EARTHQUAKE, NOT THE BIG ONE?...

Just recently specifically in April 22 of this year, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake had struck Metro Manila or to be exact at Floridablanca, Pampanga. The quake had also been observed in neighboring cities but with varied magnitude. m The tremor had caused a widespread fear and terror since it is already in peoples mind about the big one coming.

For me, tremors of this magnitude are essential for areas expecting the big one. I'm not an expert of earthquakes neither am an employee of PAG-ASA, but in my own understanding quakes of tectonic origins are causes of movements of plates either in any direction, be it convergent, divergent or whatever. This means that frequent quakes of low magnitude could slowly release the potential energy stored by these plates as a result of plate movement. This tremor or slow movement is therefore necessary until plates stabilize. Metro Manila should be happy with what had happened but should be vigilant if in case the big one strike. Be prepared everyone.

HEAVY TYPHOON DEVASTATION DESPITE EARLY WARNING...

Despite early warning by PAG-ASA, Typhoon Pablo has recorded considerable damages to life, properties and government infrustructure. Compostela valley and Davao Oriental were the badly damaged areas with recorded higher casualties. But why this areas? When in fact long before, these areas were seldom visited by typhoon. I, for one, had spent my few years of my childhood in Davao Oriental specificallty in the Town of Banaybanay. Although we experienced flooding sometimes and earthquake most of the time, never that I experienced strong winds or typhoons. I had just experienced typhoon when our family had transferred to Cabucgayan, Biliran which was previouslty under the province of Leyte. The worst effect of typhoon I ever experienced was during the 80's when the second floor of our house was blown by Typhoon Undang. Our community suffered heavy damaged during that time.

(A fallen tree at Mati City, Davao Oriental; Photo courtesy of typhoonwatchphilippines.blogspot.com) How does this happened. A big changed on the usual track of the typhoon can be vividly observed for the recent years. We, the residents of Region 8 or the Eastern Visayas Region are very much thankful for this development since most of the typhoons visiting the country in the current year has never had a direct hit to our area. Weather forcasters explained it to high pressures usually present in our area. But do I have to celebrate for this development? When most of my relatives are also living in the heavily devastated Davao Oriental province?

CHANGE - IS IT FOR THE BETTER OR FOR WORST?

For the past five years I had been visiting Bohol for so many reasons; it is not only one among the most visited province in the Philippines having the numerous beautiful sites which are of interest not only to local tourist but also to international as well, but it is also the province where some of our sister NGOs were located- the DISOP assisted organizations like the SWCF. While not a first timer in visiting this place, my fascination and deep appreciation to see the more than one thousand hills that spread over some of the towns of this Bohol Province especially within the plains of the Towns of Carmen going to Sagbayan. I kept wondering how this hills emerged and why these hills emerged only in Bohol. I am not so amazed about the tarzier since it is not true that it is only endemic in Bohol since even in our place in Leyte, tarziers trive in the wild but not yet in captivity.

While revisiting the place, I had a distinct observation about the Chocolate Hills. Not that it remained green and has not turned chocolate, but the changes that slowly engulfed some of the hills - the slowly growing vegetation which somehow affects the appearance of these hills. I never hesitated to ask our tour guide which accompanied us during our trip if the government has done something to correct these changes. He answered that there is a deadlock between the National Government through thre DENR and the Local Government Unit through the Provincial Tourism on how to deal this matter. DENR of course will protect these growing trees especially that the President has issued Presidential Proclamation banning illegal cutting of trees to support his NGP or the National Greening Program with main objective of planting billion of trees. If in case after few years and all of these hills will be blanketed by these different trees, we will also lost this UNESCO proclaimed natural heritage, and we will never see the beauty of this hills once more. I hope the action of the authority would favor what is best for everybody, and it can only be done through consultation of the many. After all, the voice of the people is the voice of God, let it be so.

MAN NEVER LEARN OR JUST HARD HEADED

I remembered one atheist who said, "There is no God, what governs the movement and the interaction of our surrounding is just - NATURE. And nature is GOD"; that's according to him.

We never learned the lessons that nature has always thought to us "In all the actions that we do, we always get reactions out of it". Man always thought that the resources nature has provided is everlasting, that forever it would be available. For me this everything that surrounds us is part of God's plan to bless this mother earth in abundance of everything that man could ever think of. Dig the ground and you would find minerals of different kind, even air carries them. But did God told man to combine this minerals to form this powerful bombs that could wipe humanity? Never, and that is within man's nature of being very greedy.In a very layman's perspective alone, we can vividly witness this scenario. I myself has witnessed the balding of the forest in our locality because these poor farmers had learned to utilized these existing trees for a living- charcoal making. They never care if their attention are being called, at least they had already solved one problem or for the meantime had solved one- family hunger. Yet, when calamities come it is easy for them to blame local politicians and government employees.

