How Could The Poet Deny Her?

How could he deny her,
she the Facebook lover?
The poem is a part of her.

The Argentine name is not hers. Neither is she a Mangyan girl.
When she read the verse, did she recall her lovers?
They who ravished her innocence?

Was the poet thinking of her
That dark and wintry day?

THE LAST DAY OF WINTRY WEATHER, THE MANGYAN MAIDEN AND HER LOVERS

All rights reserved

if i should love again
wails barry manilow on u tube
it's 6:30
in the
still-cold
6th morning
in theodore roetke's worst ugly day
a dark, dark sunday in december

the rain-shattering storm from hawaii
is leaving, the tail wind howling
and lashing the leafless oakwoods
outside the house in winchester

in the grassy yard lined with potted
desert plants, young coconut-like palm trees
quake to the roots, their fronds
swishing
and
swishing
and
swishing
like the black tresses of a frail woman
weeping for her lovers in the night of dreams.*

Andres Miguel Pasion (aka Peter La. Julian)


*Nairaman iti antolohia dagiti dandaniw, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger"

FACEBOOK COMMENT

On Philippine Star columnist Alex Magno calling Ricky Carandang and Edwin Lacierda, as liars: Ricky Carandang as a journalist par excellence is not supposed to tamper with the facts; he should know what the Nobel Peace Prize means. Edwin Lacierda, the lawyer as chief presidential spokesperson, is a political flatterer and may not be condemned in the strongest terms. But his orientation--moral, intellectual, cultural--is suspect for one who holds a lofty government position. Decision-making is hard for tyros whose fingers do not walk the yellow pages of history.

Time magazine's Philippine icon of democracy, Cory Aquino, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988, must have been uneasy in her grave. Did Noynoy speak to her memory before the decision to boycott the ceremony in Oslo, Norway was finalized? But then the weak always cowers in fear before the strong and do whatever it perceives the strong wants it to do.

PADRE DAMASO's GIRL

for marietta

may i offer you, mangyan maiden,
this sweet cup of poetry
that you may drink it
and terminate
the ecclesiastical memory?

RP SPIRITUAL POVERTY

POVERTY WHICH CONCERNS the stomach stalks the land where food crops could grow abundantly. On the other hand, graft and corruption in which billions of pesos of pesos go into the greedy pockets, is draining the government coffers. The country is bleeding.

What exactly is ailing the country?

It was a Saturday during the reign of the convicted plunderer JE that a P.E.N (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) International Conference was held at the Oasis Country Resort in San Fernando, LU. We were one of the panelists that included Charlson Ong, Star Columnist Isagani Cruz of La Salle University, Elmer Ordonez and Juan S. P. Hidalgo, Jr.

In attendance were F. Sionil Jose, the 1980 recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and the Communication; Alejandro Roces, Nieves Epistola,our English professor of the University of the Philippines in Diliman Arts, and more than 300 Ilocano writers and English and literature teachers in Region 1.

PLJ introduced Juan S.P. Hidalgo, Jr. who delivered the keynote address while Jose delivered the perennial Jose Rizal Lecture and during the open forum, Jose gave acidic comments on the country's political, social-economic state.

The country is not only suffering from poverty where people get hungry, Jose said. It is suffering from spiritual poverty which is more worst than poverty of the stomach.



to be completed

ILOKANO LITERARY AYATOLLAHS

Dear Errol,

It is 7:30PM here, but it's bright as day even with cirrus clouds in the wide California sky. Summer is ending. I am in my white Rimat t-shirt, and tsinelas my wife and I purchased at a Greenhills mall a day before we took the PAL flight 112 at NAIA Terminal 2 for the 13-hour non-stop flight to LA. It's daylight saving time, just like in Singapore where it is a broad day even if the hours are late and people are still out at 12:00 midnight.

My son, whose house we are staying in Winchester, says it is 10:30 in the morning in the Philippines.

Three days ago, it is 94 degrees F in Hemet, where Anib-Israel and his wife, both nurses, work in the graveyard shift. To the south, in Temecula city, where we purchased a sack of Thai rice at an Asian store, the 12 noon sun was oppressive but I saw an elderly white woman pushing a grocery cart on the pavement and a huge black man jogging on the treeless highway. Awan ti abbong ti uloda.

Where did we leave off re discussion on Saluyot literature? Ah, that one in Amarillo, Texas. Wen, bay-an latta idan ngem makidangadangka latta babaen  ti panagsurat--daniw, sarita,salaysay--adu a sinurat a kas iti kaadu ti problema dita. Layusem ti Bannawag ken dagiti pasalip. Ngem masapul ti disiplina ti panagsurat. Tuladem latta ti gramatika ken estilo ti kunkunada a magasin dagiti Ilokano, ngem saan a ti nagelgelen a subject matter wenno estraktura ti presentasion iti sinurat.

But what used are these writings if they are not published and read by Ilocanos who read the magazine?

What's important is that you write the fiction, the poems, the novels, and the features. These are historical documents of the kind of life you lead and the people that roam and live and love and hate and die, perhaps, as you see them grapple with their own problems and other difficulties in the land that nurtured you. There is much to see and bear witness to and record in the landscape of the mind. Gather the facts that will translate into beautiful fiction, poetry of memory.

Mainaig iti panagimutektek, can we develop a Milan Kundera, the Czechoslovakian writer, (diac pay ketdin ammo ti ispelingna--ammoc laeng a Prague ti setting ti obra maestrana a "The Lightness of Being") who can manipulate similar materials and experience into a truly Ilokano novel?

Going back to the weekly magazine headed by the person whose father-in-law appeared to have mismanaged the funds for the construction of the writers' house in Suso. (Santa Maria nga ina ti Dios! Macatitileng ti ulimek dagiti bangolan iti daytoy nga isyu. Ket napanan daydi $600 a nai-c/o--nairekord daytoy iti 2005 GF Financial Report? $1,000 daydiay, Manong, inteks ni R.C. a sigud a Bannawag staffer. Wen, Manong, amangan no nasursurok pay, insarurong ti kasimpungalan daydi nangted idi nagkitakami idiay Riverside, CA.)

