at senator raul roco's wake

i, among the remaining of aksyon kabataan, anxiously entered the funerary of senator raul roco. the place wasn't that crowded and i noticed some of my former colleagues right off the bat. some were in black, some in white (a chinese practice).

twenty-four hours earlier i found myself almost dumbstruck upon finding out that the dear senator had passed away. i was sort of expecting it, although that didn't do anything to mellow the pain of losing one of the few sane politicians in this country.

so as i approached sen. roco's coffin, i noticed that he looked surprisingly different, his sickness had definitely affected him. but oh, he didn't look as if defeated. not a bit. my friends and i just stood before him in silence for a while.

speaking to a few members of the family, i found out that even they had accepted that he was gone. it was me who didn't.

the most touching part was the priest's sermon. he said that death was entry into another life, and therefore roco wasn't really dead at all. and now since he isn't dead, his ideals and vision aren't either. they continue to live on: value of education, protection of the environment, the fight against traditional politics....

even the priest was conspicuous in expressing dismay over the current political system, and i realized that other people from different walks of life were sharing the same sentiments as i did.

unfortunately i couldn't stay for a long time. as i was walking out the words of that priest echoed in my head:

"Life is so short because it is to be continued by others."

the u-belt

man this place has got it all. the hourly charge for fairly fast internet access can be as low as P10 per hour, and the printing's only ONE peso per page! need any school textbooks? they're all right here... you cud even buy the used ones. ministops, 7-elevens, mcdonalds, fishbolan.... stores are just everywhere offering customized button pins at P7.50 each, t-shirt printing, id embroidering -- dang -- you name it. even student-oriented churches abound. and so do bars.

aside from that the next most obvious thing you'd see would be the STUDENTS themselves. the u-belt has no less than 30 schools, and in this place, it is the students who rule. the u-belt's a place any teenager would -- not really love -- but sure as heck would find fun to visit.

ortigas insomnia

i must of had the best seat in the entire crowd: only a few inches from the stage. not your ordinary stage. on this platform were to perform the hottest bands in the country. that saturday night, i was so excited i didn't care that i was by myself. my thirty minutes of waiting paid off when all of a sudden mojofly broke into the stage and whipped out a couple of cool songs, my favorite being "another day". mojofly's female vocalist really looks pretty in real life... at ang galing dumiskarte sa stage. right after their final song, their drummer like threw his drumsticks into the crowd for keeps, and for the first time in my life, i felt a little frustrated that it wasn't me who was able to catch at least one.

the night was one to remember: juan pablo, shiela and the insects, the late isabel, barbie's cradle, spongecola, kitchie nadal, and yes, even hale. man, hale was good. they even did this neat little trick as they played "the day you said goodnight": right before the line She's already taken, she's already taken, she's already taken me, there was a brief silence, the vocalist/guitarists sort of facing the left side of the platform. then all of a sudden all three of them snap back at the same time to face the audience, surprising them with the burst of music. the crowd loved the trick.

meanwhile, in other places nearby, different stages were set up with local artists playing at the same time. those were like different musical genres: rock (sandwich was there!), jazz, reggae... the bands that i listened to were in the alternative stage, which was located just outside the podium. ortigas center never fails to bring me new experiences, and although the place has an air of "mellow-ness" which sometimes annoys me, i never get tired of going there. megamall, the podium, gale, ministop (?!)... just a week ago solo, agnes, and i went on an... err... outing at the megastrip and i think the place is pretty nice, with good (but expensive) food -- although not the best place there is....

it was too bad i couldn't stay to watch the finale, but the fête de la musique 2005 was one event that definitely added spice to my back-to-school blues.

manila: how antipolo sees it

despite the evident pollution, i'm still able to say with a straight face that manila is quite beautiful. at least the view of it from atop of antipolo's (rizal province) many hills. especially when it's nighttime. the view is enough to take your breath away. for one thing, it took mine - you know with all the lights and stuff. it's almost romantic. too bad i was with a bunch of koreans instead of with my crush. ha.