The recent 6.9 earthquake that devastated Guihulngan and its neighboring areas is automatically blamed to be tectonic in origin and that geologist were puzzled for the appearance of new plate. For my own simple analyses since I'm not geologist or holding a degree related to it, plate that has recently appeared could possibly be the result of abusive extractions of our underground mineral resources of any kind applying the basic principle I had previously mentioned- action-reaction phenomena. And yet, industrialist never think of it. Now, politicians and policy makers in Metro-Manila had been looking at the Earthquake hazard map of Metro-Manila and its neighboring cities; the plates crossing their boundaries had long been identified, yet they never implement the necessary things to do to prepare these people from devastation. Afterall, it is easy to point fingers to one another. Are we not learning the lessons? (Pictures provided by Yahoo-www.quotednews.com and www.experiencenegros.com)

AGING MOTHER EARTH: ISN'T IT EVERYBODY'S CONCERN?

Before it is shocking to hear news about devastating calamities such as flashfloods, super typhoons, earthquakes of tremendous strength. But as we observed, their occurrence are becoming more frequent that a layman could not even explain why these had been happening recently. Why? Because their concern is not to maintain the ecological balance between man and mother nature; their main concern is how to survive the every day challenge of survival, to counter hunger even in an undecent way of living. Is there a way for them to understand the principle of climate change? Of global warming? None at all. Because their minds had already been bombarded with much sufferings brought about by competition for survival, because living on this very earth is full of uncertainties, of unfairness displacing the weak and raising tyrants to pedestal. Why this happened? If only we could transform the social triangle increasing the rich to majority and the poor otherwise, then we could probably change the figure of mother earth, too. Perhaps, we could share a little from ourselves to help change the face of the earth, after all it is us who would benefit its outcome.

EXCITING VESPERS DAY

Vespers day was so exciting for Calubianons since the day was graced with street presentations. There were presentations and showdown of the drum corp or band between the two schools in Calubian, the Calubian National High School (CNHS) and the Missionaries of Sacred Heart (MSH) Sisters Academy. CNHS and Calubian South District had also their contingents for Lubi-lubi street dancing and presentation simultaneous with the conduct of the Potpot contest.


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.

Calubian Fiesta Program of Activities

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 10- Search for the Singing and Dancing Idol 2009
There were three categories for the singing idol; Category A for 14yrs age limit, Category B for 15 yrs to 23 yrs old while Category C is for 24 yrs and above.

August 11 - National and Local Employees' Night
Presentations of the different delegations were being witnessed by the participants with the Calubian DepEd South emerged the winner of the competition while Calubian DepEd North ranked second and CNHS ranked third. Winners received funds from the Special Education Fund (SEF) of the LGU with 20,000.00, 15,000.00 10,000.00 were awarded for the first, second and third placers, respectively.

August 12 - Talent Night
Presentation of the different talents of the Candidates for the Miss Lubi-Lubi.

August 13 - Miss Lubi-Lubi Pageant Proper
The Quest for Miss Lubi-Lubi Festival and the Coronation of the winners will be held on this Night.

August 14 - ABC Night
All barangay officials will gather this night to show their part on Merrymaking to show support on the annual fiesta celebration.

August 15 - "Potpot Parade Contest"
Showdown of tricicads, a manually operated tricycle decorated with different parts of coconut tree.

August 16 - Showdown of the Drummers from the Calubian Natonal High School (CNHS) and the Missionaries of Sacred Heart (MSH) High School.

Everyone is invited to join our Calubian Annual Fiesta Celebration. Happy Fiesta to all.

Farmers' Field Day at VSU

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 group leave Calubian at exactly 6:10AM riding the Jonathan Bus bound for VSU. We arrived VSU at 9:30AM. After the whole group was briefed on some details about the schedule of the tour such as when to go home and others, the group dispersed around the VSU campus where the booths and the displays were being set-up. Our group with my family together with Mads Inday and Jackielyn proceeded to VSU Pavillion to take our breakfast.

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.

CORY- Mother of Philippine Democracy

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.

For me, Tita Cory deserves a monument in EDSA since she was the heroin of the first Filipino peaceful revolt with rosary as the main weapon. I was then a graduating Agricultural Engineering in ViSCA now Visayas State University or VSU in Baybay, Leyte when we heard the calling for support of the late Cardinal Sin for the then Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile and Gen Fidel V. Ramos who led the quo detat in 1986 which toppled the Marcos dictatorial regime. But why Cory? When in fact she was not the prime mover of the quo, is it not that everything has already been taken cared of up above. The ordinary housewife at that rose into power by God's intercession and the rest is history.

