The MSH band showed their presentation to the public in the Calubian Commercial District. The band was led by Adrian Mateo while my daughter Babe Joan Dignos served as the Band Majorette.
The CNHS band had also shown their talents to the public.
The CNHS students proudly presented their version of Lubi-lubi with coconut plantlets.
The Calubian DepEd South pupils showed also their Lubi-lubi presentation.
The annual town fiesta of the Municipality of Calubian will be celebrated this August 15-16 (Saturday and Sunday), 2009. To give guide to Calubianons who is planning to attend this annual fiesta celebration, here is the general program of activities for the one-week affair starting last August 10, Monday. The following is the general schedule;
August 14 - ABC Night
August 9, 2009 was the annual schedule of the Visayas State University (VSU) formerly ViSCA in paying tribute to the Filipino farmers and fisher folks as they held their Annual Farmers' Field Day. Since the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMA) of the Municipality of Calubian was invited for the said occasion, we organized a group of hobbiest which were mostly members of the Calubian Florist Association (CAFA) to join our group for the educational tour with main obejective which is to attain the said field day.
The first thing we had done was to go around the VSU oval to see some displays in the differrent booths. It was really tiresome since it was too hot and my companions forgot to bring along with them some umbrellas. Fortunately for me I had my hat to protect me from too much heat. We proceeded to the Garden Show and had seen the beautiful landscaping which were entries for the contest. There were numerous and various kinds of rare and exotic plants displayed and our companions had taken the opportunity to buy something as collections or stocks. I was able to buy few things like the Thailand herbs and the Thailand red tambis.
After satisfying our sights and got exhausted of roaming around the VSU campus, we took some rest under the centennial Palomaria tree to cool us down, ate some few slices of cassava-choco roll and drink water to quench the thirst and regained our strength. Then we ate our lunch at the ATI Cafeteria fronting the beach to be able for us to breath fresh air. After a little rest we proceeded to our vehicle in preparation of going home. Before we moved out, we passed by the administration building to see the Search for Truth Monument and the very good landscape of my dear Alma Mater. Then, we went home bringing with us some challenges to propagate the plants we had bought from VSU or ViSCA.
While entering the first day of August, the entire nation was saddened and shocked by the untimely demise of one of the greatest leader in the Philippines who was able to merge politics with religion. Her excellency Madam Corazon Cojuangco Aquino rose into power by the peaceful revolution known as the People Power 1 which brought the end of Marcos' dictatorship. 
August is here and so as the busy days for the preparation of our incoming town fiesta in honor of Our Lady of Fatima and Sr. San Roque. The Town Fiesta has been celebrated every 15th-16th of August that is why every working committees are very busy preparing and fulfilling their assigned task.
At the start of April I observed that many barangays in Calubian and even in the neighboring towns started celebrating their fiestas. In the barangay where I was born, we celebrated our Fiesta in April 3-4 instead of 4-5 since 5 was the start of the Holy Week which is the Palm Sunday, hence barangay fiesta was celebrated in advance. Celebrating fiesta is sometimes advantageous especially if we are already living in far away places. This is the time where we can visit our home place, meeting old friends, reviving old ideas and introducing something new to the minds of others while passing a few glasses of the favorite filipino wine or beer or whatever like what we had been doing in the picture, we're still ordering beer anyway (Upper Photo:From left to right: Ricardo "Ricsan" Sanoria, My Brod Romy, Myself and my Pare Arnulfo "Ebe" Sanoria, Ricsan's older brother, Photo above; Baby Leann, Mommy, Daddy, Ninongs and Ninangs after baptism ceremony).
In my present homeplace, we celebrated also our Barangay Fiesta in April but in later date specifically April 20-21. It was not just an ordinary occasion since we just simultaneously celebrated the baptism of our new member of the family, my son's daughter and my first Apo-Baby Leann. It was really a very happy occasion, although quite showering the singing and merrymaking even extended till dawn. In behalf of my family, we were very much thankful for all our friends, kumares and kumpadres and friends who shared our happiness for the said occasion.
I just would like to share the effort of the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMA) in the Municipality of Calubian in saving some endangered species usually seen in our area- the Marine Turtle. Actually, it needs perseverance and dedication to do advocacy efforts in order to inform the marginal fishers who thought catching the said animal is just comparable to ordinary fishes. Fishermen in the area just slaughter their catch of this kind before they were informed of the consequences since according to them its meat is palatble and others claim it to be appprodisiac.
With strong coordiantion with OMA, CLAD- an NGO operating in the municipality and the different organizations, cooperatives and fishermen association, the campaign was so successful that everytime a pawikan had been accidentally caught in the fish corrals of the fisherman, the incident will automatically be coordinated to the OMA for freeing the pawikan back to the sea. OMA will also submit report to the PCP in Quezon City so that the trail of the animal would be traced since before freeing it is being tagged with number for future identification. PCP and OMA is providing some incentives for fisherman who turned over the pawikan in the form of token and some cash.