a piece of advice. do NOT eat at a restaurant called "Nipa Hut". the place is a dang fly (as in langaw) haven! they swarm through every bit of food and even are bold enough to fly into your glass of water for a suicidal swim. what's worse is that the management doesn't really do anything about it. the only thing that didn't make the experience hell was the view of the entire manila.

the island of the horses

the afternoon was young. the sun was still high but strange enough the air around me was a mixture of chilly and dusty. there i was on the road leading up to the taal crater, a road trodden by literally millions of horse hoofs.

i was upon one myself – it had been ten years since i last straddled a horse – and frankly the skinny thing, with a brush-like mane having muddy brown complexion, looked more like a... well, like a donkey than a stallion... but i soon discovered to my surprise that this was in fact a beast to reckon with: this horse, Cesar, bore me with a sense of confidence and he, together with my guide, led me up the dusty paths to the crater lake as if the mountain itself was its friend.

the ride itself was a terribly lonely one, even though there were like hundreds of other horses with hundreds of other foreigners (the not-so-pretty name applied to mere tourists) in front and behind me. the whole thing was like a scene from tolkien’s lord of the rings or from another legend of old: the atmosphere... the sun, the pale blue sky; the absence of human voices... impossible to find in a bustling place like manila, only the mesmerizing beats of hoofs ringing the entire trip; the horses and the dust path... scenes from a time long before toyota vioses or south superhighways ever crossed the innovative mind of man....

on one side of me played scenes of filipino farm life: houses sans electricity, miniature fields of rice and pineapples, lush trees and bushes that would at times block my view. on the other side was a view so dramatic that i even forgot to stop and take a picture due to my awe... a steep cliff running down my left revealed a deep valley filled with trees whose names i couldn’t guess. yes, i’ve seen scenes like this practically every month, but the horseback ride made the panorama so... different, special.

supplement:

i dipped my hand into the rushing water and tasted a few drops. fresh. it must have been my first time on a freshwater lake. so there i was on a banca in the middle of lake taal heading for taal crater. both the air and sunshine were gentle upon my face and for some reason i felt younger. before me loomed the lonely mountains of taal island, a place i’d soon after call the Island of the Horses due to the significance of its equestrian population.

---

once i reached taal crater, my breath was yet taken away as i looked around me. it was very much like the view at the top of the Palace in the Sky (where i was three hours ago) although the range was longer and wider than the former, and the whole thing being accentuated with the blue of taal lake surrounding the island. the crater itself wasn’t much, though. yes, there was a lake – a lake within a lake, you could say – and upon its shores were deposits of sulfur. as i peered more closely i saw that the water seemed to be bubbling. it was then when i noticed the people around me, mostly koreans, and that the railing between the summit and the plunge was nothing but a single lousy pole held in place by a rope. some protection.

a few days later my classmate told me that the taal crater had this sort of minor outburst on a sunday and the whole area nearby experienced an earthquake sometime in the morning. that’s scary. i was there saturday afternoon.

anda

ey prends... just got back from a missions trip (with 14 churchmates) to Anda, Pangasinan, which is located on the so-called 'mother island' of the famous Hundred Islands. Anda itself is an anachromism of life in rural Philippines: that centered on farming and fishing. during our stay there, we (boys) slept inside the Baptist church itself while the girls stayed at a member's home. sleeping there was paradoxical: you could either enjoy the sea breeze or curse the lingering mosquitos. nights there, tho, are somewhat "romantic" if you know what i mean... when mealtime came, we'd all eat in the - what I'd call - "refectory", i.e. the Celino family residence... and by the way... the people in Anda are very hospitable, but rather on the shy side... the menu varied, altho i wasn't able to taste any obvious local delicacies, unless buko juice with condensed milk qualifies as one!

i guess the most interesting spot in the entire area would be the tondol beach... white sand, clear water, warm sun, few people (except mackiey pulido who incidentally happened to be there at the same time we were).... it's the BEACH, need i say more?