With her death, we must not forget the things she had been fighting for. I hope that her spirit of enthusiasm towards reinstalling democracy in our country be always present in the minds of every Filipino, that her advocacy become also our advocacy so that in her death continues the burning flame in every heart of the Filipino to pursue what she has started. (Itutuloy natin ang laban ni Ninoy; ituloy natin and laban ni Cory). Let it be so.

Photo taken from philpoliticians.blogspot.com

Fiesta and More. . .

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.

Marine Turtle - An Endangered Species

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.

It was the late Mayor Salvador Po, Sr., the former mayor and the father of the incumbent mayor of Calubian Hon. Hazel "Dayday" Po (Photo above holding a turtle) who ordered a massive information campaign in saving one of the endangered treasures in the ocean, the marine turtle. In fact, he was the first local chief executive who freed a marine turtle to the wild together with some personnel from the "Pawikan Conservation Project" based in Quezon City who just visited in Calubian just to make lectures regarding the importance and the need to intensify the campaign against illegal catching of this "Pawikan" the local name in dialect of the marine turtle.

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.

Pres. Arroyo's Last SONA-Its Significance to the Filipino People

Today, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will deliver probably her last SONA to the Filipino people. According to her economic managers and planners, her SONA will highlight the economic gains this government have in implementing economic reforms. In an interview with Pinky Webb during her morning show "Umagang Kay Ganda" over ABS-CBN, both Senators "Kiko" Pangilinan and Escudero admitted they will not be attending the President's SONA since they do not want to become part of the "Moro-moro" that the government wanted to happen in Congress. However, they will be closely monitoring the developments of the event.

Filipino people are very much anxious of whether Pres. Arroyo will declare from her own lips that she will not be interested in extending her term in the highest post and that "Cha-cha craze" will be put to its end. The running sentiments of discontent towards Pres. Arroyo's reigning of this government as evident to her continued negative ratings will probably poured on the streets during this very important event. The Filipino people however has put their hopes in 2010 National Election for a genuine change but without Pres. Arroyo's presence. It is therefore a challenge for every Filipino to be vigilant and be knowledgeable enough of is happening around us. After all, the success of this adminstration is for me can easily be measured by looking through the situation of Juan de la Cruz' life, whether he is suffering or having good life; everyone of us could probably answer.

Eternal Wealth?

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.

But why wealth eternal? Can we really bring our wealth and our richness to heaven? Yes, there is wealth that we could probably bring to heaven, that is, depending on our performance on earth how we nurture this wealth to become worthy in heaven. We, being the procreator of Gods ultimate product were being given the power and wisdom to reproduce our own kind through the union of man and woman with God's blessings through marriage.

In a Filipino family, we considered our children as blessings and wealth. Our ancestors considered wealthier and richer when a family is blessed with many children. By considering our children as wealth, we therefore could probably bring these wealth to heaven and become eternal. The challenge therefore lies within us- parents. Through parents good influence and children's development of good moral values, we could probably bring our wealth- our children to heaven (Photo shown is my wife Carmen with my granddaugther Baby Leann)

Anthurium - A treasured beauty

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.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SEMINAR HELD IN CEBU CITY

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.

Turning Hobby into Industry!

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.

But the recent development on modern farming revealed that farmers can now commercially grow these favorate veggies now even in a small parcel of land. The technology combined more of an organic with a little inorganic and the non-usage of toxic chemicals has been strongly recommended and promoted. The field trials and technology demonstrations conducted by the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist in Calubian, Leyte showed promising result.
One cooperator was able to earn monthly income of Php12,000.00 for just sweet pepper alone. If interested with this technology, we are willing to assist you. Just post your interest to this site and we will send you more information free of charge.

WRONG PRIORITIES

Why is our country suffering from economic hardship including us Filipinos where more or less 80 percent of our countrymen were much affectted of the crises. It is because much of our countrymen had been derailed and disoriented on the way this country should be developed. Politicians and government managers are focused on, for me, wrong priorities. Instead of prioritizing the physical development of the country, today, the government should also give enough importance to supporting the moral recovery of its people. Since the root of all this chaos and problems happening in this country is the wrong value of its one important component of developing our country- the human resources. I believe that developing this country, we don't need arm uprising or revolt but we do need a revolution that is very much timely needed -moral revolution.

