~manila, you're not that ugly

I remember singing this song over and over again when I was in first grade–my mom chose it as my piece for a singing contest in school…
I realize now that that was in 1987, a year after EDSA 1 (it puts me off the way we have to qualify which EDSA we mean now–the succeeding two were “not of the same spirit” and don’t belong with the first). Without pretense, in 1987, the spirit of Bayan Ko was alive in my mom, and was unknowingly passed on to me:

Ang bayan kong Pilipinas
Lupain ng ginto’t bulaklak
Pag-ibig na sa kanyang palad
Nag-alay ng ganda’t dilag

At sa kanyang yumi at ganda
Dayuhan ay nahalina
Bayan ko, binihag ka
Nasadlak sa dusa

CHORUS
Ibon mang may layang lumipad
Kulungin mo at umiiyak
Bayan pa kayang sakdal-dilag
Ang ‘di magnasang makaalpas

Pilipinas kong minumutya
Pugad ng luha at dalita
Aking adhika
Makita kang sakdal laya

I wonder how kids feel today, having lived through the inauguration of a new president who above all, promises to be good-hearted.

Do they believe him? Do they hope with him?

From GMA News:

Starting Wednesday [June 30], Southeast Asian Airlines (SEAIR) will discontinue service to five destinations for the installation of additional exit doors in planes flying to these locations.

The airline’s flights to El Nido in Palawan, San Fernando in La Union; Marinduque; Zamboanga City in Mindanao; Tawi-Tawi; and Jolo will be discontinued on June 30, Wednesday, the company said in a statement.

…

The statement made no mention of the airline’s flight resumption to these areas.

Oh this is a major setback for El Nido tourism.

Been actively planning a trip to El Nido, now the only transportation options from Manila are land travel from Puerto Princesa or boat travel from Coron, both of which have direct flights to and from Manila, or via (expensive) chartered flights from Manila to El Nido. Boo boo boo and triple more booos

I’ve always wondered what the Manila Ocean Park was like,but people advised me to wait until everything was open before I went to visit.  Three years have passed since its grand opening in 2007,  but yey I was still an eager beaver to go in for the first time last month!

For a random Tuesday afternoon, I was surprised to see it packed, and not with school kids on a field trip, but with regular families with children and even seniors in tow.

Lots of interesting animals to see, this eel was among the first to greet us…

Such a menacing look from this ray! Doesn’t he remind you of Sebastian in The Little Mermaid…?

Have you ever seen a fish so cute? Or nagpapa-cute? Wonder what those teeth are for!!

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Was so happy to read The Burden of Stuff: Why Less Could Make You Happier from the Huffington Post.

This is exactly what I’m (quietly) advocating–a purging of our consumerist lifestyles, which, in essence, is what it means to go green!  Not just changing our kitchen, bathroom, or library, but more so our own mindset.  To be able to go green for the long haul (i.e. be consistent in it enough for it to become a part of who we are), step one is to live simply.   It is a gentle, quiet call for basic living, which does not necessarily mean a frugal lifestyle, but living with only what’s enough.  It’s catching ourselves whenever we say “I want…” and really asking the whys behind that want…

Going-green has gotten on the “uso” bandwagon for a while now, which is good for the awareness it creates, but not for its message.  The internet is literally swamped with go-green blogs now, our local bookstores have a new section just for the green lifestyle, and “green” products are just everywhere, with more popping up everyday and adding to the clutter!!

Author Kirsten Dirksen shares:

Our stuff has weight (something George Clooney’s character understood in Up In the Air with his How Heavy Is Your Backpack speech), whether because it simply blocks our view of the more important things in our lives, or because like some parasite, it begins to suck up our time and attention. Almost everything we have in our lives affects us in some way: the extra clothes in our closets just get in the way of what we really want to wear; the extra furniture takes up space; it’s extra stuff to dust, to rearrange, to store, to lose things in.