The practice of the editorial prerogative -the editor's selective policy--is a cold, bloody fact. We can do nothing but accept it.

There is a higher power that will execute punishment on them who have been unfair for doing what is inimical to the interest of their fellow writers, kindred spirits, who also contribute to the growth and development of Litsaluyot?

TWO MODERN HAIKUS*

Wintry Day, California
Brown man in black hooded
jacket jogging. Tree-lined pathway
shining bright in morning rain.

Facebook Lover II
for dulce cantos, dj

frail woman, laughing, in yellowed
photograph criscrosses
the mind: the silence of sunflowers
on hillside in summer.


*Not necessarily the 5-7-5 syllables structure. As ancient practitioners tell us, haiku poetry is the rendering of experience, not a comment on it.
No embellishments. Just the cold bloody facts--what,where, when-- like those Desiree Caluza would gather for her Inquirer news articles.

photo: the author's jogging route in Winchester

ELEHIA KEN NI ARTURO M. PADUA*

Arturo M. Padua, whose column, "Malutluto, Maib-ibus", graced Bannawag, the Iluko weekly magazine, was one of the pillars of Saluyot writing. He held various government posts as town mayor (Sison, Pangasinan, where he was cremated and buried) and as provincial board member, and was tourism official assigned to the United States and Taiwan during the Marcos martial law years. A journalist and former FAMAS president, Turing, as fellow writers called him, was first president of Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano iti Filipinas, the association of Ilocano writers in the Philippines, where this mannurat also served as elected member of the board. A friend of then tourism secretary Jose "Sunshine Joe" Aspiras, Turing maneuvered us on October 23, 1968 to Malacanang, where Ferdinand Marcos administered our oath of office at the Palace Ceremonial Hall at 4:30 PM. The writer, Manang Pacita Saludes and Ms. Amelia Bautista walked from a boarding house in Sampaloc to Malacanang that afternoon.


ladingitek, ARTURO.

aginana koma ta kararuam, kabsat,
natan-ok a mannurat
mangiruprupir kadagiti babassit,
managpakatawa, di mangtagibassit
awan surok, awan kurangna
dagiti komento ken paliiwna.
natadem iti isip.

ala, itugotmo iti tanemmo
dagidi arapaapmo iti daydi daan
a gunglo.

iserra ti ridaw.

nagpilit a simrek dagiti balikas
a di maikari iti templo
idinto a naglimdoda, isuda a nangpaspasangbay
kadagiti agikurkur-it
iti saem ken namnama iti igid ti baybay.
kasla di mamati dagiti agtutubo
iti babak dagiti adigi? 


iserra ti ridaw.

wen, nagsayukmo ti naindaklan nga asawa,
ti namunganayan naulimek iti sibayna.

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.
kaduata koma ida a nangitandudo
tarnaw dagiti saan a marubsi
a sursuro a nariingantayo.
anansata, naglemmengda ngata
nupay adda met nagtured a nangbirok
iti sipnget ken kinapudno.
nagwingiwing ti idolo a taga-montalban
idi imbagak ti nasukalan.

ay, aglalaaw pay laeng ti ulimek
 iti nabibineg a panunot!


iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.
ti laeng manglagipen ti aramiden:
anian a tebbag ti timek
daydi lakay iti dakkel a balay
iti igid ti karayan
idi sinurnadantayo ti sapata
ti sagrado, natan-ok nga ofisina.
nakaamerikanatayo idi
kada manuel s. diaz, fredelito lazo
PELAGIO ALCANTARA
MAURO GUICO
idinto a nakabarong da
juan s. p. hidalgo, jr., guillermo andaya,
prescilliano n. bermudez,
FERDINAND E. MARCOS
PROF. SANTIAGO ALCANTARA
HERMOGENES BELEN
GREGORIO LACONSAY
ken godofredo s. reyes*
nakakimona da amelia bautista ken pacita c. saludes.
ay, taraki-utek dagiti lallaki!
ay, lapsat-sudi dagiti babbai!

SIKA ti immuna a pangulo.
datayo ti immuna a sirmata ken tangsit
ti patneng a pluma.
dagidi a tawen, ay!

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.
nagsardeng idi ti angin 
nagparintumeng dagiti allon
ket iti andingay dagiti darikmat
impeksam dagiti balikas
a kasla ketdin kampilan
nga inasutmo iti kaunggan.

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.

agnanayon daydi a buya iti kadaratan
kumitkitaka idi iti surong
(ania't sapsapulem idi dagiti matam iti amianan?)
daydi narsmo adda latta iti dennam--
"isu ni..." inyam-ammonak idi iti dayag.
apagbiit daydi maudi a pinnatang
ngem isu ti kaatiddogan
iti biagta iti lubong ti panagsuratan.

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.
lagip laeng ti napalabas,
wen, lagip laeng ti napalabas
daydi samiweng a dinto agkupas.

iserra ti ridaw.

ladingitek, ARTURO.

saan nga amin a dawat magun-odtayo
dagiti imet, babantot, saem ken dagensen
iwagsaktayo tapno naan-anay ti wayawayatayo.

maturogka ngarud a sitatalinaay, kabsat,
padak a periodista
manakem a mannurat.

iserra ti ridaw.


*Nairaman iti antolohia dagiti dandaniw nga Ilokano ken Ingles"Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger." With introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Those whose names are in capital letters are already dead. 



Naadaw iti kolum a napauluan iti "EYES WIDE OPEN" nga ipabpablaak ti Star, Northern Luzon, aglinawas a pagiwarnac idiay San Fernando City, La Union. Adda dagiti aritubarna.

* saan pay idi a pimmusay ni Apo Godo, namin-13 a presidente ti gunglo, idi masurat daytoy a daniw. an honest documentation on the national association of saluyot writers.
*idolo ( jsph) a nangisurat iti maipapan dagiti panniki iti montalaban
*naindaklan nga ina (dati a presidente ti University of Northern Philippines ken asawa daydi dios-ti- alluadna nga apo godo)
idupag ti daniw: apay a nagtalinaed a patta ti balay koma dagiti mannurat idiay Suso, Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur?

