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Echoes: Encountering BEC

I do not want to end like the old mariner grabbing people to listen to his story at the sunset of his life. I want it that at the end of the day I rest assured that I have rowed my river and handed on to my children the lessons I have learned in my journey upstream to the House of the Father. So I made, early on, a solemn vow, that I would immerse my four daughters into situations that allow them to know and love the God of Jesus of Nazareth. Sadly, like most promises, mine was half-heartedly kept. I can justify why I kept on failing. I was trained and educated to find reasons to the things I do. I have a lot of excuses; all of them are sound and rational. Yet honestly, they are like wicker baskets—they hold stones and boulders but not water. The truth of the matter is although I was raised a Catholic, (I even had seven years of formation in the seminary) I am struggling with my faith given my entanglement with Sartrean Existentialism vis-à-vis the clash of orientations at the local
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Those Assumptionistas Who Looked Back at the Jal-o a Year After Yolanda

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Today is the first anniversary of Yolanda, internationally known as Typhoon Haiyan, which has been regarded as the strongest of those typhoons that ravaged communities all over the world. I intended to let it pass without so much ado, for after all, most of my trees have never recovered when she battered them last years. My neighbor is still without a decent house to live in--despite the reported many humanitarian aids coursed through either the government or the non-government organizations. But there are those who knocked on our doors today, inviting us to see through the bitter experience that we had last year and reflect on the way we chose as we tried to stand up from its havoc. Ms. Viel Aquino Dee, Vice Chair of Assisi Development Foundation and Mayor Bobby Calizo of Balete, Aklan surveyed the boats made by the fisher folks themselves. The callers are the volunteers of the Associate Missionaries of the Assumption or AMA for short. I know them not personally, but I met and
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The Center of Balete

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Center. That is the way Baleten-ons referred to the Municipal Health Office since my childhood days. And it stuck until to now. I am particular to this reality as the family used to reside behind the old Puericulture Center of Balete where both my father and mother worked. When my mother got hired as Rural Health Midwife for Balete Rural Health Unit, the family decided to relocate and bought a small house behind it. It was easy to recognize one another then as there were only a handful of households in the poblacion . It was simply either one is from Ilaya or Ilawod . The "Center" is geographically situated at the heart of the poblacion along with the old Town Hall, the Band Stand and the Church. It served as the boundary for the " taga-ilaya " and " taga-ilawod ". It was implicitly regarded as a neutral place where animosity is temporarily set aside among the "warring gangs" of Ilaya and Ilawod . As the bell tolled to call the commun
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Inspirations and Motivations

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I am writing again. I discovered that I am discovering my poetry. A sign along the lonely road I thread.   Kalipay kung Taguipusoon Pananglitan nga rong aton nga daean Indi eon magsub-eang sa unhan Sa tindahan rong isda nga mub-ead Magapadumdum kimo Nga ikaw ro matuod nga mahae Owa eon it iba pa. Pananglitan nga rong aton nga eandong Indi eon makatao it handong sa hilamon Sa simbahan rong siga it kandila Magapadumdum kimo Ikaw man lang rong kasadya it taguipusoon Owa eon it iba pa. Ag pananglitan nga hilipatan mo Sa madueom, matapo-tapo nga kwarto Ro binaeaybay it kahapon magapadumdum kimo Ikaw ratong ginatumod ko, hinigugma nga engkantada Kalipay ag baeay ku baeatyagon nga nagapadayon Halin pa kato hasta sa gihapon. I write poems to express what is happening inside my heart. I write poems when the emotion is strong and wanting release. I write poems to convey my feelings of love and admiration. I write poems to tell you that you are spe
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Balete Community College's Humble Beginnings

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Balete Community College earns the title as the first and foremost tertiary institution in rural Balete. It stands as one of the only four community colleges in the Province of Aklan. Its becoming is a story worth telling.   Its Humble Beginning While it is not mandated of a 4 th class municipality like Balete, Aklan to operate and afford tertiary education for its people, the circumstances it finds itself in are indicative that it carries the load towards its desired end despite its poverty and capacity gaps. These circumstances were offshoots of an extension program introduced in 1998 by then Roxas Memorial College of Arts and Trade (RMCAT) that paved the way for the birth of the community college in 2004. Late in 1998, officials of RMCAT in their attempt of preserving the college’s independence from the impending integration with Aklan State College of Agriculture parleyed with Mayor Teodoro V. Calizo, Jr. to allow it to utilize makeshift huts (remnants of an agricult
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The Richness of the Jal-o (Manggad kung Hae-o)

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The words used by a community in describing certain reality or experience are indicative to their rich awareness of the things around them. They also serve as clues to the richness and diversity of the environment where they are situated at a certain time. Conversely, the cessation or death of certain words point to a fact that the things they described have ceased to be. These realities are happening down by the Jal-o River. The words in Inakeanon hereunder are clues to the dynamism of culture and the generations that have had used them, not to mention the vibrant environment: a. Fishes Bagtis (goby) Obog (dusky sleeper) Bae-a (goby) Sugi (river garfish) Puyo (climbing perch)  Pantat (broadhead catfish) Haeo-an (true murrel) Aeogsuk (snakehead murrel) Kilo (spotted scat) Mub-ead (scat)  Danggit (scat) Mangagat (snapper) Bugok (yellow snapper) Inid (white dotted grouper) Paeangan ( long-spined glass perchlet ) Aliso (mangrove red snapper) Baeanak (broad mouthed m
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Timeline II - Balete During the American Pacification

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Answering questions leads to more questions. That is a fact. A fact that only proves that man is a rational being. No other animate being on Earth is capable of that. A few creatures shows retention. But they are not historical being for historicity is not one of their endowed faculties. Only man is capable of retrospection and of getting in touch with his past. Aided by his tools, he can easily go back into yesterdays, at least for the time being, in virtuality. Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity though is a tease for him to attempt at going back into time in his existential form. Be that as it may, let us be content with delving into the Baleten-on's historic past, perhaps to get insights in approximating that better Balete than yesterdays. Herewith then is my additional entry, a follow up to my initial timeline for those who want an airplane grasp of Balete's historic past. My other entries on local history are spread out in the pages of this blog indexed as &q
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