To Papa, who is a big part of me.

Hi Papa.

I remembered you when the clock struck twelve. This is my first birthday without you.

It is you with whom I have spent the longest time of my life. For long periods of time, it would always be just the two of us together at home.

It goes without saying then that you are a big part of who I am.

From Grade 1 until I finished high school, you drove me to school and to almost everywhere I needed to go. In the afternoon or even when it's late at night, you were there to fetch me.

For farther destinations, you always made sure I'd get a ride. For our trips to Manila, you always got us bus tickets as early as possible. You did not want us to be chance passengers or to settle for aisle seats.

When someone asks me what my favorite food is, I answer eggs. You cooked eggs for me in most of the breakfasts you served me. We added eggs to noodles, canned tuna, and even leftover adobo. I remember, in college, I once called to ask you how long do I have to wait for a perfectly boiled egg.

I would wake up with a fully charged phone and I would not miss breakfast or my vitamins. All of those you would prepare early in the morning.

You did them every day that I forgot how much they meant.

Love isn't only in the form of grand, heroic gestures. Love also comes in small, everyday things that tend to get unnoticed.

A big part of me is you.

I enjoy getting my knuckles cracked or my fingers massaged, since you used to do them to me randomly.

I rode the bicycle with you when I was in kindergarten. One time I got my foot stuck in the back wheel, which worried you greatly. The scar I got near my ankle grew with me.

I learned to cook at home by following online recipes. You were the first and regular to taste them, and you said I can cook, even telling others.

You were so great at card games, chess, and mahjong. I beat my cousins in pusoy and taught my classmates the hows of tong-its.

You owned a video rental store. My first time in the movie house was with you. We talked about MMFF entries. Years later, I took a liking to films and got my Letterboxd account.

You loved recording NBA team standings and match results on scratch papers, complete with tables. I love reading Wikipedia articles with tables that show standings or stats of players in TV shows or competitions I follow.

Our relatives say you were good at jokes and you would always make them laugh. My close friends know me for my quips and antics.

You were the brightest in your class back in your day. I marched as valedictorian in elem and high school.

You followed the livestreams of Leni-Kiko sorties. We wore their shirts and attended a caravan two days before the elections. We played "Rosas" on our phones.

We checked on each other every day through Messenger chat when I began college in UP. That went on every time I wasn't at home. We never missed a day, until that Saturday when you never replied.

Your love for me, the moments we shared, and even our arguments and misunderstandings make up a bulk of who I am today.

I miss you the most today on my 23rd birthday, Papa.

It is you with whom I have spent the longest time of my life, and that won't hold true anymore in the next years.

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In Grade 1, our teacher marked my classmates absent because of me (and an accomplice)

 

I think I'm the only one in the class who still remembers this story.

(Disclaimer: Photo is from Grade 2, can't find a Grade 1 pic)

In my elementary school, everyone must gather at the quadrangle every morning for a flag ceremony before the start of classes.

I was then in Grade 1 when one day, I felt lazy to go. Another lazy classmate joined me in hiding so we wouldn't have to go with our classmates to the flag ceremony.

While we waited in our classroom, I thought of a supposedly funny plan which was to switch my classmates' bags. Every seat, I swapped the school bags in them and my classmate helped me.

Soon, classmates returned from the quadrangle and were surprised to see their bags in different seats.

As clueless as they were (we were only six to seven years old), they might have believed there was a new seating arrangement so they proceeded to where their bags were newly placed. Only I and that classmate were in our original seats while we laughed silently.

When our teacher stepped in, she was surprised too but had a different reaction.

She was angry. Maybe she thought it was a ploy of the whole class.

My smile turned into a gasp when she announced that everyone not in their proper seats would be recorded as absent for the day.

I felt sorry after the teacher's verdict but I do not remember what happened for the rest of the day.

What I remember is that I and that classmate got away from what turned out to be an evil scheme. And I get reminded of it from time to time until now.

I hope our teacher did not mean marking them as absent though. And I'm sorry, classmates! Hahaha. You may not remember that day anymore but here I am revealing this only after 13 or 14 years.

