conversation.

He said that the money needed to come from the Bureau because he wanted to show the hospital that the Inquirer has an established bureau in Legazpi
City.

After being told that the Bureau did not have the said amount, the man asked about the collections received by the bureau and if there was a way to raise the said amount since it was really important that the money be deposited.

He was told that the Bureau does not receive any collections.

Still, he insisted that the money be deposited immediately and assured that the money would be reimbursed the following day.

He was told that the BPI was closed since Albay province was commemorating Camp Ola Day, a declared holiday in the province.

He then asked that the money be sent through a Western Union branch.

Before the conversation ended, he asked the Bureau not to give his number (09082136759) to anyone since he does not receive calls from unknown numbers.

“I don’t want my number to be distributed without my consent,” he said.

After the conversation, the Bureau called Olarte at the Inquirer office in Makati City to confirm if he was the one who made the call to the Bureau.

He said that he never called the Bureau and has not asked for money to be deposited to a certain account.

http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view/20080823-156451/Couple-in-wrapsody-over-chewy-pili-caramel

Couple in ‘wrapsody’ over chewy pili caramel

By Joanna Los Baños
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:07:00 08/23/2008

DARAGA, Albay, Philippines—Four years ago, Erwin and Cindy Pereña were looking for a product to sell that would help augment their family’s income during the Christmas season.

Wanting something new to introduce to the public, the couple came up with Wrapsody, also known as chewy pili caramel, a pilinut-filled pastry created by Cindy.

The Pereñas’ first customer for Wrapsody was their neighbor, a retired teacher who loved their new product.

It was then that Erwin, 50, and Cindy, 45, realized the growth potential of their concoction.

The couple introduced chewy pili caramel to a local salon on consignment basis and later, to a pili candy maker. The product clicked with customers.

They now market Wrapsody under the business name COP (Cynthia Onglao Pereña) Pili Sweets and Pastries.

And what was supposed to be a business only for the Christmas season became a year-round industry as orders started pouring in as improvements on their product and packaging were made with the help of the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Science and Technology.

Something new

The couple and their four children moved to Bicol eight years ago.

When they were still living in Manila, Cindy said that every time Erwin went to Bicol, he would bring back the same kind of pili candies as pasalubong.

She would always ask, “Wala na bang iba?”

Cindy admitted having heard this comment from a lot of people, too.

“This means that people are also looking for something new,” she said.

Wanting to give customers a choice was the reason why they thought of a new product.

“Those who don’t want the traditional pili products can try our Wrapsody,” Erwin said.

It took some time before the couple was able to come up with a desired product.

Cindy scouted for ingredients she needed to create a new product but failed. So, she just put a new twist to the ingredients that were readily available.

“We had a lot to go through like changing the ingredients, proportions and materials for the packaging,” Cindy said.

Because Cindy loves to experiment, aside from Wrapsody, they now have other products like Hopia de Pili (P35), Pili Puffs (P35), Mini Mazapan (P90), Chili Garlic Pili (P100), Nutty Bar (P95) and Sugar Coated Pili (P85).

They also have a “bento box,” a combination of four of their products sold at P380.

A box of Wrapsody with 60 pieces costs P400; 24 pieces, P180, and 12 pieces, P90.

Making Wrapsody requires a lot of time and patience, and quality is of utmost importance.

The pili nuts are cut one by one to make sure that only the good ones will be used.

“If I make Wrapsody, that will be the only thing that I will be doing the entire day,” said Cindy.

The Pereñas produce Wrapsody at least three times a week, depending on the demand.

But they make sure they have enough stocks.

Aside from Cindy and Erwin who make the products, they also have two workers on call.

The couple’s children, a girl and three boys aged 11 to 19, also have a role in the business and are called by Cindy as the “approving committee.”

“When they say it’s not good, they really mean it,” she said.

But Erwin added that when their children like the product, they would not say anything, just eat and ask for more.

Trade fairs

Since they registered with the DTI about two years ago, the Pereñas have been joining trade fairs and exhibits.

Although new in the business, they have received three awards and citations this year-a nomination as best booth during DTI’s One-Town-One-Product (Otop) Luzon Island Fair 2008 in Manila; last May, they were cited for trendy award for Wrapsody at the International Food Exhibition 2008 at the SMX Convention Center.

During Magayon Festival’s Otop trade fair, they were awarded best in packaging for Wrapsody.

Their first exhibit was at the Manila Food and Beverages Expo last year.

At trade fairs, Cindy said that when customers learned that they were selling pili candies, costumers would turn their back, thinking that they were selling the usual or traditional pili candies.

“We tried to convince them that our products are different and that they should try it,” she said.

Receiving text messages from people they don’t know keep them inspired and motivated.

“Some text us for orders and some send us messages of praise and compliment,” Cindy said.

As of now, their products can be found at the LCC Supermarket along Tahao Road, Legazpi City; at their house in Barangay Bañag, Daraga, Albay, and at the Legazpi City airport.

A photographer friend once told me that Legazpi-based photographers cannot consider themselves as photographers if they have not taken shots of Mayon Volcano and the city from the Kapuntukan Hill. Wanting badly to become photographers, my colleagues and I decided to give it a go. And these were the wild flowers I found along the way…

 These photos were taken a few days ago at the Relocation Site in Guinobatan, Albay.

 April 15, 2008

Aussie deerloves to eatrice, adobo

By Joanna Los Baños,

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—IF PHILIP-pine movies has a “bad boy” in actor Robin Padilla, a farm in Ocampo town, Camarines Sur, has a “Bad Boy” of its own—a deer that sneaks into a farmhouse and steals the food of its caretakers.

Bad Boy is one of the three deer that stand out among the more than 300 deer at the farm, mainly because of their unique nicknames and character.

Aside from Bad Boy, there are Butchokoy Jr. and Maxipeel.

Butchokoy Jr. is the son of the original but now deceased Butchokoy that became a hit with tourists because of his pleasant personality.

Unlike most deer that shy away from strangers, Butchokoy Jr. appears at ease with visitors, tarrying a little longer with them as if he enjoys being ogled at.

Maxipeel, a female deer distinguishable from the males because she has no antlers, is well-liked because of her smooth skin and gentle demeanor. She is so gentle a caretaker can stroke her head.

“Compared to the other female deer, she has smoother skin with an even tone. It is as if she uses a facial product,” said Edgardo Nacario, in charge of the farm.

All of them three years old, the three deer are always together, like friends, Nacario said.

He likes adobo

Jaime Bas, a caretaker at the farm, said that almost every day, Bad Boy steals food like rice, adobo and vegetables.

“Even if we feed them, he prefers to eat our food,” Bas said. He added that when the farmhands have leftovers, they give the leftovers to Bad Boy.

Bad Boy is not punished for stealing food “since we have grown close to him,” said Bas. “We treat him as family.”

Nestled at the base of the 6,500-foot Mt. Isarog National Park, the lush, sprawling farm in Barangay Sta. Cruz is home to some deer species imported from Australia.

The deer farm, the first in the country, was started in 1996 by Rep. Luis R. Villafuerte, a former governor and father of the incumbent governor.

Nacario, who started managing the farm in August 2004, said it was put up mainly for tourism purposes.

The farm occupies 10 hectares of the 22-ha government land in Ocampo, a fourth class municipality, 11 km from the provincial capital Pili.

Of the farm’s more than 300 deer—all of them from Australia—about 300 are Rusa deer (Cervus timorensis).

Elusive by nature

Native to Southeast Asia, the Rusa deer are medium-sized species with coats varying from grayish to yellowish or reddish brown. In addition to grass shoots, they feed on vines and fallen fruits. They are said to be widespread in the Indonesian archipelago and can also be found in the Philippines.

There are also 17 Chital deer and two Fallow deer, Nacario said.

The Chital are a relatively small species of deer and are sometimes known as spotted deer.

Taking care of the deer isn’t all that hard, according to Nacario.

Life span: 12 years

Not used to people, the deer are naturally elusive, but some are already domesticated and do not mind being with people, he said.

“Some of the deer would come to us once we feed them,” he said.

The medium-sized deer are fed with napier grass twice a day, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

“It is really important that they do not go hungry or else they would jump off the fence and look for food,” Nacario said.

He said a deer’s life span is up to 12 years.

Like humans, the female deer carry their babies in their wombs for nine months. They can give birth yearly, starting at two and a half years old.

The age of the male deer can be determined through their antlers until they turn five years old, said Nacario, an agronomist.

Antlers tell a story

“Yearly, the antler falls off and grows again, with added stems on it, depending on the age of the deer,” Nacario said, explaining that if a deer is a year old, its antler has only one stem. That of a two-year-old deer has two stems, that of a three-year-old has three, while the antler of a five-year-old has five stems.

The deer aged six and up grow five-stem antlers yearly until they grow old.

Nacario said the worst and most memorable experience he had in managing the farm came during Supertyphoon Reming in November 2006.

The deer fled in different directions as wind and rains destroyed the farm fences.

“Good thing, most of them came back after we again fed them,” Nacario said.

10 didn’t come back

He said there were more than eight deer which died of extreme cold. At least 10 of those which had fled did not come back.

Nacario said the deer were well taken care of by eight farmhands. A veterinarian is also assigned to check on the animals.

Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymond Villafuerte said the province had many development plans for the farm.

“We plan to add room accommodations since the place is really beautiful even at night,” he said.

Open to public

He also said they would put up bike trails, tree houses, picnic and play areas, and arrangements for deer feeding for the children.

The farm is open to the public for free.

“Preferably, they should contact the tourism office first for coordination, but they can go there anytime,” Villafuerte said.

Ocampo town serves as a gateway to other tourist destinations, like the waterfalls in Barangay Consocep in neighboring Tigaon town.

A top tourist destination in the Bicol region, Camarines Sur last year posted a growth rate of 77 percent tourist arrivals. It contributed P219.2 million to the P443.5-million gross receipts earned from tourist arrivals in the region. With a report from Inquirer Research

April 10, 2008

OCCIDENTAL MINDORO

Inmate shot deadin jailbreak

A PRISONER was shot dead while two others were being hunted after they escaped from the provincial jail in Barangay Magbay, San Jose town in Occidental Mindoro on April 1.

The prisoners climbed the perimeter fence of the jail. Guards immediately conducted pursuit operation upon learning of the escape at 4 p.m., said Senior Supt. Audie Arroyo, provincial police director.

Arroyo said Junjun Talamisan, who was charged with murder, was shot after he tried to evade arrest in Barangay Bayotbot in San Jose. His companions, identified as Jeffrey Servano, who was charged with robbery, and Edmund Estueta, managed to escape.

Joanna Los Baños Inquirer Southern Luzon

April 5, 2008

5 car thieves slain by cops in shootout

IT WAS THE END OF THE ROAD FOR FIVE members of notorious Ilonggo carjacking and robbery group who were killed in a shootout yesterday with police in Cavite.

Chief Supt. Perfecto Palad, director of the Traffic Management Group (TMG), identified four of the slain suspects as Arnold Causing, Merlito Perez, Roberto Montana and Anacleto Trinidad. The fifth suspect, sporting a “Guardian” tattoo, has yet to be identified.

The five men were in a white Mitsubishi Lancer (ZEN-975), casing a convenience store at the Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa at around midnight on Thursday when they were spotted by police.

When they saw the approaching TMG team, the suspects fled. The resulting chase ended in a gun battle in Daang Hari, Bacoor, Cavite.

The suspects’ vehicle was reported stolen in San Fernando, Pampanga, in December 2005. The car’s license plates belonged to a Honda Civic stolen at gunpoint in May 2007 in Meycauayan, Bulacan.

Meanwhile, a car belonging to Ismael “Chuck” Mathay III, a former Quezon City congressman, was recovered by police last week, nine years after it was stolen on June 8, 1998, while it was parked in front of the Shangri-La Plaza Hotel in Mandaluyong.

The 1992 Toyota Corolla GLI was recovered in Calasiao, Pangasinan, Palad said. Alcuin Papa with Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

March 24, 2008

Tourist arrivals in Bicol up 41 percent in 2007

By Joanna Los Baños and Juan Escandor Jr.

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—Tourism in the Bicol region continued to be upbeat in 2007 as the Department of Tourism (DOT) reported a significant increase in tourist arrivals.

The latest DOT report showed there were 897,680 tourist arrivals in the region last year, or an increase of 41 percent from 2006’s record of 637,127.

Of the total number of arrivals, 792,072 were local tourists and 105,608 were foreigners.

At least 40,672 were travelers from the US.

According to the report, among the six Bicol provinces, Camarines Sur continued to lure most of the foreign tourists at 45,626 arrivals and domestic tourists at 411,285 arrivals.

Albay followed with 36,608 foreign tourist arrivals and 105,247 domestic tourist arrivals.

On a year-on-year basis, 2006-2007, Camarines Sur posted a phenomenal growth rate of 77 percent in tourist arrivals.

It also contributed P219.2 million to the P443.5 million regional gross receipts earned from tourist arrivals.

Bicol tourism director Maria Ong Ravanilla explains that Camarines Sur, especially Naga City, has year-round activities like conferences, meetings, conventions and exhibits.

She also cites the CamSur Watersports Complex in Pili town as a big contributor in tourist arrivals.

The island-province of Catanduanes emerged second, achieving 76-percent growth rate.

Some 10,390 foreigners have been lured to visit Catanduanes, in the northeast of Bicol peninsula, with as many as 40,665 visiting local tourists.

Tourist arrivals in Catanduanes increased to 51,055 this year from last year’s 29,026.

Ravanilla said the increase could be attributed to the tourists going to Puraran in Baras town, one of the fast-becoming promising surfing sites in the country.

Another island-province in Bicol, Masbate, is catching up in the number of tourist arrivals as it posted a growth rate of 39 percent, making it in the third rank as tourist destination in the region.

Opening the access of sea travels from the province going to Visayas, Mindanao and Manila was one of the reasons of the increase, Ravanilla says.

But unlike Catanduanes, Masbate’s tourist arrivals is composed mostly of locals with 104,363 on the record while the number of foreign tourists at 2,645 is the lowest in the region.

Sorsogon province continued its record decline to negative 8 percent last year.

From 2006’s 65,384, tourist arrivals went down to 59,915, domestic and foreign tourists combined.

Ravanilla says the reason for the decrease was the lack of conventions, conferences and meetings held in the province.

Although Donsol town remains to be the third tourist destination in the country for its whale shark interaction, it is only good for six months since whale sharks can be seen only between the months of December to May.

The province of Camarines Norte had a 10-percent growth rate from last year’s total tourist arrivals of 80,936.

Ravanilla expresses optimism that the tourist arrivals would reach their target of one million by 2009.

“If this happens, Bicol will formally be enlisted as an emerging choice tourist destination in the country, as it joins the elite club of tourist drawers of one million and over on a year-round basis,” Ravanilla says.

March 12, 2008

Invest scam victims still hopeful

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—VICTIMS OF THE ALLEGED BILlion-peso investment scam here were still hoping to recover their investments after the president of the investment firm disappeared with millions of pesos in investors’ money and leaving behind dishonored bank checks.

A victim of the scam, who refused to be identified for security reasons, said he and some other investors were still communicating with other staff members, incorporators and members of the board of the currency trading firm, Royal Manchester Five Trading Corp. (RMF), for a recovery program.

“They (staff) are still there but it’s Hao who is now gone and has brought the money,” he said, referring to Chinese-Filipino Cyrus Hao, president of RMF “We are still hoping to recover even our invested principal amount.”

The currency-trading investment scam has reportedly victimized around 3,000 people, including celebrities.

The source said he was careful at first not to reveal anything to the public since he and other victims were still trying to recover their money and wanted to avoid problems with their families.

He said Hao, 28, studied in Chong Hua high school here and college at Adamson University in Manila. He said Hao was originally from Pilar town in Sorsogon and had a house in Daraga town in Albay, where he, his wife and three children stayed.

RMF’s office is located in One San Miguel Condominium, San Miguel Avenue in Ortigas, he said.

“He surprised us. It was unexpected,” he said, after learning of Hao’s disappearance.

The source said he and Hao were really good friends, being a godparent of one of Hao’s children. “We have been friends even before he started with the RMF business in 2001,” he said.

Being friends with Hao was also the reason he easily trusted him with his P2-million investment. “Tiwala system ang nangyari (what happened was trust system),” he said.

The source said more than 30 people, including businessmen, a son of a politician, friends and even relatives of Hao were among the victims.

Their minimum investment was P200,000 but one even invested P7 million, he said.

Another victim, who refused to be identified for security reasons, said he did not know what to do. “I’m in a state of shock and I’m really confused,” he said, hurling curses at Hao for taking his P1-million investment.

Hao was accused of being involved in a P2.1-billion currency scam and was said to have fled the country, leaving investors with bouncing checks.

There are talks that Hao took the Zamboanga route and was already in Malaysia.

Investors were told that their money was being traded in Denmark and other European countries and were promised a 5-percent interest monthly, for which they were issued post-dated checks.

But by the end of February, the checks started to bounce and they could no longer locate Hao.

On March 10, the National Bureau of Investigation encouraged the victims of RMF to come forward and file their affidavits at the agency’s antifraud division.

February 21, 2008

Brass band nurtures young dreams

By Joanna Los Baños

Guinobatan, Albay

FOR FOUR YEARS NOW, 14-year-old Ronnel Angelo Broqueza has been cleaning vehicles after school in a car wash center in Guinobatan, Albay. He gets P50 from the part-time job so he can help feed his family.

But since he joined the FCR (Florencio Concepcion Realuyo) Band in June last year, Broqueza had to drop work on weekends so he could attend practice sessions. He does not mind losing a portion of his earnings since, he said, being in the brass band will mean more money someday.

“This is one of the FCR Band’s objectives—to help its underprivileged members attain their dreams by providing scholarships and at the same time, conduct music education to bring back the glorious days of musicians in Albay,” explained band organizer Hernani Realuyo.

Fewer musicians

Broqueza, a high school student at the Marcial O. Rañola Memorial School, wants to be a seaman, but, he said, he could not fulfill his dream if he relied only on his family and a measly income from washing cars.

Broqueza belongs to the top section of his batch and is intelligent and diligent, said Realuyo, a pianist and owner of a photo studio in Guinobatan.

The band leader said he grew up seeing a lot of musicians in the province. “But as time passed, I have observed a decline in their number,” he said, surmising that it could be due to financial difficulties. Musical instruments and learning how to play them are expensive, he said.

Realuyo said it was his uncle, a music lover and lawyer based in New York, who had thought of putting up the band and named it after his father.

“He would send me an instrument every month. Now, we have more than 150 pieces,” Realuyo said. In his collections are flutes, clarinets, trombones, saxophones and trumpets.

Now 74, Realuyo’s uncle, who requests anonymity, shoulders all the band expenses. “He was born in this town, raised in Oas and has been living in America for about 50 years now,” his nephew said.