Becoming reach is the ultimate goal and the main reason why a man strive for power. The feeling of security and assurance begins when he has in his position plenty of wealth that a man wanted to possess. The consequences however of having great wealth is for a man to become tied up with material things, grabbing for powers to acquire prestige and honor, and sometimes he slowly and mistakingly felt he has the power to control others lives. Man never realized that after all these merrymaking and satisfaction of the flesh, life is but too short for him to spend. And all these pile of wealth remains in earth once his life expires.
Last year, when we brought the leaders of our assisted cooperatives and people's organization in the mountain barangays of Cebu specifically at Brgy Guba where we visited the different farmers' association and cooperatives assisted by the Mag-uugmad Foundation, we came accross a small anthurium garden owned by one of the founders of Mag-uugmad. He shared to us some secrets on successfully caring this very special plant. For me, one important factor which would contribute to its successful production especially its very attractive flowers is the farm elevation. I remember one of the sites I visited before which intensively grow anthurium is in the Province of Bohol, especially the Escaya tribe in the mountain barangays of Sierra Bulliones. I have seen such a huge Anthurium plantation that almost all the plants underneath the big trees were anthuriums.
According to Mr Conrado "Condring" Brigoli who was the previous Program Coordinator of the Soil and Water Conservation Foundation (SWCF)-an organization assisting the Escaya Tribe of the aforementioned location, the project was painstakingly conducted by the members of the tribe. Year after year they continuously plant and manage the farm until it widened its area which is now giving livelihood to its members. Twice a week, tribe members harvest the very attractive flowers and the bulk of its harvest were marketed in the neighboring province of Cebu by the middlemen who often earned a bigger income than the tribesmen.
The technology is quite simple, the thing we must first consider in establishing a project like this is finding the appropriate location. Although anthuriums thrive in lower elevation, a cooler place is very suitable for them to grow healthy and bear more flowers than in hotter area. No wonder why tribesmen of Escaya successfully grown such thing.
A total of 38 participants attended the Annual DISOP Sponsored seminar which was held at the Sarrosa Internationl Hotel and Residential Suite in Cebu City last July 20-24, 2009. The participants came from the different DISOP partner-organizations/NGO which are of various discipline and expertise which include micro-finance, sustainable agriculture and resource management, cooperative organization and assistance among others. With Project Development and Management as the center of the discussion, seventeen NGOs had sent their delegation for the seminar with the common objective which is to improve the operation of every group.
One of the important lesson I learned being one of the participants (standing wearing yellow shirt) was the importance of the monitoring and evaluation (M & E) activity of every project which the NGO had undertaken. The M & E tool introduced is for me a very much useful tool the managers should always think of to ensure the success of the project. The M & E phase is the often neglected phase of the project hence usually it is not being funded. This monitoring and evaluation activity should be given enough importance and should always be incorporated in the project because it is a significant tool to measure the impact of the project after its completion.
In the Philippines, a typical house in the countryside usually includes vegetable garden as portrayed in the song "Bahay Kubo". It is because planting these common vegetable plants around their small nipa hut has become the hobby of our rural mothers.
A drowning atheist after its boat sunk due to big waves brought by typhoon shouted in desperation, "Lord God if there is God, bring me to heaven, if there is heaven".
Our trip started last May 21, 2009. Riding the Jonathan Bus, we arrived Bato, Leyte and were able to catch the first trip of the ferry boat plying Bato-Ubay route. We take our lunch at Ubay, Bohol with Mario Limocon as our tour guide. After our lunch we proceeded to one of the greatest destination in the Philippines and probably one among the greatest natural wonders of the world- the Chocolate Hills in Carmen. Our participants who had their first time visit in the area were really amazed of the beauty and really wondered how such beautiful hills happened to be scattered around that place. I noticed that there were plenty of visitors in the area, be it local and foreign tourist can not just resist of visiting this amazing beautiful place. After we satisfied our curiosity and after buying some birthday gift for my daughter Babe Joan who accompanied me during the trip, we proceeded to Bohol Bioderversity Complex to our Dormitory at the Soil and Water Conservation Foundation (SWCF) office at Bilar where the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape was located. SWCF personnel briefed as about their involvement of the project and brought us to their Vermiculture project. The serenity of the place provided us a very pleasant environment for us to recharge to be ready for the next tiring trip. We were very thankful to Brod Condring Brigoli for facilitating our stay at the SWCF dormitory.
