Alma Labis, 37, mother of six, owes her family's financial independence to the thriving garbage recycling business here.

From a P700 initial capital in June 2005, Labis said Love Best Junk Shop, their "small-time" junk buy and sell outfit in Matina Aplaya, now earns an average of P75,000 which is "enough to send our children to school."

She sends her children to school with their income, two to college, one in high school, and two are still in elementary. She said she also attends to her youngest, still a baby, while she runs the business.Labis talked to reporters in a press conference introducing a one-day event intended to promote materials recovery as one option for addressing the city's solid waste problem.

She joined chamber officials and representatives from other business entities Monday in promoting the city's 7th Recyclable Collection Event to be held at the SM City Car Park on June 30.

The event is a collaboration of government environment institutions, business groups, companies among others.
"Still many could not appreciate that there is money from garbage," she told MindaNews.

She said aside from being attuned with the city's solid waste management thrust of segregating wastes, people can actually earn from garbage.

Love Best Junk Shop will be among nine buyers who will put up buying stations during the event.Read full story here.

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

Mirasol is the Mt. Kitanglad Protected Area superintendent.

Kagsabua was last sighted on July 7 and was known to be missing between July 8 and 10, Mirasol said. He said a search operation was immediately launched.On July 12, he said, the transmitter gadget attached to the eagle's body was found buried at least six inches in the bank of creek.

Kagsabua is reportedly the first eagle fitted with a satellite transmitter and a VHF radio to monitor his activities.

No carcasses were found, but Mirasol said feathers identified to be of the eagle were found near the gadget. Walter Dalasanay, head of the Kitanglad Porters Association, also reported recovery on July 15 of
two avian feet believed to have belonged to Kagsabua.

Mirasol said he ordered a "full blown investigation" on July 14.

Mirasol quoted Celestinano Yabunan, head of the Kitanglad Guard Volunteers (KGV), as saying on Wednesday that three witnesses are signing an affidavit that they saw a man, whose name was not made
available as of press time, shot and ate the male eagle in La Fortuna village, next to Lupiagan, where the eagle was released by officials of the Philippine Eagle Foundation and other government and community
officials in March this year. (To be updated)

One cannot play blind to the kind of stories we hear from both the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the New Peoples Army about gaining strength against each other.

Both camps, even with disproportionate advantages, have brought the battlefield from the mountains to the media.

The news room has become a fierce war zone of propaganda.

Over the weekend fierce fighting in Quezon town resulted in deaths from both camps and as usual the two parties spewed explosive claims of atrocities, fatalities, casualties and even charm to win the heart of the public.

Army officials immediately talked over radio programs to explain its side; while the New Peoples Army has sent emails to express their own.

The military throws dirt at the NPA accusing them of causing un-peace as the NPA rebuts it is the AFP whose throwing lies at "bareface".

It's a word war of the "he says, she says" type, which makes reporting the news a little pushy and tricky.

It appears the media is bound to be caught in the crossfire. If we report, we report the carcasses of each other's battle plans. If we don't, then what about the consequences and the impact to the communities?

Peace is still more appealing than war and let's give it a full chance here, no ifs and buts.

More than the count on how many did a party kill in an encounter, how many camps were discovered, how many guns were grabbed or "recovered", more than the appeals for the public to dump the other party, and so on; the road to peace still offers the better journey.

We encourage the provincial government and local governments in towns and cities and non-government organizations and civil society to transcend the "war freak" stance and lead a new take for local peace negotiations right here in Bukidnon.

All of us know this war could not be solved in the military front only. Every body losses in war; while we all win in peace.

We have to understand that the AFP - NPA conflict cannot be left only for the military to address. In war, the real enemy is war itself.

We can be above conflict and we have to choose peace and stay away from violence. (Editorial, Central Mindanao Newswatch, 19 to 25 June 2008)

We were looking through the window from our side of the conference hall--- we looked like kids wanting to gate crash or something. Everybody in the training was doing just that as we waited for our morning session to start.

We were holding grassroots documentation and reporting training next door and the arrival of wedding guests drew our attention ---especially when traditional wedding songs and hymns began to play. Omar is from Mamasapano, a town in more rural Maguindanao. He works for a cooperative in Upi town in the new province of Shariff Kabunsuan. He described his town as a “conflict-affected” area. But he said, there, wars could not stop weddings.

It’s a day of celebration. Kalilang is Maguindanaoan word for celebration.

Omar said it is dominantly a Moro wedding mixed with cultural blends from the west. But he found it acceptable since “most rituals are now mixed; this being not an exemption”.

Kin of the couple came in traditional Moro attires but the master of ceremonies spoke in English and the operators played popular wedding music.

I think I heard Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” or another wedding march. And before the wedding processional music was played they filled the hall with a score of love songs like Celine Dion’s “Because You Love Me”, Norah Jones “Come Away with Me” and even Chris Brown’s “With You”.