The brass band was finally formed in June last year. It has more than 90 members now—the youngest at 9 years old and the oldest at 22—but still short of a full march band of 120, Realuyo said.

It gives an opportunity for the children to learn how to play the instruments, Realuyo said. “We lend them the instruments for free,” he said, adding that the young members’ first lesson was how to use and take care of them.

He confessed to difficulty in teaching the children at first because they were not yet used to it. “Some did not even pursue their lessons,” he said, “but with patience, hard work and strict discipline, most of them were able to learn.”

Student band members of the Mariners’ Polytechnic Colleges Foundation (MPCF) help Realuyo in teaching every weekend.

Student teachers

Aimee Cornejo, a sophomore student in marine transportation at the MPCF, said she and her fellow band members visit the town and teach other members on rotation basis.

The FCR Band has already learned 12 musical pieces and has performed twice. Realuyo plans to hold a grand presentation in December, when his uncle-benefactor arrives.

He said the members were thankful to the municipal government of Guinobatan for letting them use the town sports center for free on weekends. Upon entering the practice venue, one sees small groups seated in the bleachers playing tunes from different instruments at the same time, creating a not-so-pleasant sound. But playing a song together is a totally different story.

One would marvel at the euphonious sound and be forced to hum and, maybe, sway a little, to the ’70s hit “The Love Boat.”

This June, the band members will receive P1,000 each for tuition or “a little more than P500,” Realuyo said. “They can use the remaining money for school supplies.” His uncle also gives scholarship to those who taking up nursing or other medical courses.

Realuyo said the group planned to put up a self-sustaining foundation where savings from its performances could be channeled for education.

December 10, 2007

Gender poses no barrier

to these stone gatherers

Picking up the pieces after Typhoon Reming

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

GUINOBATAN, Albay—For Jelma Mejillano, a single mother of three, Supertyphoon “Reming” did not stop her from going back to her usual job of gathering gravel, boulders and sand, a job normally done by men.

“Since 1998, our livelihood here has been to gather gravel, boulders and sand,” the 48-year-old mother says.

Mejillano’s house used to be beside a river in Barangay Maipon but was washed out during the typhoon in November last year.

Maipon was one of the hard-hit villages during the typhoon, where houses were buried by mudflow from Mayon Volcano and hundreds of people died and went missing.

She and her children now live in a house made of plastic sackcloths pieced together at the back of the river dike.

For the village residents, gender does not serve as a barrier for the men and women who gather gravel, sand and boulders for a living.

Mejillano admits that at first, she had a hard time with a job usually done by men.

“But as I got used to it, my job became easier for me,” she says.

“We do not see any problem doing this job. We just help each other here,” Mejillano says.

She says she prefers the job in the river than to work as a housemaid, which would require her to leave her children.

“If I would be away, I would always worry about my children,” Mejillano says.

She says many of the women here enjoy helping the men do their jobs.

“Especially when the trucks pick up our gathered sand, gravel and boulders,” she says.

Mejillano says they are paid P100 to P400 for every truckload of gravel, sand and boulders they gather, which are used as construction materials for houses and buildings.

The trucks from nearby construction companies go to the village to pick up what the villagers have gathered.

The payment for the construction materials, Mejillano says, is used to purchase things that their families need, especially food, which would last for two to three days.

Mejillano’s sister Marilou Marilla, 38, also a stone gatherer, admits that what they earn is just barely enough for their basic family needs.

“Basta lang makaraos (As long as it could tide us over for the day). We are thankful on that alone,” she says.

Although they are not happy that many houses were destroyed during the typhoon, they are thankful that the demand for these construction materials increased, which also means added income for them.

“After Reming, our income really increased. We are really happy,” she says.

“Almost everyday, a truck picks up our gathered stones here because many are fixing their destroyed houses,” says Marilla, whose husband is also a stone gatherer.

Mejillano and Marilla, who try to gather at least 26 sacks of gravel daily, have no plans of leaving their home because “we have no other place to go and this is where our livelihood comes from,” they say.

But they are always ready to evacuate if typhoons would endanger the lives of their families.

The sisters welcome the kind of rains not induced by typhoons because, according to them, this kind of rains bring more gravel to the river.

“As the water becomes deeper, we get more gravel,” says Mejillano, who prefer to work when it is raining because “we do not feel tired compared to the days when the the sun is out.”

Everyday, at around 6 a.m., the sisters would go to the river to gather stones.

And before lunch, they would go back to their homes to cook lunch for their families.

After lunch, they would rest for a while and watch their favorite noontime TV show and then go back to the river to work again until late afternoon.

This is their daily routine, “and we are happy,” the sisters affirmed.

After Reming, many of the residents of Maipon, especially the farmers, shifted to gathering gravel, sand and boulders.

But Marilla and Mejillano do not mind.

They say there are enough to gather so there is no problem if there are many of them doing the same thing.

December 3, 2007

Albay town also boasts of own longganiza

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

Photos by Niño Jesus Orbeta

GUINOBATAN, Albay—If there is the famous Vigan longganiza in Ilocos Sur and Lucban longganiza in Quezon, this town—located about 22 kilometers north of Legazpi City—is starting to get known for its finger-sized Longganiza de Guinobatan, which is becoming a sought-after pasalubong and delicacy by tourists and Bicolanos alike.

For one of its producers, going into the meat processing business was not easy.

Although she was born with parents who made longganiza for a living, Carmen Ravago, now 50, initially chose a path different from what she grew up in.

In 1970, she went to Manila and took up Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at the Far Eastern University.

After graduating, she decided to stay in Manila and worked at the National Bureau of Investigation.

In 1979, she got married and for a while, things went on smoothly.

Until she gave birth to her second child in 1981, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a brain disorder that affects muscle coordination and body movement.

For two more years, she struggled as she took care of her family, especially her special child, while working at the government agency.

In 1985, she and her husband Abelardo, decided to go back to their hometown in Guinobatan, Albay, “to focus more on the needs of our special child.”

“The main reason I left my job and went home from Manila was our child,” she says of her daughter Lala, who had to undergo a series of therapies and medications.

After going back to their hometown, Ravago opened a meat stall in the town market.

From time to time, they would make longganiza and sell it to their customers.

Ravago admits that her special child, who died in 1998, was their family’s good luck charm in their meat business.

“Siya ’yung parang ‘buwenas’ sa negosyo. Our business really went good when she was alive,” she says.

Ravago learned how to make longganiza from her parents when she was about 5 years old.

“My parents were the first and only longganiza maker in the town,” she says of her parents who started the business in the 1940s.

Ravago said her father, Eduardo Nosares, was the one who introduced longganiza in the town.

“My parents made only one kind of longganiza at that time,” she says, adding that it was their family’s source of income.

Full time

In 2005, Ravago’s family decided to go full-blast in their longganiza business and shelled out P20,000 as capital.

It was not long before she gained back her capital since, according to Ravago, the fund was revolving and they produced on a regular basis.

The recipe of the longganiza that they sell now is an evolution based on the original recipe of her parents.

“I have made some adjustments on the recipe after attending several seminars and workshops on product development,” Ravago says.

The Department of Trade and Industry also invited them to join its One-Town-One-Product (Otop) program.

Ravago’s longganiza is composed of pork, pepper, garlic, soy sauce, curing salt, sugar and other indigenous ingredients, which are cased in pigs’ small intestines.

Vacuum plastic-sealed Ravago’s Longganiza de Guinobatan is available in garlic, sweet and spicy hot flavors, which they sell at P80 per 300 grams or 20 pieces.

Of the three varieties, Ravago says garlic is the favorite.

In the market, they sell only two varieties: ordinary, which is composed mostly of fat; and special, which has only one-fourth fat.

Ravago says they also make custom-made longganiza at no additional cost, like, 50-50 (half meat and half fat), fat-free, sugar-free and some flavor adjustments—“whatever the customers want.”

Ravago’s Longganiza de Guinobatan also joins trade fairs like DTI’s Orgullo ng Bicol, which is held yearly at the SM Megamall.

For the third year this year, it has also been the topnotcher of DTI and Pacific Mall’s Pinoy Island Fiesta.

Ravago has an outlet at the LCC Mall in Legazpi City, which not only sells longganiza but also other native delicacies like pinangat, Bicol express, salabat, chicharon and cacao balls.

“The customers in Legazpi are different from our customers here in Guinobatan,” she says.

“Some would go to Guinobatan to buy our longganiza and bring it to other places, even abroad and some buy for pasalubong and gifts,” Ravago says.

Even if Ravago has experienced a series of ups and downs in their business, “I never lose hope because this is really our line of business and we really have to strive to recover if we have any losses.”

Ravago’s Meat Products is located at A. Paulate Street (Iraya), Guinobatan, Albay, with contact no: 09198637882

December 2, 2007

‘Reming’ survivors recall dead kin, move on

LEGAZPI CITY—CANDLES were lit and church bells were rang simultaneously in Albay province as people remembered their departed loved ones on Nov. 30, a year after the tragedy caused by Supertyphoon “Reming” that killed more than a thousand people.

In his homily during a Mass at the Albay Capitol, Msgr. Ramon Tronqued stressed the importance of remembering not only the victims of Reming and what the typhoon had caused them.

Tronqued, parish priest of St. John the Baptist Church in Tabaco City, said those who have made a difference in the people’s lives should be remembered just as well.

The Mass was attended by provincial government officials and employees.

“The persons responsible for why we are here, or who we are now and what we are now,” he said, referring to the thousands of people who shared so much concern and solidarity after the typhoon.

“And because of that, we knew that we were not alone and we would survive. Because of them, we saw the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

He asked the people not to forget all those who helped as life was almost back to normal in Albay.

“The best way of not forgetting is by being witnesses and continuing to do the good deeds of others,” he said, adding that this was the best way of remembering and saying thank you.

The prayer, Oratio Imperata for Deliverance from Calamities was also read by Cedric Daep, head of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (Apsemo).

The prayer, which has been recited since Oct. 28 in all the churches in the Legazpi Diocese, was said to have helped in the change of direction of typhoon “Mina,” which was expected to hit the Bicol region last Nov. 24.

Padang

In Barangay Padang in Legazpi City, Shaina Ferrer silently sat near a grotto at the lahar site here as she lighted a candle and uttered a silent prayer.

This was the 6-year-old girl’s way of remembering her grandparents and 2-year-old cousin who were swept away by torrents of lahar at the height of Reming.

The whole neighborhood in this small community of survivors amid a rocky wasteland also marked a day of remembrance.

Padang is one of the villages in the southeast quadrant of Mayon volcano, where the crater rim is lowest and much volcanic debris had been deposited in the past eruptions.

It became a pathway of the lahar when floodwaters overflowed from the original gullies that flushed out water to the Albay Gulf.

Ten households heard Mass in a nipa hut that they had built for the occasion.

The families specially prepared food that they shared with one another.

Isidro Santander Jr., a village councilor, said his two children and wife died in the tragedy.

He said they did not want to remember the tragedy but only how they lived happily as one family before the typhoon wrought havoc to their lives.

Now, Santander lives with his two other children who survived.

Moving on

Fr. Rommel Antiquera, of the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in the neighboring village of Bigaa, said some of the about 70 people who attended the Mass came from the hilly resettlement site in Barangay Taysan.

“We must spend time loving our families for we never know when they will be gone,” the priest said.

Felizardo Arienda, 35, said most of them had already moved on and accepted the tragedy that struck their village.

In Daraga town, lighted candles, orchids and makeshift markers adorned the deserted spot where a home used to stand only a year ago in Barangay Busay.

Friends and relatives quietly paid their respects to Daisy Llaguno and her family who were among the many chilling casualties of Reming in the village.

Daisy, her four children, and seven others were trapped inside their house when volcanic rocks and debris coming from the slopes of the Mayon volcano were triggered by the typhoon, causing a deadly mudflow.

The two-story house was completely washed out. Half of the house was recovered in neighboring Barangay Binitayan in the aftermath.

Only two bodies were recovered of the 12 that took shelter in the house: that of the family maid, and in her arms, the third Llaguno child, April.

They are survived by the family patriarch, Ariel Llaguno, who was abroad when the tragedy struck his family.

‘Sorry’

As early as 9 a.m. Friday, Daisy’s eldest sister and neighbor, Norma Montero, 45, was already lighting candles and keeping a personal vigil on the spot.

She was joined by three of Daisy’s co-teachers and friends from the Pag-asa National High School in nearby Legazpi City.

Being neighbors, Norma and Daisy were close sisters, with the former being the eldest and the latter being the second child.

Norma recalled how kind and dedicated ‘Dais’ was to her children, saying “she wouldn’t have left them behind.”

“All I can offer now are prayers and these flowers because Dais liked plants,” Norma said, motioning to the two pots of orchids near her feet.

She said she wanted Daisy to know that she loved and missed her.

“I would also like to say sorry to her for not being able to recover all of their bodies,” she said.

Loss

Dariel, or “Din-din,” the eldest of the Llaguno children, would have been a graduating student today at the Philippine Science High School in Camarines Sur.

Her friends and classmates also visited Busay Friday morning, holding a memorial on the spot where Din-din once lived.

They lit candles and put up a tiny flag using barbecue sticks and an empty shampoo sachet.

Norma said that Ariel had once again returned home from Qatar Thursday.

In honor of his wife and children, he attended the memorial Mass held Friday morning in neighboring Barangay Pandan, where most of the Busay residents have been relocated.

“He has accepted the loss and is doing fine,” Norma said of her brother-in-law.

A Mass was also held Thursday in Legazpi City by the faculty and students of the Pag-asa National High School, where peace for Daisy and her family was prayed for, said Nannette Llaguno, 37, Daisy’s co-teacher and sister-in-law.

“We simply have to move on, otherwise, the agony of losing loved ones will crush us,” Norma said.

In Guinobatan town, about a hundred Reming survivors, all wearing white shirts, gathered at the Our Lady of Assumption Parish Church to attend a Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Dave Ramoso.

At least 41 colored photos mostly taken in the town during and after Reming are also displayed in a photo exhibit entitled “Reming’s shadow remains” at the Social Hall of the town from Nov. 30 to Dec. 9. Joanna P. Los Baños, Ephraim Aguilar, Jaymee T. Gamil, Inquirer Southern Luzon

November 28, 2007

Storms weaken; heavy rains forecast today

By TJ Burgonioand Inquirer Northern Luzon

TWO STORMS THAT HADtriggered the evacuation of nearly half a million people lost much of their power yesterday after leaving a combined total of 26 villagers dead in Luzon and the Visayas.

Tropical Storm “Lando,” which returned to the country the other day after making an initial exit last week, yesterday slackened off to a tropical depression before its expected landfall in Mindoro.

Lando brought bursts of rain to Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and the Bicol region last night.

Initially packing 175 kilometers per hour center winds, Typhoon “Mina” weakened to a storm with sustained winds of 65 kph as it neared the tip of northern Luzon.

A low pressure area is also forecast to enter the Philippine area of responsibility today, but it will not hit the archipelago, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.

Signal No. 1 was raised over Metro Manila, most parts of southern Tagalog and some parts of Bicol in view of Lando’s return.

Heavy rains today

“We should expect heavy rains until today in Metro Manila,” Pagasa weather forecaster Rene Paciente said last night.

Pagasa also raised Signal No. 1 over northern Palawan, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Romblon, Marinduque, Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, Batangas, Bulacan, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, Masbate, Aklan, Capiz, Antique, Iloilo and northern Samar.

At 4 p.m., Lando was sighted off the coast of Occidental Mindoro, packing maximum winds of 55 kph.

Moving east northeast at 26 kph, the depression was forecast to make landfall in southern Mindoro last night, and sweep over Albay and then Catanduanes toward the Philippine Sea, according to Paciente.

After hitting land mass, Lando is expected to dissipate prior to its exit on Thursday.

‘No more effect’

Less than 48 hours after smashing into Isabela, Mina weakened as it swept over Basco, Batanes, toward southern Japan.

“It has no more effect. Within the next few hours, we expect it to be out of the country,” senior weather specialist Robert Sawi said.

Signal No. 2 was raised over Batanes, and Signal No. 1 over Babuyan group of islands.

There’s still a chance a low pressure area could enter the Philippine area of responsibility today, but it would not hit land, according to Sawi.

At least one or two more storms are expected next month.

GMA’s praise

Lando left 14 people dead when it first struck the Visayas last week, while Mina killed 12 in a swing through the Bicol region and northern Luzon after Lando blew off toward Vietnam.

President Macapagal-Arroyo said the time and effort which government and local officials as well as the private sector gave in the face of threats from the storms was the “kind of heroism” the country needed from time to time.

“We praise the soldiers, policemen, doctors, local officials, and other government personnel and private organizations for their greatness,” Ms Arroyo said during a meeting of relief agencies.

Damage to crops

Four persons, including a 6-year-old boy, were reported killed in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) in the wake of Mina, bringing to 12 the official death count of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).

As of yesterday, more than 200,000 people in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4a, 5, 8, and the Cordillera were still housed in 668 evacuation centers, the NDCC said.

It said 6-year-old Jimmy Cadamos Soriano and Lawagan Baggay, 69, were both buried in a landslide in Pinukpuk town in Kalinga.

Another victim, Felipe Abawag, 65, had drowned in Conner, Apayao.

The fourth fatality, 78-year-old Santos Sabedra, also drowned in Conner.

At least two fishermen were missing in Solana, Cagayan. They were last seen crossing a river in the town.

Mina destroyed at least P72 million worth of crops in the provinces of Isabela, Cagayan and Ilocos Norte, officials and relief agencies said.

In Isabela, provincial agriculturist Danilo Tumamao said the typhoon damaged P9.65 million worth of palay and corn. A total of 148 villages in the province were flooded.

Dinapigue Mayor Renato Candido said the route from his town to Aurora had been blocked by landslides.

Challenge to farmers

In Cagayan, P42 million worth of palay and corn was destroyed.

“This is a challenge for us to recover. Our farm production target has been affected and we have to restart,” Gov. Alvaro Antonio said.

In Ilocos Norte, the Patapat Bridge was partially opened to motorists after some of the debris from Monday’s landslide were cleared.

Officials said it would take a week to complete clearing operation on the bridge.

At least P21 million worth of palay and corn was destroyed in Ilocos Norte, mostly in the towns of Bacarra and Sarrat.

A total of 100,588 families, or 443,105 people, in 121 municipalities were affected by Mina.

A 5 p.m. report from the Office of Civil Defense in Bicol said there were still 9,865 families, or a total of 46,308 people, in evacuation centers in the region.

Thanks to Pagasa advisories

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said Albayanos were thankful to Vic Manalo, a senior meteorological officer of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), for his advisories on the typhoon.

Salceda said that upon the advice of Manalo, no preemptive evacuation was needed despite the reentry of Lando.

But residents along western coastal areas have been advised to stay alert for storm surges while those in low-lying areas should watch out for floods.

