I love Mindanao

I love Mindanao. Just the fact that my mother hailed from Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte, and my father was once an adapted son of Mindanao – made me love this home of my lineage. It was there where Tatay met and fell in love with my Nanay.

Growing up in a quite closely knit family, I found it exciting whenever my parents’ relatives come for a visit and I enjoyed listening to their banters and story with their thick Mindanaoan accent. That was why I was more than happy to have my first out of town assignment as a journalist in Davao City sometime in the late ‘80s.

The moment I set foot on this vast, not yet populous and still undeveloped city at that time, the more I fell in love with Mindanao even if our group was told “that the NPA had just left the city.” Meaning it used to be NPA-infested until such time the city decided to put up the Apo Duwaling Festival which today has come to be known as Kadayawan.

Since then, I have always wanted to come back to Davao and see the rest of Mindanao. I even ask my parents to come back home and make Mindanao our provincial haven. Luckily I am able to visit Davao again in 2000 to experience Davao’s premier destination, the Pearl Farm, along with Eden Nature Park, Malagos Garden, and the Philippine Eagle Mountain Resort.

I’ve been to Siargao island in Surigao del Norte once sometime in 1998 to see the upcoming surfing destination and its famous Cloud Nine at that time. With three-hour fast drive from Davao City, we passed by Butuan City. From Surigao City we took the RoRo to Dapa Port, Siargao, and to our destination.

I was back again in Davao in 2016, that time to experience the Davao Fun sale activities along with “your island for a day” Buenavista Island and the private farm Banana Plantation.  Of course, I revisited Eden Nature Park, Malagos Garden, and the Philippine Eagle Mountain Resort and went to other places to experience the Davao food and drinks crawl, its world-famous 911 and emergency response center and be with the local painters and artists at the new Seda Hotel.

My wish to see more of Mindanao came recently for the coverage of CPR Caravan in General Santos City.   Despite the vast idle lands of GenSan I find it a lovable city. Easily, it’s main attraction is world boxing icon and currently Senator of the land, Manny Pacquiao. And a visit to GenSan is never complete without dropping by and having photos in his mansions. Mansion #1 has practically become some sort of a museum which the Pacquiaos allow the public to explore. Mansion #2 is still home to the family whenever they are in GenSan. Except for the vast basketball court cum mini training gym and the big receiving room, a portion of the mansion is still off limit to the public. It is there where they stay. The last time was in December 2016 where the family gives love gifts among their neighbors and constituents. Mansion #3 is an ongoing construction. It’s a 200 hectare block composed of several housing units complete with mini garden. Also on the construction stage is the church/worship center which the senator is building in GenSan. He also has a roadside hotel bearing his name fronting a commercial building which he also owns housing several businesses including her wife, Jinkee’s fashion boutique selling branded and imported bags.   

CPR on Wheels & Wings Caravan

Heart health experts from Manila meet with their counterparts from Soccsksargen (the four provinces of South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani plus General Santos City) recently for one reason:  to train and certify lay individuals as lifesavers of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and drowning victims. Lending them full support are local and barangay health workers and nurses.

GenSan was the 12^th hop of  the CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) caravan dubbed as “CPR on Wheels & Wings” campaign, an advocacy undertaking initiated by the Philippine Heart Association (PHA), in collaboration with the Department of Tourism (DOT),  towards attaining a CPR-ready Philippines by 2021.

Its ultimate goals are: to transform every Filipino home, municipality/city and tourist destination into a CPR-Ready community and make every Filipino aged 10 to 65 years old a lifesaver; to be at par with Asian and Western nations that have been CPR-ready for years and to put the Philippines on the international CPR-Ready Map. In a span of eight months since its launch in October 2016, the campaign has trained and certified 10,147 lay individuals as lifesavers of SCA and drowning victims according to PHA.

The caravan’s previous stops  were Boracay; Iloilo City, Guimbal and Banate, Iloilo;     Tacloban and Ormoc, Leyte;  Maasin, Southern Leyte; Davao City,  Cagayan de Oro, Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental; and  Pasacao, Camarines Sur.

As an authority in cardiology, the PHA provides the expertise.   The DOT as an engine of economic growth, is concerned on the safety of visitors. This private and government agency partnership believes that local and national government and every workplace has to make basic CPR a top priority. 

The GenSan caravan assembled 767 people from GenSan, Sarangani, Cotabato and Davao. In attendance were students and athletes, the marine and navy officers,  government and private office workers and  tourism stakeholders.

PHA National officers and members Dr. Raul Lapitan and Dr. Alex Junia, PHA immediate past president and CPR-Ready Philippines adviser and Dr. Paul Baello, members of the General Santos Medical Society, Soccksargen Internist Society, led by  Dr. Leilani Adarna,  and other Southern Mindanao-based  cardiologists, internists and  specialists and health  professionals,  served as facilitators and trainers.