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Tuition Fee-Free

Here's the Fourth Best Feature Article (Secondary Level) during the National Schools Press Conference 2017 held at Pagadian City. The topic given was "Free college education under the Duterte administration". This was the best I could write in an hour since we were not given any fact sheet and I had to rely on my little knowledge about the topic.

Worrying about not being able to go to college next year?

The Philippine government got your back as for the academic year 2017-2018, it will be implementing its free college education program for the first time. Just look up for your school in the web to see if it's included in the list of the hundreds of institutions benefiting from the breakthrough.

Recently, the information easily spread like fire as the Filipino youth kept sharing the said list and related reports in different social media platforms, all celebrating the good news. It's confirmed, the Philippine government is allocating P8 billion budget to the Commission on Higher Education to pay the college students' tuition fee in the state universities and colleges all over the country.

This was made possible after the efforts of youth groups and education advocates to pursue the realignment of the certain fund to what they consider as one of the greatest investments of the country, education. With the help of officials who share the same advocacy, they finally got a nod from the government to pay more attention and allot ample budget to the tertiary level.

(Photo from Manila Bulletin)

University of the Philippines and Polytechnic University of the Philippines are among the school benefactors which students will be spared by the government free from their tuition fee next year. However, miscellaneous, dormitory and other fees are not yet covered. Still, the college students are grateful, considering that the free tuition fee is already a big act of passing the hat.

Mark Joey Pua, a student of PUP, will be on his last year in college by the time of the program's implementation. He feels that it would be a great aid for him and his mother who works abroad to support his studies.

Mark is just one of the many youths who rejoiced the milestone which they believe would be lessening the burden from their families' shoulders. Also, students who stopped their studies before due to financial reasons are given the opportunity now to go back to school and continue taking up their dream courses.

The hard works continue not only coming from the advocates but all the Filipinos to push through the further improvement of the program. They unceasingly ask and convince the government to make the free college education continuous so it would not be only effective for the next school year, but for the years to come. This, they believe, is to cater also to the next generation of college students.

Worrying about entering college? Thanks to collective efforts, the Philippine government got your back, telling you to drop those worries, get back on your feet, wear your university uniform, and be a few steps nearer to your dream job!

Tet-Tet

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Owners Turned Foreigners

Here's a feature story on the documentaries about the situation of people affected by the large-scale mining in Brgy. Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya- adjudged as Champion in Feature Writing (English) Secondary Level  by Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Melvin Gascon during the Cagayan Valley Regional Schools Press Conference 2016.

“No trespassing. Maiparit ti sumrik.”

As residents of Barangay Didipio, the people have the rights to post the signboard which prohibits strangers to enter their land without permission.

Yet fate had them to be the ones facing the signage, banned to enter a large area of their home as Oceana Gold took over the rich land in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya- far from the broken promises that the company would be their partner for livelihood.

It was not long when Eduardo, one of the Didipio citizens, found himself handcuffed with blood on his hands and feet. He was just on his way to his farm when authorities halted him and told him that he could not go forth. No matter how loud his cry was that he had no sin, he ended up kissing the soil where he and his family started their dreams which apparently never continued.

Decades back, then newbie Australia-New Zealand company negotiated with him to rent his family’s 8-hectare land for their mining operations. Knowing that Eduardo didn't have a copy of the agreement document, the institution seized the opportunity and had them forcedly evacuated from their 2-million peso worth land and gave them the additional payment for its whole purchase.

Voiceless,  Eduardo wasn't able to stop Oceana Gold to continue using their land for the mining operations until they started operating in areas beyond the mark. And again, just like Eduardo, his fellow residents were told to evaporate away from their own land.

To compensate the people, the company promised them that they would give them benefits in the future when in return, they would help in the mining tasks. Soon, the expected mutualism became parasitism as those who asked for their deserved increase in salary were fired and the benefits never arrived.

Houses demolished without court order and relocation, lands taken away from them, and loss of livelihood and jobs… the burdens of the Didipio people didn’t cease there.

Leonardo Berno, a resident, recalls the abundance of trees and crops all around which now turned into countless rocks and boulders. The waters are now all brown and dirty which they still often use, due to no choice, for daily activities like laundry. Additionally, landforms were altered as hills were transformed into plains.

