BDO Alangalang

     Banco de Oro(BDO), one of the premier local banks, opened a branch in Alangalang, Leyte town center sometime last year I guess. I was excited to see such development in my rural town even though I closed my old BDO account in Manila since I am out of job. This is the first bank in my town. I didn't know was my excitement had another reason, the bank manager is a friend, a batchmate in my high school whose past experience has been in banking. I learned lately about her new post after she messaged me few months ago 

My batchmate, Wilma(left) whom I met in our reunion

     I met her in our grand dinner during our reunion. It was a pleasure meeting her in person after several years, maybe I've not met her since high school, as far as my memory is concerned.

Typhoon Egay

     The broadcast on TV seems scary, a super typhoon named Egay is expected tomorrow to enter Philippine land mass. Memories of super typhoon Haiyan(Yolanda, local name) bringing tidal waves in, killing thousands of people especially in my home province of Leyte, the easternmost province in central Philippines, in November 2013, remain fresh in my mind.

Warning of super typhoon 

     I grew up in this island of Leyte prone to typhoons facing the vast Pacific Ocean in the east. Many cases in the history when my classes were suspended due to the typhoon. I remember arguing with my mother to go to school since I have not heard announcement from the school authorities that classes have been suspended even if one can feel the strong wind.

     As a kid, I used to love typhoons. When the typhoons came, we stayed indoors. Usually it's a 24-hour ordeal and always the electricity is cut off. After the rains and wind, the sun comes out. That's when we would go out to see the damage to our farm and I would love picking the young coconuts that was felled by the wind. It was simple pleasure getting the young coconuts and eating them. Now there are very few coconut trees after typhoon Haiyan which rendeded this place barren. Few coconuts are now sprouting and seems no one is seriously replanting. The coconut industry I would say is dead unlike during my time where we grow them, harvest them and convert them to copra, the dried kernel we sold to traders.

There's a slight wind now

    The typhoon is expected tomorrow to have the landfall although the news says it's eye is focused in the north, Catanduanes and Cagayan. However, this is a super typhoon so we are feeling the wrath of the wind about 2000 kilometers away across the sea. I am praying this typhoon won't be devastating as the community has recovered from the traumas of super typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

     

SONA 2023

     President Bongbong Marcos(BBM) delivered his 2nd State of the Nation Address(SONA) before the Senate and Congress. I was not expecting anything because I know the gist of what he would say, not a departure from what we have heard in the past. I was right. He didn't really talk of the rampant poverty all over the country, unemployment and economic imbalance. All he offered, not different from past leaders, are palliatives and not really addressing to the root causes of the widespread poverty, unemployment, economic imbalance between urban and rural areas and the resulting oversea diaspora in search of greener pastures.

BBM's first SONA

     No, he didn't talk about those as he is so detached from the grassroots. He talks with the political leaders from the different parts of the country who are also detached from the social reality. There is no hope I believe for a brighter future. The reality is the powerful elite of BBM versus the powerful elite of the yellows are both detached from the poor in the society, who, to them, are mere pawns to manipulate during election, and the sad part is that the poor think this is natural. Not one of them thinks they are exploited and their poverty is a result of the social structures that prevent them from progressing out of the doldrums of ignorance and extreme poverty.

High School Batch 1985 Reunion 2023

     It's has been two weeks since our two-day class reunion with my high school batch 1985, which we usually do every five years except in 2020 when Covid seemed was at its peak. We have  interim reunion in between mostly for those available in Tacloban City. I was reluctant to attend as I am not financially able to support, I used to donate money to support in previous years since 2005 as I was blessed to be working oversea. This time, my close friends classmates prodded me to, my good friend Dr. Maricelle sponsored my hotel accomodation and Rolendes took care of my meals. Rolendes was our Salutatorian and Maricelle our 1st Honorable Mention. I was the Valedictorian even if I came from the rural nook of Alangalang, Leyte while most of them were from Tacloban City. I consider myself lucky and blessed to have achieved such feat.