ETIOPIA IDIAY NEGROS NGEM SAAN A NEGROS IDIAY ETIOPIA/ETHIOPIA IN NEGROS BUT NOT VICE-VERSA

Natikag a daga idiay Etiopia/Ethiopia is barren country
Umay la ti tudo kalpasan ti siglo/Rains fall once in a century
Sadiay saan nga agtubo dagiti mula/There food crops do not thrive
Dagiti ubbing a masacsakit ken kanayon/The children, diseased and always
A mabisbisinan napucawda ti timecda/Hungry, are stony silent.
Agpacpacaasi dagiti limnec a matada/Their sunken eyes plead for mercy.
Naliday a lubong dagiti ubbing ti Etiopia./Ethiopia is a joyless world for children.

2.

Nalangto ti daga ti Negros./Negros is green country.
Gagangay ti panagbayakabacna./Rains fall in torrents regularly.
Natalubo sadiay dagiti unas ken taraon a mula/There sugar canes and food crops thrive well.
Adu ti macan ngem masacsakit/Abundant is the food, but sick
ken mabisbisanan dagiti ubbing/And hungry are the children
Masapul a iyaradoda ti bagida/They must toil and work
iti sangapinggan nga innapuy a matgedanda/For a plate of rice.
Limnec dagiti matada nga agsarsarita/Their sunken eyes speak eloquently
Maipapan kadagiti bacnang iti pagilianda./Of the filthy rich in their country.
Naliday a lubong dagiti ubbing ti Negros./Negros is a joyless world for children.


Naipablaak iti "ANI" nga immaldit ti Cultural Center of the Philippines

PH Corruption Bayou

If jueteng is a metaphor for corruption, then we are swimming in it and we could be the winged creature in the Chinese adage:" A swan that swims in a swamp also thinks it stinks."

The illegal numbers game is a multi-billion-peso industry involving a great number of public men, from secretaries to police chiefs and their subordinates to provincial governors, to town mayors and barangay(village) chiefs. Include the bettors, the mostly poor people who gamble and take a chance to hit the once in their lifetime jackpot. But the beneficiaries are mostly the powers-that-be, receiving as much as P100,000, according to sources. There was a time in late 1980s that a regional police director in the Ilocos was receiving P1-million monthly from jueteng lords.

The Facebook Lover, She

When in the old hometown years later
he found her across the pages of quotations,
sayings, biblical passages, what-i-did-today
diaries, trivialities, videos.

quote without mercy, the needle went into
my flesh, into my vein, pounding
pounding my brain like hell unquote.

what to make of her in the 1983 photograph,
she with the long tresses and yellow-green dress?

she is a promise of beauty, a love song
sung by a frail woman, a zsa zsa padilla
look-alike remembering her childhood

pain in a hospital that smelled of bedbugs,
antiseptic, crushed garlic and death.

model: maria margarita denise julian

ELEGY

Sea-gulls had wing-dashed
Over the seam foams
Which were white flowers
In the sun
Had bade goodbye to trysts
In the evening
Light one summertime.

Remember the laughters
In the afternoon
And the castle of sands
Washed by the madness
Of the waves:
There is an obscure pain
Somewhere in a blue corner
Of remembered remembering.

Remember, too, the rains
That came, the race toward
The trees and the sudden fire
On fingertips.
Then we were adams and eves
Colliding with innocence,
Lost in the maelstroms
Of being.

I know not where the years
Took you, what height
You scaled, what song
You sing now.
I only know a face virtuous
And beautiful like the morning
Dew.

And time is a dry leaf
On scattered twig:
It can not touch the memory
Of the sea.

Now in the jewelled sky
I thirst again
I sing of loneliness.


model: stephannie "paning" juan julian, first-year high

Some "theories" on Language Decline

Apo Ariel,

Sacsiac ti kinapudno dagiti paliiw ni Apo Firth McEachearn maipapan iti agdama a sasaaden ti Iluko idiay La Union. Naidestinoak idi iti daydiay a provincia idi panawen ti martial law. Nacarcaro ket ngata no di tagtaginayonen dagiti mestizo-Castila nga Ortegan ti kannawidanda ng Ilokano.

Malagipko man ti reversed assimilation ken ti saan a panagballigi ti multiculturismo idiay Germany. Dagiti imigrante a kaaduanna a Muslim, they keep to themselves and their culture. Never have they assimilated the Germanic life, its perspective, its language.

Kasta met idiay Ilocos. It is us who are assimilating the culture of Tagalog-speaking immigrants from other provinces, instead of them assimilating ours, that culture that includes the ability to talk in the language.

The Iluko decline could have started during the onset of martial law when Ferdinand Marcos regionalized national agencies with the establishment of administrative regions. In the Ilocos, San Fernando became the administrative center where regional offices sprouted and where non-Ilocano regional agency heads flocked along with their chosen employees. Tagalog, of course, became the language agency meetings and communication (along with English)and regional conferences.You know the consequences.

This phenomenon is also true with the establishment in the provinces of branches of fast food chains like McDonald, Jollibee and Chowking and even TV and radio networks. Tagalog-speaking crews and employees. Fuera de los buenos, kadagiti food chain outlets idiay San Fernando, Vigan ken uray idiay Laoag, kasapulan nga agorderka iti makan iti Tagalog.

Iti naminsan, I was covering for PDI an early morning fire idiay Baguio city market. I chanced upon this ABS-CBN TV crew in the burned area. One of the victims,a Mr. Calimlim,was being interviewed and he was talking in fluent Iluko--the supposed lingua franca of the mountain provinces, when the anchor interrupted him, saying, "Agtagalogka."

Nagbeddal la ngarud diay tao. Nagsinsinal-itak lattan, a, iti unegko iti daydiay nga anchor a puro nga Ilocano a taga-Bacnotan.