Those in lahar-prone areas should watch out for mudflows while those in mountain slopes should be alert for landslides. With reports from Nikko Dizon and Christine O. Avendaño in Manila, Villamor Visaya Jr., Estanislao Caldez and Cristina Arzadon, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

November 26, 2007

Bicol prayer power summoned against typhoon

By Joanna Los Bañosand Bobby Labalan

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—CLIMATOLOGISTS MAY have all the explanation as to why Typhoon “Mina” swung away from Bicol last weekend, but to Bicolanos, the answer was simple enough: Mina veered because of the power of prayer.

For more than 48 hours, as Mina threatened the region with its center winds at 175 kilometers per hour, radio stations in Sorsogon City were swamped with text messages urging people to pray hard so that the howler would spare their province and the region.

In some areas, priests noticed a sudden jump in the attendance in churches. In evacuation centers, people found comfort in reciting their rosaries.

Virginia Ayala, 61, an evacuee from the lahar-prone village of Padang, said it was a miracle Albay was spared. “I thank God for saving us,” she said.

Auxiliary Bishop Lucilo Quiambao of the Archdiocese of Legazpi attributed it to the power of prayer which proved “that God really sustains.”

Fr. Rex Paul Arjona, chancellor of the Legazpi diocese, agreed what happened was “sort of a miracle.”

Arjona recalled that the typhoon was hardly moving that Friday but late that night, “surprisingly, it changed direction.”

He said Bicolanos were praying the typhoon would not cause too much damage in Aurora and Isabela, which were now facing Mina’s fury. “What’s good for us may not be good for them,” he said.

The priest said the people would continue to pray the “Oratio Imperata For Deliverance From Calamities” until the threat from the typhoon had passed.

New faces among churchgoers were seen at the Albay Cathedral. “We noticed an increase in attendance of churchgoers in the regular Masses,” Arjona said.

Imploring Jesus

Arjona explained that people were really seeking God’s help and really praying. “I believe it was an answered prayer,” he said.

On Saturday, after the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) announced that Mina had changed course and was headed for northern Luzon, a text message sent to Radyo Natin-Sorsogon said it was the deluge of prayers that made the typhoon turn away.

Pastor Allan Lopez, a physician by profession, said in a text message to Radyo Natin that his group, the Victory Christian Fellowship, and other congregations had dedicated Sorsogon to Jesus Christ to protect its people from the wrath of Mina.

Nothing is impossible

Lopez’s group had formed “prayer warrior” groups and teamed up with the Intercessor for the Philippines, whose members devote themselves to praying and seeking Divine Intervention.

Sorsogon Gov. Sally Lee, a devout Catholic, said nothing was impossible when people got together to petition the Lord for deliverance. She said prayers had long been proven as a powerful tool in warding off evil and calamities.

Lee spent an hour praying in her office before talking with President Macapagal-Arroyo in a teleconference on Friday afternoon.

Text messages

Doods Marianito, Radyo Natin-Sorsogon station manager and himself a pastor, said more than 70 percent of the text messages he received were either prayers or appeals for the people to pray.

Marianito said the messages showed people’s faith in God and proved Sorsoganons remained a deeply religious people.

“Many evacuees had been texting us seeking for help through prayers,” he said.

Marianito said the volume of text messages increased after Pagasa raised Storm Signal No. 2 over Sorsogon. By then, thousands of residents had sought refuge in evacuation centers in the city. Most of them came from coastal villages.

Going back home

Of the more than 150,000 people who had fled to evacuation centers in Albay, about 96,000 from coastal villages and flood-prone areas had been authorized to return to their homes as of Saturday.

The rest were told yesterday that they could also go back home.

Legazpi residents said the Oratio prayer distributed to the different parishes of the city was one of the reasons for the miracle. The prayer has been read during every Mass since Oct. 28.

The Oratio

The Oratio reads: “Almighty Father, we raise our hearts to You in gratitude for the wonders of creation of which we are part, for Your providence in sustaining us in our needs, and for Your wisdom that guides the course of the universe.

“We acknowledge our sins against You and the rest of creation.

“We have not been good stewards of Nature.

“We have confused Your command to subdue the earth.

“The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing, and now we reap the harvest of our abuse and indifference.

“Global warming is upon us. Typhoons, floods, volcanic eruption, and other natural calamities occur in increasing number and intensity.

“We turn to You, our loving Father, and beg forgiveness for our sins.

“We ask that we, our loved ones and our hard earned possessions be spared from the threat of calamities, natural and man-made.

“We beseech You to inspire us all to grow into responsible stewards of Your creation, and generous neighbors to those in need.

“Amen.”

November 23, 2007

Padang villagers learn lessons, leave homes

By Ephraim Aguilar and Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—SAYING IT was better to be safe than sorry, residents of the low-lying village of Padang padlocked their houses and shops and began a mass evacuation with the approach of Typhoon “Mina.”

Located about 4 kilometers northeast of Legazpi City proper, Padang looked almost like a no-man’s land yesterday as residents heeded official warnings to leave after water spilled over swelling irrigation and river channels connected to the gullies of Mayon Volcano.

The village was one of those hardest hit by Supertyphoon “Reming” last year.

Major arteries in the city were flooded on Monday and Tuesday following heavy rains.

Most of the houses and sari-sari stores in Padang were shut and only pet animals—cats and dogs, as well as chickens—could be seen at street corners.

A few people who had come back to the village after a night in evacuation centers hurried about, carrying plastic bags, baskets with kitchen utensils, clothes, and pitchers of drinking water.

Some men were left in the village to guard their houses and feed their livestock but most said they would leave once Mina was near.

Some mothers returned home to cook food and get beddings and additional clothing before heading back to their designated evacuation center at the Gogon Elementary School.

Zaldy Bolante, 32, kept himself busy by feeding his dogs. He had left his wife and four children in a relative’s house in a resettlement site in another barangay.

Bolante said he had to look after the animals and make charcoal which he would bring to the resettlement site since firewood there was scarce.

Bolante, a construction worker, said his family evacuated at 1 p.m. Wednesday, fearing the tragedy caused by Supertyphoon “Reming,” which killed hundreds of people in the village last year, would happen again.

“We did not wait anymore for the Army trucks to pick up the evacuees. We left on our own. It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Bolante said in the vernacular.

He said many people in the village became afraid when floodwaters rose above the knee.

Bolante said thieves usually took advantage of disaster situations so he made sure his house was locked.

Barangay Councilor Jayson Bataller said more than 100 families from Padang, consisting of more than 500 people, had evacuated to the Gogon school.

Almost 200 of them were children.

“We are safe here (Gogon). We don’t have that scared feeling anymore,” Bataller said.

He said that as of Thursday morning, the evacuees had three sacks of rice, distributed at one kilo per family.

“We also received cartboard boxes, which served as sleeping mats, especially for the children,” he said.

Priscilla Arienda, 30, who is four months pregnant with her sixth child, said life at the evacuation center might be difficult but she had no cause to complain.

November 18, 2007

Hotel worker discovers calling

in commercial art

It did not take long before Carlito Calleja realized that painting and owning an art shop was what he wanted

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

STO. DOMINGO, Albay— Joining a foundation in his town of Sto. Domingo that was then providing livelihood opportunities and employment for its residents proved fortuitous for Carlito Calleja, 41.

In 1998, when he immersed in the foundation, he was working as an artist for a hotel in neighboring Tabaco City and taking care of maintenance work for already two years.

Although still employed at the hotel, Calleja confidently put up a small art shop in his hometown in 1999 where he sells brightly hued paintings framed in abaca fiber and wood.

Knowledge from the now defunct Sto. Domingo Diakonie Spinnrad Development Foundation Inc., a small and medium enterprise based in the town, and a capital of P4,000 were enough to spur him in his new enterprise.

“Most of the foundation’s products were handmade paper. I did not want to copy their ideas so I did not use handmade papers in my artworks,” he said.

Members of the foundation produced handmade paper from different indigenous materials and sold decorative paper, wall decors, lamp shades, postcards and bags.

While striking a balance between his work as a hotel employee and as owner of an art shop he decided he was ready to go full-time in his art shop—after realizing it was really what he wanted.

Born and raised in a town where Potenciano Gregorio Sr. lived, he named his art store Sarung Banggi Arts and Crafts. Gregorio Sr. is the writer of Bicol folk song Sarung Banggi.

Starting all over again

For seven years, he rented a work and display area in Barangay Tambangon, near the town poblacion.

Unfortunately, this display area was completely destroyed by Supertyphoon Reming late last year and he lost about P60,000 to P70,000 of his earnings.

“All of my things were lost so I had to start all over again,” he said.

Losing everything to the storm, however, did not make him lose hope.

“I did not feel bad when I lost the material resources because I know that I have my ideas with me,” he said.

He asked help from his siblings and gradually built a new shop in a small part of a one-hectare rice field his parents owned along the highway in Barangay Lidong.

“After one and a half months, in the middle of January, I was able to open a new shop,” he said, although he admitted that as of now, he has not yet regained the money lost due to Reming.

Production process

Calleja said the process of making his artworks are not that hard once you get used to it.

First, he makes the art design, then patterns it into a chip board, put glue on it, applies the paint and constructs the frame.

The materials he uses are: Chipboard as base, water-based acry-paint, glue stick and abaca fibers, and “malasaging” wood as frame.

Some of Calleja’s paintings are incorporated with clay from Tiwi town and sand from Mayon Volcano.

With one helper, Calleja makes about 250 pieces of artworks a month.

A small artwork costs P65 and a bigger artwork is sold at P110.

Calleja said there are also times when sales are low, especially during June and July. He considers summer and December as peak seasons.

Bestsellers

Calleja also makes custom-made and made-to-order designs for his customers.

Of these, he admitted that making a portrait of the Last Supper, Cagsawa Ruins and other big artworks gave him the most challenge.

Instead of using chipboards, he uses plywood in these designs which cost from P3,500 to P5,000.

Making big artworks would take him at least three days to make.

Among his works, those with Mayon Volcano and human figures are the ones he considers as his bestsellers.

Affordable

Coming from a family of artists, Calleja is really an artist by heart.

He used to make oil paintings and join exhibits in neighboring Legazpi City but he realized that oil paintings are really expensive and it takes so much time before they get sold.

“So I thought of making something commercial yet beautiful. And this was it,” said Calleja, who was not able to finish his architecture course at the Bicol University.

Calleja admitted that the Sarung Banggi Arts and Crafts is his family’s only source of income.

While he works in the shop, his wife takes care of their children ages 21, 15 and 5. Their children were all able to go to school with the help of their business.

Calleja has friends from Tabaco City, who sell his artworks at P250 to P300 in Quiapo, Manila, and Festival Mall in Alabang.

Some handicraft stores in Albay also sell Calleja’s artworks at P170.

Calleja is inspired by the colors of his surroundings, and he especially likes sunsets and the environment, which he describes as a combination of beautiful colors.

“I get my ideas from what surrounds me, from what I see every day. I base my (artworks) on the place,” he said.

As of now, he has about 100 different designs and he is not stopping there.

“Every time I think of something, I make a sample of it. If I like it, it goes into production,” he said.

The themes of his collage artworks are mostly ethnic, modern abstract, still life and sceneries.

With his successful foray in commercial art, Calleja has no regrets he left his hotel job.

(Sarung Banggi Arts and Crafts is located in Barangay Lidong, Sto. Domingo, Albay, with contact number: 09187092534.)

October 26, 2007

Aside from scissors, city also makes quality furniture

Text and photos by Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

TABACO CITY—This city is known as the best cutlery producer in the region, making scissors, bolos, knives and even razors, grass cutters and other farm tools.

But not known to many, located in the outskirts of the city are furniture makers who make unique and useful home furnishings.

Along with other furniture shops, the A. B. Buama Furniture is located in Barangay San Antonio, one of the villages that motorists pass through when going to Mayon Resthouse near the foot of Mayon Volcano.

Learning the ropes

Starting as a worker in his father’s rattan business 20 years ago, Honorato Buama, has learned the ropes of running the business.

After years of working for and helping his father, he decided to put up his own furniture shop, not considering his elementary education as a hindrance.

Although the business has not made him rich, the 46-year-old Buama said he was able to build a house for his family and send his five children, ages 14 to 22, to school from his earnings.

He finds fulfillment in the thought that he provided his neighbors with a decent livelihood because of his business.

Junior Rufo, a third year high school student at the San Antonio National High School, is a part-time worker at the Buama Furniture.

“When I have no classes, I work here to help my family and so that I will have allowance for school,” Rufo said, adding that he is happy working at the furniture shop.

No capital

Buama confessed that he started his business with no capital at all.

He merely relied on customers who paid in advance for their orders.

“We use the down payment to buy materials for their orders,” Buama said, adding that this was how the business survived.

He said that business was generally doing good, but he also encounters problems like other entrepreneurs.

Most of the time, he said, his problem was financial.

“Especially when we have to deliver the furniture on a specific date and it is not yet finished because our money is short for purchasing additional materials,” Buama said.

“The materials are always available. But it’s the money to purchase these materials that is not,” he said.

Some of the materials Buama uses are anonang wood, rattan, wicker, abaca, and other materials that are readily available and preferred by customers.

Most of the materials used in furniture making come from neighboring Catanduanes and Metro Manila.

Out of the mostly native materials, Buama makes sala sets, dining sets, rocking chairs, tables, doors, shelves, and even made-to-order and custom-made pieces of furniture.

Customers can bring pictures or draw the furniture designs they want Buama to execute.

Buama said a single piece of furniture would take about three to five days to make, while a sala set would take about a month.

A sala set costs from P10,000 to P18,000; dining sets, P8,000 to P10,000; and a single chair, P600.

“But all would depend on what materials are going to be used,” Buama said.

His home doubles as the furniture shop. He displays his goods in front of the house, while he works out back.

Buama said his customers come mostly from the neighboring towns and cities.

“Some drop by by chance. If they pass by, they usually stop at our store,” he said.

Once they do, Buama hopes that they leave an order behind.

(For more information, please contact A. B. Buama Furniture at 09284812036 and 09216119667).

October 16, 2007

2 guerrilla suspects nabbed

LEGAZPI CITY—Two suspected members of the New People’s Army were arrested in an encounter with elements of the Philippine National Police in Sorsogon Sunday, a report reaching Camp Gen. Simeon Ola here said.

The report said policemen conducting checkpoint operations accosted a group of suspicious looking men for a routine check in Barangay Looban, Bulusan town in Sorsogon at 11:30 a.m.

The men, however, fired at the police, prompting the law enforcers to return fire until the two suspects surrendered while the others were able to escape, it said.

The report identified the arrested suspects as Christopher Españo, alias Ka Jerome, 23, resident of Barangay Union, Gubat town; and Jason Galoso, alias Ka Jerry, 18, resident of Barangay Sta. Barabara, Bulusan town. Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

September 7, 2007

In Sorsogon, villagers still sell

seashells by the shore

Text and photos by Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

GUBAT, SORSOGON—ARRIVING AT RIZAL beach in Gubat town, 19 kilometers from Sorsogon City, one would marvel at the sight of the long cove of powdery white sand and the spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean.

Along the shore, women carrying bilao (round native trays) filled with different items made of shells would be seen walking, hawking their wares to any visitor they may chance upon.

For these women, the sight of visitors at the beach makes them smile for it means business is at hand.

Most people consider going to the beach a treat—something they want to do yet rarely get to undertake due to constraints in time and resources.

But these women get to spend almost everyday, especially weekends, at the beach, selling shells.

The women do not always make a sale. During the off-peak months, from July to February, profits are lean.

“When it is off-peak season, sometimes there are days when we really have no sales,” said Cecilia Estadilla, 43, one of the women selling shell products. “Maswerte na pag may bumili (you’d be lucky if anyone buys from you).”

Earning nothing on most days, however, does not stop the women from going back to the beach.

“I hope someone can help us,” added Aurora Firanda, 56, another woman selling shells. “Minsan wala talaga benta (there are days when we don’t make a sale).”

But during peak season, especially in summer, selling shell products becomes a different story.

The shell makers said they earn as much as P2,000 a day.

The women all agree that what they earn may just be enough to put food on their table. What remains of the money will be set aside for their children who go to school.

Even if these women do not belong to any organization of shell makers, they said they do not compete with each other.

“We support each other here and we are happy,” said Firanda.

Family thing

Everyone in the family is involved in this small business.

While the men in their households till the farms or haul fish from the sea, the women help in making the shell products.

“Even our daughters help us make accessories and other products made of shells,” said Imelda Dio, 48, who has seven children.

She has been making shell products since she was six years old.

“But sometimes those who make these accessories acquire eye problems since making the products is strenuous to the eyes,” Dio said.

Marian Ferreras, 12, is the youngest among the women selling shells.

Ferreras, who is a freshman at the Gubat National High School, said she goes to the beach every weekend to sell shell products her aunt makes.

The money I earn becomes my school allowance, she said, adding that if she happens to earn extra, she gives it to her family.

Most of the women here said they spent P1,000 to P10,000 to start their shell business.

They also said it took them several months to get back their investment.

Some of the shells that they process are gathered from the shoreline. Others were brought by shell suppliers from neighboring towns, who bring different kinds of shell.

The women buy the shells per pint, which costs from P15 to P300, depending on the variety.

Lenny Fabidane, 40, who has been making shell products for 18 years, said it would take her 25 minutes to finish small accessories, and about three hours to make complicated and big items like chandeliers.

Products

Even without formal education on fashion, the local women design the accessories themselves.

Among the fashion accessories they make are earrings, necklace, bracelets and anklets. Each costs anywhere from P5 to P450, depending on the materials used.

The women also sell accessories made of plastic beads.

Aside from the plain shell key chains, they also fashion chains in the form of flowers, pigs, turtles and other animals.

They also sell shell rosaries that cost P10, and chandeliers at P25 to P1,200, depending on the size.

“The bigger the chandelier, the more expensive,” Fabidane said.

Other items that they make out of shells are jewelry cases, cellular phone accessories and table decorations.

Ditas Dolot, senior trade and development specialist of the Department of Trade and Industry in Sorsogon province, said she is encouraging the shell makers to register with their office.

She said, under the DTI, the shell makers can undergo product development training to further develop their skills.

“What we are doing now in DTI is incorporating shells, making it accessories in the abaca handicraft since Gubat is one of the handicraft-producing towns in the province,” Dolot said. “Abaca is also the focus of Gubat since it is under the one town, one product [program] of the DTI.”

July 2, 2007

Libel raps harassment, revenge, says PDI man

By Joanna P. Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—THE PHILIPPINE DAILY Inquirer’s correspondent in Quezon, Delfin T. Mallari Jr., said the filing of libel charges against him and a colleague by new Quezon Gov. Rafael Nantes was not only meant to harass them but to exact revenge.