The bride walked down the stairs of the hotel as the first notes came out, passing through the base of scaffoldings put up to renovate the hotel. She emerged at the aisle to the applause of family and wedding guests.

Her entrance, however, was shortly disrupted when a waiter carrying a case of Coca Cola soft drinks walked the aisle, too, ahead of her to serve drinks.

Then she walked straight and gracefully to the front where her older groom beams in pride. His eyes trained on her bride with her clean, scented, shiny and elegant get up, past a soiled and dark alley to the crowded hall.

It could have been an uncomfortable contrast.

People celebrate inside a hall as hotel staff and construction workers toil just outside the hall. People unite in marriage despite divisiveness surrounding them. Families pull off expensive wedding parties even with the rice crisis.

But I learned that the ceremony was an opportunity for the two Moro families to assert their resilience, their pride and their identity.

An anthropology professor from our team belted a quick lecture against purists claiming there is no such thing as a “pure” Moro wedding.

But people accepted the influences and infused it to their rituals –like this particular wedding.
In Mindanao, where locals over the centuries dealt with traders from China, Middle East and South Asia, Conquerors from Iberia to America and with settlers from the Visayas and Luzon; the influence in culture is glaring.

The difference produces diversity, which makes Mindanao a good venue for assertion of cultural identities and a healthy interaction of both differences and similarities.

For coffee drinkers, a natural choice for a stop over in between Cotabato and Davao cities aside from rest room visits and road side meals, is the Pikit Public Market.

Aside from it being a vibrant and busy market place, it offers Pikit's famous Pamogon "excelsa" coffee.

We scoured for that 'aromatic' redemption and found it for sale in many stalls at P130 per kilo.  

I had been curious about what makes the humble native Pamogon coffee unique. I've been drinking this coffee for a while and I wanted to know more about how this was made.

And in this recent trip to Central Mindanao I wanted to know the answers.

From Kutawato, we traveled back to Davao City Monday to swing from a field consultation for a training in June.

I've got one discovery, which is perhaps no longer new to others. The famous coffee is dried, roasted and processed in Pikit by many vendors using beans bought from Davao and other neighboring places.

Vendors at the market said the coffee is known all through out by the name "Pamogon" because it is traded widely by an Ilocano "kape-talista" who got the Maguindanao monicker of the Maya bird.

I've bought from another store where I haggled and earned a 10 percent discount. But we dropped by the store run by the trader, "Pamogon".

He's got the biggest stock in that "coffee and sugar" section of the market.

Thelma, from whomI bought my one month supply said they buy coffee beans from Pamogon and process the coffee by themselves.

So Pikit coffee is actually coffee from around North Cotabato (and even Davao and other Mindanao areas) "traded" by kape-talista Pamogon and processed by Pikit entrepeneurs. All the while, I thought it was also grown in Pikit.

That is my one simple discovery this week.

From the MindaNews dispatch >>>> Hope for the New Year is high nationwide at 91%  but in Mindanao, residents were more hopeful for 2007 than they are for 2008, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.
The survey, conducted nationwide from November 30 to December 3 but released only on December 28, showed Metro Manila as the most hopeful,  at 95%; Visayas at 94%; the rest of Luzon at 91% and Mindanao at 87%.

The survey asked “Angdarating na taon ba ay inyong sasalubungin na may pag-asa o pangamba?” (Is it with hope or with fear that you enter the coming year?).“In Mindanao, however, hopefulness for the New Year slightly declined, from 90% in  2006 to 87% in 2007,” a press statement from the SWS said.

In Metro Manila, “hopefulness of the New Year is up eight points, from 87% in 2006 to
95% in 2007, the highest recorded New Year hope in the area since the 92% in 2002.”

Hopefulness for 2007 and 2008 remained the same in the rest of Luzon (91-92%) and Visayas (93-94%).

Last year, NCR was the least hopeful, at 87%. This year, it is the most hopeful, at 95%.

Mindanao was least hopeful in 2000 about their expectations for 2001, with only 78% saying they were hopeful in facing 2001.

By yearend of 2001, Mindanao was approaching 2002 with more hope, at 86%. In 2002, hopefulness for 2003 was even higher, at 94%.

The year 2003, however, turned out to be a “war” year for some parts in Southwestern Mindanao and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), as government forces attacked Buliok in Pagalungan, Maguindanao, displacing at least 400,000 in the immediate environment and neighboring provinces.

In 2003, hopefulness for 2004 declined to 92% and dropped even more by yearend 2004 with only 87% of Mindanawons hopeful of a better 2005. By yearend, fewer people approached 2006 with hope, at 84%. But expectations by yearend improved as 90% of Mindanawons approached 2007 with hope.

New Year hope is also high across socio-economic class, “88% among the middle to upper classes ABC, 92% among the masa D class and 91% among the very poor class E,” the SWS said.

The survey also showed that the top two resolutions nationwide for 2008 are “to have a better family life” (12%) and “to work harder or look for work” (11%).

