It's Fiesta and the President is in town..

Helicopters -- Hueys and other kinds -- hovered over my hometown yesterday and early this morning. Her Excellency and party is indeed in town...

It's Feast Day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus today. I've heard GMA will be attending the mass this morning before she heads off to Balabac. Nanay & Tatay then will have the chance to see her in the church today, my oldies being regular churchgoers here. In fact, they must have been glancing at her excellency now.

Oh, if GMA only knows it's Nanay who made the flower arrangement inside the church. If she just know how Nanay and her Mother Butler cult had a hard time keeping the church polished and clean because the 'copters land and leave the Oval, which is just a few meters away from the Church, every now and then.

Suddenly, it's Year 2002 once again...GMA was alighting from a white chopper which just landed at the San Miguel Elementary School in San Miguel, Linapacan. I was among the party from the Provincial Management Staff allowed to be at the landing site an hour before she gets off........


***the SHJ photo is from this site and the 'copters are from BBC Pictures.

GMA is coming to town.

The Philippine President is coming to my hometown on the 29th, that is 2 days from now. So I learned from sources -- almost everyone in town -- since last week.

This morning, we bumped into 2 truckloads of military men, all in combat wears, near Barangay Sandoval. President Arroyo's advanced party is now here, apparently to secure the place and the sites she'll be visiting.

Why the visit? I really got no idea. She was here during the inauguration of the Hyrometallurgical Processing Plant sometime in 2005. This will be her 2nd visit. I heard Rio Tuba is just a stop-over en route to Balabac, Palawan's southernmost town (an island municipality).

Well, she might just be trying to find out for herself how the HPP, which she switched on in April 2005, is operating. Also heard she'll be dropping by a mosque in Sitio Bukid-bukid.

What I don't get about this Presidential Visit is the tearing down of bahay kubos within the confines of the townsite, the mining company property. Whoever's got a brilliant mind who thought that bahay kubo's around the townsite are "eyesores" for the President and her team, and need to be tore down, must be real brilliant and true-blue Filipino. Whatever the reason is, just don't call bahay kubo an eyesore because it kinds of make one veers away from his roots and his Pinoy connection.

[ thanks to Wikipedia for the President Arroyo's photo.and to Blogtext for the bahay kubo illustration ]

Testing lang ng video posting

It was a little before 11pm, December 31, '07 when I woke up to find out everyone has been to the church for the New Year's Eve Mass. But unlike on Christmas Eve, when I was sleeping all night while everyone went to church and later on enjoyed the noche buena, I woke up this time before it struck 2400H....

Then, the churchgoers were back and the dining table, inviting. This time I partook of our media noche........

And then....there were the.. Boom! Kaboom! Ksssshsh BOOM!







HAPPY and MEANINGFUL 2008 to all!!!