On June 29, Gmanews.tv, the official website of GMA News and Public Affairs, reported that Nantes had filed on June 22 six counts of libel and malicious publication against Mallari and ABS-CBN radio correspondent Johnny Glorioso.

According to the website, Nantes filed the charges in the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office accusing the two of linking him to illegal drug operations in Quezon and tagging him as the mastermind of the attempt on the lives of Mallari and Glorioso on April 19.

It added: “In filing his complaint, Nantes said the two journalists ‘purposely issued the special edition of the newspaper (Ang Diyaryo Natin) solely to malign, defame, discredit and dishonor my name and reputation and also to maliciously impute a crime, vice or defect on my person that tarnished my name and that of my family.’”

Mallari and Glorioso are publishers and editors of the local newspaper Ang Diyaryo Natin.

Special edition

Mallari admitted issuing a four-page special edition of the paper on April 30-May 6, “but it was not meant to malign his [Nantes’] reputation.”

“We needed to publish a special edition because we wanted to come out in time for the disqualification case against vice gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rodriguez,” Mallari said, adding that this was the banner story.

He said the other stories on the front page of the special issue were Nantes’ claim the battery he was selling was being used by all cell phone companies in the country; two reprinted stories on the P150-million shabu case in Polillo, which did not mention Nantes, and an editorial which he believed was of public concern.

Timing of charges

“The content of my column was based on my speech at the indignation rally,” Mallari said.

Mallari also questioned the timing of the charges. “Why did he not file the case before? Why only now?”

Mallari admitted he had yet to receive a copy of the charges and only read about it on the website.

It will be recalled that Mallari had accused Nantes of being behind the attempt to kill him in Lucena City.

Rehashed issues

Mallari surmised he drew Nantes’ ire after he linked the then congressman to wrongdoing, including the illicit drug trade.

“I believe he (Nantes) knows the suspects in the ambush might be linked to him; that is why this early he is making moves to preempt the case,” he said.

Nantes has denied the allegations, saying they were issues rehashed by political rivals.

Mallari was shot in the back as he drove to the radio station where he hosts a show with Glorioso, who was unharmed.

On May 18, the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed frustrated murder charges against two men believed to have done the shooting.

April 19, 2007

Typhoon survivors heal through art

By Fabian Imperial and Joanna Los Baños

Legazpi City

A NEWLY BUILT HOUSE, RADIANT WITH flowers abloom all around it, capped Raquel Almonte’s series of 12 oil-based pastel sketches that depicted her ordeal after Supertyphoon “Reming” hit her place in Albay.

“How could we have peace if we don’t work and rebuild again after Nov. 30, the day that marked the beginning of pain,’” said Almonte, 33, a teacher of Music, Arts, and Physical Education (Mape) at the San Lorenzo National High School in Tabaco City.

She produced a sketchbook as a way to heal from her traumatic experience after Reming struck.

Almonte was with her 71-year-old father when trapped by floodwaters that surged inside their house in Tabaco at the height of the raging storm.

To save themselves, she hammered a grillwork in the kitchen to create an opening and holler for help.

At sunset when the storm had calmed down, Almonte scanned the site where her house used to stand. Almost all her personal belongings, appliances and other furniture were drenched among the other debris strewn around.

The scene struck her like lightning—all she had left were her father and caring neighbors.

This insight with the lightning as a dominant symbol is the first rendition in her visual narrative titled “Reming Remains” that is preserved in her sketchpad.

Dreamworks

Months later, at the Risen Lord Church near an evacuation center in Barangay Binitayan in Daraga, Albay, Almonte would join other survivors in an art workshop facilitated by the House of Comfort Art Network Inc. (Arthoc), a group that draws on art’s capacity for healing and self-articulation.

In the workshop, Arthoc guided participants through an art form called Dreamworks, which is quite like a draped tapestry that uses old fabrics sewn together as textile grids with images stitched onto it.

The images are first drawn by the artist using bond paper and colored pens to be transformed later into a textile-based artwork.

The craft is a representation of the artist’s dreams—the kind which he forms in his conscious mind or a mental reflection of what he aspires for himself, said Almonte, who was first introduced to the art form during a seminar in Baguio City facilitated by Arthoc vice chair Alma Quinto in April 2006.

At the workshop, there would also be Mercoria “Mer” Basas, 35, of Barangay Binitayan, who, like Almonte, found an opportunity to articulate her longing for her lost family and home in her dream work.

Her quiet wish stitched in brightly colored “retazos” (fabric scraps) consisted of a small house with two windows and a door with the foreground showing two potted plants with three flowers each, an offering to her six loved ones she lost in the typhoon.

“I want to build a house, even a small one, just so my son and I still have a place to stay,” she said.

A craftswoman adept with bags and other handicrafts, Basas and her 11-year-old son Francis are the only ones from their family who survived after floodwaters washed away their house in Purok 5 in Binitayan.

Her husband Francisco, eldest child of 13, and other children—aged 9, 6, 4 and 2—were swept by currents and drowned.

Basas almost died from being soaked in cold rainwater and the wounds inflicted on her when pushed under by swirling waters while Francis held on to a tree for hours in order to stay alive.

Working on the pieces of fabric for her dream home made her feel lighter, she said. The “burden,” she said, “was somehow lessened.”

She now calls home a tiny shack fashioned from pieces of wood, sack, plastic and galvanized iron (GI) sheets with space just enough for her to stretch her legs and cuddle her son.

Staying in this makeshift shelter inside the Tagas Elementary School in Barangay Tagas, also in Daraga, at the foot of Lignon Hill, Basas said that with prayers and the help of her Christian friends she is slowly recovering.

“It was God’s will. Don’t think of the past, face the future,” she said.

Daragang Magayon

Even if not on a regular basis, Basas earns at least P90 from each native bag she makes for a nearby factory which brings her the materials.

“I hope the women here would be given livelihood. We really need to have an income to survive,” she said.

Almonte has converted a space in her school into a workshop for her first year and second year students, to whom she has imparted the dreamworks art form.

To her great joy, she was able to unleash the potentials of her students who cramped the workshop with their creations and have even expanded into other art forms such as theater masks, kites, okir motifs, clay molding, Indonesian batik and ikebana.

“I have plans of forming an art guild so the interest rekindled in the students would burn for a lifetime,” she said.

Almonte and Basas have found the will to recreate their lives, starting with their dream houses, even if initially, only in their sketchpads and through pieces of fabric.

Almonte’s sketches and Basas’ dream works are on exhibit along with the works of six other Bicol-based women artists and artisans in a show called “8 Filipina: Daragang Magayon.”

Ongoing until April 21 at the Liongoren Gallery (111 New York Street, Cubao, Q.C., tel. no. 9124319), the show “attempts to salvage beautiful narratives of persistence, creation and struggle as told by the volcano’s very own children.”

A tribute to the creative spirit of Bicol-based cultural workers, the exhibit also features painters Lina Llaguno-Ciani and Tosha Albor, handloom weavers Socorro Napa from Camalig, Albay and Benita Tucay from Buhi, Camarines Sur, and craftswomen Eustaquia Barce and Marissa Mendoza.

January 29, 2007

A gold medal fished in the dark

By Joanna Los BañosInquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—FROM THE DARKNESS OF the world he was born into, Daniel Damaso Jr., found a way to carve out a shining success story.

Having been born with only a 10-0 vision, the 21-year-old Damaso has experienced all sorts of discrimination since he was young.

“It was as if I had no right to live,” said the gold medalist in the 9th Fespic Games (Far East and South Pacific Games Federation for the disabled), the sports organization for the differently abled in Asia and South Pacific.

Cut off from the activities by other people who could not grasp that he, too, had capabilities, Don—as his relatives and friends call him—would often allow his emotions to get the better of him.

“I got angry and sad, but I don’t mind them now,” he said.

Thus, he had the need for an outlet. And he often found it every time he sneaked out of the family home in coastal Barangay Pigcale and walked a few meters to the beach. It was from this regular search for a refuge that led Don to the sport of swimming.

Don’s mother, Ma. Elena, 43, related that when he was about nine years old, “he would go out of the house, without us noticing him, to swim with his friends on the beach.”

Aware that her son did not have a clear vision, she was scared that “something bad might happen to him.”

It was this worry, this motherly instinct of protectiveness that would prod Elena to look for her son at the beach every time she noticed he wasn’t around in the house. And from this constant attempts to hide from his mother, Don developed his swimming speed.

“When Don sensed my presence, he would swim as fast as he could to the shore nearest our house,” she said laughing, adding that for five years that served as Don’s way to hone his skills.

That makeshift training has made Don into the athlete he is now.

“Even if I am handicapped, I don’t feel it,” he said.

Don said he did not have formal training and his swimming skills were not yet competitive when he was discovered in a swimming competition, conducted by the Philippine Sports Association for the Differently-Abled (Philspada), in Tabaco City last 2000.

In 2003, he was asked to train in Manila for the 2nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Para Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In 2005, he won a gold and a silver medal in the 3rd Asean Para Games at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

But Don admitted that his ultimate goal was not really to become a swimming champion.

“I want to be a teacher to blind children to help and encourage them.”

He is a fourth year high school student at the Special Education for Children with Disabilities (Sped) Center in Barangay Rawis and his favorite are subjects related to science and technology.

Don’s father, Daniel, 43, a carpenter-mason, said he is proud of what his son has accomplished.

“I am very happy that even if he is handicapped and cannot see, he brought home a gold medal,” he said of his son, the second of eight children.

Last Jan. 18, Damaso was given a citation by the Philippine Sportswriters Association, not only for battling through the darkness, but for his willingness to help other people see the light. And believe in himself.

December 11, 2006

Legazpi survivors report hearing voices under mud

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—SINCE SUPERtyphoon “Reming” battered this city on Nov. 30, residents of Barangay Padang here have said they have been “hearing voices” from the site where hundreds of people were buried alive by mudflows.

Erlinda Brul, 46, a resident of Barangay Padang, whose house was only a few meters away from where the mudflows hit, said she and her neighbors had been hearing people wailing and babies crying.

“We have been very scared since,” she said.

As much as possible, residents try to avoid the area.

She said the village, where more than 50 people died and almost 200 were still missing, smelled heavily of rotting corpses.

“I’m scared to walk alone there. I might step on dead people,” she said.

Neighbor’s story

Brul related a story that supposedly happened to a neighbor who was taking a bath early one morning.

“He ran toward us when he heard a baby crying. But when he turned to look back in the direction the cry seemed to be coming from, he discovered he was alone,” she said.

Brul said the voices they were hearing were probably those of people who were buried alive.

“Maybe they are asking for help and prayers,” she said.

If she had a choice, Brul said she would move her family to a safer place.

“I’m really scared of what might happen to us here,” she said.

“During the storm, we did not know that something bad was happening to our neighbors. The wind and rain were so strong. We heard rocks falling but we did not think it was that near,” she said.

Miraculously saved

“I am really thankful that nothing happened to me and my family,” she said in near tears.

Brul’s house was miraculously saved while mudflows swallowed the houses to its left and right.

“It was as if the mudflow split and we were saved,” she said.

On Saturday, Brul’s family, other villagers of Padang and Albay evacuated to safer ground as typhoon Seniang was expected to bring a heavy volume of rainfall that could trigger flash floods and mudslides down Mayon volcano.

Barangay Padang, which is located less than 10 km from Mayon volcano, has at least 2,500 residents, according to its village chieftain.

December 9, 2006

Diseases stalking ‘Reming’ survivors

LEGAZPI CITY — Health officials urged local government officials to fast-track the provision of potable water and provide sanitary means of garbage disposal in this city and other areas in Albay as these were seen to cause an increasing number of diarrhea cases here.

A total of 20 diarrhea cases in the three barangays of Victory Village, San Roque, and Mauyod—all in Legazpi—were recorded by the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital on Thursday.

Dr. Ingrid Magnata, assistant regional director of the Department of Health in Bicol, said most of the victims were children aged two and a half to five years old.

Undocumented cases of diarrhea were reported in other villages while cases being monitored by health workers in evacuation centers were being referred to hospitals for confirmation.

Magnata said although there has been no outbreak yet, “what we are seeing is an increasing number of diarrhea cases and we have deployed surveillance teams to look into other diseases with epidemic potentials.”

The DOH set up two water purifiers in Albay for clean and safe water to be distributed by fire trucks to the evacuation centers.

It also asked the public to use chlorine solutions or to boil the water for five to 10 minutes before drinking, and encouraged the public to observe proper waste disposal, hygiene and hand washing.

Water samples from areas with diarrhea cases have been sent to the public health laboratory for analysis.

As of Thursday afternoon, surveillance teams, which were deployed to the 42 evacuation centers in Albay, found that the most common forms of diseases afflicting the evacuees were acute respiratory infection, 235 cases; wounds, 129; fever, 33, and diarrhea, 24.

In Albay province, there were over 4,329 families and 22,307 persons housed in temporary shelters like barangay halls, chapels, relocation sites, day care centers, public schools and private residences.

The DOH has intensified its watch on diseases that could arise like cholera, gastroenteritis, amoebiasis, typhoid, dengue and other food and waterborne diseases, Magnata said.

“We have started immunization and targeted all evacuation centers in the drive. We have isolated cases of contagious diseases and dispatched medicines in the different municipalities,” she added.

A team from the National Center for Mental Health also arrived in the province to cater to the psychosocial needs of traumatized villagers through stress-debriefing sessions.

Tales of survival abound in the province.

At the height of “Reming” on Thursday, a police official said that a 10-month-old boy and his mother survived after their house was buried in a landslide in Barangay Buhatan, 8 km from Sto. Domingo town.

While the baby boy and his mother survived, seven other persons in their household were not as lucky. Ephraim Aguilar and Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

December 4, 2006

‘I couldn’t believe it was my son’

By Joanna Los Bañosand Ephraim Aguilar

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—AS FLOODWAters unleashed by Supertyphoon “Reming” swept her village, Sally Buensalida, 26, embraced her 2-year-old son before sending him off to her mother’s house, thinking he would be safe there. It was to be their last embrace.

Interviewed at a funeral parlor here, Sally said the place where she was staying was collapsing and she thought that her son would be safer with her mother.

After Reming passed, Sally went to check on the boy.

“I was shocked to see my mother’s house gone,” she said between sobs. She was told her son’s body had been seen floating in Albay Gulf.

“I couldn’t believe it was my son because his eyes were wide open … Later, I realized it was really him,” said Sally, whose husband was in Manila at the time.

Two of her sisters and a niece were also killed, crushed under a fallen coconut tree. Her mother was still missing.

All of Sally’s relatives were among the dozens of people killed in the avalanche of mud and rocks that swamped Barangay Padang, 8 kilometers from the city proper and one of the areas hardest hit by Reming.

Sally’s son lay on the floor of Bejer Basco Funeral Parlor because there were no available coffins for children.

Parlor owner Merly Bejer said this was the first time in her 10 years in the business that the parlor had embalmed so many bodies in a day.

“Although we would profit from it, we are not happy because of what happened,” she said.

Another woman survivor said she was carried 8 km away from her house by the flood, but suffered only bruises.

Because of the mud and the fallen electric posts, a portion of the road between Barangay Bigaa Padang had become a dead-end for motorists and people had to walk.

Along the way, rescue teams plodded on, carrying stretchers with bodies covered with blankets.

McDave Nuez, 18, of Barangay Busay in Daraga, showed no emotion as he wrote the name “Janine” on a piece of paper.

The paper would serve as a label on her sister’s body that lay amid hundreds of other bodies bloated and coated with dried mud at the garage of Nuestra Señora de Salvacion Funeral Home.

McDave, the eldest in the family, had just arrived from Manila, where he had been working. He rushed home after getting a text message that his whole family—seven siblings and his two parents—were trapped inside their house when it was struck by mud flows from Mayon volcano.

He was able to identify one of his five sisters but he had not found the bodies of his parents, four sisters and two brothers.

“I still cannot believe that they are gone,” he said.

December 4, 2006

Tsunami scares Albay folk

By Joanna Los Bañosand Job Belen

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—MISTAKING AN unusually low tide for a tsunami, thousands of panic-stricken villagers in this coastal city and neighboring towns ran as far as they could from their villages that face the Albay Gulf.

The mass hysteria lasted for about 30 minutes yesterday.

Vehicles packed with people gripped with fear were all blowing their horns as they crowded Rizal Street, heading toward the neighboring town of Daraga, while many others, old and young people alike, fled on foot.

Some vehicles, especially motorcycles, got involved in smashups.

One driver was seen hastily leaving his car in a street corner when it got stuck in a traffic.

The panic started when coastal villagers observed that the waters had receded at “unusually low levels,” making them think a tsunami was about to strike Albay.

Wilhelm Garan, 27, of Barangay Barriada here, was inside his house when he saw people running and cars speeding in Daraga.

“I immediately went out to check what the commotion was about,” he said.

After finding out that there was a tsunami coming, he immediately went to where his sister and her son were in their store. On the way, cars were seen bumper to bumper as they were all trying to go to higher ground.

“At that time, I already decided that if the tsunami hit, I would go to the nearest high ground that I see,” he said.

After finding out that it was a false alarm, he felt disappointed. “But we cannot really blame the people for believing such a thing as they just experienced a typhoon,” he said.

On Peñaranda Street, people were running toward downtown, many of them barefoot. Some were seen carrying their elderly relatives as others became hysterical. Still others were simply pale-faced and shaking.

Hundreds of people sought refuge at the public market and packed its upper floors.

One woman was seen lugging a cabinet which, she said, was all she was able to carry.

December 2, 2006

DEVASTATION IN BICOL

Mudflow from Mayon worsens ‘Reming’ damage

By Inquirer Southern Luzon, and Alcuin Papa in Manila

LEGAZPI CITY—FOR THREE HOURS, WALLS OF MUD ROARED down from Mayon Volcano, burying houses up to their rooftops, and rocks “as big as cars” tumbled down. When everything was still, hundreds were feared dead.

One province, where up to 90 percent of buildings were wrecked or damaged, looked like a bowler had rampaged through it, knocking down trees and power poles like tenpins, a lawmaker said. (See related story on this page.)

A Red Cross spokesperson initially put the death toll at 388, with scores more missing.

The death count was still rising as Supertyphoon “Reming” swirled out to the South China Sea yesterday after pounding the Bicol and Southern Tagalog regions with winds gusting up to 265 kph and triggering floods and torrents of mud and volcanic rocks.

Pope Benedict XVI expressed sadness over the disaster.

“Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life resulting from the recent typhoon in the eastern Philippines, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI assures all affected of his closeness in prayer,” Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone wrote in a telegram to the papal nuncio in the Philippines, Fernando Filoni.

The Pope was praying for strength and comfort for the families of the deceased and for rescue workers, the message said.

Many parts of Bicol and Southern Tagalog were plunged into darkness as Reming knocked out power and communication lines in its deadly sweep through Luzon on Thursday. Metro Manila was largely spared.