“To work harder/look for work/venture into business” (19%) is the top response in Metro Manila, while “To have a better family life” (15%) is the top New Year’s resolution in the rest of  Luzon.

In Mindanao, “To  improve attitude or to become a better person” is the top resolution (12%) in Mindanao and in the Visayas (11%).

“The survey question on hope versus fear about the New Year was patterned after the polls conducted annually by the Allensbach Institute of Demoskopy, a pioneering opinion research center in Germany.  Since 1991, German hope in the coming year has not exceeded 58%,” the SWS said. (MindaNews)

Albao said Zambrano is a lecturer on fingerprinting, among other subjects, at the Philippine National Police Regional Training Center and also teaches criminology at the University of Mindanao. 

Three women accused Zambrano of large scale illegal recruitment after he allegedly failed to deliver his promise to help them process and facilitate their immigrant visa applications. 

Zambrano allegedlly hired and recruited the victims, identified as Grace Cardenas, Letecia Sierra and Judith Paccial to work and become United States citizens. Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

About 28 of the 39 projects were clustered under the natural resource development sector, according to a list provided by the conference secretariat to reporters.

Only 11 were classified under tourism development, transport, infrastructure and communication. Four of the projects are into mining, including another mining project in Zamboanga Sibugay, two in Compostela Valley under the Philippine Mining Development Corporation, and another one on coal in West Kalimantan in Indonesia.  Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

A FEW MONTHS BACK, I wrote about the snorer, spitter, smoker, and pukers in a bus ride. This time, despite needing to pass an academic requirement, here I am writing about how to survive traveling in Mindanao. After a recent trip to Butuan City, I figured I have to sift through my old journals and collate the dos and don’ts of traveling I have listed down at least over 10 years of running around this ‘promising island’.

For starters, the must haves in your survival kit: a shawl, flashlight, loose change or coins, white flower, a plastic bag, a bottle of water, some candies, alcohol, tissue paper.

Never leave home without a shawl. It protects you from dust and the UV rays when you’re on a long habal-habal (motorcycle) ride to nowhere. It is also useful to cover yourself when you need to pee in the middle of nowhere. Shawls also keep you warm when traveling at nighttime especially in airconditioned buses. Bus drivers would tend to turn it on full blast to keep their seats cool because it is where the machine is throbbing.
This is a constant cause of bickering. Passengers would holler at the driver and bus attendant because the bus is virtually becoming a freezer. The driver would snap back by saying, “pasagdihi ko kung gusto ninyo mabuhi” (let me be if you still want to live).

Speaking of night trips, here’s another tip. Look out for radio speakers on top of your head. Bus drivers also have the proclivity to play the radio in full volume to keep them awake the whole trip. So, please bring cotton balls for your ears or move two seats away to avoid auditory trauma.

Never get a seat beside a window. Scalawags along the highway would sometimes throw rocks at passing buses. Besides, if you sit beside a window and the bus rolled on its side, you’ll definitely get a bump on you head and bruises on your side. I learned it the hard way when I got squeezed between a heavy weight male and the window a few years back.

The flashlight. Landslides are of normal occurrence during rainy season. Sometimes you need to walk in darkness for over a kilometer of mud and heavy rain to get to another bus waiting on the other side of the highway. Flashlights are useful when the bus breaks down in the middle of the night in some God forsaken areas and you’ve got to find an ally, say a grandma or an elderly person.

If you are a woman and you travel alone, transferring buses is like mayhem. Everybody will be scrambling for seats you need to have that much needed flexibility and elbowroom for maneuvering. Sometimes you need to clamber up on the side of the bus and wiggle your way into the window (just be prepared again for bruises). Grandmas would watch your things for you. By the way, just be prepared to be her gofer girl and for inquisitions for the rest of the journey. But you are actually creating good karma here. The sticky part is she will probably be matching you up with her son or nephew. Argh!

Mind you, if you can’t find an ally since all are young and want to grab good seats, brace yourself with your backpack for the pushing and shoving. Mind you, I fell several times from the bus, and I can only imagine what it’s like to be in a football game stampede.

When traveling alone, always make sure to inform the driver or bus attendant that you need to go to the comfort room. There were more than two instances that I was practically left by the bus, but thank god for elderly seatmates who called out to the driver and told him I was left behind. It is also good to know if you are a fast or slow eater. If you are a nibbler, never dare to eat a full meal. Instead thrive on biscuits, boiled eggs and peanuts the whole trip. The bus is always raring to go – finished or unfinished.

Always have loose change say, P 20 or P 50 bills, and coins. These are for transferring buses when the bus attendant does not have enough change. By the way, always clear your tickets with him. Don’t take his word that you’ll be reimbursed or get your change in the next bus. An elderly couple had to argue their way all through out their trip because of this.