Then there is this radio program in one of the radio stations of Laoag. One time, a Bacarra female caller was exchanging views with the Tagalog-speaking anchor and she was trying to sound (accent) like him. Very akward and insulting use of Tagalog in the heart of Ilocoslovakia.

Can TMIF and Gumil chapters make resolutions requesting provincial boards and municipal and city councils to pass ordinances obligating Manila food chains and other companies doing business in Amianan to employ all-Ilocano crews in their provincial branches? Or whatever ethnic group that dominate in the area? Or, at least employ, more Saluyot? After all, they earn their revenues here? For TV and radio networks to allocate, say, 60-70 percent of their broadcasts in Iluko out of respect for the culture?


to be completed

Abra Political Violence/October 25, Monday

Maritess Benas, head of the Philippine Information Agency in Abra, said two victims of political violence in Boliney, an upland town, have been transferred to the Lorma Hospital in San Fernando, La Union. The barangay (village) chair Kilong Ulao and an identified Cafgu member were the latest victims of the barangay election in the province, tagged as a hot election. Local, regional and national reporters have converged in the capital town Bangued, with the PIA office located in an annex building at the provincial capital-- as their headquarters. The office was full of people. Former Baguio colleagues mentioned by Tess included Romy Gonzales, formerly of DZRH, now reporter for DZMM. It was past 9:00 PM, Monday in the Philippines, Oct. 25, when I communicated with Tess.

Elsewhere in the country on the same day, seven Cafgu members were slain in an ambush in Maguindanao, where last year at least 58 people, most of them media persons, were massacred. Allegedly instigated by Gloria's political warlords, the Ampatuans.

Filipino Kid Excels in US School

Filipino Kid's Scholastic Achievements*




City of Perris, California--How does a Third World country Filipino kid, a by-product of his country's bi-lingual education, fare in American public high schools whose medium of instruction is English?

He appears to be performing well in both academics and extracullicular pursuits, despite problems like relocation to a new and different environment.

In fact, Jeric-Israel B. Julian, a senior student in one of the public schools in Riverside County, is a consistent recipient of the Student of the Month Award since his freshman year.

The SMA is given to students of US high schools and the 8-year elementary schools who excel in their academic subjects as well as in their extracullicular activities. Although qualified, a student will not receive the award twice during the same school-year.

Jeric-Israel's latest award came honoring him and three other recipients of the SMA from three public high schools during a luncheon program at the Sizzler restaurant here last Oct 13.

In attendance during the event were US education officials, City Mayor Daryl R. Busch of the City of Perris, Congressman Darrel Issa, high school principals and teachers including parents and grandparents of the outstanding students.

Jeric-Israel, a senior at the Paloma Valley High School, was cited for his "commitment to character, love of learning, perseverance and community service" by the Perris Valley and Greater Menifee Chanbers of Commerce, sponsors for the award for the past 13 years.

The other awardees were all born and raised and schooled in the United States. Jeric-Israel, who attended the St Louis University Laboratory Elementary School in Baguio, was the only Filipino recipient of the award.

Jeric-Israel was also presented certificates of recognition by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and the California State Senate and a certificate of Special Congressional recognition by the US House of Representatives.

Earlier, the Princeton, New Jersey-based Advanced Placement Program College Board, conferred on Jeric-Israel the APP Scholar Award.

In an accompanying letter, APP Vice-President Trevor Packer, said that Jeric_Israel belongs to a "unique group of students worldwide who have passed the rigorous series of college-level courses and exams."

Jeric-Israel is one of the sons of Dianne and Anib-Israel Julian of Mapandan, Pangasinan and Oscariz, Ramon, Isabela who immigrated to the US in 2005.

*Jeric-Israel is the author's grandchild.

Simonie Called

For the first time since arriving in California last July 15, I was able to talk on the phone with my cousin Simonie who resides along with her brothers--Perry and Doggie-- in LA. She is inviting us to her home, near Hollywood, today, October 24. That depends on Anib-Israel who will be arriving from Hemet minutes from now. We will be attending mass at the Mother Theresa Catholic Church in Temecula. If the trip to LA will not materiealize, we will be going there instead next week.

Anib-Israel arrived past eight this morning. He said we would be going to Simonie's place next Saturday. Called Simonie. She said she will be waiting for us in LA Saturday. We will be staying overnight at her apartment LA.

Called Simonie, asking for their address in LA. There is supposed to be an on-going fiesta(Latino) in their neighborhood. The Julian family is going there on Saturday, after lunch. It would be our first time to see Simonie's place and Hollywood, the first time for the boys and Dianne to see their relative. The boys are excited.

photo: walking in LA, estelita and dianne in the background, and the boys junjun and jeric not far away

Journal of October 12, 2010

Finally, I located the home address of Lorenzo G. Tabin in Utah. If Anib-Israel will not report for work tonigh, I will send Lorenzo the copies of the latest 2 issues of Timpuyog Journal. The issue printed the speech, a sort of keynote address he delivered during the Summer Iluko Literary Conference in Naguilian, La Union last May.
Emmanuel Cudia did not err in re-scheduling out trip back to the Philippines. We will be leaving via for RP three months from now. We arrived here in Winchester last July 15.

Journal of October 11, 2010

PAL tickets itinerary. January 11 departure in Los Angeles at LAX. To the Philippines. Emmanuel Cudia, a bank executive, erred the first time he booked us.

Journeys by Peter La. Julian

Composed in 2010, Daldalliasat was read during the Baguio Panagbenga Flower Festival last February--at the Audio-Visual Room of the College of Social Sciences, University of the Philippines Baguio.

JOURNEYS/DALDALLIASAT

1.
This looking for the pot of gold
This looking for the rich gentlemen
This looking for the young years

In Darayday, Santa Maria and Gabu
This looking for another shore
Is it looking for what is not there?

2.
In Honolulu, did the sun set in the west?
Did you see the full moon at noon?
Were you looking for the bar girl
Or was it Baguio's naked shadow in a dump
At a Waimanalo back street?