“The disaster covered almost every corner of this province—rampaging floods, falling trees, damaged houses,” said Gov. Fernando Gonzales of the hardest-hit Albay province. “Many of the houses were totally covered by mud. Only the rooftops were showing.”

Gonzales was referring to the horror brought in Albay, where several villages were engulfed by mudslides accompanied by tons of boulders.

Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal said the typhoon started battering the village of Padang at around 10 a.m. and then the mudflows struck at 3 p.m.

“The mudflow lasted for almost three hours, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.,” Rosal said on ANC television. “It was very fast but it (was) three hours of rolling stones … Families inside their houses were torn from each other. Only two things happened. Some of them were thrown into the sea, others were buried alive.”

“The rocks were as big as cars,” Rosal said

He said the mudflows cascaded up to the national highway well beyond the 8-km danger zone from the mouth of Mayon Volcano, the first time that mudflows had gone that far.

“It’s a wasteland,” Rosal said.

Officials at the Office of Civil Defense said the floods in some areas had forced residents to run to the roofs of their houses and emergency workers were rescuing them from the rooftops.

One of the strongest

About 10,000 houses in Bicol and Southern Tagalog were either blown down by the typhoon—one of the strongest to hit the country in the last 20 years—or were damaged.

Thousands fled to evacuation centers. In Camarines Sur, another hard hit area, the provincial government ordered a forced evacuation of residents before Reming struck.

At least 388 people were killed in Albay, Philippine National Red Cross spokesperson Teresa Arguelles said, according to Agence France-Presse.

PNRC chair Sen. Richard Gordon said the overall death tally could reach “between 300 and 400.”

Busy embalmer

Municipal action officer Noel Ordoña said he passed through Guinobatan in Albay and was told by an embalmer at the Nuestra Señora de Salvacion funeral house that at least 100 bodies had been brought there.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council put the death toll in Bicol at 198, as of 6 p.m. The NDCC said 190 died in Albay, five in Catanduanes and three in Camarines Sur.

It said the deaths in Albay occurred in in Daraga, Sto. Domingo, Guinobatan, Legazpi and Tabaco. A total of 260 are still missing.

Officials in affected cities and town aired frantic calls for medicine, food, rescue equipment, and most of all, body bags.

“The mud was as tall as two-story houses,” said Dr. Anthony Golez, deputy administrator of the Office of the Civil Defense.

He said Reming dumped 466 millimeters of rainfall, the highest in over 40 years. The water mixed with volcanic debris spewed by Mayon in its recent eruptions, causing the mudflows, officials said.

500 dead?

Golez said the mudflows also affected at least five barangays in Daraga and Sto. Domingo in Albay. These are Balibago, Culiat, Busay, Binitayan and Cagsawa.

Some reports said more than 500 perished in Barangay Padang in Legazpi alone but these remained unconfirmed.

Golez said that 10,000 persons were affected, with 2,000 already evacuated.

He said disaster officials were racing against time to save lives.

“There is such as a thing as the ‘Golden Hour’ where the first 24 hours will give us time where we can still save a lot of lives. We are focused on this and giving support to local government units,” Golez said.

“These are very big and very heavy mudflows. It buried many houses,” Gov. Gonzales said. He expressed fear the death toll might even exceed 1,000.

“We are getting reports that there are more and more casualties,” the governor said, adding he expected the tally to rise once isolated areas were heard from.

During an NDCC meeting in Camp Aguinaldo presided over by President Macapagal-Arroyo, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said he had requested for 200 cadaver bags to be sent to Albay. He said there were also reports 20 others had died elsewhere.

Ms Arroyo compared the destruction brought about by Reming to what Hurricane “Katrina” had done in the United States.

Rescue efforts hampered

“For such a strong typhoon, 220 (dead) is almost like Katrina. But as we can see things are really very much under control,” Ms Arroyo said.

In August of last year, Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people in the US Gulf Coast with winds of around 280 kph.

Rescue efforts were being hampered by lack of electricity and the breakdown of telephone lines throughout much of the Bicol peninsula. Water services were also disrupted.

“The situation here (in Albay) is really bad,” Gonzales told reporters.

Gonzales said rescue teams from various Armed Forces units were having a hard time reaching the affected villages as landslides and floods made roadways impassable.

In Camarines Sur, Reming also toppled power lines, uprooted trees, destroyed houses, damaged government facilities and disrupted travel and communication lines.

Forced evacuation

Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte said that two days before the typhoon hit, he ordered the provincial and municipal disaster councils to evacuate people in landslide-prone areas.

“We have minimized the damage to life because of the forced evacuation order but the damage to properties and government facilities is extensive,” he said.

The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) in Camarines Sur reported that 6,256 houses in six towns were destroyed and 15,678 partially damaged.

A pregnant woman in Baras, Canaman in Camarines Sur was struck by a flying iron sheet that killed her and forced her to deliver her baby. The baby died later.

Yesterday, the area around Mayon was bathed in sunshine.

“That’s the only thing beautiful today that we’ve been able to experience,” Gonzales said of the sunny weather.

Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and its wireless subsidiary, Smart Communications, provided free calls for victims and their families and set up wireless broadband Internet access in the regional chapters of the Red Cross.

In a press statement, PLDT said it also donated P200,000 through the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and PNRC for relief assistance to residents hard hit by the super typhoon.

Reming is expected to weaken into a tropical storm over the next few days as it approaches Vietnam. With reports from Juliet Labog-Javellana, Philip C. Tubeza, Leila B. Salaverria in Manila, and Juan Escandor Jr. Joanna Los Baños, Delfin T. Mallari Jr., and Marlon Ramos, Inquirer Southern Luzon, and AFP

November 15, 2006

How do you freea ‘butanding’?

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—A BUTANDING (WHALE shark) accidentally got caught in a fish corral in Albay, according to an environment officer here.

Jo Roco, science research specialist of the Ecosystems Research and Development Service of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources here, said fish corral owner Sonny Alcantara called him up yesterday asking for advice on how to free the creature, which has been trapped in the corral since Saturday.

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is in the corral in the coastal waters of Barangay Malobago in Manito.

According to Alcantara, the fish corral—which is 15-20 m in diameter and some 20 ft deep—is bigger than a fish pen.

“I told Mr. Alcantara to release the trapped creature immediately if they can,” Roco said. “It is important that they do not harm the creature during the release.”

Should Alcantara be unable to set the gentle creature free, Roco said he would immediately form a group to help release it.

This was not the first time a butanding found itself trapped in a fish corral and then released.

In April 2003, Roco said a five-meter butanding was trapped in the fish corral of Alcantara for three days in Barangay Cawayan.

It was released through the efforts of the Navy Special Warfare Group (Swag) and the Bicol Scuba Divers Foundation Inc. whose public information officer happens to be Roco.

Sightings of whale sharks, recognized as the world’s largest fish, have been reported in other parts of the Albay Gulf.

October 28, 2006

Mayon alert level lowered

LEGAZPI CITY—The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has lowered the alert level of Mayon volcano from two to one. The Phivolcs, however, continued to warn against entry into the 7-km extended danger zone and the 6-km permanent danger zone around Mayon. It also warned against straying into rivers and areas that are lahar-prone. It said Mayon was heading for normalcy since the last monitoring on Oct. 3. The alert level was lowered as a 4.1 magnitude earthquake shook Masbate and Sorsogon on Thursday.

Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

October 27, 2006

Bulusan lahar forces villagers’ flight

SORSOGON CITY—LAHAR DEPOSITS washed down from the slopes of Bulusan volcano due to heavy rains on Wednesday and Thursday destroyed at least 16 houses and forced the evacuation of at least 96 persons, said the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council here.

At least eight houses were destroyed and eight were damaged in Barangay Patag while a still undetermined number of houses were under threat in Barangay Cogon, said PDCC Action Officer Bobet Lee.

Lee said the lahar flow, which occurred at around 7 a.m. on Thursday, could have been more disastrous had it happened earlier when the residents were still asleep.

“Large boulders, some as big as trucks, went with the lahar,” Lee added.

Lee said that four of the affected families, composed of 25 persons, were living near the banks of the Cogon River, which had been heavily silted by past lahar flows.

A bulletin from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) showed that from 9:30 a.m on Wednesday until yesterday morning, a muddy stream flow was observed in Barangays Cogon and Monbon, both in Irosin. Bobby Labalan and Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

October 23, 2006

Typhoon victim gets surprise new house

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—FOR THE PAST WEEKS, he had been a picture of hopelessness and misery.

Now, 15-year-old Joseph Pulgosino has a reason to smile.

His house, washed away by Typhoon “Milenyo” on Sept. 27, has been rebuilt.

With the help of an anonymous person who read his story in the Inquirer on Oct. 5, Pulgosino was able to rebuild his home, spending nothing.

“Last Saturday morning, three workers came here and brought materials to work on our house,” he said, smiling.

“We asked the workers who sent them, but they said the person did not want to be identified,” he said.

The house by the sea at Barangay Baybay was completed on Sunday.

“We did not transfer right away. We were a bit afraid to go back because of what happened,” he told the Inquirer.

Since the typhoon, Pulgosino and his family had been spending the night at the Legazpi Port Elementary School, used as an evacuation center. During the day, they would go back to their village so they would not disrupt classes.

But on Monday, Pulgosino and his family spent their first night at their new 3×3-meter house.

Pulgosino said he knew nothing about the person who helped him, except that he, or she, was from Polangui town in Albay.

His neighbors said they heard the person gave P10,000 for the construction of Pulgosino’s house.

Salvacion Altiche, 76, Pulgosino’s grandmother, was grateful for the assistance. “It’s really hard for them, especially that they don’t have a father,” she said.

Another person from Manila, who also refused to be identified, sent him P5,000 through Bank of the Philippine Islands.

“But the money has all been spent. We had to pay our debts and we also bought clothes and other things we needed,” he said.

Pulgosino said only six sets of clothes for him, his brother and his mother, who was a laundrywoman, were salvaged. The rest, including other belongings, were lost when their house was swept into the sea.

Work now, school later

He said he didn’t plan to go back to school immediately.

“I need to work even as a porter to help my mother,” Pulgosino said, adding that he could not really afford to go to school.

He used to collect metal and plastic scraps and sell them to the nearby junk shop at P10 per kilo.

His younger brother is able to go to school with the help of the nongovernment organization Children’s International.

Pulgosino do not have a similar sponsor.

But he said he would like to continue his education if he could afford it.

Pulgosino appreciated the assistance he had received. “Thank you very much. What you did was a great help for us. We cannot thank you enough,” he said, teary-eyed.

October 23, 2006

Guyito joins Bicol scholars

GOA, CAMARINES SUR—AMID THE cool breeze, administration officials, faculty members and students of the Philippine Science High School-Bicol Region Campus warmly welcomed the Inquirer team that turned over the Guyito carabao replica to the community of science and math scholars on Oct. 19.

The replica, sculptured by Juan Sajid Imao and painted by renowned artist Wilfredo Offemaria Jr., was cheered and wildly applauded by the family of 278 scholars who live inside a 6-hectare campus on the slope of Mt. Isarog about 170 meters above sea level.

Students excitedly watched the unveiling of Guyito, which had been wrapped in a white cloth since it arrived on the second week of September.

All Pisayanos, as residents of the PSHS-BRC are popularly called, were told not to destroy the package or peep into it.

Inspiration

Their curiosity were doused when the Guyito mascot was finally unwrapped and turned over to the school after two postponements.

“It’s great to finally see a carabao not plowing the fields outside our school, but a carabao which we can be proud of and from which we can get inspiration from,” said Armin Clement Chavez, a student.

“Guyito is not only this painted carabao. It is a symbol of intelligence, excellence and so much more. It is a challenge to keep up the good work of our institution. And we won’t be disappointing Guyito,” said student William del Rosario.

“It touched hearts and challenged intellects to see Guyito and have passionate people from a privileged publication share their ideas with us,” said Juliane Moira Sy, associate editor of The Bicol Scholar, official English publication of the PSHS-BRC.

Difficult times

In her acceptance speech, Elsie Ferrer, officer in charge of the Director’s Office, said the faculty, staff, and scholars welcomed Guyito “with open arms and hearts to our home.”

“Like the PDI mascot, this campus, too, has withstood worst conditions but has never given up to achieve excellence,” she said.

Of Guyito, she said, “it is not only a symbol of knowledge, excellence and hard work, which this campus has always tried to instill among its students. It is also a manifestation of Pisay-Bicol’s resiliency during difficult times and its steadfast commitment to truth and service to our country.”

Ferrer said the painting of Offemaria resembled the real PSHS scholar—inventive, creative and innovative—similar to the boy with the tin can as his telephone.

Guyito’s horn, she said, “resembles our weapon in fighting for excellence and quest for truth and knowledge, and not that which anyone may use in fighting for a wrong purpose.”

Ferrer said the administration planned to put Guyito in the Students’ Pavilion, where teachers and students usually gather for programs and activities, so that it would serve as an inspiration and a reminder to students that they have to pursue their goals by capitalizing on their strength, intelligence, hard work, and good character.

“Guyito will serve as ‘nonliving’ witness to all our achievements and perhaps even failures and problems, which we consider as blessings in disguise for us to learn to survive in this competitive world,” she said.

After the turnover ceremonies, the Inquirer team of John Nery, Inquirer Compact managing editor; Megi Garcia, marketing associate; and Floreño Solmirano, Inquirer Southern Luzon Bureau chief, conducted a seminar on basic journalism for the students and oriented them on the processes involved in publishing the Inquirer.

Founding anniversary

The PSHS-BRC, which will celebrate its foundation anniversary on Oct. 26-27, is a kilometer away from the town center.

From a small family of scholars and teachers in 1998, its population has grown to 278 scholars, 33 teachers and 13 non-teaching personnel, from the Bicol and Mimaropa (Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan) regions.

Its Robotic team recently won the grand award in the Robot Category of the Fifth Philippine Robotics Olympiad.

The team will represent the Philippines in the International Robotics Olympiad on Nov. 15-19 in Nanjing, China. Joanna Los Baños and Niño Jesus Orbeta, Inquirer Southern Luzon

October 5, 2006

Typhoon can’t tear apart this family

By Joanna Los Baños

Legazpi City

FOR 15-YEAR-OLD JOSEPH Pulgosino, who lives in the coastal Barangay Baybay in Legazpi City, recovering from Typhoon “Milenyo,” which battered the capital last week, has been very difficult.

His house was among the 13,978 destroyed by the typhoon in Albay, according to a report of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council.

“I don’t know what to do anymore,” he said, teary-eyed as he pounded on a metal scrap he was going to sell to a nearby junk shop. He said he earned P10 for every kilo of plastic or metal piece he brought.

The money, he said, helped buy food for his family.

While other teenagers were busy walking around the village and doing other things, Pulgosino was working doubly hard, hoping to earn enough to buy materials to rebuild their house.

His mother does laundry work in the nearby Victory Village, and her income is not regular. His father had left them when he was only six years old.

Although he has an older sister who helps them, Pulgosino said his mother depended much on him. His sister lives in another town and does not earn much.

Tragedy strikes

Pulgosino recounted the tragedy. At 4 p.m. on Sept. 27, at the height of Milenyo in his village, the family left the house and sought shelter at the Legazpi Port Elementary School, bringing only six pieces of clothes for him, his mother and his younger brother. He had thought that the typhoon would soon be over and they would be able to go home the next morning.

After the long night, they returned to Baybay.

“We were shocked to see our house gone,” he said. “It was washed away by the sea.”

Now gazing at the sea, he said: “I hope we can fix our house soon.”

His grandmother, Salvacion Altiche, 76, whose house was also damaged, said she and other family members were spending the night at the evacuation center. They leave in the morning because they did not want to disturb the classes, she said.

“We try to look for our things and fix our house in the morning and then go back to the evacuation center at night,” she said.

They were reconstructing their house with whatever they retrieve from the piles of wood scattered on the shore.

The old woman complained that she easily got tired. “If I could not help it, I sneak into this roof and take a nap there,” she said, pointing at the fallen concrete roof of the barangay hall.

“I pity my grandchildren because they are not able to go to school,” she said, referring to Pulgosino and his brother. The boys were not able to save their school uniforms and things.

Pulgosino is a third year student at the Banquerohan Extension High School, while his brother is a first year student.

Altiche said it was not the first time that her house was destroyed by a typhoon. “In May, my house was also destroyed by Typhoon ‘Caloy.’ ”

The house was rebuilt through the help of the city government, which gave P2,500 in assistance, she said.

On Tuesday, Mayor Noel Rosal said the city would give money for the construction of houses as soon as it has the funds.

“Ubos-ubos pa ang pera ngayon (We have no money right now),” he said, pointing out that the city had already spent a huge amount for people who evacuated from Mt. Mayon’s eruptions.

Altiche said that if it was possible, she, along with her family, would relocate. “But the problem is, where to get the money for the construction of our new houses.”

Even if they did not know how they would cope with the disaster, Pulgosino knew what he wanted. “What is important is my family is together. All of us are alive and we will always be there to help each other even if another storm comes.”

October 5, 2006

Volcanologists lower Mayon alert level to 2 but danger zone stays

LEGAZPI CITY—VOLCANOLOgists lowered Mayon volcano’s alert level status from 3 to 2 and said there was now a remote possibility of a violent eruption.

Alex Baloloy, science research specialist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said they lowered Mayon’s alert level 4 p.m. on Tuesday because of the “continuous decline in its overall activity.”

In the Phivolcs update, it said all key parameters, such as earthquake levels, ground deformation and gas outputs, showed a decline in activity and that the Ligñon Hill observatory also reported that the flow of lava had stopped since Oct. 1.

“The persistent decline on all the monitored parameters (seismic, ground deformation, sulfur dioxide emission rate, visuals) and the apparent cessation of lava extrusion are indications that the volcano is relatively stable and slowly heading toward normal conditions,” it said.

Even if the alert level status was lowered, there was still continuing threat from sudden explosions, rockfalls from the upper slopes and secondary pyroclastic flows as a result of the collapse of the newly deposited lava at the upper and middle slopes.

The Phivolcs reminded the public not to enter the six-kilometer permanent danger zone and the 7-km extended danger zone at the southeast sector of the volcano.

On July 14, Mayon suddenly spewed trickles of lava, prompting the Phivolcs to raise to 3 the alert level around the volcano.

Phivolcs said lava fragments were being detached from a lava pile on the summit crater, causing a glow seen from this city and its vicinity.

Later, because of the continuous lava emission, the Phivolcs reported that the lava trail was the longest in 30 years.

On Aug. 7, Eduardo Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, said Phivolcs raised the alert level to 4, which meant that a “hazardous, explosive eruption” was imminent.

More than 40,000 residents living at the 6-km PDZ and the 8-km EDZ at the southeast section of the volcano were asked to evacuate in the different evacuation centers in Legazpi City, Tabaco City, Ligao City and the towns of Daraga, Guinobatan, Camalig, Sto. Domingo and Malilipot.