(Photo from ejatlas.org)

Family ties and good relationships broken, on the other hand, is the cry of Akino Beduya, another citizen. The once harmony turned into family members fighting over their left properties. Furthermore, some of their relatives were sued with criminal cases by Oceana Gold which they strongly disclaim they did or got involved in.

Tired from all the sufferings brought by the large-scale mining in their place, the people of Didipio finally took stand and rallied in front of the company to voice out their disapproval and requests- disapproval on the mining operations and its adverse effects which they tagged as “Gold in your pockets means blood in our hands”; and requests to the government to pass the People’s Mining Bill and to ultimately stop Oceana Gold. Fortunately, Commission on Human Rights and Mines and Geosciences Bureau pat them on the back as they join them in their pleas to give back the land of Didipio to its rightful owners.

For more than just facing the “No Trespassing” signs, the people of Didipio have to fight for the issue on environmental impacts, the deprivation of their human rights and their loss of livelihood due to the powerful company’s operations, says Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Melvin Gascon.

The night has spread its blanket to the entire place once again yet many lights are still on and the machines continue functioning to add more to Oceana Gold’s beyond 20,000 ounces of gold and about 10,000 bronze mined up to the last three years. Meanwhile, the Didipio residents are on to another day of suffering and tears as they, the owners, turned out to be the foreigners to their own land.

Reports say that the company has plans to expand their mining operations in the barangay beside Didipio: Lower Alamit.

Would that mean another barangay of people stripped off their human rights and their homes?

Tet-Tet

And because of this winning piece, I'm on to my 3rd NSPC, this time in Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur!

P.S. This is not the very exact feature story I submitted. I just recalled what I wrote when I got home.

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Here's the World, Zach

   

      Buckets full of water were easily emptied as the boys hurriedly took a bath. They rushed to prepare themselves to finally see for the first time the reason behind their excitement when the news had just came in: "Ipinanganak na! (He's already born!)"

     "Tito ka na! (You're already an uncle!)" the lads exclaimed to one another as they took the way to their destination. Their faces spelled great enthusiasm as they readied themselves to meet the instant celebrity of the day. 

BABY ZACH. Instant Celebrity of the Day

     A few minutes later, they found themselves in a small room crowded with equally excited relatives until the nurse brought a mini crib in. There lying so fragile was the one they all waited to come to this world for them to see- a baby boy sleeping peacefully with fluffy cheeks and tiny limbs. The innocent infant unknowingly put broad smiles to everyone's faces as they gathered around the crib to stare at him, especially to the boys who finally got to look at their newborn and firstborn nephew.

     Czyan Khane Zachary. That was the long meaningful name his parents gave him which he's going to carry in his identification cards and learn to write first with great effort when he starts school. The name Czyan comes from his mom and dad's names combined, signifying their combined love and care they would shower him. Meanwhile, his nickname "Zach" comes from his third name Zachary, which means "remembered by God".

     As Baby Zach cluelessly moved his facial muscles making him smile, it delighted his audience who had been watching him all the time. It made his uncles bring out their gadgets to capture and record his first moments especially when Zach sweetly drank his first bottle of milk to satisfy his little hunger.

       "Most supportive family!" the attending physician uttered, appreciating the efforts of the baby's relatives.

     The boys couldn't be any happier spending the day with their dear nephew on his first day in this world. They happily exchanged comments on how cute and winsome the baby is. They debated on whose face will he resemble the most among them as he grows old. They had their own guesses of what he would be when he grows old- an engineer, an architect, a filmmaker, a businessman... ah, whatever, he would be the best in the field he would choose, the uncles agreed.

     No matter how evil the world would be, no matter how vicious the people he would meet, no matter what life would bring him, the young men—his uncles—assured that they would be by Zach's side for guidance and protection. No matter how many lemons would be thrown at Baby Zach, they, altogether, would help him make lemonades.

     Ready to be uncles and willing to rush bathing and leave anything whenever their nephew Zach needs them, the boys happily welcomed him: here's the world, Zach.

  

Tet-Tet

The boys/uncles are Tet-Tet, MJ, Jasper, BJ, Jerwin and Lexie...

Credits: Title inspired by Lizzie R. Santos' "Here's the World, Catherine"

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