Tuna Capital of the Philippines

When in GenSan, be sure to visit the Fishport Complex in Barangay Tambler. The "Tuna Capital of the Philippines" is the largest producer of sashimi-grade tuna in the country. The fishing industry in GenSan yields a capacity of 750 metric tons of fish catch alone and employs about 7,800 workers. The Fishport Complex has a 750 metres (2,460 ft) quay and a 300 metres (980 ft) wharf for 2,000 GT reefer carriers. The fishport is equipped with modern facilities that comply with international standards on fish catch handling. GenSan is also home to at least seven tuna processing plants in the country. This writer couldn't resist to have a photo taken with the yellow fin tuna while it was being weighed. This fish variety can be as big as 200 kilos according to workers in the fishport.

The fishport complex’ administration gave our group a tour of the place when, at the time, 6:00 am, fishing boats from the Philippines’ neighboring countries were there to sell their catch after a month fishing in the high seas. Therefore the various fish on sale were coming from Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

My young friends at Lamlifew Village

I tried Blaan weaving myself

The traditional tune and dance of the Blaan tribe

The Lamlifew Village Museum

The Lamlifew Village is home to Blaan tribe of Sarangani, some 35 kilometers away from General Santos City. With around 1000 families in this mountainous community, the tribe thrives thru farming while the women, on spare time, weave, do accessories while teaching the younger generation to preserve their cultural heritage.

Lamlifew is one of the tiny hamlets of Barangay Datal Tampal of the town of Malungon, Sarangani Province. The Lamlifew Village Museum sa inaugurated at the National Museum of the Philippines in December 2017. It was launched on November 2008. Today, it is a functioning museum that manages a small but important artifact collection. It reaches out to Mindanao schools to engage in dialogue about the Blaan ethnolinguistic group. The museum was initiated by the Lamlifew Tribal Women's Association (LTWA) - the first duly SEC-registered cultural organization completely initiated and operated by a Philippine indigenous community. The LTWA set about a cooperative-style beading workshop with a small-scale sales arm. The women have also worked to refresh understanding of and skills in ikat-dyeing and weaving, among themselves, with the help of their elderly virtuosos; and in relation to all those from beyond their village who inquire about their identity.

When our group arrived, villagers welcome us with a traditional song and dance number. One of the elders served us sweet tomato cooked in the olden day style – inside the grilled bamboo. Their black coffee is one of the best coffees I have tasted in recent years!

Lake Sebu, South Cotabato

Known for its three lakes, the majestic seven waterfalls, Seven Falls Zipline adventure and more, Lake Sebu is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Southern Philippines.  One of its beautiful and most popular resorts is Punta Isla Lake Resort.

Punta Isla offers the lake for a day tour. It is also a home of tilapias, where Lake Sebu is famous for.  It is only in Lake Sebu wherein you can taste a variety of  tilapia  delicacies from kinilaw, sinugbang tilapia,  spicy fillet, tilapora and a lot more.

The placid lake of Lake Sebu can be found in Allah Valley near the municipality of Surallah, South Cotabato. Surrounded by rolling hills and mountains covered with thick rain forest, the lake has an area of 354 hectares (870 acres), with an elevation of approximately 1,000 metres (3,300 ft).

The lake's shores and the surrounding rainforest are home to the indigenous T'bolis, Tirurays, Ubos and Manobos. One of the major tribes, the T'bolis are known for their weaving skills and brassware production as well as fishing skills. The rest of the population are composed of Ilokabos, Bicolanos, and Ilocanos.

Lake Sebu is three hours fast drive (100-120 kph by private car!) from General Santos City. When our DOT tour guide inform us that he’s taking us to a T’boli tribe, we thought there must be a tribe nearby Saranggani. So when we were almost “flying” passing by Koronadal and into South Cotabato, we wondered and asked each other, ‘Nasa Mindanao pa ba tayo?’ Thank God, the long highway of Mindanao is properly cemented and there was literally no traffic with lesser buses, private cars, and trucks traversing the road.

We’re more than glad we made it at past 5pm so that we were able to see the captivating beauty that was Lake Sebu. We were not able to tour the T’boli museum so we just ate grilled tilapia and savor the coolness of Lake Sebu, Mindanao’s summer capital.

We were back at GenSan just on time for our 8PM dinner with the PHA delegates from Manila. 

Looking at the map of Mindanao Regions, above, courtesy of www.mindanaomaps.com, I've only been to Soccsksargen, the Davao Region and Caraga. I wish to experience the rest of Mindanao in the days or years to come.

One week after our brief experience of Soccsksargen, the war at Marawi erupted. I wish it will end the soonest...

(Thanks to photojournalist Teddy Pelaez for most photos in this blog entry).