Was the apparition at Halekulani
on the beach at Waikiki a memory
of the white sands of Saud in Pagudpud?

3. What did you say to him--the huge Polynesian
in rumpled coat- who begged for a dollar as you
stepped out of Dimsum after gorging on noodles
in the late hour?

Did you wave him away? Or was it the grease man
stretching his arms for alms on the pavement beside
the Catholic church along Quezon boulevard?



8.
Stop it! Stop it!
Was the Caucasian in red-blue jogging pants screaming?
Was she terrified of the camera aimed at a grove of pine trees
Disappearing in the mist behind her?
Or was it the hound dog barking in nightmarish dreams?

9.
Whatever, arise old friend, walk again
the meandering path home where waits
The New York Times' best seller: it is a must

Read tonight while brown men toil, their color
Turning bloody red in the sun in that sad country
Of shattered windows and vanished dreams.


Caption, from left to right and down: downtown LA, USA, shot from the 5th floor of Sinai-Cedars Hospital; Vivo city, Singapore; Burnham park, Baguio city during a Panagbenga parade; farmers harvesting rice in San Mateo, Isabela; stopping for gas on the way to Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, where Manny Pacquiao fought Oscar de la Hoya (middle photo).

"Quotations"

"Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it."--Rene Descartes, Mathematician and Philosopher

"Your own soul is nourished when you are kind, it is destroyed when you are cruel." --King Solomon

"Happines depends upon ourselves."--Aristotle

"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates."--Martin Luther King, Jr.

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."--King Solomon

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke it."--Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

"When the heart is set at right, then the personal life is cultivated. When the personal life is cultivated, then the home lif is regulated. When the home life is regulated, then the national life is orderly. And when the national life is orderly, then the world is at peace."- Confucius

"Your emotions affect every cell in your body. Mind and body, mental and physical, are intertwined."--Sports psychologist Thomas Tutko of California's San Jose State University

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."--Persian proverb

"Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man."--Shams-ud-din Muhammed Hafiz

"Great writers are not those who tell us we shouldn't play with fire, but those who burn our finger."--Stephen Vizinczey, Hungarian writer

"A non-doer is very often a critic, that is, someone who sits back and watches the doer, and then waxes philosophically about how the doers are doing. It's easy to be a critic, but being a doer requires effort, risk and change." --Dr. Wayne Dyer

"Creation is only the projection into form that which already exists."--Shrimad Bhagavatam

Palanca Literary Awards board of judges

Tiempon a kuestionaran dagiti mangbukel kadagiti hurado ti regional division ti Palanca Literary Awards. Iti naudi a pasalip, saan koma a naghurado ti maysa kadagiti tallo ta dina met pay naipakita iti kabaelanna iti Iluko, uray man ngata no eksperto daytoy iti kritisismo ti literatura. Dimi kuetionaran ti maysa kadagiti nangabak. Ngem saan koma a naghurado ti editor a pagpapaayanna.Maikkan koma dagiti dadduma a mannurat iti gundaway nga aghurado iti Palanca.

Critiques

PETER LA. JULIAN

REKUERDO/MEMENTO: DANDANIW ILOKO ITI KALLAUTANG

(first of four parts)

WINCHESTER, CALIFORNIA--Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, PhD, one of the leading critics of Ilokano literature and writer in Iloko has come out with a book on the Ilokano diaspora. The book, entitled, " Rekuerdo/Memento," is actually an anthology of poems written by Ilokano poets based in the Philippines, Hawaii and the US Mainland. Formerly with the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Dr. Ariel, as friends call him, currently coordinates the University of Hawaii Ilokano Language and Literature Program, billed as the only Ilokano-degree granting program in the world.

The 192 page- book was published by IWAH Press, Hawaii, in collaboaration with Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat Global Press and the Academy for Ilokano and Amianan Studies.

The Iloko poems were translated and edited by Dr. Agcaoili, who also wrote the book's critical introduction. We are presenting here Dr. Ariel's critique on the works of Philippine-based mannaniw including that of this writer. Let me start with my own daniw which was published in the 1990s in Bannawag, the Iloko weekly:

Awan ti addanto panawen/Ita nga aldaw isu ti inton bigat/Pagammuan, sumallukoben ti malem/Idinto nga agarudok ti rabii/Kas iti naulimek a mannanakaw.

/"Yanmo iti daydi nga agmatuon?/No saantayo a nakidangadang/Aragaag dagiti anniniwan/Ket limned met dagiti tiempo/Iti ginget ken sipnget- lagip./Tunggal suknalak ti Padsan/Makitak ti adu a nagkurosan/Ken ti pakasaritaan ti biag:

/Panagungar iti tudtudo/Pannakatay iti kalgaw./Ngem ad-adda ti ipupusay/Ta awanen dagiti kannaway/Uray dagiti kali ken pagaw/Nakapsut metten ti agus/Nasam-it a danum ti panunot./

Namin-adu nga inurayko ti kasaor/Ken ti talukatik, daeg ken dam-eg/Anansata awanen dagiti agsapa/Awanen, awanen dagidi, Veronica./Saan a mapuotan ti agdama/Kellaat lattan a simmalipengpeng/Sabali a pagilian ti kararua/Natadem man kuko dagiti darikmat/Ditoy, di pimmanaw ti panawen/Kankanayon nga adda isidir/Karayan a sinakup ti kadaratan.*

Dr. Agcaoili's critique:

"In Padsan: A Vision/Padsan: Maysa a Sirmata, Julian confronts his memory of Padsan, the river of his city, the river of his youth, the river that sustained him through all the years of his wandering from Laoag to Oscariz, in Isabela and other places that had claimed him because of his profession as a writer and because of his personal obligation to his family whose members have gone on to live lives abroad. But it is in Isabela where that sense of stability has found him--or where he found, establishing a home there and where his children have an investment in memory. We can not say the same kind of investment of his Laoag, the place beyond the mountain ranges, the place that depresses to the sea to flatten into an almost dry earth and then to a vast body of water.