They stayed at the evacuation centers for more than a month and were finally able to go home when the alert level status of the volcano was lowered to 3 on Sept. 11.

The most destructive eruption of Mayon occurred on Feb. 1, 1814, where 1,200 people died. Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

September 20, 2006

Gunmen in bonnets kill another activist

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—GUNMEN WEAR-ing bonnets, black shirts and combat boots struck amid the outcry against extrajudicial executions, killing peasant leader Christopher Lunar, police said.

The 31-year-old Lunar, local coordinator of the party-list group Anakpawis, became the 251st fatality in attacks on leftwing militants since President Macapagal-Arroyo became Chief Executive in 2001, according to an Inquirer count. Leftist groups put the number at 720, the police at over 100.

Anakpawis members accounted for 33 of the fatalities.

The report of the attack came as protesters marched in the cities of San Fernando and Calamba to denounce the extrajudicial executions and leftist leaders criticized the investigative commission headed by former Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Melo.

Police Supt. Elizear Bron said Lunar was cleaning his yard in Barangay Sta. Rita II, Del Gallego, Camarines Sur, on Saturday when one of 11 men shot him with a .45-cal. pistol.

Lunar succumbed from two gunshot wounds in the head. Recovered from the scene were two .45-cal. shells, Bron said.

Lunar was the second leftist leader in Bicol gunned down in less than two months.

On Aug. 3, Pastor Isaias Sta. Rosa, 47, of the United Methodist Church was shot outside his house in Barangay Malobago, Daraga, Albay.

Early reports said evidence gathered by a 12-member team from the United Methodist Church pointed to soldiers of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division as the killers of Sta. Rosa, who was also a member of the leftist Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bicol.

Calamba protest

Some 1,000 protesters marched across Calamba and neighboring cities for a second day yesterday to protest 142 political murders in the area since 2001. The protest was staged a day after Ms Arroyo returned from a trip to Europe, where leaders there expressed concern over the surge in extrajudicial executions.

Relatives carried pictures of the fatalities and headbands that read “Stop political killings.”

Doris Cuario, secretary general of the Southern Tagalog chapter of Karapatan, criticized Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon’s statement that the military had effectively reduced the number of New People’s Army guerrillas with the help of the P1-billion additional budget.

“The truth is that the P1 billion has been used by the military in killing innocent civilians and members of progressive organizations and in perpetrating human rights violations against the people,” Cuario claimed.

‘Caravan for human rights’

Bayan led a “caravan for human rights” in San Fernando. An eight-by-six-foot streamer showing the so-called record of human rights violations by the Arroyo administration was mounted on a jeep leading the activists’ convoy of 15 vehicles and 1,000 marchers.

The streamer showed some photographs of the 109 activists who were killed in the area since 2001.

The Central Luzon contingent will link up with members of Bayan in Southern Luzon and other regions for a rally at Liwasang Bonifacio on Sept. 21 to mark the anniversary of the declaration of martial law in 1972 by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Leaflets distributed among motorists and commuters included criticism of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, the retired commander of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division blamed for some of the political killings.

Conditioning the public

In Congress, Bayan party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said the Melo Commission was setting up leftists for hanging by “trying to condition the public’s mind that we’re enemies of the state.”

He said this came out in General Esperon’s testimony on Monday before the commission formed by Ms Arroyo to investigate the extrajudicial executions.

“They want to confuse the public,” said Casiño in an interview. “This is the normal trend when the government wants to eliminate its perceived enemies, so that it can easily justify the killings later on.”

Also yesterday, Malacañang announced it was not keen on Amnesty International’s proposal to expand the Melo Commission to include independent personalities from human rights groups experienced in documenting assassinations.

“The commission is moving ahead methodically and judiciously in fulfilling its mandate,” Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

“Let us not prejudge the commission but instead support its pursuit of justice for its victims and recommending effective measures to put an immediate stop to these lawless acts.”

AI proposal ‘absurd’

Administration lawmakers also opposed the AI proposal.

Representatives Benasing Macarambon (NPC, Lanao del Sur) and Monico Puentevella (Lakas, Bacolod City) said the AI should stop making “absurd proposals because these only expose the organization’s desire to become part of the Melo Commission.”

Former President Fidel Ramos urged the commission to identify and punish individuals liable for human rights violations and avoid focusing on institutions in its ongoing investigation.

He said this would show the international community that the country was not “a hotbed of human rights violators.”

The leftist workers group Kilusang Mayo Uno yesterday said it would file in the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council cases pertaining to political killings in the Philippines. With reports from Christine O. Avendaño, Nikko Dizon, Michael Lim Ubac, Jerome Aning, Norman Bordadora in Manila, Delfin T. Mallari Jr. and Niña Catherine Calleja, Inquirer Southern Luzon, and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

September 11, 2006

Plan to lower Mayon alert hailed

LEGAZPI CITY—ERLINDA BRUL, A LAUN-dry woman who has evacuated to the Albay Central School here, could not help feeling happy after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported that it was studying the possibility of lowering the alert level of Mayon volcano from 4 to 3.

“Thank God! If the alert level is lowered to 3, we will be able to go home and live normal lives again,” said Brul, 46, of Barangay Padang. She has been staying in the evacuation center for more than a month now.

She is one of the residents forced to leave their homes near Mayon’s danger zone when the alert level was raised to 4 on Aug. 7.

Brul related how difficult it was to live in the temporary shelter.

“We are not used to staying in the evacuation center and my children got sick,” she said. She has six children, aged 6 to 17 years old.

Brul’s feeling was shared by other evacuees who abandoned their homes, farms and animals in their villages.

Jukes Nuñez, an officer of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, said that as of Friday, more than 30,226 persons had been staying in 21 evacuation centers in Albay.

He said the number was expected to decrease since some of the evacuees were asked to go back to their homes over the weekend.

Those who were asked to decamp live beyond the 8-km extended danger zone, he said.

On Saturday, Phivolcs reported two volcanic earthquakes and 300 tremor episodes in a 24-hour observation period.

It said the sulfur dioxide emission rate of the volcanic plume of 1,701 tons per day was lower than the previous day’s 1,841 tons.

The continuous decline in seismic activity, sulfur dioxide emission rate, and ground deformation may signify a slowdown in the volcano’s activity, he added.

“If the downtrend persists in the coming days, appropriate recommendation for lowering the alert status shall be made,” the agency said.

Alert level 4 remains hoisted around the volcano, while the 8-km extended danger zone is still off limits.

Phivolcs officials reminded everyone, especially those living near the volcano, to remain vigilant because even a small explosion, if caused by a brief outburst from the crater, could generate life-threatening pyroclastic flows. Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

September 3, 2006

Evacuees in Mayonto start work forschools, villages

LEGAZPI CITY—AFTER ALmost a month of staying in evacuation centers, Mayon evacuees in Camalig town will start on Monday with the cash-for-work project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, where they will earn money to buy their other needs.

Elena Andalis, DSWD administrative officer, yesterday said the cash-for-work project would give work to the evacuees and pay them for their services.

She said this project is for all evacuation centers in Albay but it would first start in Camalig, since all the projects had already been identified with the help of the DSWD central office, the local government unit and the evacuees.

Andalis said they were still coordinating with other local government units for the same project.

She said 135 families from the upper portion of Barangay Cabangan, housed at the Taladong Elementary School, would benefit from the project as 135 persons would be assigned to the different projects identified in the evacuation center.

The evacuees will work for five days, and will be paid P200 per day for the repair of classroom roofing, concreting of the floor of the temporary tent house and path walk, cleaning of classrooms, leak proofing of classroom roofs, grass cutting in school lawns, cleaning of school drainage and school yard cleaning.

The initial cost of P81,000 for this project in Camalig has been approved by Jim Rebustillo, DSWD regional director.

In the latest update of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council yesterday, there were still 6,566 families or 30,634 persons housed in 23 evacuation centers in Albay.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology bulletin yesterday said a small ash explosion occurred at 2:01 p.m. on Friday, but it was not seen because of the thick clouds covering the crater of the volcano.

There were 31 volcanic earthquakes noted, which indicated active magma ascent into the crater, while 248 tremors were generated by lava fragments detaching from the lava flow deposits.

Because of the high level of volcanic unrest due to the occurrence of intermittent explosions, significant number of volcanic earthquakes, elevated volcanic gas outputs and continuing lava extrusion, alert level 4 remained in effect, which means that the 8-kilometer radius extended danger zone over the southeast should remain off limits. Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

August 31, 2006

Villagers told: Don’t give ‘butanding’ stress

LEGAZPI CITY—THE MAYOR OF this city asked residents of a village here to keep whale sharks coming by “not giving them stress.”

“You may enjoy the sightings of ‘butanding’ or whale sharks but avoid giving them stress,” Mayor Noel Rosal told villagers of Barangay Bigaa, which has been frequented by the gentle creatures for more than a week now.

To orient villagers on how to deal with the whale sharks, Rosal invited Jo Roco, a science research specialist of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and Allan Amanse, 38, a butanding interaction officer (BIO) from Donsol, Sorsogon.

In an assembly Tuesday at the Bantay Dagat Hall that faces the shore, Roco talked to about 50 villagers, mostly fishermen, about the nature of the butanding.

“I need your cooperation in taking care of this creature so it would stay in our seas,” Roco said.

Butandings come closer to shore in Bigaa, than in Donsol where tourists have to hire boats to get closer looks at the whale sharks.

Rosal asked villagers to keep their surroundings clean and avoid throwing garbage into the sea.

He said rivers should also be kept clean because this was where planktons, the butandings’ food, come from.

Roco said butandings come when the waters are calm.

Vicente Alpajero, 64, a village councilor, said the butandings stay on the shore because of the food.

“Only when these creatures saunter or wander in the seas do neighboring barangays get to see them,” he said.

Omar Nepumoceno, 35, a pioneer BIO in Donsol, is enthusiastic about the prospect of the butandings making their presence felt in Bicol’s coastal waters on a year-round basis. Joanna Los Baños, Inquirer Southern Luzon

August 29, 2006

Many Mayon evacuees told to go back home

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—SOME EVACUAtion centers here have been decamped, reducing the number of evacuees to less than 40,000, even as volcanologists maintained alert level 4 around Mayon due to its continued unrest.

The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council reported that evacuees from three barangays in Sto. Domingo and Camalig towns in Albay were asked to go back to their homes earlier while evacuees from two barangays in Daraga were preparing to return to their houses.

Jukes Nuñez, provincial disaster officer, said the evacuees who were asked to decamp live beyond the 8-km extended danger zone.

In Sto. Domingo, the barangay residents who were housed at the San Andres resettlement site and who were asked to return to their homes were from San Isidro, 9.25 km from the crater, and San Fernando, 8.25 km.

In Camalig town, evacuees from Barangay Quirangay who were housed at the Bariw Elementary School were also asked to go home.

The PDCC officers also met with the evacuees from Barangays Salvacion and Miisi in Daraga to prepare them for departure.

As of yesterday, the Office of Civil Defense reported that there were still 8,020 families, or 37,580 persons, in the 29 evacuation centers in the province.

Romeo Cabria, chair of the Sto. Domingo Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council, said the OCD put up prefabricated shelters for the evacuees at the San Andres resettlement site.

He said the OCD had constructed four shelters initially, which could ideally accommodate two to three families per shelter.

He said children and elderly people would be given priority in the shelters.

Lava continued to flow out of the summit of Mayon and the seismic network recorded 275 tremors during the past 24 hours, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) yesterday morning.

Some 30 volcanic earthquakes occurred while the sulfur dioxide emission rate was at 4,640 tons per day, which indicated the volcano’s high level of unrest and the possibility of a violent eruption, Phivolcs said.

Rumblings from the volcano were reported Sunday at around 8:47 p.m. by residents of Barangays Matanag in Legazpi and Basud in Sto. Domingo; and at the Ligñon Hill Observatory.

An ash puff about 100 meters high occurred from the summit crater at around 6:25 a.m. on Monday.

August 28, 2006

Entry of ‘butanding’in Mayon communitiesseen good luck sign

By Joanna Los Baños

Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—THE PRESENCE of whale sharks (Rhicodon typus) in Barangay Bigaa here in these creatures is a sign of good luck for the coastal community, according to residents.

Jesus Bolactia, 69, who has been fishing since he was 12 years old, said it was almost 50 years ago when he had sightings of the whale sharks, locally named butanding, off the village.

He said he could not forget what happened that night in 1960 when he and the other fishermen caught so many fish, which he believed accompanied the butanding to the area.

That was the only time they ever had a big catch, said Bolactia, who now has three fishermen sons. “All of our nets were full of fish. We spent the whole night until morning fishing,” he said, sitting on the bamboo floor of his small hut overlooking the sea.

The catch was big enough to load on two trucks, he said.

Asked why there was an abundance of fish, Anghel Cordovilla, 76, also of Bigaa, said: “This is probably the blessing of the Almighty God.”

Ed Abiera, 49, a fisherman for the past 29 years, confirmed the presence of a number of whale sharks in the village. He said there had been previous sightings, but these were not given much attention because the gentle creatures did not stay long.

Abiera said the people used to fear the world’s largest fish because they had a mistaken idea that all sharks eat people.

“It’s really amazing and we saw a lot of them,” said Jesus’ daughter, Josephine, 23. Her father added that young people were now more aware of the friendly whale sharks.

Jo Roco, a science research specialist of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said that as of 3:56 p.m. on Thursday, nine sightings and five encounters with the butanding had been recorded. As of 5 p.m., there were already 16 sightings.

The biggest butanding seen measured 7 meters long and was spotted 50-100 meters from the shore, he said.

According to Abiera, the whale shark has similar behavior as humans. “If the butanding sees that it is being watched by the people, mas lalo dumadami (more surface),” he said.

Bolactia and Cordovilla said they were happy with the presence of the butanding, who usually show up at low tide when the water is calm and the sun is not so hot.

Although fish is not abundant now, Abiera said that if the whale sharks meant good luck before, “it may still be a sign of good luck today for our village.”

“If ever, this would really help increase our villagers’ income and Legazpi would become prominent because of it,” he said.

Roco told Bigaa residents and other watchers that “if we want the butanding to stay, we have to leave them alone. Don’t harm them and don’t touch them. Just watch and swim with them.”

He also warned them not to touch the butanding with bare hands as this could cause itchiness from the algae, moss and other bacteria on its skin.

July 30, 2006

New storm ‘Henry’ enters RP

By Blanche S. Rivera

ANOTHER STORM—THE FOURTH THIS month—entered the Philippine area of responsibility yesterday but has not caused any casualties.

The slow-moving tropical depression “Henry” hit the Bicol region with maximum sustained winds of 55 kph near the center, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said in its 5 p.m. bulletin yesterday.

Satellite images showed Henry to be 360 km east of Legaspi City in Albay and moving west-northwest at 7 kph.

Some 170 passengers were stranded in two sea ports in Bicol following the cancellation of trips because of Henry, the regional Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said.

The OCD said 40 passengers going to Catanduanes and nearby island villages were stranded at the Tabaco port.

Trips to the Matnog port in Sorsogon were not canceled, but the storm caused a slowdown in commuter service, stranding 130 persons, four passenger buses, six cargo trucks and eight small vehicles.

“It will not yet cause the kind of heavy rains in Metro Manila that the storm of last week did. Eastern Visayas and Bicol will suffer the rains first,” Pagasa weather branch chief Nathaniel Cruz said.

Henry prompted the weather bureau to raise Signal No.1 in Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon and Catanduanes.

It could raise the risk of lahar flows in Albay as Mayon Volcano continues to be restive, causing lava flows up to 5.4 aerial kilometers from the crater.

The other restive volcano in Bicol, Mt. Bulusan in Sorsogon, which sent ash upward in nine explosions in the last four months, has quieted down. Still, Alert Level 1 was hoisted over the area.

Henry is expected to close in on Legaspi this afternoon before moving 60 km northeast of Virac tomorrow and 180 km east-southeast of Casiguran, Aurora, on Tuesday afternoon.

Henry came in the wake of three typhoons —“Ester,” “Florita” and “Glenda”—that hit the Philippines in the last four weeks, enhancing monsoon winds and causing heavy rains even in areas where no storm signals were raised. With Joanna P. Los Baños, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

February 22, 2006

Phivolcs raises alert level in Mayon

LEGAZPI CITY—AUTHORITIES RAISED THE ALERT level around Mayon to 2 after the volcano emitted ash that was preceded by a series of weak earthquakes.

Ed Laguerta, Bicol director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said the volcano spewed ash 500 meters high from its crater.

The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council said the alert level meant that no one should stray into a 6-km radius around the volcano that was delineated as a permanent danger zone.

The small explosion deposited ash in the upper slopes of the volcano, a Phivolcs bulletin said.

It said more explosions could occur in the next few days as magma rises and releases gas inside the volcano.

Laguerta said a team from Manila would arrive today to fix the seismic sensors installed at the foot of the volcano.

“What happened today was just a minor explosion,” he said.

Laguerta said the Phivolcs is watching out for these other signs of a possible eruption—swelling of the volcano’s dome, intense crater glow and increase in the emission of ash.

The Phivolcs, he said, requested for a helicopter from the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) to be used by a Phivolcs team to take a closer look at Mayon in an aerial survey.

The OCD said it was closely coordinating with Phivolcs to monitor the volcano’s condition and alert people as soon as it shows signs of erupting.

It said village councils were told to prepare for a possible eruption and put their disaster preparedness plans in place.

“But there is no reason for the people to panic at this point in time,” Laguerta said.

The OCD said should Mayon erupt, or continue showing signs of erupting, it was prepared to evacuate people and bring them to safety. Joanna Los Baños, with a report from Gil Francis Arevalo, PDI S. Luzon Bureau

February 2, 2006

Report says it was whale, not dugong

LEGAZPI CITY—THE CARCASS found on the shore of a village in a controversial mining site in Albay belonged to a sperm whale, not a dugong (sea cow), as thought earlier, officials said on Tuesday.

Rey Juan, Bicol regional director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), quoted two other officials as saying the carcass, earlier thought to be that of a dugong, was actually that of a sperm whale.

A report by the MGB regional office said the carcass was brought to the municipal cemetery to be buried since it was emitting foul odor.

“Foul odor also emanated from the burial site (which then had to be deodorized) with chlorine and Lysol,” the report added.

A press statement from Lafayette Philippines Inc. said that a picture of the whale’s carcass was attached to the MGB report and showed a fin on its top side, indicating it was not a dugong. The whale was pregnant.

It said that, according to the MGB report, the whale most likely died from its wounds.

Wounds

It (whale) “bore contusions, lacerations and wounds all over its body.”