The following day, Mrs. Liza Flores took over as our tour guide. We proceeded to our first organization to be visited, the Farmers Association of Owac. The members of the group were engaged in wild honey collection- in fact we were able to buy some for our own consumption. One thing we appreciated in maintaining this organization is that both barangay and municipal local governments were working hand-in-hand in helping this peoples organization to grow without thinking politics and without thinking who will earn the credit. That's one value of the Boholanons that Calubianons do not have. This association even manage their own water system, although with the help of some NGOs. Before proceeding to LOBOC, we dropped by the Butterfly Farm and enjoyed seeing some of its exotic species.
Before lunch, we arrived at Loboc and enjoyed the river cruising. Our festive mode inside the floating restaurant was so timely that the affair same to be the birthday party of my daughter Babe, actually it was really her birhtday but the celebration was just a coincident with our trip. We requested birthday song from the entertainer and the participants sung along with him. The lunch was so satisfying due to the abundance of the different kinds of food including different types of fruits. Along the riverside, there were entertainers in the floating huts portraying different Filipino traditions and showing various folk dances. We really enjoyed the trip that we considered it as one of our greatest opportunities that we must grab and not let it go.
Our next destination was one of the women's organization in Albur, the Kapunungan sa Nagpakabanang Inahan (KNI). Members of this organization taught us how to make "Buli" soft broom. They demonstrated the step-by-step procedure in preparing the Buli fibers until it was being made into broom. Since the raw materials were available locally, some or our participants were very much eager to establish their project adopting the technology being shared to us. Some of our companions bought some brooms as souvenir. Before proceeding to our next stop, we had a side trip to one of the biggest python in the world located still in Albur.
The following day, we visited the office of the NGO- PROCESS BOHOL before proceeding to our next destination, the Board Walk at SAVIMA in Maribojoc Bohol. We appreciated the interventions made by this peoples organization towards development of their mangrove area. After acquiring a Community Based-Forest Management Agreement from DENR they were able to expand the mangrove area through mangrove reforestation. The area was so typical in our place that we are tempted to replicate the same project in our municipality. After we had taken our lunch with some native delicacy specially after tasting "Takla", we proceeded to one of the local shopping center in Bohol, the ICM or the Island City Mall. Few souvenir items added in our collections.
I had been working in the Municipality where I live as the Municipal Agriculturist for quite some times. Yet, I never had the feeling of fulfilment when I get involved with some activities organizing people and training them to become capable of running their own organizations in the form of associations or cooperatives. I was so fortunate that the lord has made me an instrument to become a catalyst of change in the countryside. With the help of Belgian Non-Government Organization (NGO) named DISOP which is based in Tacloban City, we were able to organized an NGO of our own named Calubian Livelihood Assistance for Development, Inc (CLAD, Inc.) based in the Municipality of Calubian, in the province of Leyte. Our program was conceptualized to help the then newly organized Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) in our Fatima Parish. 
In our Phase I of project implementation (2005-2007), we were so happy that we were able to extent even in a very little thing that we can such as helping our very needy neighbors by providing small capital to finance their selected enterprises. We were able also to mobilize funds own by the members of the different cooperatives to augment their capitalization. In the phase I alone we had generated savings in the form of Capital Build-Up (CBU) of the members which was more or less one million pesos. Now, we are currently implementing the phase II of the project (2008-2010) and added another four different organizations covering the whole south district of the Municipality of Calubian. As of this writing, the total generated CBU for the nine organizations being assisted by CLAD/DISOP had reached a 2 million mark. Thanks for DISOP Philippines for providing us the needed funds to help the marginal farmers and fisherfolk in the municipality.
Besides all these odds, I never lost hope, instead I strived much harder just to finish my manuscript. I prayed and ask God's intercession and ask signs if I could really finish. While working for some corrections on my manuscript, a House Gecko locally known as Tuko had made a sound. I followed its sounds asking wether I can make it to the finish line. The Gecko's last sound fortunately answered - YES. I continued my work and submitted my corrected manuscript the following day. Everytime I made corrections and worked on my manuscripts, the House Gecko always made its chirping sounds and I always ask If I can really graduate. Its last sound always coincidentally answered - YES. It kept me encouraged to pursue my objective. To cut my story short, miracle did really happened in my life, why? Because, suppose to be our Student Research Coordinator and the College President were two last signatories for my manuscript approval, it so happened that a day before the deadline of passing all the requuirements, the College President had an official travel to Manila, I was really fortunate that our Student Research Coordinator (SRC) was designated the Officer-In charge of the College. When our SRC signed my manuscript at 6:00 o'clock of April 5, she signed including the name of our College President being the OIC of the college. Since my manuscript was approved, I hurriedly rushed to the Office of the College Registrar just to include my name in the roster of graduating class of SY 1986. The College Registrar had extended until twelve midnight for the submission of all the requirements for graduation. At 10 in the evening, I was offically included in the masterlist of graduating class, and that happened because of Gecko's encouragement and God's loving hand's intercession.