"In a direct address, Julian quizzes Veronica but he could as well be quizzing the river itself when one knows the environmental facts surrounding Padsan, with this river easily substituting for Veronica. If we follow this logic and we put in the medieval theological context of Veronica, we can easily push for this substitution."

Regarding Joel Manuel, who has won several awards in fiction in the Annual Palanca Literary Awards, regional division:

"In "To our Lost Country", Manuel unabashedly tells us the raw and ugly truth that we need to hear--or read: "Take me for my word: We are homeless/In our lost country, its ground shifting, loose." There is nowhere more poignant in this rendition when he flatly tells us what kind of a homeland have we got: "It disowns us in ignorance, this land/And we flee across the Western waves/To that other side of our dreams/To the savage wilds of the heart and memory.Foreign and alien, strange and unfamiliar/And no we have learned to call our country."/

"Having no choice but to head the call of the first principle of survival, he tracks down our tracks, those of us who have called it quits with the homeland and have started life anew where the feet have led us, where the spirit of a life of bounty and contentment and goodness have brought us."

"In "The Young Evening/Agur-uray dagiti Sardam", Nesperos talks to an unnamed person who has left, presumably to a place that has snow, and declaring, sure and certain and in keeping with the Ilokano way of awaiting someone else's coming home, that of awaiting someone else's coming home, that the teasing lizards's "noise zwait/like the sleeplessness on the railings of stairs.'

"In the coming home of the travellers, the poet makes a pointed reference to the greed of airport people, those factotums of government agency that it made certain that they can get something from those returning home in the form of "pasarabo" or gift. He does not see it that way, of course, but calls this greed--as it should be. He talks of young evenings waiting for the homecoming to come about, but in the intercises of the act of waiting are the reference to pain both for the one who is coming home and the members of the home he is going back to, he is coming home to. He tells us the wounds of leaving, that will never be healed, and the footprints that get erased/by your absence that has no end
(Maituloyto)

caption: The River Padsan in Laoag City, from the Gilbert Bridge.

http://pedrolajulian.blogspot.com/

CASURATAN TI BIAGCO

The book with the Title, "Casuratan ti Biagco," an Iluko manuscript that dates back to the last years of the 19th century, was written in cuadernos in elaborate script by Don Sabas Gaerlan, from Tagudin, Ilocos Sur, according to Jane G. Gaerlan, a great granddaughter of the writer. Jane labored for 20 years reading the book, on and off, translated it, except the poems and essays,and published it in book form with the same title.

We had hope to read the story in the Internet but could not acces it. Have contacted Jane, originally from Baguio, through her e-mail address. The book was published by authorhouse and can be purchased from authorhouse.com and Amazon. Buy it from authorhouse so Jane can have the royalty.

A copy of the book arrived in the mails. I emailed Jane and thanked her for the privilege of being the first Ilokano writer to read the book. Jane works as a nurse in Chicago but lives in Tinsley Park.Illinois, with her daughter and a cat, according to her. Later, when I wrote about "Casuratan" in the Facebook, Georgina Troxel, originally from Santiago, Isabela, who lives in Texas bought a copy of the book through amazon.

Does the book validate some of the events of Philippine history? Like, for exmple, the retreat of the Katipuneros led by Aguinaldo to Cervantes where Don Sabas was teniente del pueblo, according to the book?

Chapter 10 of the book tells of the retreat of the Aguinaldo forces to the town and the death of General Gregorio del Pilar in Tirad Pass. The detail could be checked with Philippine history books. Reading it, I was asking why the youngest general of the Philippine Revolution went back to Angaki, near Tirad Pass, to engage the estimated 400 American forces that included Macabebes (from Pampanga) the following day they arrived in Cervantes, tired and exhausted crossing rivers and mountains to their temporary refuge. Forty Katipuneros against 400 superior American soldiers?

The Timpuyog Journal, magazine type in glossy paper, started serializing "Casuratan
ti Biagco" in its October 2010 issue. TJ is the bi-monthly publication of Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas, the national association of Ilocano writers who write in the language.

Singapore Sojourn

SiNGAPORE--For the third time, we are in this Lion City or Singapore (from the words singa, lion and pura), where things keep moving as if this rules-based island is always on the go, leaving behind other countries in terms of development and wealth. What did not exist the last tim we were here are there: brand ne spic and span highways, the world's biggest observation wheel--it reminds me of the ferris wheel during Philippine fiestas-- the world's second biggest casino, and a 4-story hotel built on reclaimed land in Sentossa, a tourist come-on, which has several beaches, one of which is named Palawan.

And many more including various buildings and structures in the last stages of completion.

This 9th priciest Asian city (Tokyo is the most expensive city in Asia and the world) survived the worldwide financial crisis and is back again as one of the earth's financial lords.

The Singapore Flyer, billed as the world's biggest observation wheel, sits atop a 3-story terminal with an array of shops and dining halls. We rode in one of the Flyer's 28 capsules ( a sort of a passenger coach with table and chairs) and had a half an hour ride that gave us a 360 view of Singapore and the surrounding islands, including Indonesian Batam now being developed as a commercial and tourist area.

From the glass windows, we saw the lights stretching from one end of Batam to the other. It was seven in the evening, the sky was clear, and our glass-covered capsule was almost on the uppermost position. Nearby, we could see in its entirety the structures of $3.5- billion Marina Integrated Resorts at Marina Bay where the world's second biggest casino is located. MIR consists of three high- rise gleaming buildings topped by a surf board-shaped park surrounded by trees.

Fare is S$29.50 per person, but you could occupy the whole capsule by yourself or with someone for S$274.00. At that time a couple--a man and a pretty Asian lady--had a capsule by themselves and they must have the time of their lives during the ascent in that 30-minute ride amidst the glittering lights of Singapore and Johore, Malaysia to the north, not to say Batam.