According to Lafayette, “the (MGB) report did not say if the wounds were man-inflicted or not. The report in effect rejected allegations by antimining activists blaming Lafayette’s mining activities for the whale’s death. It was also the activists who claimed it was a dugong.”

In a statement, Lafayette said its mining operations in Rapu-Rapu, Albay was highly unlikely to be the cause of the whale’s death since smaller fishes would have died, too, before the whale did if the waters of Rapu Rapu were indeed contaminated.

In an earlier interview, Jose Belando, 56, the fisherman who first saw the carcass, said “I saw it (dugong) yesterday morning (Jan. 26) in the shore near a tree in my house, with its stomach’s side up.”

“At first I did not notice it since I thought that it was just an ordinary fish and I would not benefit from it,” he said.

His neighbors milled around the big bloodied carcass and thought at first that it was a dolphin.

He could not tell the cause of its death. “I just saw it there. I could not tell how it died.”

The MGB report was prepared by Christian Oropesa, senior science research specialist, and engineer Roy Collamar.

The mining firm said official findings released only last week showed that the island’s waters sampled on Jan. 6 and 19 were well within the government’s strict cyanide standards. Joanna P. Los Baños, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

January 24, 2006

Daet lotto winner richer than Pacquiao

By Joanna P. Los Baños PDI Southern Luzon Bureauand DJ Yap

in Manila

A POOR BICOLANO DID NOT HAVE TO travel miles to Las Vegas and trade punches with a tough Mexican to win more than P100 million—tax-free.

In fact, Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao’s earnings of P105 million, minus taxes and other fees, may seem small compared to the winnings of this bettor from Camarines Norte who emerged as the lone jackpot winner of the Superlotto 6/49 on Sunday.

His total winnings: P150,478,099.20.

It was the biggest pot ever won by a single bettor since the beginning of the lotto draw in 1995, according to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

The unnamed ticket buyer from Daet bet on the winning combination 18-11-41-43-6-47, the PCSO said.

A man and his wife in Barangay Pamorangon in Daet reportedly won the jackpot prize, according to a businessman in the capital town.

The businessman quoted a police officer from Daet—who was assigned to nearby Basud town—as saying that the husband, about 50 years old, went hysterical and was screaming as he waved the winning ticket.

Just keep quiet

The wife, about 35 years old, however, immediately calmed him down and told him to keep quiet.

Later, the husband denied that he won the lotto jackpot prize.

The couple bought the winning ticket at Botica Immaculada Concepcion, one of the two PCSO lotto outlets in Camarines Norte. It is located in the town’s public market.

The outlet is owned by Sonia Leaño, station manager of local radio station dzSL, who will be entitled to up to about P500,000, depending on the computations of the PCSO main office, according to Estrella Abasolo, PCSO Daet accountant.

Abasolo said she had no idea who the winner was. She said she only learned that there was a winner from Daet.

It was the first time that someone in Daet won the jackpot, according to the PCSO accountant.

Like their counterparts in Camarines Norte, personnel in the PCSO national office still did not know who the winner was.

Where bet was placed

“So far, no one has come forward to claim the prize (as of 3 p.m. yesterday),” said Susana Alcala of the PCSO internal audit division.

The PCSO could only identify where the bet was placed—Christine Leaño lotto outlet at Dolor Building on J. Lukban Street, a staff member at the PCSO central operations office said.

“The winner has already gotten in touch with the PCSO provincial district in Bicol, but we don’t know when [the winner] will claim the check,” said the staff member, who asked not to be named.

Even information about the winner’s gender was not available, she added. “We really don’t go out of our way to ask for details about them to protect their identity,” the staff member said.

“They simply have to present their winning ticket for verification, then they will be given the check. It’s up to them whether to deposit the money in the bank or withdraw everything,” Alcala said.

The PCSO chair advised the still unidentified winner to keep the money in a bank.

“He or she should immediately put it in a bank while he or she is thinking about what to do with the money,” PCSO Chair Rosario Uriarte said. “That way, it is already earning [interest] even as he or she is thinking how to use it.”

The lone winner of the biggest lotto pot has a whole year to claim his or her prize, she said.

The second biggest pot was the P147 million in the Megalotto draw of March 31, 1999, while the third biggest was the P145 million in the Superlotto draw of July 25, 2002, according to the PCSO.

The biggest jackpot ever was the P202 million three years ago, but it was won by six people who shared the prize.

In Superlotto 6/49, one picks six numbers from 1 to 49 on a ticket worth P10. One wins if he or she matches all six, or any three, four, or five numbers of the winning six-number combination.

Super-queue at lotto stalls

The win dashed the hopes of thousands of other Filipinos, young and old, who queued at lottery outlets around the country on Sunday, clutching what they hoped to be their ticket to fortune.

Backpack-toting students, mothers with toddlers, and even mall security guards lined up for hours at the lottery stall inside SM North Edsa in Quezon City to pay for their tickets.

Students in nursing uniforms, bespectacled businessmen, teenagers in street clothes, and couples holding hands also lined up.

A ticket seller said the queue most likely reached 10,000, as of 7:30 p.m., at which time the crowd had not yet thinned. (The lotto closed at 8 p.m., in time for the 9 p.m. draw.)

Many bought only a handful of tickets, but some spent as much as P10,000 just to increase their chances of winning, said Sherrylyn Dillena of Lucky Circle Corp.

The lines had been long for the past three weeks, but Sunday’s was the longest yet, she said. With a report from Luige A. del Puerto

December 15, 2005

Artist makes furniture from old wood

By Joanna Teressa P. Los Baños

PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

Photos by Bunny LB Listana

UNLIKE other furniture makers, he does not want to cut trees as much as possible.

“In making furniture, I use wood pieces from old houses and drift woods. I also plant trees,” furniture maker and artist Jun Listana, 40, said.

He also uses different materials like abaca, rattan, wrought iron, molave and iron wood (black wood).

Listana does not use regular nails in most of his wood furniture. “I use wooden nails or dowels. It is long-lasting. Nails rust.”

He said antique furniture also used dowels and this is why it lasts long.

Listana turned the gallery of the provincial capitol of Albay into a living room when he showcased furniture and paintings in the opening of a one-man show titled Muebles en Artes I (Furnitures and Art) on Dec. 2.

Dressed in white long-sleeved polo and maong pants, the long-haired artist welcomed with much enthusiasm his almost 100 visitors in his first show.

The gallery, which is located at the left and right side of the main entrance of the capitol, was furnished with two dining tables on each side (one set was made of abaca and yakal and another made of molave), a sala set, divider, lamp, rocking chairs, chairs made of rattan, and many others, including 12 paintings that hang on the walls.

Arts

Although he is a graduate of Zoology at the Aquinas University of Legazpi, Listana felt he was really into arts since he was young.

“Every time I go to a place, I always think of how I can improve it and make it more beautiful. From dissecting cats, I’m now dissecting wood,” he said laughing.

Before venturing into the furniture business in 1991, Listana started making trophies made of indigenous materials, which he does until now.

A sample of this is the invitation he gave to the Inquirer for the opening of his show, whose text is etched on 2” x 4” metal plate glued to a piece of bottle bamboo.

“My family was also into the handicraft business. We used to supply handicrafts to an exporter in Daraga,” Listana recalled.

From 1989 to 1995, his family also had a lumber business. He said he used to deliver materials to their clients and every time he went to their shops, he always saw how the raw materials were transformed into unique pieces of furniture.

That started him thinking of venturing into the business, until he attended seminars and trainings.

Listana said he maintains 12 workers in his shop in Barangay Anislag in Daraga and hires more help, if needed.

“If the materials are available, we can finish a set of furniture in two weeks,” he said.

Clients

Most of his clients are foreigners and resort owners. His furniture items can be seen in some resorts in Albay, Sorsogon, Tagaytay City in Cavite and Laguna.

For almost two years, Listana has also been supplying some of his work to Kish, a furniture store in Greenbelt.

The price of his furniture depends on the kind and materials used.

“But it is cheaper than the others,” he assured.

He does not usually make paintings but those 12 artworks displayed at the gallery were his first.

“Once, I finished 10 paintings in a day. The ideas just flooded in my head,” he said.

Because he uses mixed-media in his paintings, there are materials in his artworks used in his furniture.

“Every painting has a connection with the furniture that I make. There’s always a material in my paintings that I use in my furniture.”

Other activities

Aside from keeping himself busy making furniture and paintings, Listana is also a member of the Center for Bikol Arts Foundation Inc., a group of visual artists, sculptors, performing artists and musicians.

He is also the drummer of a local ethnic band called “Santiguar” that uses native materials for their musical instruments.

Listana said he planned to have an exhibit in Manila next year.

He said he had really wanted his first exhibit here because he is a Bicolano. “But someday, I would also want to have an exhibit abroad.”

Listana confessed that he does not earn that much in his business.

“Somehow it’s okay because I am also able to give livelihood to a few people,” he said.

Although his business is not that profitable, he is convinced that, “This is really what I want and this is what I want to do. I want to continue this business and maybe, pass it on to the next generation.”

“I don’t dream of being really rich. I just want to do what I want.”

___

Jun Listana’s exhibit at the Albay Capitol will run until Jan. 1, 2006. For inquiries, call (0910)6445027.

December 8, 2005

Flooded Calapan cries for help

CALAPAN CITY—OFFICIALS SENT OUT CALLS for help following floods that isolated most of the city, soaking at least 85,000 residents and their homes in floodwater.

In a report, the Office of Civil Defense said at least 13,000 persons have been displaced by heavy rains and floods in three other provinces.

Doy Leachon, Calapan City administrator, said rains brought flooding to almost the entire city “and there is still no help coming.”

Officials said a dike that kept water in the Bucayao River from flooding Calapan City was breached.

Leachon said the water is now chest-deep and the city only has three rubber boats. “We could not reach most of our rural barangays,” he said.

Floods prevented vehicles from reaching Caticlan and southern parts of Mindoro.

At least 200 families were moved to the Jose Leido Memorial School gym.

Gov. Arnan Panaligan said the Sangguniang Panlalawigan declared the province under a state of calamity.

Bad weather prevented Air Force helicopters on search and rescue missions from taking off.

“We’re still waiting for the weather to cooperate,” said Maj. Jose Broso, spokesperson of the Southern Luzon Command.

The OCD said Lucena City was worst hit by floods in Quezon, forcing at least 12,655 persons to evacuate.

Jay Lim, program officer for Mt. Banahaw of the environmental group Tanggol Kalikasan, said the Lucena floods were caused by logging, slash-and-burn farming, quarrying on Mt. Banahaw.

Malou Maralit, Lucena social welfare and development officer, said the evacuees returned home starting yesterday.

Three teenagers—Nonoy Geneblazo, Allan Calleja and Allan Minorca—were honored for saving three children and their grandmother from drowning in a Lucena village.

The OCD also reported a landslide in Capalonga, Camarines Norte. There was no casualty.

The Department of Public Works and Highways started clearing operations yesterday. Dona Pazzibugan in Manila and Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Marciano Virola and Joanna Los Baños, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

October 28, 2005

Sorsogon execs seekhelp after cyanideleak from mining site

SORSOGON CITY—THE PROVINcial Agriculture Office here has sought the help of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in investigating the reported leakage of cyanide from the mining site of Lafayette Mining Corp. in Barangay Pagcolbon in the island town of Rapu-Rapu, Albay.

Serafin Lacdang, head of the Provincial Fishery Division, said he was informed by residents through text messages quoting the mining company as saying they were told not to use water in the area for fear of contamination.

The leakage occurred on Oct. 11 and it was apparently kept under wraps until Oct. 24, he added.

Officials expressed fears cyanide would contaminate bodies of water around the mining area and would reach the Pacific Ocean, which narrowly separates Rapu-Rapu island from this city.

Lacdang said they sought the help of the Environmental Management Bureau of the DENR that sent an investigating team to the area earlier.

The provincial government is awaiting word from DENR and BFAR on the result of the investigation, Lacdang added.

Rey Juan, Mines and Geosciences Bureau Bicol regional technical director, said in a report faxed to the Inquirer that there was indeed a tailings spill on Oct. 11 after the tailings pump of the Rapu-Rapu mining project malfunctioned.

Mine tailings containing cyanide overflowed from the emergency pond of the mill.

Juan said the spill was reported to his office and he sent men to check on it. He said his office suspended the operations of a machinery in the mill until the tailings pump was repaired.

He said the spill was confined in the mining site and tests of samples, taken from the mouth of the mill’s drainage, were conducted Oct. 22. Test results showed the cyanide level was within tolerable limits, said Juan.

Juan said his office continues to monitor repairs being done on the tailings pump and the mill’s drainage system. Bobby Q. Labalan and Joanna Los Baños, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

October 2, 2005

Death toll in diarrheaoutbreak in Catanduanesrises to 13; cases increase

By Joanna Los Baños

PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

LEGAZPI CITY—THIRTEEN PERsons have died from diarrhea in four towns of Catanduanes, according to the Department of Health’s Center for Health and Development in Bicol.

In a report faxed to the Inquirer yesterday, six have died in San Andres town, four in Virac, two in Baras and one in Caramoran.

It said that 388 cases of diarrhea were reported in San Andres (210), Virac (141), Baras (13), Pandan (12), Bato (5), Viga (4) and Caramoran (3).

At least 34 new diarrhea cases were reported from Sept. 29 noon to Sept. 30 noon, the report added.

The Eastern Bicol Medical Center has new 16 diarrhea cases; Juan M. Alberto District Hospital, six cases; Baras Medicare Hospital, five cases; Caramoran Municipal Hospital and Pandan District Hospital both with three cases, and Bato Maternity and Children Hospital, one case.

Dr. Virgilio S. Ludovice Jr., chief of Health Operations Division of the Center for Health and Development in Bicol said that the DOH Regional Laboratory found two of the four specimens it tested from diarrhea patients in Barangay Cabcab, San Andres positive of vibrio cholera, a bacterial infection.

San Andres was declared with cholera outbreak, Ludovice said.

Tests have to be made in areas where cases of diarrhea were reported and were suspected caused by cholera.

But laboratory tests were ongoing, he said.

In Naga City, Catanduanes Gov. Leandro Verceles said he was pushing for the declaration of a state of calamity in his province.

He said the diarrhea outbreak could be better controlled and managed if a state of calamity was declared throughout Catanduanes.

He said the DOH in Bicol has recommended the declaration of a state of calamity to the provincial government to effectively manage the health situation. But he said the provincial board has rejected the request.

Reached by phone, Vice Gov. Vincent Villaluna said the board was not opposed to the request but that they should first explore all means.

“It is not yet that urgent to declare the province under a state of calamity,” he said. Only San Andres town was declared in a state of calamity, he added.

But San Andres Mayor Aly Romano said in an interview with the Inquirer that Caramoran, San Miguel and Baras have also been declared under state of calamity.

The provincial government has released P1 million to buy medicines and medical supplies, Verceles said.

Verceles said the diarrhea outbreak has been reported to the media earlier than the provincial government.

The provincial government started acting on Sept. 12 because no official communication was relayed to them by the Juan M. Alberto Memorial Hospital where the patients were confined. With a report from Juan Escandor Jr., PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

February 7, 2005

‘All Filipinos were victims’

FOR THE many who were detained or tortured during the Marcos dictatorship, it was like being brutalized all over again.

That much could be gleaned from the reactions of victims of human rights abuses after a US appeals court decision put beyond their reach the $683 million of Marcos-linked assets recovered by the Philippine government from secret bank accounts in Switzerland.

Lorenzo Listana, 44, of Daraga, Albay, jailed for 6 months in 1983, tortured. Now a businessman: “Our rights as humans were really violated so we should really be compensated. I did not only suffer from my imprisonment. I was also forced to stop going to school.

“My brother, Clemente, who was trying to help some people, was also abducted in 1979 because he was mistakenly identified as an NPA (New People’s Army rebel). We haven’t seen him since.”

Marie Hilao-Enriquez, 52, imprisoned from 1974 (when she was 21) and held until 1976. Now leader of the human rights group Selda: “The Philippine government must make an accounting of the money for the victims if it is still intact. They deserve to receive their compensation. We demand that the government pay the victims the amount that belongs to them.”

Enriquez’s sister, Liliosa Hilao, associate editor of Hasik newsletter, was abducted by the military in April 1973 and killed.

Ernie Alcala, 54, a senior reporter of dwRM Radyo ng Bayan in Palawan, arrested in 1972 when he was a student, and tortured. He was 22 then: “All Filipinos were victims. If the victims won’t get compensation and if the money will go to the government, that’s OK, because … all Filipinos were victims.”

A ‘terrorist’ decision

Mariano Gadiano, one of the student activists arrested with Alcala, was also tortured and died after he was released.

Farmer Nestor T. Mendoza, 65, of Silang, Cavite, held in various Philippine Constabulary camps as an alleged NPA: He said the US court decision showed how callous the US government was.

Farmer Cornelio Endoso, 58, also of Silang, detained for four months and tortured: He said the court decision was an insult to him and the Filipino people.

Fr. Joe Dizon, an activist priest, detained and tortured: “The decision was stupid, ridiculous, terrorist and unjust.”

Justice denied

Reynaldo Jamoralin, 53, of Sorsogon City, imprisoned and tortured in 1972. Now the secretary of the provincial tourism council: “The ruling was grossly unfair. There was already a prior court ruling and it should be carried out.”

Melchor Genavea arrested in 1972. Now an official of the Government Service Insurance System in Sorsogon: “The ruling denied the victims the justice they deserve.”

Not end of world

Lawyer Democrito Barcenas, jailed for three months in 1972 and his movements restricted for five years. Now president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu City chapter: “It does not mean that this is the end of the world for human rights claimants. We hope that the leadership in Congress will take serious efforts in having this (compensation bill) passed because [this] is a matter of justice.”

The compensation could serve as a lesson for “budding tyrants,” he said.

Lawyer Kit Enriquez, detained for three years as a member of the Samahan Demokratikong Kabataan: He said “suffering can never be quantified.” The Marcoses “sucked the economy dry, they should be made to return it” by compensating the victims and the country.

Lawyer Elias Guiloreza, detained for a year and 7 months: “[This is] very painful to the victims who have suffered torture and detention.” Reports from Jofelle P. Tesorio, Marlon Ramos, Romulo O. Ponte, Joanna Teressa Los Baños and Bobby Labalan, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau; Connie E. Fernandez and Nestor P. Burgos Jr., PDI Visayas Bureau

January 31, 2005

Wind, hydro power: Energy of the future

By Vincent Cabreza, Cristina Arzadonand Juliet Cataluña

PDI Northern Luzon Bureau

IT WILL take more time, but the future may well be in alternative sources of energy.

The Cordilleras, for instance, have the potential to generate up to 500 megawatts of “clean energy.” The abundance of rivers in the area can power up a chain of mini-hydroelectric power plants for half of each year. And a wind resource analysis and mapping study conducted for the Philippines by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has already identified several areas which could benefit from wind power installations.