In our personal experiences also, we put too much importance on developing the physical things and everything that surrounds us. Good clothings, mansions, brand new and expensive car are among the things being valued and fantasized by the many. Majority of us considered that possessing all these things made someone progressive and developed. They have not realized that a greedy man doesn't have any satisfaction at all. Haven't we realized that life is so short for us to live and waste it without realizing the true meaning of its existence.

The story of the "shopper" is one of the most common concept of development that most of the people believed . A shopper entered in the shopping center, gather all the things that he need, everthing that money can buy and brought it to the cashier for payment, In his astonishment, when he was going to pay the goods, he found out he left his wallet at home and nothing remained in his pocket. He went home empty-handed.

For us people, everything in our possession be it cheap or expensive can not be brought along with us to heaven when our life expired. Everything will be left on earth. We therefore focus on improving our chances of going to heaven which is the ultimate goal of every soul- developing our human spirit while in earth. Value reorientation towards improving the relationship of man to everything that surrounds him including improvement of his relationship to God is one of the most important revolution the Filipino should undertake to make this country a peaceful haven again.

Religiosity-Fact or Fiction

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".

Sometimes if not oftentimes in our lives we act like the crying atheist. In good times we never call the name of our Creator since we felt we control everything in our lives. We never see the importance of the existence of everything that surrounds us, as if we never value things. And sometimes we think that we are God or above Him. Killing someone is a proof that someone claims he has authority over the other, a man so powerful that he suppress the freedom of others through human rights violation and the likes. According to our folks, human value and dignity has continuously degraded with the influence of science. Creation of human through cloning, sperm culture through petri dish and others made man believe that he is God. But look, is there a scientist who could suspend death by breathing through the nostrils of a dying man? Or is there somebody who could command the dead "wake up, roll your mat and go home"?

Man will just start seeking God if he felt he is losing his own and money can not anymore retrieve it. From science, man would shift to religion to find the answers of uncertainty. They thought that miracles could just happen like magic, healing instantly even without faith.

Why are we crying for our dead? This is because we never understand the meaning of life, since we never used our lives to become instrument of God. If we just look closely the development of us Filipinos from our ancestors to the present, can we really quantify the difference? The influence of the western culture to our lives today primarily satisfies these corrupt mortal bodies, and we often say "this is good"; yet we sacrificed the souls and spirit to sufferings. Before, God sent angels to warn people for God's wrath to come, but today He shows signs in different form and appearance. The picture above may perhaps be bringing a message to the people especially to Calubianons. The photographer who was positioned uphill near the St Therese of the Child Jesus Shrine in Brgy Abanilla of Calubian wanted to capture the sun rising with the Biliran Bridge as the background. But to his astonishment, the shadow of the Virgin Mary appeared as the reflection of the sun. The atheist if ask for an opinion would just simply say the picture is techically manipulated, but the faithful would perhaps say the Virgin Mother wishes to convey a message to Calubianon whom only the Calubianons can only decipher. When are we going to reorient the value we are having today, the answer is perhaps within the heart of every man.

The Bohol Chronicle

I just want to share my experiences while having an educational working tour with our project beneficiaries in some tourist attractions and some peoples organizations operating in Bohol. We, at CLAD, Inc. were very much thankful with the help extended to us by PROCESS Bohol personnel that without them that successful trip would not had been made possible. Special thanks is extended to our tour guides Mrs Liza Flores and Mr Mario Limocon.

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 group proceeded to our last association to be visited, the "Kapunungan sa mga Inahan alang sa Kaugmaran (KIK)". The group was involved in making pastries and successfully marketed it in the province. The trip was really exhausting yet we can not just let the day passed without visiting the Sandugo Shrine, the site where the blood compact between the Conquestador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Rajah Sikatuna was held. We proceeded to ATI office where we take some rest for while.

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.

Our tour ended at Panglao Beach where the group witnessed the setting sun. Although it was at very low tide and the group were not able to swim, it was so refreshing at Panglao. Everbody in our company were very thankful of the experiences they gained during the three visit.

Helping Others Through NGO

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.

Initially, at the start of the project which was last 2005, the group targeted five communities to become project beneficiaries. We were able to convert these five BECs from the following barangays into cooperatives, namely; Brgy Nipa BEC into Nipa-Calubian Credit Cooperative, Brgy Ul-og BEC into Sr. San Roque Credit Cooperative, Brgy F. E. Marcos BEC into Katilingbanon Multi-purpose Cooperative, Brgy Villanueva BEC into Villanueva Credit Cooperative and Sitio Kabicolan BEC into Kabicolan Credit Cooperative.

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.