The Straits Times, the island state's biggest circulation daily, carried an article about the Marcoses and their hidden wealth in its in its June 10, 2010 issue. It was accompanied by Agence's France-Presse photo of Imelda and daughters Imee and Irene.
The picture showed the former First Lady, now an Ilocos Norte Congesswoman, looking for something inside her bag and Imee (in red T-shirt) and Irene (in checkered red polo). They were sitting on plastic chairs, with a crowd in the background, who could have been attending a program for them in Paoay, Ilocos Norte. The story, bi-lined by the newspaper's law correspondent, was about the Philippine government filing a multi-million lawsuit against the large estate of Ferdinand Marcos before the Singapore courts. The suit, according to the story, stemmed from a 2003 court order in Manila which allowed the Philippine government to claim US$658-million worth of the Marcos family's assets previously held in Switzerland. Some of the money, held in escrow by the Philippine National Bank, was deposited in the Singapore branch of the German-based WestLB.


about to be completed

Arrival in Singapore

For the third time, we are in this Lion City or Singapore (from the words, singa or city, and pura, city). We arrived here in the afternoon of June 3, after a three and a half-hour flight from the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport at Clark via Cebu Air Pacific. We were met at the Budget Terminal of the Changi International Airport by our son Christoffer, who works in a semi-conductor company here, and our two grandchildren-- John Philip, 8, and Christian Paul,12-- sons of Rene, another son who also work in the same company. We piled into a taxi to North Serangoon Avenue, where our sons rent an apartment on the 5th floor of a 15-story flat.

APAY NGA ADDA DAGITI BUS STOP?

     Why are there bus stops? For people to get off or on the bus. If you get off the bus, either you go home or wait for another bus to go to your destination. As in life, there are no full stops, only commas and semi-colons. Kas kunada, life must go on.

Journal of May 6, 2010

Now on the homestretch, candidates for various government posts are now on their final rallies and distribution of campaign materials and their vehicles, festooned with banners and posters, are making the rounds with their jingles and campaign songs. In San Mateo town in Isabela, Atty Larry Piedad who is pitted against a former ally in the mayoral race, is holding a rally across the street. This morning, there was a flurry of activities in the area, a lot of vehicles--tricycles, private jeeps. Meanwhile, a campaign vehicle of the Agcaoili camp mounted with loudspeakers playing a jingle goes around town and along the street where Larry is holding his own rally.

Larry lost in the elections.

The blogger in Singapore, after a Mass at a Catholic church

TI KALIDAYAN A DANIW

NI PABLO NERUDA

Patarus ni Peter La. Julian ti "The Saddest Poem/I Can Write the Saddest Lines Tonight".
Maysa ni Pablo Neruda kadagiti kalaingan a mannaniw ti lubong. Recipiente ni Neruda iti Premio Nobel ti Literatura.

Ita a rabii, makasuratak iti kalidayan a daniw
Kas pagarigan, isuratko, "Nakarangranga ti rabii,

Ket agarigenggen dagiti asul a bitbituen iti adayo."
Agkanta ti agrikusrikos nga angin-rabii iti law-ang.

Ita a rabii, makasuratak iti kalidayan a daniw.
Nagayatak kenkuana, no dadduma inayatnak met.

Idi, kas itoy a rabii, makasuratak iti kalidayan a daniw.
Namin-adu nga inagkak iti sirok ti awan patinggana a langit.

Inayatnak met idi no dadduma, ket inayatnak met.
Kasano nga awan ti agayat kadagiti naulimek ken mangnibinibi
a matana?

Awan kadi mamaayna no napaay ti ayatko a nangigawid kenkuana?
Narnuoyan ti rabii iti bitbituen ket awan iti sidongko.

Ita a rabii, makasuratak iti kalidayan a daniw
Ammok nga awan iti dennak. Riknaek a napukawko.

Denggek ti mangliwengliweng a rabii nga ad-adda a mangliwengliweng
iti kaawanna.
Matnag ti daniw iti kararua a kas iti pannakatnag ti linnaaw
iti karuotan.

Diakon ay-ayaten, awan duadua, ngem inay-ayatko
Ti timekko sapulenna ti angin a mangsagid iti lapayagna.

Addanto sabali a mangtagikua kenkuana. Wen, addanto
a kas iti panangtagikuak idi kadagiti agekna.
Ti timekna, ti nalap-it a pammagina, dagiti saan a
matukod a matana.

Dayta laeng, awanen. Iti adayo, adda agkanta. Iti adayo.
Agtawataw ti kararuak, ket awan isuna iti sidongko.

Birbiroken dagiti matak, kasla yasidegda kaniak
Sapsapulen ti pusok ket awan iti dennak.

Isu met la a rabii purarenna dagiti isu met la a kaykayo.
Dakami. Wen, dakami. Saankamin a kas idi.

Gapu kadagidi a rabii, kas itoy, inikutak kadagiti takkiagko.
Napukawko ti imnas, saan a pulos nga agtalna ti kararuak.

Uray no daytoyen ti maudi a saem nga ipalayna
Ket daytoy metten ti maudi a daniwko kenkuana.

FEELING LIKE ALFREDO, THE POET FROM SAN FERNANDO

to whom shall i address this poem, having read
the masterpiece of alfredo navarro salanga,
published after he died of a disease
that consumed his kidneys in the late 1980s?
he was good in spinning words
into arts of beauty—phrases, sentences,
even individual clauses are alive on the pages, at times
surprising you like artifacts buried in a corner
of a patchwork.

this san fernando city, la union native
was a great poet indeed—his "turtle voices in uncertain weather"
drenches you with his genius
as he poked fun of dictators,
rued street children and small men.

his inspiration came from the news—
he must have read the dailies
every single day of his short life, or at least,
after learning his ABC.

his comments were acerbic,
his statements severe, exact,to the point
like a true newscaster in heat.
but alfredo was different—he was deliberate and cool
wise and his punches came fast and straight
like longfellow’s arrows.
it was sad he died so early
he could have produced more books
of useful poetry.

but like the wind that could not stay
alfredo must go for his body was tired
and broken--he was a fat man once
but the big c gnawed at his flesh
and he was all bones when he went
to his grave.

accept my late farewell, comrade of the pen,
by now more than two decades later
you have become the earth we tread
but we walk on with your messages.
to whom then shall I address this piece?
it would not be fair to you, alfredo,
if i speak to political clowns and fools and buffoons
instead of you.

yes, shall i say, shall i say it would be unfair
if i speak to them in these uncertain times
of scandals and screaming headlines:
maguindanao massacre/barbaric ampatuans
heartless muslims beheading christians
robber barons of congress
gloria’s executioners of the poor
mike arroyo the most distrusted filipino
even katrina halili, james yap and kris aquino?