Coins are also needed for using the comfort rooms (price ranges from P 2.00 to P 4.00) and buying tissues when the need arises. It is also an effective token to hush up preachers who stepped into the bus and conduct biblical sermons. By the way, regarding hold-ups, reserve at least P 500 to give as token when the occasion arises that is, if you can spare it. A colleague actually has to give P 25, her last money, to the robber who took pity on her and waived it aside. Better that than your cell phone, which should be kept hidden as much as possible

Checkpoints at nighttime are really an inconvenience. You also don’t know whose army is conducting it. So cooperate and be courteous, show your luggage when needed. Soldiers (again whose troops?) can be overly eager they would suspect all boxes may actually contain arms.

This had happened to me. They insisted that an unclaimed box was mine. I have to show my student ID, Press ID and argued that I am carrying only a box full of books (I wonder what they have to say if they see one of them is about Marxist theories). It was a good thing that another journalist was on that same bus and vouched for me. Lesson learned, put your name and address on your box(es).

Plastic bags and white flower are for pukers. You may not be what they call “dagaton” (easily nauseated) but the kid beside you or a pregnant woman might be. Sharing your white flower vial is God’s grace to them.

Habal-habals (motorcycles) are accident-prone rides. Long sleeve shirts, jeans and high-cut shoes are ideal get-up. If you can afford to hire a habal-habal, great! If not, the next two seats behind the driver are the best ones. Sometimes on long motorcycle trips in forested areas, rain would suddenly pour that you need to seek shelter in a hut along the road. Check first if it has foxholes or underground tunnels. I would rather catch pneumonia than be caught in a crossfire. So pack your clothes in plastic bags or bring a poncho with you.

Be attentive to the habal-habal driver’s instructions. If he says never point or dare to look at a certain hill or mountain, obey! Snipers abound and anybody is just fair game. As long as there is a cell signal, update someone back home of the exact location of your area and what you’re wearing. At least your whereabouts could be traced if anything happens to you.

The “last trip” to Mindanao’s innards could mean a full passenger vehicle. There’s nowhere to go but go “taplod” (sit on top of the jeepney or bus). Try to find a seat in the middle, but chances are these are already taken. So you have nobody or nothing to hang-on. What do you do? Pray! Try also not looking down the cliffs if you can help it okay?

Boat rides can sometimes be so surreal. All are in a state of liminality even the cows and carabaos could just be meters away from you. So if I were you, make sure that your cot is on the upper deck. Otherwise, you’ll worry the whole time about the what ifs of a foot and mouth disease you’ll get from them the whole night.

Be careful with your questions. I realized on the field that sometimes people would easily open up to strangers. A simple ‘kumusta?” (how are you?) could release a torrid of emotional trauma. Let them cry. But if you don’t have the emotional stamina for it, let them drink from your bottle of water. Never mind if you go thirsty for the rest of the trip.

What else? Prayers help a lot. You need it when you are caught forging a river and there’s a sudden flood in San Fernando, Bukidnon, or when the bangka you are riding in Siargao stopped in the middle of the sea, and there’s a whirlpool gaining momentum. Whew! All you can do is just have faith and just surrender to God’s will. (An Istambay sa Mindanao post courtesy of Penelope C. Sanz/ MindaNews.)

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

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

I could even draw lessons from talking to vegetable vendors in Davao’s Bangkerohan market. I mean you could do that in Cogeo, Antipolo City, too.

But hey, public markets here could tell a lot more.

Public markets around Mindanao are schools and museums of learning, too. Everyday, Mindanao’s agricultural products, their producers and marketers converge at the market in cities and towns.

I chanced upon a transaction in Bangkerohan between a producer of sweet potatoes from Marahan and a vendor. Even in transactions like these, there are middlemen and I realized that they are crucial in the price determination of camote-Q in the streets of Davao.

The farmer told stories about sweet potato (camote) production in Marahan, the issues they face such as transportation costs, the use of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers.

For him, there there are effective methods of planting and harvesting their crops. He went on a tell-all sharing of joys and pains in farming and selling his produce in the market.

Stories like this could go beyond Davao’s busy markets. There are other stories from
Mindanao’s taboans (flea markets) such as in Quezon, Bukidnon or in Alicia, Zamboanga del Sur. It is such an interesting facet of Mindanao.

By the way, every time I buy something from the market I make sure I know at least a new story. Every piece of tomato has a story, say, where it came from and where it is going.

This leads me to Mindanao’s wide and productive farmlands. The farms are even wider fields of study not only for those who are into agriculture and business. The farmers, especially those running small to medium size farms, have their own story to tell as Mindanao agriculture changes.

I used to play in our backyard in 1986 Don Carlos, Bukidnon with the backdraft of smaller but diverse farms. To our east, is a corn plantation. In the west, sugarcane. In the south is a fruit plantation. In the southwest is my grandfather’s rice, cassava and corn farm. Next to it is an Ilocano neighbor’s 'singkamas' plantation.