Last August, the country’s first commercial wind diesel hybrid farm, in Mahatao town in Batanes, started operations. The P56-million facility is powered by three wind turbines (sourced from France) designed to last between 25 and 50 years.

Officials of the First Philippine Energy Corp., the project designer, said a similar hybrid power facility supplies the power requirements of a hospital and community facilities in Fiji.

At the launch, Energy Secretary Vince Perez said the wind diesel project could be used as a “living laboratory” for students and could be tapped as one of the province’s tourist attractions. If President Macapagal-Arroyo’s goal of putting up as much as 345 MW of wind power could be realized by the end of her term in 2010, he said, “the Philippines will be the largest producer of wind power in Asia and the leader [in that aspect] is Batanes.”

Wind power is among the most cost-effective renewable technologies available today. According to an online website on wind power, more than 13,000 MW of wind power have already been installed worldwide.

A 25.5 MW wind power plant in Bangui, Ilocos Norte, developed by Northwind Power Development Corp., started operating recently. And the state-run Philippine National Oil Co. is developing a separate 42-MW wind farm in nearby Burgos town; it is expected to be operational by March.

“Interest in wind power is mounting as there is no showing that high oil prices will slip. In this oil-dependent generation where energy policies are being made to adapt to prevailing oil prices, the Philippine wind farm is our modest contribution to reducing our dependence on oil,” said Ferdinand Dumlao, Northwind chair.

US-funded study

The other areas identified as wind-rich include the Babuyan Islands, also north of Luzon; and the higher interior terrain of Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Panay, Negros, Cebu, Palawan and eastern Mindanao. (The US Department of Energy sponsored the study for the National Power Corp.), the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development, and PNOC.

Unlike PNOC, which can sell electricity generated from the Burgos facility to users outside Ilocos Norte, power from the Northwind plant will be fed exclusively to the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative or Inec, a local electric utility.

An energy sales agreement between Northwind and Inec binds the wind plant developer to operate and maintain the facility and deliver 7 MW to Inec every year for 20 years. This is about a fourth of Ilocos Norte’s total power requirement of 26 MW. (A study shows that Ilocos Norte’s total power needs is equivalent to the power requirement of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City.)

The cheaper electricity means a 7-percent reduction in power costs from prevailing Napocor rates.

Unlike major hydroelectric plants, which require the controversial construction of dams, mini-hydros can generate from 101 kW to 10 MW by relying on natural river flow. Best of all, the technology does not alter the water’s quality, the river’s local habitat or the surrounding air.

Harnessing all of the Cordillera’s rivers will generate power bigger than the current output of the San Roque Multipurpose Dam project on the Pangasinan-Benguet border or the Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power project in Nueva Vizcaya, said Rene Ronquillo, chief operating officer of the Aboitiz-owned Hydroelectric Development Corp. (Hedcor).

But the few investors in micro-hydro may soon be moving out of the Cordillera, Ronquillo lamented.

Hedcor is a Davao-based power firm that relocated to Benguet before the 1990s power crisis struck. Despite a history of strong local opposition to new water projects, because of the government’s construction of massive hydroelectric dams in the 1950s and 1960s, Hedcor stuck it out with micro-hydro.

Ronquillo recalled being chased out of Benguet towns when Hedcor first offered to build mini-hydro systems in 1989, after being told that Ibalois were displaced by the 75-MW Ambuclao Dam (which was built in 1954) and the 100-MW Binga Dam (which was built some 10 years after Ambuclao).

It took a decade for Benguet residents to warm up to the firm’s concept of “clean energy.”

Since 1986, Hedcor has rehabilitated 14 mini-hydro plants in Benguet. The company generates 39.55 MW of electricity a year; the towns that host these plants have also grown economically.

Bakun hosts the 64-MW Ferdinand L. Singit plant, the 2.4-MW Lower Labay plant, and the 3.6-MW Lon-oy plant.

Sablan, Tuba and La Trinidad towns host the Baguio government’s 4-MW Asin plants, the 10.75-MW Bineng plants and the 8-MW Ampohaw plant.

Kalinga, whose river sources are some of the most pristine in the country, has outgrown most of its misgivings about power facilities on account of the Benguet example, and has invited Hedcor to put up plants there, Ronquillo said.

But most of Hedcor’s future expansions are being relocated back to Davao, Ronquillo said.

Unclear support

He lamented that the government’s unclear support for clean energy is driving away power from the countryside, where electricity is much needed.

Malacañang is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but it set aside such provisions when it proceeded to reform the power sector, he said.

Ronquillo said the government would still need to increase the value of clean energy or new and renewable power projects like hydros and geothermal plants.

“It is still cheaper to operate a 100-MW coal plant than a bunch of mini-hydros,” Ronquillo said.

“[But] if the government will consider all the cost that goes into a coal-fired plant—pollution, the introduction of greenhouse gases—then mini-hydros become competitive,” he said.

Most of the mini-hydro facilities in the Philippines are based in rural areas, Ronquillo said. Their combined output accounts for no more than 2 percent of the total electricity produced today.

“If the government mandates [the National Transmission Corp. or Meralco] to buy that 2 percent, you can more than double [the renewable energy] that is produced today,” he said.

The law does not exempt new and renewable energy plants from additional fees covering the distribution of hydro-produced or geothermal energy, he added.

Also, Napocor “has made it difficult” for distributors to buy power from mini-hydros, he said, because the state-run firm needs to retain and develop high-profile purchase contracts to make itself attractive to investors.

“What we could do is run the [mini-hydros] during the rainy season, and come in with geothermal plants during summer. It works because geothermal facilities can store power. If you don’t use it today, it’s there tomorrow. The run-off river [system of all mini-hydros is different]. If you don’t use it today, it is gone tomorrow,” he said.

Natural gas

The alternative source of energy most often cited is non-renewable, however.

The $4.5-billion Malampaya Deep Water Gas-to-Power has added “clean” natural gas to the country’s power mix since 2002.

Methane, the major component of natural gas, has been dubbed the “fuel of the future” or the “green” fuel because of its clean qualities. According to a Department of Energy study, the use of natural gas would also help lessen carbon dioxide emission in the country by at least five million tons annually. With a report from Joanna Teressa P. Los Baños and Madonna T. Virola, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

September 13, 2004

Peñafrancia exhibit

BICOLANO stained glass and mural artist Pancho Piano opened a solo exhibit at the Basilica Pavilion in Naga City on Wednesday. Piano showcases more than 20 of his paintings of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia to pay his homage and devotion to the patron saint. The exhibit, titled “Handog,” will run until Sept. 30. Joanna Teressa Los Baños, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

August 26, 2004

A dangerous region for journalists

By Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Ronnie Lorejo, Romulo Ponte and Joanna Los Baños

ONE OF five Filipino journalists murdered since 1986 was from Southern Luzon, the second most dangerous area for journalists to be in after Mindanao, which has 36 cases.

As of last count, 18 of the 79 slain journalists listed by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the Inquirer’s Research Department were from Southern Tagalog and Bicol. Except for one case, most of the Southern Luzon cases in the Inquirer list have remained unsolved.

The policeman, who shot and killed radioman Enrique Lingan of Lucena City, has been in jail, according to the victim’s mother.

In the case of another slain Lucena broadcaster Polly Pobeda, his colleagues had organized indignation marches and rallies, but his family members couldn’t help but feel being left alone in their quest for justice.

On trial

“After the burial of my brother, with all the media in attendance, either in sympathy or plain coverage of the event, there’s no one left. There is no more media around us,” the victim’s eldest brother Pio said in an interview last week in Barangay Kinagonan Ibaba, Agdangan, Quezon.

Pio also expressed disappointment in losing the services of their lawyers, who belonged to a private legal defense center based in Manila, and a Lucena politician-lawyer who later handled the case. They could not afford the prosecution’s services, he said.

A week after the murder, police arrested two suspects—brothers Eulogio and Eric Patulay, both bodyguards of Councilor Romano Talaga, a son of Lucena Mayor Ramon Talaga Jr. The Talagas have strongly denied involvement in the killing.

The suspects have since been detained at the provincial jail.

During every hearing at the regional trial court, Pio said he could not help but envy the Patulay brothers and their lawyers, who were always prepared for trial.

“Their lawyers just [kept] on beating our witness to pieces because of his [Pobeda’s witnesses] educational handicap,” he added.

With the recent rash of killings of journalists, Pio urged media groups to focus their efforts on how to protect his late brother’s former associates.

Suspects identified

In the case of Arnel Manalo, police announced last week that his murder had been “practically solved” with the identification of the suspected lone gunman.

Senior Supt. Nicasio Radovan, head of Task Force Newsmen, said Manalo’s younger brother Apollo positively tagged the suspect as Michael Garcia, believed to be a hired killer.

Lawmen have been hunting down Garcia, who also has a warrant of arrest for another murder, Radovan said.

Police working on the case of John Villanueva, 53, a veteran broadcaster from Legazpi City who was killed in 2002, said witnesses saw the motorcycle-riding gunman, who wore a bonnet, and his companion, who had on a crash helmet. But up to now, probers had yet to establish if the assassination was politically motivated or insurgency-related.

Police said the killing of Villanueva, a former vice mayor of Camalig town in Albay, was well-planned and patterned after similar attacks on barangay officials in the province. They mentioned the deaths of the barangay chiefs of Homapon in 1999 and of Taysan in February, and of a councilor in Ligao City, and the foiled killing of a barangay chair in Daraga town.

Barely two months after Villanueva was mowed down, an Army officer based in Daraga identified two NPA recruits as the suspected killers.

Brig. Gen. Pedrito Magsino, who was then commander of 901st Army Brigade based in Barangay Villahermosa, Daraga, named the suspects as Segundo Bongcay, alias “Ka Santi,” and Jerry Abache, alias “Ka Josam.” Both were linked to a series of killings and ambuscades of policemen in Camalig and its neighboring towns.

Magsino said the hit men were identified by his neighbor, who was harassed right after the killing. Because of the threats, he had recommended that the witness be placed under the government’s Witness Protection Program.

The Army was leaving the investigation to the Philippine National Police, he said, as Villanueva’s killing was civilian in nature. But the alleged witness later refused to testify and no longer wanted to be involved, according to the police.

Still looking

In the case of Nelson Nadura of dyME radio in Masbate, who was ambushed and killed on Dec. 2, 2003, police quoted witnesses as saying that the gunmen were young and spoke Tagalog.

Nadura, 42, was the president of the Union of Print and Broadcast Journalists of Masbate and had been an NPA leader in Masbate for three years.

Senior Supt. Romeo Mapalo, a former provincial police director, said Nadura’s former comrades in the communist movement could be behind the killing. But he said he was more inclined to believe that Nadura’s job as a commentator had something to do with it.

No suspects have been arrested.

“If he didn’t have a radio program, it is likely that he would still be alive today,” Nadura’s widow Vilma said.

Eyewitness in custody

Task Force Guwapo was created by regional police authorities to focus on solving the murder of Legazpi broadcaster Ruel Endrinal on Feb. 11. The unit claimed to have witnesses in custody.

The only clues probers have gathered so far were the text messages of death threats which Endrinal’s widow Mina said her husband had been receiving a few days earlier. He ignored the warnings, saying these were part of his job, according to Mina.

The task force has yet to issue an update of the case.

Killers at large

The killers of Laguna journalists, Sonny Alcantara and Noel Villarante, are still at large.

Fernando Consignado, 50, a Radio Veritas correspondent who was shot and killed on Aug. 12 in Nagcarlan, Laguina, was buried five days later. His grieving relatives wondered whether they and the families of other slain colleagues could find justice.

Media and press freedom organizations, both local and national, condemned the journalists’ gruesome deaths and urged authorities to act immediately on the cases.

The International Federation of Journalists, as well as other media groups, have expressed concern and even sent a letter to President Macapagal-Arroyo, appealing for speedy investigation.

August 5, 2004

Crown of thorns: Calvary for corals

By Joanna Teressa P. Los Baños

Malinao, Albay

UNDER water, they are a beautiful sight. And a lot of varieties of them are actually harmless.

But among the sea stars (also known as starfish), the crown of thorns or cot sea star is a scourge of sea divers and corals. They inflict wounds on humans and destroy corals.

Like any other sea star, a cot (Acanthaster rancii), locally called the lapa-lapa , has a star-shaped body. It also has tentacles connected to the center called disk.

A study of the Australian Institute of Marine Science says the cot starfish looks somewhat sinister as it is covered by many very sharp spines four to five centimeters long, which can inflict painful wounds.

The institute’s website, www.aims.gov.au, says the cot starfish contains toxic compounds called saponins, which are believed to prevent them from being eaten by certain animals.

A cot’s sting could also cause nausea and vomiting. The area around the puncture turns dark blue and swells for days. If the victim has multiple wounds, the whole limb may stiffen and swell and numbness and itchiness around the wounds set in.

Coral destroyer

The cots eat the tiny coral polyps then leave the coral’s skeletons susceptible to invasion by algae, worms, boring mollusks or reef-settling organisms.

“These skeletons, however, have small holes called coral cups. And these coral cups have tiny animals in them called polyps,” said Jo Roco, secretary of the Bicol Scuba Divers Foundation and science research specialist of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The giant triton shells (Charonia tritonis), locally known as the budyong, are supposed to eat the cots. But in the reefs of Barangays Jonop and Baybay, fronting the Curangon Shoal, a fish sanctuary and marine reserve in Lagonoy Gulf in Malinao, Albay, 31 km north of Legazpi City, there are no more triton shells to eat the cots, thus causing an outbreak.

“It can already be considered an outbreak because of the large population of crown of thorns sea stars here,” Norberto Resontoc, municipal agriculture officer, said.

This is the cause of the high coral mortality in the reefs, Resontoc said. Corals are where most of the fish and other sea creatures live.

Roco advised that even if a coral is dead, people should not get it because there is a chance for polyps to grow again, thereby reviving the corals.

“The crown of thorns keeps on multiplying because there is food,” said Beata Borbon, agricultural technologist in the fisheries department of the Municipal Agriculture Office and community organizer of the community-based resource management project in Malinao. The cot eats planktons.

“When I was still studying, I never encountered the specie because I didn’t think there were a lot of it in the sea,” he said. Most of them learned of the cot’s existence only after an assessment made by Roco’s group in 2002.

“If the crown of thorns [continue to] eat the coral polyps, the fish would be forced to look for other places to live, thus making it hard for the fishermen here to catch fish,” she said.

Predator

Cots, which can be found on coral reefs, eat 60 square centimeters of coral cover a day, Roco said.

In 2002, Jonop and Baybay had 90 hectares of live coral cover, which still fell under the “good” category. This could decrease, however, because of the increasing number of cots.

“But the giant tritons do not exist here anymore. I believe we had those creatures here before but then, there were a lot of compressor divers who got the shells and sold them,” he said.

Collecting giant tritons is banned under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, Fisheries Administrative Order, said Tristan Paylado of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Section 97 of Republic Act 8550 or the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 also bans the catching or possessing of endangered species, Paylado added.

Other sea creatures, that have been observed to eat the young cots are the puffer fish, two species of trigger fish, a shrimp and a worm, Moran said.

Whether these predators can help cut down the population of cot sea stars had not been proven yet.

Mission

On July 8 and 9, Roco and local divers had a reassessment. After finding that the reefs had been infested with cots, Roco suggested to Resontoc and Mayor Emily Kare, both divers, to conduct a coastal cleanup, that included gathering of cots.

With Project SOS (Save Our Seas), 30 divers gathered on July 25 to help Malinao folk, especially those from Jonop and Baybay, remove the cots from the reefs.

At least 23 members of the Bicol Scuba Divers Foundation, three from the Philippine Navy Special Warfare Group, three volunteer divers and another divers’ organization, all from Legazpi, went to Jonop to gather as much cot sea stars as they could.

Barangay residents and Malinao officials were thankful of the activity, having learned of the destruction these cots could do to their reefs.

Jonop is situated between the sea and rice fields, so most of the male villagers are farmers or fishermen, or both. The women weave abaca.

If the reefs are destroyed, the residents would have nothing but their rice fields to rely on for their livelihood.

“Malinao is a fourth-class municipality so we do not have enough resources for this kind of problem,” Kare said.

For the divers to enjoy their delicate mission, the organizers made the gathering of the cots a contest.

Damage

The winning group collected 370 cots and was awarded a trophy and a small amount of money. In all, the divers gathered 1,302 cots in more than an hour’s dive.

Four divers also collected 389 cots. When added to the number collected on July 25, the total reached 1,696, enough to save 37 hectares a year, in Roco’s computation.

But many of the divers agreed that there were still many cots left in the reefs. One said the situation was no longer a joke.

There were still illegal fishers and compressor divers who also damage the seas, Roco added.

He instructed the divers not to touch the cot sea star since its thorns emit a poisonous liquid that causes pain, which lasts for hours, and skin lesions that don’t heal for months.

He asked them to be really careful not to cut the tentacles because if a tentacle was cut, it would develop and become another cot.

He also asked them not to stab it because the eggs might stay in the sea.

To gather the creatures, each diver was given a 15-inch long bamboo stick and a sack where they placed the cots. The bamboo was used to get the cots.

Divers were instructed to slide the bamboo in between the cot and the coral, then gently lift the stick so the cot would automatically hold on it.

Solution

Kare admitted that the town administration had little resources to arrest the cot outbreak. For now, they are educating the people and apprehending the illegal fishers.

“Because our budget is not enough and we still lack skills, I suggest that research institutions, especially the Marine Science Institute at the University of the Philippines, conduct a study on how to culture giant tritons,” Roco said.

“If our coral reefs are destroyed, definitely, the supply of fish will decrease. Based on a study, a good coral cover will give us 20 tons of fish per year, while a poor one will give five tons of fish a year.

August 1, 2004

800 bags of sugar seized

LEGAZPI CITY—Four container vans aboard M/V Cebu Sulpicio Lines, allegedly containing 800 bags of raw sugar from Cebu City, were seized by the Philippine Coast Guard in the Masbate City port on Friday last week, a PCG report said. The P800,000-worth of sugar had no permit issued by the Sugar Regulatory Administration office in Cebu City, the report added. A certain Lita Bocboc, said to be the consignee, did not appear to claim the sugar. The SRA Cebu City office said Bocboc was not a registered sugar trader and not authorized to ship sugar, the PCG said. Joanna Teressa P. Los Baños, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

October 14, 2003

Anti-drug campaign

LEGAZPI CITY—Police have cleared 132 Bicol barangays of drug syndicates from June to September, according to Bicol police director Chief Supt. Jaime Lasar. This is 73 percent of 181 drug-affected barangays in the region. The Albay, Camarines Sur and Sorsogon police offices seized a combined total of P512,200 worth of shabu during the period. “We will never allow drug syndicates to prosper in this region,” Lasar said. Joanna Los Baños, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau