Travelogue: Islands in the rain

 

A DARK cloudy day after a night of intermittently moderate and heavy rains opened to a relatively serene sea where an outrigger boat was to take a group of practitioners from both mainstream and social media on Siargao’s renowned tri-island hopping tour.

At the boat, fun, fun, fun dissolved the disparity in ages in the inter-generational mix of the island-hoppers, this septuagenarian enjoying common ground with the mostly millennial tourmates. As in dancing, aye, literally swaying to the sway of the boat as the waves crested and ebbed. 

GUYAM ISLAND

First stop, Guyam Island. A tiny strip of white sand beach, a red-white striped lifeguard chair, a shack selling food and drinks, a bitty basketball court, two poles with a net for beach volleyball, a pair of hammocks tied to towering coconut palms, under the coconut grove a three-man reggae band or what looked like one, scores upon scores of women and men of all shapes and shades in various stages of barely decent uncoverage.       

NAKED ISLAND

Given all that skin overexposure, the second stop intensely ignited the imagination all the more – Naked Island, as immediately doused, alas, by the inference of the island’s physical bareness, as in no plants, no trees, not even a makeshift shed. A taho vendor all alone, heavenly bodies galore – sunning, soaking, swimming, or simply sitting on the sandbar. 

DAKU ISLAND

Final stop at Daku Island, the biggest -- hence, the name -- and the lushest of the three, for that storied Siargao signature feasting – seafood boodle fight. Simply, divine! 

Halfway through the banquet by the beach, the dark clouds since morning finally breaking into rain, scattered drizzle for a moment, torrential the next. 

So, what can you do on a beach amid a downpour? Dance in the rain, dummy. Yay, I never had this much fun being soaked to the bone since I was 7. 

Forget that island in the sun where everything’s fun so celebrated in song, Siargao in the rain still sizzles. 

(Philippine Airlines flies Clark-Siargao-Clark every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday)   

Travelogue: Tasting Siargao

STEAMED RICE molded into SIARGAO punctuated with two coco palms on a bed of pancit framed by steamed lobsters, shrimps and mussels, grilled fish (mahi-mahi?) and squid, pork liempo, salted eggs, kinilaw na tuna, calamares, with sliced pineapples, mangoes and watermelons on the side. 

The quintessential fare in island boodle fights celebrated in just about every social media post of just about everyone who has gone Siargao. Scrumptious as it is, it makes but one serving, so to speak, in the surfing capital’s cornucopia of gustatory delights. 

Aye, as much the food as the ambiance makes a restaurant crawl truly splendid in Siargao, even if instanced in just these four:  

LAMARI 

Easy to miss but for its small signboard tacked beside as small a gap in a living lush green wall, opening to a virtual glade where rises an architectural masterpiece in bamboo, wood, steel, and concrete that is the al fresco Lamari Bar and Restaurant, a small pool on one side enhancing further the tropical forest feel. 

Anything but tropical though, with everything international in the appetizers and entrees: It can’t get any more Spanish than gambas al ajillo, bacalao, and callos; Italian with spaghetti ai gamberi; Mediterranean with vegetable or beef moussaka; Arabian with chicken machboos; that Indian-British fusion of tikka masala; and truly global with steak – from Salisbury to grilled tuna. And that is but a sampling.    

Arguably, the Lamari Bar holds the widest selection of wines, spirits, or liquors. This teetotaler unknowing of the differences but literate enough to get intoxicated with marvel at the long list of cocktails, liqueurs and vermouth, cognac, mezcal, tequila, vodka, rum, gin, whiskey, and local artisan brews.   

BRAVO

Veritably an open-air bahay-kubo of bamboo posts and curvilinear beams topped by a thatched roof, the resto-bar is on spot at a beachfront, in the refreshing embrace of the sea breeze.

The menu is a fusion of all-Asian and international – leaning on the Iberian, tastes (at least to this gastronomic uninitiate who simply lapped up all the servings of patatas bravas, croquetas de hongos, falafel salad, slow cooked coconut curry, chicken teriyaki, and some other dishes with unremembered names but unforgotten flavors). 

The chefs trained in Spain, so we were told. So, the food more than convinced.      

Con buena comida, Bravo goes bravissimo. 

BAYANI AT HARANA

Yet another open-air thatch-roofed bahay-kubo rendition but with posts and beams of wood instead of bamboo, Bayani at Harana keeps to the island vibe as it prides itself as home to authentic Filipino cuisine, serving the choicest dishes of the three principal islands: Luzon’s culinary treasures of pork sisig (topped with egg which is anathema to its Kapampangan roots), bangus sisig, and chicken joy; Visayas’ island delights of kinilaw, ensaladang talong, and adobong pusit; Mindanao’s flavors of the southern frontier of tiyula itum and pyanggang manok, principally of Tausug provenance, and beef kulma, a curry-like dish from Maranao. A northerner, this tripper found all the southern dishes delectably exotic; the cauliflower kare-kare, almost ambrosiac.       

TROGON'S PERCH

Sitting on a low promontory north of Siargao, the restaurant is named most aptly as it offers a low-flying bird’s-eye view of the Pacific Ocean – trogon being an avian species found in the area. 

A modern design in concrete and glass complemented by an infinity pool, the free-folding floor-to-ceiling windows open to a wide vista of the ocean; enter thence the symphony of the sea – the woosh of the waves, the rustling of palm trees swaying to the wind, some bird chirping, another trilling – for a truly sensory finer-than-fine dining experience. 

Oh, the food? Lobster paella, prawn croquettes, truffle carbonara pasta, and tuna tataki top the charts. 

A DISCOVERY: Seeing Siargao solely from the perspective of a surfboard is most myopic. While Cloud 9 made the island a surfing heaven, the islanders’ culinary refinement is fast turning it into a gastronomic haven. 

(Philippine Airlines flies Clark-Siargao-Clark every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday)   

At 60

 

AKIN TO a near-death experience.

That’s what turning 60 turns out to be. At least, to me.

Two things those who’ve come back from the threshold of the hereafter invariably, if untiringly, talk about: 1) seeing a blinding white light at the end of some tunnel whence emerge some long dead close kin; and 2) milestones of their lives flashing before their very eyes.

It is the second that my passage to dual citizenship assumed. Through the mist of memory now…

Age 3, mangroves at our backyard were cut to widen the river. Gone with the trees was the kingfisher that perched on their branches, day after day patiently waiting to pounce on the small gurami swimming below.  Come to think of it now, that could have served as my first lesson in ecology, in the symbiosis of living things.

Altar boy at 7, memorizing the Tridentine Mass – Introibo ad altare Dei, celebrant intones; Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam, acolyte me answers…Confiteor Deo omnipotenti beatae Mariae…with only mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa still extant in the mind now. 

Wanted to be a priest at 10 – to be “the greatest gift of God to men, and the greatest gift of men to God,” in the words of my cura parroco Quirino Canilao – off to the Mater Boni Consilii Seminary at 12, after my first and only year at the Jose Abad Santos High School (now reverted to Pampanga High School) where I first saw my name in print: in the Pampangan for the story “Discipline via the squad system” and Sinukwan for a sanaysay on the school, its facilities and people which headline I cannot anymore recall. Alas, that fling started this lifelong affair with journalism

Out of the seminary at 18, and out of the Faith too. The contradictions, historical as well as dialectical, between God and Marx sowed in so pliant a mind as a mediano, that is second year high school at Mater Boni, and nurtured onward coming to a head at the San Jose Seminary. Nietzsche’s right: God is dead. It did not matter that Nietzsche was even deader than dead.

In college now, an essay in Creative Writing class with my obsession to die at an early age as topic sentence. Why so? My teacher asked. Then I would achieve the ultimate in greatness.

And what was that? She inquired.

“That of being young, gifted, and dead.”

Faced not so much with death as with incarceration and torture, being an activist in the military’s order of battle upon the declaration of martial law, I ran – to my spiritual director and Mater Boni rector, the Rev. Paciano B. Aniceto. Time and again I have written, were it not for the unconditional love of the good Apu Ceto I would have most surely ended along the road to perdition.  

A contradiction: from shouts of “Ibagsak ang diktadurang US-Marcos” to the strains of “May bagong silang, may bago nang buhay, bagong bansa, bagoong galaw, sa Bagong Lipunan…”  Work after graduation, the National Intelligence and Security Agency did not leave me with much choice.    

At 21, the firm resolution: “Only fools get married.”

At 24, I made myself one. Before my firstborn, managed to co-father the Central Luzon Media Association, the first and still only regional association of working media persons in the whole Philippines.

Regional director, albeit an OIC, of the Department of Public Information at 27. All thoughts of continuing a career in government – buttressed by studies at the Development Academy of the Philippines and a scholarship grant at the Perhubungan Raya Malaysia – banished by the EDSA Revolution of 1986.

Mainstream journalism followed: correspondent of the Journal Group – People’s Tonight, People’s Journal, and Times Journal contemporaneously stringer for the Associated Press; columnist and editorial consultant of The Voice and Angeles Sun; opinion editor of Headline Manila and news editor of Headline Extra.

Interlude in early 1990s, government consultancy, in public affairs, primarily: the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources with Sec. Jun Factoran, interspersed with the FVR presidential campaign; the Department of the Interior and Local Government with Sec. Raffy Alunan.

At 41, backstopped the gubernatorial campaign of Lito Lapid and served as his senior consultant officially, and spinmeister, covertly, upon his assumption of the Capitol. Contemporaneously, helped Joe Pavia established Pampanga’s and Central Luzon’s first daily, Sun-Star Clark, now Sun-Star Pampanga and served as associate editor.

At 44, back to mainstream media – Pulitika, Atbpa over dwGV-AM, and The Voice again, cut short by the ambush right in front of the radio station, sending me fleeing to the USA, and a desk editorial job at Ang Peryodiko in L.A.

Back home in barely six months, back to dwGV-AM with Alas-4 Na and with a column in Pampanga News. More importantly, back to hard-hitting commentaries.

The political phenomenon that was the Among Ed gubernatorial campaign in 2007, timed perfectly with the birthing of Punto! Central Luzon. And the chronicles of irreverence that was Reverend Governor came to publication.

New day dawning or old order restoring in the mag-inda now at the Capitol…

What have I been seeing, it’s all the me in turning 60. This is not so. This must not be.

Or, is it really? As in death – so ‘tis said – one accounts for one’s life. Still, that’s simply chronicling, life’s got to have some real meaning.

Maybe, there’s some good philosophy in that witticism of 60 as the new 40, taking after that adage on life beginning at 40.

At 60, born a new me. Emancipated from the shackles of the libido – at this age, sex should only be a matter of gender, as that line from a movie or a book – memory fails now – decreed, I can only be the intellectual Aldous Huxley defined: “someone who has discovered something more interesting than sex.”

More interesting things as travelling, while physical mobility and financial viability still allow it, thus St. Augustine: “Travel is like a book, those who have been to only one place have just read one page.”  

More interesting things as reading and writing, to quote Francis Bacon: “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.” More specifically, on philosophy to feed the mind – so important with the advancement of age, and on spirituality to nurture the soul – with intimations of one’s mortality becoming more and more apparent. In order for the former is a renewal of acquaintanceship with Kant and Kierkegaard, Hegel and Hobbes, Schopenhauer and Spinoza, Nietzsche too. And for the latter, Augustine and Aquinas, Buddha.   

More interesting things as being… just be. 2014, 10 February.    

AND THEN, in the wink of an eye I turned 71.  

   

May saysay po ang kaso, Mayor Garbo

 

                                                                                            Photos from FB pages

“NAIS KONG ipahayag ang aking taos-pusong pasasalamat sa Diyos at sa inyong patuloy na suporta. Ang inyong pagtitiwala ay nagsilbing lakas sa akin habang ako’y humaharap sa mga hamon ng pamamahala.” 

Maramdamin at punung-puno ng pasasalamat ang pahayag ni Mayor Crisostomo Garbo nitong Lunes sa flag-raising ceremony sa Mabalacat City Hall ukol sa umano’y pagbasura ng Ombudsman sa kasong paglabag sa RA 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt practices Act) na iniharap sa kanya ng, aniya, ay mga katunggali sa pulitika. 

Kahit na walang iniladlad si Garbo na anumang kopya ng desisyon ng Ombudsman, mayroon na ring mga naglitawan sa social media tungkol dito na nagpapatunay na na-dismissed na nga ang (mga) naturang kaso na may talang OMB-LC-SEP-23-0160 at OMB-L-A-SEP-25-0156 noon pang ika 28 ng Agosto 2024.   

“Bagamat ako’y natutuwa sa desisyong ibasura ang walang saysay na alegasyon, hindi na po ako nagulat dito. Alam natin ang ating layunin at ang mga prinsipyo na ating pinapahalagahan,” punung-puno ng kumpiyansa pang dagdag ng alkalde. 

Subali’t wala nga bang saysay na alegasyon lamang ang mga kaso kaya nga’t ibinasura ito ng Ombudsman? 

Pasintabi lang po, Mayor Garbo. Sa dispositive portion po ng Ombudsman decision to dismiss, may mariin pong colatilla na nakapaloob dito: 

“Respondent Mayor Garbo is, however, ADMONISHED to be more circumspect in discharging his duties and functions and further warned that a repetition of similar act shall be severely dealt with by this office.”

Una, kayo po ay tuwirang pinapaalalahanan na maging higit na maingat at maayos sa pagtupad ng inyong tungkulin at mga gawain bilang punonglungsod.

Ikalawa, kayo ay binabalaan na anumang pagkaulit ng mga katulad na mga pangyayari o gawa na nagbunsod sa mga naturang kaso, ay bibigyan ng mahigpit at kaukulang aksyon ng Ombudsman. 

Bagama’t ibinasura ang kaso, kayo pa rin ay pinaalalahanan at binalaan ng Ombudsman. Hindi niyo maaaring ipagwalang-bahala lamang ito. 

May saysay po ang kaso, Mayor Garbo.