Today, surrounding the location of our old house is a vast pineapple and sugarcane plantation.
Mindanao’s farms are fast becoming mono-crop giants. One of the issues about farming now is whether it is still practical to operate larger instead of smaller farms.

According to an advocate of mono-crop production: The wonders of the “Bahay Kubo” as “a haven of diverse, self-sustaining products” have long been debunked. I took a hard look at the source of that information, especially when I made him reveal that his farm has been producing for exports to
Japan. I detest him hitting that song in the first place.

When I was in Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte, I got serious lecturing from a Banana farm operator about their choice between export –orientation or farm losses. I was speechless.

I think it is important to know what is going on, what do farmers in
Mindanao produce for whom? Where do we get the food on our tables? It is a good thing that the organic farming movement in Mindanao is growing to balance, hopefully, the equation. This makes the farmlands, now a “battlefield” between plantation-synthetic economy and organic farming, an interesting fieldwork. Of course, we know whose winning it as of now.

Mindanao’s highways and narrow roads, too, reveal many things. Travel will be very worthwhile as the face of Mindanao is changing. There are good roads as there are bad roads. The condition of its roads somehow reflect the condition of Mindanao.

Nevertheless, travel around Mindanao is a virtual history tour. If you stop and ask around, you’ll find that history is unfolding in these places.

In transit, people shift from one reality to another. From work to home. From one community to another. From city to barrio. From known to unknown or vice versa. Sometimes it becomes a shift from one state to another, as people continue to die of bombings. Anyway, its more of the exemption in Mindanao than the rule.

With better roads and better buses, traveling on a 24-hour basis in some areas is possible. It is interesting to see the passengers come and go from a place to another.

Interactions also inside the bus will reveal some ounce of expectations. You’ll see that the passenger are in varying forms, sizes, odors and origins.

There was one occasion when a Christian missionary preacher, maybe unwittingly, made a provoking invitation in a departing bus in Iligan City. He invited the passengers, half of them wearing traditional Moro clothing, to watch a Christian program on TV showing later that night.

I knew it was a tense case. He should have considered that his audience were not all Christians. He could have exercised more sensitivity.

My Maranao seatmate, however, told me it was OK. He said he got used to that particular intricacy in living in Mindanao.Of course, he clarified later that, "OK" meant tolerable but not acceptable. Anyway, the preacher went down the bus alive.

Inside the bus, the scene looked relieved. If you look closer you'll see you're just into a study of diversity and it is such a stimulating microcosm ofMindanao.

Formal education in Mindanao would also be interesting. The growing disparity of students in private universities and state colleges would be a study in contrast. For basic education, the same contrast holds true as more and more students in the rural areas are left behind by their counterparts in more urbanized areas. The issues of lack of school buildings, teachers, books among others-- widen the gaps.

But even in a school in relatively urbanized Toril, Davao City, science education is still lackluster.

As a teacher, too, I had serious contemplation on whether students in Mindanao possess a “Mindanawon consciousness”. In my advanced journalism class, I got an empty stare from the whole class when I mentioned the words “Bud Dajo”.

That prompted me to dedicate half of the time for the next session to share the story of that historic place in Sulu and drew from them some reactions.

I really shift gears and modes between my journalism students in Ateneo de Davao University and our basic documentation and reporting trainees in Upi, Shariff Kabungsuan; Caraga, Davao Oriental; and Tandag, Surigao del Sur.

I’m just glad that the academe, civil society, government, media and other sectors meet in some venues, like in cyber space alleys such as Mindanao 1081 to discuss some issues and along the way bridge some of these divides. Cyberspace has also become a growing venue for learning in
Mindanao.

But, in our Amul-amul Bukidnon e-group, there will be silence as soon as issues about the community bypass postings on soft topics as “Davao’s best coffee shops among other things”.

There are other venues to learn about Mindanao. Just look at its health centers, hospitals churches and even funeral houses, they will reveal many things that we cannot read in books and watch on Manila-centered TV programs.

The whole gamut of learning avenues is characteristic of Mindanao’s diversity and learning may come as fluid and in informal notions. I think there is a greater need for religious if not cultural sensitivity here than elsewhere in the Philippines. And people demonstrate it.

My work as a journalist helped me see things that went past the ordinary. It gave me wide-ranging opportunities to listen, to question, to interact and to connect. As I connect to the different shapes and forms of Mindanao and its peoples and their issues, I become both a recipient and a carrier of messages.

I also become a message myself. No, I didn't want to be too presumptuous. I meant that, how I look, react and act on a thing relays so much on what I want to happen.

Anyway, the lessons are boundless and the results are priceless in Mindanao. But the demands are high, too, for a student of Mindanao.

Thinking "out of the box" meant to think differently so to achieve desired yet different outcomes. You have to think in a manner that catches up with the evolving realities.

Honestly, what I get from events and interactions in Mindanao contribute to my growth and maturity.

But much as I learn, the lessons should also be shared and relearned. A present-day Mindanawon should never cease thirsting for learning and should always be ready to share it to others as well.