She did a video interview of Brad and Andy, a couple from Texas who literally uprooted themselves from the city and chose a leaner, cleaner lifestyle with just the bare essentials: a good bed, good table, good sofa, and some modern comforts like a good kitchen and the internet:

The good news is going-green is by no means an “absolute no” to material things! Brad adds:

I don’t want to own nice things, but I want to use nice things. For example I like the idea of going and renting, although Anda makes fun of me on this, a Porsche and driving up US Highway 1 from San Francisco to Portland. I think that would be great, but I don’t want to own a Porsche.

And for this “luxury”, Kirsten says there are new amazing communities that actually have communal ownership of  “shareable” things like cars, bikes or tools.  She also shares a link to Inconspicuous Consumption, which lists references on shared libraries of useful things.  Have you heard of movements like this in the Philippines?

In any case, this is it, friends–the lamppost along the tunnel!  To go green is to travel light and purge the excesses from our lives.  It’s to sign up for “voluntary simplicity“, which is hard and frustrating, but as with all purges, promising and refreshing. 

My thoughts on October  1, 2009:

Typhoon Ondoy brought with it so much loss, fear, anger.  Galit lahat, finger-pointing has begun, and will only get worse.  My brother told me he doesn’t want to watch the news anymore, he just gets depressed.

Ordinary citizens are rallying behind something though, something that’s mobilizing them and getting them on the streets.  Everywhere people are helping–rescuing, donating, packing, cleaning, coordinating, passing on critical information.  In one weekend, we have begun talking again, and talking about things that matter–the people around us, our people, us.

First saw this during Cory’s wake–Pinoys came out to honor a great woman, a hero to the Filipino nation.  Strangers rubbing elbows in the rain, waiting in line for long hours to pay tribute and say goodbye.  It seemed that Filipino apathy was finally taking a turn for the better, but I think real motives of people were still hazy then.  It wasn’t clear why we really took to the streets.  Usiseros aside, how many of those who came with good intentions knew what those intentions were, really? Na kinilatis, pinag-isipan, binuo? Why mourn Cory? Who was she to them? What about her and her life did they connect with, that was relevant to them? Some friends who went said they wanted to be part of history… what does that mean?

I’d like to think we went to the streets to mourn Cory because despite our pronunciations that our country is hopeless, that Filipinos don’t care anymore, the truth is we do care.  We want to care. We were out there looking for hope, and Cory gave us that.

In the aftermath of Ondoy, what happened?

They say that when you take a step towards God, he comes running to you.  Maybe the Cory magic was our first step, collectively as a people, towards hope (and love). And here it is now in our midst, in abundance. Hope came running to us.

Let’s dwell on hope.  The Philippines will need more than material healing from this tragedy, and there will be a time for demanding accountability, but let it be anchored on hope.

We’ve already started talking to each other again as Filipinos.  We’re looking each other in the eye, regardless of family, school, occupation, religion, socio-economic class.  Let’s keep talking to each other.   I hope this blog can help safeguard and continue this dialogue for healing–one that is fueled by hope and at the same time channels it.

- Excerpt from Ondoy Heroes

They do say all things pass–the best and the worst–and the storm that was Ondoy has passed. I pray that its lessons (and demands) have not been lost on us though….and that the dialogue for healing among ourselves lives on…Or better yet, that it has been translated into living hope, that is fueled by consistent action.

What have you done since September 26, 2009, or what have you done differently since then?

For me, the hoping (and seeking) continues in manilarat, where I still insist on finding beauty in the city (and country!) that we love to hate, and in finding the people who can help make it all happen…go go go tourism development!  The green brigade lives on too, which is above all, a shift inside…

Various friends have helped campaign for their candidates for the recent elections; some actually ran (and won, yay!) for government.  Others keep on fighting the good fight in NGO’s like Gawad Kalinga, and still others wave the Philippine banner in their own smaller circles of friends and families…

Wherever we are, we carry our best intentions for this country with us, so whatever it is you’re doing, whether you’re primed for the bida role or part of the supporting cast, fight on! You are not alone.

Para sa bayan!

We have a new president!

