the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

Start:      Nov 6, '07 11:00p Location:      ABS-CBN, Channel 2 Please watch The Correspondents tomorrow night, November 6, after BANDILA. It features the 1,500-km walk of the Sumilao Farmers from Bukidnon to Manila to reclaim their 144-hectare land. Click here if you want to know what this is all about. Tell your friends about it!

Description: “Lumad” farmers from Sumilao to march on foot for 60 days to reclaim land 8 October 2007 ( This article can also be found at the AFA Website: http://asianfarmers.org/?p=319# ) Quezon City, Philippines -- As a non-violent way of protesting the more than 10 years of injustice they have gone through in trying to reclaim their ancestral land, 50 “lumad” farmers belonging to the Mapalad Multi-purpose Cooperative (MPC) will march on foot from their hometown of Sumilao, Bukidnon in the south to the capital city of Manila in the north from October 10 to December 10. (“Lumad” is the term given to the indigenous peoples in the southern island of Mindanao.) In a letter sent to agrarian reform and rural development advocates in the country and abroad, PAKISAMA, a national confederation of farmers’ associations in the Philippines (of which MPC, through its provincial federation PALAMBU, is a member) asked for support for the farmers’ 60-day march that will hopefully “re-ignite awarenes...

July 31, 2006. Considering that I was with my mother, ninang, and three 50+ and 60+ yr-old yayas, I guess this was a pretty good adventure. Short and sweet, and for only P300, we got to walk across a 154-m long bridge hanging over a 150-foot deep gorge, and then slide back to the starting point sitting only on a canvas harness. Going into the cave overlooking the Cagayan River, the site of the first Filipino victory against the Americans, was totally free. The best thing about this place is that it's just near the CDO airport. Could've rappeled down a tree to the entrance of a bigger cave, too, but by then we were so hungry, we totally forgot about it. Good reason to come back then, aside from the whitewater-rafting =D

In the spirit of the Kadayawan Festival (photos of which i'll post later on after i'm done with this backlog =P), some reasons this island is called the Land of Promise. Photos from my travels around Mindanao in the last month--Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, Davao del Sur, and Kidapawan in North Cotabato. Also explains why I've been getting fat the past month. Unfortunately, can't find the pix of the gigantic apple-mangoes from Bukidnon, and the cute bananas growing in our backyard :-/ *everything taken as is. nothing rearranged to fit the picture. truth is beautiful ;-)

My first time in Bukidnon, March 18 to 21, 2005. Stopover on the way home to Davao. This time I did the touristy thing and posed at every spot I went to. Tour around Malaybalay and the Talaandig village in Lantapan courtesy of chico , who was the perfect host =) This is a sampler of my tour (I used up about 5 rolls of 38 shots for the trip). "Art" and "documentary" shots to follow, after i've written the stories about the trip.