The Sarangani Information Office sent a press release, which our news organization used in this story.

Tom isn't Mark Twain's adventurous Sawyer kid of-all-time. Tom is Tom Balatac, the 24-year old Grade 1 student of Kipalkuda Elementary School in Maitum.

I commend Tom for the courage of going against social persecution, perhaps, of coming to school much later. It is one brave act that sends a wonderful message to those who have access to quality education but did not value the opportunity as of now.

(Photo of Tom Balatac in class, Sarangani Information Office photo courtesy of MindaNews)

Tom said he has experienced being poor and he doesn't like it so he has to go to school.

There are many"Toms" out there, especially in Mindanao's rural areas. I think Tom could be the image model of these people. It will be surely an encouraging, if not inspiring, move for Tom to choose to be "in-school" despite his age.

I'm sure he could try the acceleration programs of the Department of Education.

Many of the likes of Tom live in areas very far from the accessible schools. Many are also hindered by poverty to go to school.

Still many, I believe Tom is one of them, who come from indigenous communities who cannot access the schools.

Good that there are now initiatives, too, to use culturally sensitive education curriculum for indigenous peoples.

Anyway, Congrats to Tom and to other people who are behind him in his quest for education.

Big Thanks to Ferdie C!

Honestly, I hopped by www.exploreiloilo.com and I liked the site. It's maintained by a 19-year old nursing student. It contains beautiful images of Iloilo City, including old churches, malls and their new "airport of international standard."

Even if, however, I find Iloilo City via exploreiloilo's appeal surprisingly attractive and also memorable since it was my city from 1994 to 2000, I still think Davao City, can do far better. The blog also houses news stories, among others on the city and a quick and inviting AVP promotional material on the city (I liked it).

I know there are many Davao blogs that feature the city's tourist spots and developments. I am yet to find one, though, which fused a wide range of interests into one site that could showcase the city in the blogosphere.

Or maybe I just do not know much about that. Anyway, Madayaw Dabaw!

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

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

The musicians stood under the shade of a tree with copies of pieces they played scattered on the elevated pavement in front of them. I could see the musical notes on those sheets as I pretended to rest from a walk near them.

The music was good. It had a soothing effect especially with the scorching heat. They played very well that I wondered if they were from another place brought in by passion to play, and decided to let the neighborhood sample their music.

They were not dressed like they were to play in an orchestra. In fact they wore slippers and were dressed casually like they were residents of the village.

I would later find out it was a father and son tandem. The younger man played the violin with, all ease, while it was obvious his father was coaching him as he played the guitar.

I've thought about the young people of Davao, plagued with problems of poverty and crime. Isn't it good to influence them to hook on sports and or music, like playing the violin, guitar, kudyapi, flute, or sax? Maybe the city government or civil society could buy the instruments, launch a musical contest or whatever, and win the hearts of the youth to stuff that uplifts the soul and instills discipline.

Maybe the schools are too crowded. Maybe there will be many youth volunteers who can  teach many skills.

In that case, I suppose the city's problem with juvenile violators of the law will be curbed.

Maybe I'm just too influenced by movies featuring Carnegie Hall performances.

Anyway, after hearing five pieces from them, I started to feel I had become invasive and exploitative. I was benefiting yet I didn't pay for it.

I also couldn't disrupt them and ask if they can perform some other time because they looked so buried in their music.

Then the pedal cab arrived. Time to end the fun. I wish I have the instrument, the training, and the right group.

I would do street performances often. Really. Trust me.

I've been telling myself that very early morning Wednesday as the bus I was taking back to Davao maneuvered the Bukidnon-Davao road (BuDa). We were negotiating through zero visibility courtesy of the fogs that covered the highway.

Five minutes through it and just before I could ask where were we in the 176 kilometer-highway, a Jollibee marker popped up in the scene saying "76 kilometers to Davao City."

I have been praying about those cats' eyes mounted in the middle of the road as reflectors. I believe it was the only one guiding the driver through the dark. The white paint on both sides of the highway was invisible, too, in at least a 15 to 20 kilometers stretch.

About 70 kilometers from (downtown) Davao City, a tremor woke me up from a nap. I realized the driver sped off the road stretch without knowing pavement was cut and there was an on going renovation. We (three other passengers near me) thought we fell off the ravine ---between us and the deep dark unknown.

The cats' eyes eclipse or were not mounted in some parts of the highway. The side guide lines (however you call it) also need re-coat. More directional signs are also needed. Probably, there should also be a highway patrol organized jointly by PNP/AFP, LTO, DPWH, City Government, and emergency assistance groups like Red Cross.

The driver said that wasn't the worst yet. He had a more dangerous experience before.

Definitely, it is safer to travel on day time. That was the lesson there.

But I'm sure the Department of Public Works and Highways in Davao City (Southern Mindanao) can find a way to help motorists at night.