Batch 1985 Reunion 38th year

     On our 38th year this 2023 we had a reunion  which was originally for our 35th in 2020 but was not able to do due to the Covid pandemic. It was definitely fun meeting friends and batchmates. In one of our activities on the beach, I went around for the first time to connect to almost all my batchmates. I'm very glad to meet them again after my stroke. The thought that came to me was that had I did not make it back home when I had the stroke in Singapore, I would not have this chance to see them. God is truly great for keeping me alive.

My Einstein classmates, the first section, during the dinner

     I met my section Einstein classmates, the first section of 20 sections, although only nine of us made it, the others failed to come probably due to other commitments. There were 45 of us in the first section, there were 907 students in my batch 1985.

     It was really great to see them especially my Einstein classmates who are very dear to me. Some of them came to Singapore, saw me comatose in my hospital bed and met me when I woke up. Some of them who are based in Tacloban regularly come and visit me now in my rural village especially my two good buddies, Marlon(2nd on the right)and Elmer(first on the left) in above photo. Marlon is an agriculturist in the Department of Agriculture while Elmer is a surgeon at Leyte Provincial Hospital.

The Magic 9 in final dinner

      It's sad only a few of us made it to this rare occasion, some no doubt had valid reasons. On the first day of our reunion, we had team building activities at Baluarte Beach after a holy mass in our old school. Kudos to the organizers who initiated the games full of fun although I was a mere spectator as I could not join them due to my slow movements.

Myself(in blue) during our team building in Baluarte Beach

     On the final day, a grand dinner capped our reunion. The attendance was only about a third of our total batch but it was a night definitely we won't forget.

LNHS Batch 1985, 38 years after 

Women's World Cup 2023

     I got introduced to World Cup men's football when I went to work in Malaysia, coming from the Philippines where football seems unknown as the local people are hooked with basketball and NBA. Ask them anything about the NBA and they know.

     Currently there's a World Cup for women hosted by Australia and New Zealand down under. I found out that the Philippines was going to play Switzerland so I marked my calendar to see the live match on TV. Regular world cup matches is on pay-per-view(PPV) channel but the Philippine match was covered by the local sports channel thus I was able to watch. I didn't subscribe to the PPV as I'm not really a football buff.

The sad result 

     I was banking on the Philippine football team as I watched them in some Asian football championship where they emerged as runner-up, even if I found out later that all players are not home-grown talents but are of mixed origin such as the US, Europe and Africa.

     To my dismay they lost lamely to the Swiss team. I regret wasting almost a couple of hours watching their game. 

   

Love The Philippines

     Love The Philippines. This is the new promotional slogan of the Tourism Department as announced, replacing Wow Philippines which was popularized in 2010 during President Benigno Aquino's term. It was not changed by President Rodrigo Duterte when he assumed office in 2016. With the rise of President Bongbong Marcos to the top in 2022, his department of tourism changed the slogan. Is this necessary? I don't think so. The change in slogan is simply a demonstration of inconsistency in the bureaucracy, a failure to look at the good in the past governments, all is in the politics of the leaders.

The new tourism slogan

     Malaysia, my second country after the Philippines, has always has this: Malaysia, Truly Asia. They have used that for years, leaders have changed in the government but their tourism slogan remained the same. Same is true with other neighboring countries. 

     Malaysia, Truly Asia

     Amazing Thailand

     Wonderful Indonesia

     

     Simple, straightforward, and seem unchanged for years. I think that's what should be a tourism slogan to create an identity for the country. Change only if there is a valid reason. For instance, Singapore changed in 2017 to Passion Made Possible from a boring slogan of Your Singapore. I can understand the need to change.

     

Wimbledon 2023

     The last four both for men and women has been finalized at Wimbledon.

The men quarterfinalists

The women quarterfinalists 

     The winner will be decided this weekend, Saturday for the women and Sunday for the men. I am placing my bet on Djokovic for the men and Sabalalenka for the women. Djokovic is gunning for his record 24th Grand Slam title while Sabalenka has been consistent recently after winning the Australian Open in the first quarter of the year.