ABOARD THE FB AGUIAN—With at least three Chinese Coast Guard ships threatening their main convoy of four fishing boats flying Philippine flags, “Atin Ito” leaders decided on Thursday not to pursue its final task of resupplying Filipino fishers at Bajo de Masinloc (also known as Scarborough Shoal and Panatag Shoal). The seeming premature end of...
Author: Jun Bandayrel (Jun Bandayrel)
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PPO wows audiences from all walks of life in Iloilo, Capiz
ILOILO CITY—The concert’s surprise came in mid-performance, sweeping through the audience, the spark lit when the musicians played the “Mission Impossible” theme song (Lalo Schifrin) and Voltes V (Kobayashi Aso). Then followed Mike Hanopol’s “Laki sa Layaw (Jeproks)” to start a medley of OPM (Original Pilipino Music) songs. By the time the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra...
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Boracay feels economic pinch despite 1.8M tourist arrivals
BORACAY ISLAND—John Neil Gregorio, 22, had just completed a four-year computer science course when an uncle prodded him to take on the job of a service crew member in an Indian restaurant in Boracay last August. Despite the meager starting daily wage of P300, with free meals and board, he bit the bullet, seeing a...
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Environmental concerns stall wind farm expansion in Panay natural park
Had the rain still poured last Sept. 3 when volunteer inspectors arrived at a rugged hilly portion of Panay’s northwestern mountain range, a government-declared protected area, the road being carved out would have become messy swathes of uprooted grasses and shrubs, fallen trees, mud pools and protruding rocks. The earth-moving activities pushed on despite the...
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Poachers stepping up hunt for critically endangered animals in Panay
LIBERTAD, Antique—Not only have poachers trespassed on the lush forests of northwestern Panay to cut down rare agarwood trees and collect their precious resin, they are also hunting critically endangered animals, like the Visayan Warty Pig, according to wildlife field researchers. In months-long trips, the research team in the Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park (NPPNP)...
A PhilinCon forest patroller inspects a fallen agarwood tree on the mountain trail. —PHILINCON PHOTO
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The stink of agarwood trafficking in Panay
Tree trunks and limbs left in the wild, gutted, severed, or sliced, like a disgusting scene in a nightmare film minus the flesh and blood. No signs of shame or scruple from the band of marauders who left their victims in such an abhorrent state of rot. The mass slaughter of rare trees would have...
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Poor youths play band music in key of a better life
PANDAN, Antique—Rising on his toes, Juanito Maglunob moved his arms upward as though he were hanging laundry on a clothesline to reach and capture that climactic moment in the musical score of “Beauty and the Beast.” Satisfied with the response, he resumed his normal stance and continued to conduct 14 musicians barely out of their...
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Landslides in Leyte: Why the threat persists
BAYBAY CITY—Virginia Queza remembers sharply the Day of the Landslides’, for that was when she lost her husband, house and almost everything else she had. “I kept shouting for help while we were deeply covered with mud, surrounded by dead bodies. My husband was still alive. But all my pleas were ignored,” Queza, 60, recalled,...
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Landslides in Leyte: Pain, grief stifle hope to rebuild lives
BAYBAY CITY, LEYTE—Almost every passing day, Rolando Tagnipez lights a candle before an image of his son on a made-to-order tarp installed in his house. The ritual reminds him of his loved one whose whereabouts he has surrendered to nature’s will. “They have not found the body of my son, together with those of his...