My Views: Jailed @ 18

My Views: Jailed @ 18: Celebrating Women's Month At the police station a tarpauline was hanged with an image of different  career women with a text wri...

Jailed @ 18

Celebrating Women's Month

At the police station a tarpauline was hanged with an image of different  career women with a text written..., "Celebrating Women's Month , March 2013, Kababaihan: Gabay sa Tuwid na Daan." I just read it since its too bold.

I was there to visit a detained friend . The lock up cell has three divisions, the first and the last were occupied by men while the middle cell by women. Once you are inside you can see them closely and you cannot stop to wonder what offences they have done. Of course there is also that feeling of  fear of  hostage drama since the space is too narrow.

I did not hesitate to ask one of  the lady detainee  how old she was and why she was locked up. They were three young looking girls inside and claim to be 18 years old. I did not see the shame in their faces while the two were busy on their mobile phones texting. They were detained for possession of  illegal gambling paraphernalia on  a Friday ( which Saturday and Sunday are non-working days to bail them off). What i am thinking was, they are not supposed to be there and I cannot bear to think that they are staying  for another  two nights since one of them  uttered that they will be released by Monday. I  presume  mothers of  these 18 year old young ladies are of my age. It  worries me.

I just cannot imagine how arresting officers deal with such kind of local vicious crime. The illegal number game "last 2 digit"  is rampant in Mindanao. Why can't raid operations catch "big financiers"? So hard for them? So what is easy? The 18 years old women who were seen handling petty amount with tally sheets of bet numbers?

Maybe it is more sounding to celebrate women's month not in ceremonies with  politician talking so much of  passed bills and laws,women's right, blah blah blanh  and   promises of these and that. Instead, let the organizer on the local level visit our correctional and recommend how justice and freedom can be served for those women in jail who are victims of  pretentious society.

A Day at the Royal House

A simple life at peace

When the first breaking news of the Sabah stand-off flashed on the internet, my sympathy  is for the family of the Sultanate of Sulu. Say I am critical of the government 's stand regarding the issue since up to present, the President finds no urgency to convene the National Security Council. Thinking of the worst-case scenario, will the head of the state "cross the bridge when he's there?"

This morning, I visited the old house of the late  Sultan Omar Kiram, a member of the royal family of Sultanate of Sulu. I tried to recall what was painted on the  walls of the once imposing house, before it was desecrated by the hardware store that bought the land on which it stands. The remains of the once "big house" for the 10 prince and princes of Sultan Omar Kiram is now camped by police officers manning the Kidapawan ,Cotabato highway check point. I told the commanding officer that I was looking for the wall were the family tree of Sultan Omar Kiram was scribbed. They guided me inside and saw the wall I was looking for.

I had the chance to capture the vanishing mark of a family who sow the seed of simple life and peaceful  living with the Christian and the Tribal communities of Cotabato. 

Time had just passed and the demand for change, unfortunately , cannot be contained.
The structure of  Sultan Omar Kiram's  ancestral home that stand as a cultural and historical landmark in Mindanao somehow is no more but its legacy as Heritage of Peace will forever be felt by Mindanaoans.

My Views: NO to MT. APO summit stairway

My Views: NO to MT. APO summit stairway: Celebrity Ka ba? https://www.change.org/petitions/ let-s-stop-the-kidapawan-city-govt -from-building-a-7-km-stairway-to-mt-apo-s-summit ...

My Views: NO to MT. APO summit stairway

My Views: NO to MT. APO summit stairway: Celebrity Ka ba? https://www.change.org/petitions/ let-s-stop-the-kidapawan-city-govt -from-building-a-7-km-stairway-to-mt-apo-s-summit ...

NO to MT. APO summit stairway

Celebrity Ka ba?
https://www.change.org/petitions/let-s-stop-the-kidapawan-city-govt
-from-building-a-7-km-stairway-to-mt-apo-s-summit

When  the 7km stairways project proposal was presented to media  the reaction of  individuals who opposes the idea were too fast to convey petition pages through the world wide web. 

I asked an apology from my fb friends that I cannot share the petition to my fellow mountaineer friends since I don't have any idea about the proposed project.

I can relate with the petitioners' reaction. I am even among the first 100 petitioners who signed but contend not to give my reasons why I am signing.

In 1983 Mt. Apo exploration for geothermal source was initiated. I remember my college years when I was among those students who militantly opposed the implementation of Mt. Apo Mindanao Geothermal Project 1 in the late 80s'. The country was facing the threat on power crisis thus the project was a legacy from former late Pres. Cory Aquino in 1992. Mt Apo Geothermal 2 & 3 oppositions were not controversial as the former. For environmentalists group, it was a huge destruction of our forest in exchange for  targeted development impact.

After 3 decades  of economic ups and downs, amidst global  trend, local tourism destination development continues, including the defined  environmentally critical areas. This does not exempt Mt. Apo.

I would like to believe that the proposed Mt Apo stairway does not cover the trail to the summit. Mt. Apo National Park originally covers 76,900hectares and later declared 54,974 hectares with the grant of 701 geothermal reservation and the rest as buffer zone.

I was one of the climbers who did the "last climb of the Century" in 1999.

For the second time, I took again  the "Mossy Forest trail" in Bongolanon, Magpet.

I did not have the guts to take the Kidapawan trail, now known "the celebrity trail". I was phobic of the fatal incident  of a graduating  Sillimanian who ascended Mt. Apo in 1991.

Instead, I would like to believe that the proposed 7km stairway will be constructed within the 701 ha. geothermal reservation area.This area is controlled and managed by EDC(Energy Development Corp). If this will pursue, this  will not only benefit  the  ambitious tourists to conquer Mt. Apo peak but  also the everyday workers who maintain the reforestration project within the buffer zone.

I would like to share this sentiment to all concerned. Mt. Apo is within the jurisdiction of Davao City, Davao del Sur, and Cotabato Province. I salute the organizers of Mt. Apo Clean Up Drives every after climbing season ends (March-May). All of them volunteers. Could you imagine mountains of bottles and garbage left by undisciplined conquerors? Descending all this garbage in sacks via Kidapawan trail.  For volunteers who do clean-up drives every year, they seek no more thrills. They do it for the passion of keeping Mt. Apo clean and protect it from irresponsible climbers who cannot distinguish what is biodegradable from not.

The "7km Stairway Project" to Mt. Apo will practically not impede adventure seekers.

If Mt. Pulag has the "executive trail" (which I had recently) and the "killer trail", give the "unable" the chance to reach Mt. Apo through the "celebrity trail".

If and when this is truly to be constructed within the 701ha reservation area, environmental impact on destruction of flora and fauna, and their habitats, is no longer an issue.