There are a hundred disasters waiting to happen in Buda. Hopefully, we are not just waiting to react before its too late.

William Whang, senior vice president and head of SBC's branch banking group, told reporters in a press conference at The Marco Polo Tuesday they are definitely
expanding in Mindanao and launching highly in demand consumer products. He said the offering is an indicator there is fast growing market for consumer products in Mindanao such as auto, housing, and personal loans.

Read the rest of the report in MindaNews.com.

She said the priorities will find "record levels of well thought out and
generous funding."

In her past speeches, Ms Arroyo outlined her plans to Mindanao after Luzon and
Central Philippines.

Her promised 30% of the budget from the three regions was partly in response
to a recommendation made at the summit on the Human Security Act in Cagayan de
Oro on July 9 and 10. The recommendation, however, was for a 30% share of the
total budget, not just the budget of three departments.Her first two priorities, she said, are “investments in physical,
intellectual, legal and security infrastructure to increase business
confidence and investments in a "stronger and wider social safety net."
Arroyo said the investments show both sides in the Mindanao conflict that they
have “more at stake in common; and a greater reason to be together than divided.”

The President said nothing, however, of the now shaky peace process with the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), citing only "inter-faith dialogue,
expanded public works and more responsive social services."
But she paid tribute to the 14 Marines killed in Basilan on July 10 and even
sent a company of Marines detailed to the Presidential Security Group, to
Basilan to run after those who beheaded the Marines.

The send off came two days before the SONA where the President said "it is
never right and always wrong to fight terror with terror"

Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Partnerships with the local government units in their areas can help water districts around Mindanao do away with loans from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), Juanito Aroa, also general manager of the Malaybalay City Water District said.

He said one way to cut water rate hikes is to coordinate with the local government unit, which he said should have the same mandate as the water district to provide public utilities.

He said water districts could use the scheme to augment capacity to serve more concessionaires or repair old pipelines.

Aroa said despite the available sources of potable water in most localities, water rates will be expected to increase because of the cost to improve sourcing and distributing the water to an increasing number of concessionaires and serving new areas where people used to get water from deep wells.

Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Zubiri becomes the third candidate from the administration's Team Unity in the winning circle, after senators Edgardo Angara and Joker Arroyo.

He pledge to make Mindanawons proud of his representation as the first senator from the province of Bukidnon, saying his priority is public service and not politics.

Zubiri, in an interview with MindaNews after his inaugural speech, said he meant working to increase Mindanao's share of the national budget from 18 to 25 percent.

He said "the development of Mindanao would mean the development of the Philippines".

He cited that while Mindanao receives less than a fourth of the national budget, it contributes more than 40 percent to the national economy as a food basket and source of natural resources. Given enough support, Zubiri said Mindanao's contribution could even reach 60 percent because it is typhoon-free.

Read the rest of the report on MindaNews.com.

Read the report on MindaNews.com.

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

There are times, however, that one could get burnt out. I do. Technically, the job appears to be routinary. You wake up, tune in to the radio, check text inbox and mailboxes for news advisories, cover events, ask for the missing and the gaps, and simplify for the readers by demanding the source to speak digestion. Sometimes, unwittingly, I got to pester or irritate the source with my your credulity and confusion masked as if one indespensible "probing question."

Don't get me wrong though. This is a noble job and I swear I tried to handle it with matching nobility.

I have learned to swing with a love-hate view of this job but at the end of the day I think of the public my news agency serves and whether my "publics," those who risk reading my reports, actually understood reality from what I wrote.

Its not easy to probe beyond what sources tell or show. What are we, fortune tellers or CSI agents armed with cunning craft?

Everytime sources offer their realities, this group of pakialameros intervenors seemed convinced. But we are actually not suppose to dive at anything fed on us. We are suppose to doubt until the source gives no room for doubt.

The goal is to be the public's watchdog. Tall order, I echoed that.

In a corner I asked a colleague, why us? I mean why me? I could have chosen to apply for that Global Sutherland call center job! I must plead I think I could do the job of that high-paying NGO worker far better (dreaming)! I could choose to sit, listen, and just launch killer smiles to closely befriend these influential sources and use my connection to fatten my calf.

Move over man, your not a dream boy, but a watch dog. You already got your bone so go back to work. Aw-aw! Bark, bark.

Honestly, there are times I could relate to superheroes. Take for example Superman and Spiderman. Is that why they play roles of a journalist and photojournalist in their movies?

You see, this job, and I'm not blaming anyone else, is actually a clash of convictions. That is why a reporter has to stay as independent as possible. Of course not to be isolated as to seeing red to the extent of being out of synch.

In Davao City, premier city of Mindanao, as claimed, reporters swim in oceans of information, opinion, hidden truths, lies, realities, fantasies and even magic.

One has to master as many strokes as possible to get to the other end of the line. Meaning, make sense and stay within sanity zone.