Confession: I had no idea who Blanco was, nor was I familiar with his works, before I went to Angono last week.   The little that I knew of him was that he had a lot of talented children, and they painted as a family.

But wow oh wow, I was really floored when I visited his home in Angono! Tucked away in the middle of the Rizal province are paintings of a genius family– think Von Trapps for painting! Such an amazing, amazing place, full of love that is still palpable, to this day, even to the most ignorant of visitors.

The Blanco Family Museum displays the family’s most treasured works, ranging from those done by each family member as far back as 4 years of age until about the mid-twenties. All seven children are gifted painters, and Loring Blanco, their mother, joined in the painting party at age 48. Dad Pitok Blanco set up the museum to prevent the usual occurrence of artists’ families not having their works as keepsakes. None of the paintings on display are for sale.

Painted by their youngest, Peter Paul, at age 4:

Age 6:

A portrait of Peter Paul done by his older sister, Gay Blanco, at age 8:

A beautiful capture of a scene she must’ve seen often, using oil pastel on wood, age 7:

Already playing with lights and shadows at age 14:

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Angono has always been on my travel wish list. So glad finally I made it there–and on an impromptu trip at that!

With just crammed online research the night before, my best friend and I drove to Angono, Rizal to visit the art galleries of Nemiranda and the Blanco family Thursday morning last week.   We got there a little past noon, and after lunch at Balaw-Balaw Restaurant, we went down the street to the Nemiranda Museum and Angono School for the Arts.

We found a gate that said “entrance fee”, and after a few unanswered knocks, we decided to go inside. It took us a while to realize we made a mistake and entered through the back door (which explained the construction mess!).

If we just walked a little, we would’ve gone in by the real entrance, which was around the corner.

Nemi Miranda is a painter and sculptor, and his cement sculptures were inviting, and lyrical if that’s an apt word, as if they’re part of an epic or myth.  Very reminiscent of Hermes Alegre’s diwata muses (Hermes is one of my Pinoy favorite painters–my first purchased artwork is by him!)…

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A passion project of Jerry Acuzar of San Jose Builders fame, this is truly a gift to the Filipino people!

Way back in 2005, I already heard about a guy who bought old Filipino houses and transplanted them in a heritage town, and I remember that he got a lot of flack for taking these “treasures” out of their original context and arranging them in a place of his choosing, as if on a collector’s whim.  I must admit though, that this is no whim, and we owe Mr. Acuzar a multitude of thanks and support for his vision.

Set on a beachside property in Bagac, Bataan, Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar is a bigger Vigan (which, more than a heritage town, is actually a “street” of old Filipino houses)… or maybe in light of my recent trip to Old Manila, an Intramuros without the walls.

Beautiful. Where can you find such an architectural festival for Pinoy talent?
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My friends have been raving about the tenga (grilled pig’s ears) in Countryside along Katipunan since college, but it was only last week that I got to try it—2:30am and the place was still bustling with customers, wowowee!!! Look at that oily goodness–that’s cholesterol straight to your thighs and heart, but well well well, sometimes, it’s just okay to be a little baaaad.

Coupled with some pork isaw (grilled pig’s intestines), this was surely one of the best post-inuman eats I’ve had in a while!

Of course I paid for it with the all-day dizzy spell the next day, but haaay sulit pa rin!

* * *
Countryside is on Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City. It’s on the same side of the road as Freska and is one of the last establishments before the stretch to the flyover to Ateneo and UP.

After a nice Pasig river ferry ride from Guadalupe last Saturday, we walked around Intramuros, one of the default must-stops for visitors to Manila.

Literally “within walls”, Intramuros was the creme de la creme of real estate in the Spanish times, where the richest and most powerful congregated and stayed.

The ferry docked at the Plaza Mexico station, where we were greeted by this monument in honor of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade.

Notice the Guardia Sibil in full get-up! All the Intramuros guards wear this period piece now… can I say hot (as in maiinit!!)?

This very spot was eerie for me– I dreamt it before, and was scared zombies would come out of the ruins and run after me!

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