Welcome to Davao City's news jungle. Facing the mirror, I mouthed this: Don't wish you were elsewhere yet. This is your jungle Tarzan!

And especially when it brought havoc and ended lives, one's heart must be in pain to see those affected. Like the case of those in Bansalan, Davao del Sur as depicted in this MindaNews story.

When Carol A., one of our editors at MindaNews asked me if I'm coming with them to Bansalan where a bomb reportedly exploded last week, I was hesitant.

Since I could not go because of a prior commitment, I passed but all the while the imagery of the blast sight hounded me. How many and who are the victims this time?

Who must have caused this? Aren't they tired of sowing terror in the eyes and lives of these unsuspecting victims?

As a reporter, I thought about how many bombing incidents do we have to cover before we can see the end of all these? Is there an end?

I am listening to myself asking these questions, realizing I might have played gullible or simply gullible.

I am not even talking yet about how this will impact on bigger things like the economy and public safety. I'm just looking at individual lives of people like the story's Rusty Anelito.

But what is the price we have to pay?

Listening to two old men talking (in the vernacular) in Davao City's Ecoland terminal early Saturday morning as I was leaving for Bukidnon, I suddenly felt so insecure.

Man A: Any second now, this terminal might already be on the news.

Man B: Or maybe it already has landed on the news, maybe we did not know we are already dead.

It was horrifying. But I know letting fear rule will never solve the problem. What will?

He told MindaNews they have engaged in a battle to keep the doctors from going out by offering them packages to work extra with private hospitals, higher renumeration from Philhealth reimbursements, and a long-term program of scholarships for aspiring doctors nation-wide.

Duque said, however, that the next second biggest problem is budget as the DOH continues to work with a budget cut.

Duque pledged that in 2008 budget for DOH will be bigger and a bigger portion will be allocated for  Mindanao. He did not specify how much but he said increments would go especially to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where health indicators have remained at dismal levels.

But he said it still depends on whether the autonomous region's health department can put in place management, auditing, and accounting mechanisms.

"They have to put it up within the year, otherwise they will miss their share of the increase in the budget next year.

These are woes for the leadership in the ARMM, indeed.

Somehow, I wondered why he didn't include "all of the above" to refer to the first three. But I thank that survey for causing me to reflect on why I blog.

Actually, I intended to go on a blog leave today. I caught the flu virus which, fortunately, I quickly nipped at the bud. But when I saw this unfinished post that I have sidelined since many months ago, I have to blink.

I know this was coming.

How to sustain and upscale Istambay sa Mindanao is a concern I would soon confront. For two weeks I have seriously considered how to improve this as I anticipate some changes ahead.

My first motivation to blog was just to test the waters. In 2004, I heard people were into blogs so followed suit as I said on this post.

But I also realized I should be able to use it for a greater end and it should go beyond my own conquest of technological itch or curiosity.

It was easy putting it up in 2004. I started tinkering on a Blog Spot account one day in November that year, then eventually migrated to Wordpress because I had 24/7 internet access.

I started blogging by “blogging”. I mean I wrote about my views and takes on anything under the sun. Now I have decided to keep it, at most as a journal of the news stories I wrote and those, which I found are interesting (in my opinion) for readers on Mindanao.

It has caused some frictions, too, especially when this blogger steps on issues journalists confront on sourcing. I have tried to be faithful as my editors would always remind me I'm a reporter first before a blogger. ('coz there is an ocean of difference between the two.)

When I started drawing a small crowd of visitors, I found out Istambay was beginning to fill a tiny void about current events written on Mindanao. Thanks to those few who returned after they bumped in to my blog.

Everyday, however, is a study of sensitive choices. And sometimes there are wrong calls.

As a general beat reporter, I get to cover oftentimes the bad news and I have grown uncomfortable about it landing on my blog, too (or even writing about it in the first place).

Bad news is bad news. And no matter how you put it into context it remains one even if you write it to influence impact towards good news.

But I realized that Mindanao ---the wide and vast field I choose to blog about --- is so complex, diverse and potent of news and the bad news oftentimes outnumbers the good.

I don't blame it entirely to what is really happening in the field since I could choose not to report it or probably blur about it by taking another angle. But I think the reason it’s out is because it is out and happening. I must admit, it is easier to gather information about bad news because its there and you can't ignore it. Besides it is hard not to write about what is glaring.

It is not easy to search and weave though good or bad news in the sea of Mindanao realities.

Ideally, I thirst for good news that’s true, reliable and sensible. (And not those fraught with the bearer’s self-flagellation.)

The feeling persisted up to this posting that I have tried to develop a simple balance formula.

Whenever I post a negative entry I must post something positive after it. No matter how I felt it is re-creative, if not “fantastic” I tried to put that mode on. Maybe things will improve in due time because I blogged about it.

For now, I have decided to keep this blog patiently as I expect it to evolve on its own.

But I have already resolved to upscale and go pro-blogging in the future. What, how and why, I’ll soon post about it.