JOURNEYS/DALDALLIASAT

JOURNEYS/DALDALLIASAT

1.
This looking for the pot of gold/Daytoy panagbirbirok iti sangamalabi a balitok/This looking for the rich gentleman/Daytoy panagbirbirok iti baknang a malalaki
This looking for the young years/Daytoy panagbirbirok kadagidi kinaagtutubo
In Darayday, Santa Maria ken Gabu/Idiay Darayday, Santa Maria ken GabuThis looking for another shore/Daytoy panagbirbirok iti sabali a sangladan Is it looking for what is not there?/Panagbirbirok kadi iti awan?

2.

In Honolulu did the sun rise in the west?/Idiay Honolulu, simmingising kadi ti init idiay laud?
Did you see the full moon at noon?/Nakitam kadi ti kabus a bulan iti agmatuon?
Or did you look for the bitchy word or was it/Binirbirokmo kadi ti narugit a balikas wenno
Baguio’s naked shadow in the garbage can/Ti lamolamo kadi nga anniniwan ti Baguio iti basuraan On a back street in Waimanalo?/Iti maysa a lengleng a kalsada idiay Waimanalo?

Was the apparition at Halekulani on the beach in Waikiki/Ti al-alia idiay Halekulani iti aplaya ti Waikiki/
A memory of the white sands of Saud in Pagudpud?/Lagip kadi iti napudaw a kadaratan idiay Saud, Pagudpud?


3.What did you say to him—the huge/Ania ti imbagam kenkuana—ti narungbo a
Polynesian in rumpled coat —who begged/ Polynesiano iti kunes nga amerikana —nga ikkam koma/
For a dollar as you stepped out of Dimsum/Iti doliar idi rummuarka iti Dimsum
After gorging on noodles in the late hour?/Kalpasan a nagarub-obka iti miki iti naladaw a rabii?
Did you wave him away? Or was it the grease man/Pinaidamam wenno adda iti isipmo ti grasa a tao
Stretching his arms for alms on the pavement beside/A mangitangtanggaya iti imana iti bangketa iti abay
The Catholic church along Quezon Boulevard?/Ti simbaan-Catolico iti igid ti Quezon Boulevard?
The Honda Civic waited for you near a lampost/Inuraynaka ti Honda Civic iti asideg ti pagsilawan/Until the moon closed the ancient eyes in Oahu's Chinatown./Agingga a nagkidem dagiti daan a mata ti bulan idiay Chinatown ti Oahu.

4.

And what did you say to her, who greeted you,/Ket ania ti imbagam iti babai a nangkablaaw kenka,/A smile breaking her Oriental face, as you jabbed at/Umis-isem iti Dumaya a rupa idinto a nagpiselka
Eggplants and okra and ampalaya among Asian greens/iti tarong, okra ken paria kadagiti nateng ti Asia At Dong Phoung’s Texas grocery in ? Did she make-believe/Iti groseria Dong Phoung idiay Texas? Namati nga awan duadua
You were the cousin lost in the Tet offensive?/A sika ti kasinsinna a napukaw iti rinnupak ti Tet?It was a day when the word was made flesh/Aldaw idi a nagbalin a lasag ti balikas
And you laughed—tears in your eyes-- as she babbled on, her verbs galloping/Ket nagkatawaka—agluluaka— iti tarabitabna, napartak dagiti balikasnaLike wild horses from the great plains of Amarillo to San Francisco./Kas kadagiti atap a kabalio nga ages-eskapi manipud kadagiti nalawa a tanap ti Amarillo agingga idiay San Francisco.

5.

So what will you write in 15 minutes on three ruled-pads?/Ania ngarud isuratmo iti kinse a minuto iti tallo a bulong ti kuaderno?
Just jot down anything that strikes your mind/Isuratmo laeng ti sumken iti riknamSays Ricky Lee echoing Julia Cameron the American writer ./Kuna ni Ricky Lee iti parmata ni Julia Cameron a Puraw a mannurat
(Silence has afflicted the brown brain—the poet is dead--/(Inarabas ti ulimek ti kayumanggi nga utek—natayen ti mannaniw--And death is interred among the bones of dried words.)/Ket naitabon ni patay kadagiti tulang dagiti kupag a balikas.)

6.

The TV was on and the bad man was cursing son-of-a-bitch/Agan-andar ti TV, agsinsinallit ti kontrabida, okinnana/We are in terrible danger and the wife was lying flat on the bed/Agpeggadtayo iti napalalo idinto a nakadata ti kasimpungalan iti katre Her eyes covered with round slices of cucumber and Juanjuan/Nakaluban dagiti matana kadagiti ilap ti pipino ket ni Juanjuan
Was by his lonesome playing Cordillera notes on his plastic flute/Agkubkubukob iti kuartona, ipatpatayabna dagiti samiweng ti Cordillera iti plastik a pitona.

7.

No more are the snows under the pinewoods/Awanen ti niebe iti sirok dagiti saleng
And so are the icy mornings and evenings at the lake/Kasta met dagiti nakalamlamiis a bigat ken sardam iti dan-aw
Where dwell a thousand white ducks and multi-colored flying geese/A naed rinibu a puraw a pato ken marisan nga agtaytayab a ganso
Now agitated as the black man throws bird food/Nga agar-arikiakkak idinto nga ipurpurruak ti nangisit a lalaki ti taraonda On the murky water at 10 the morning./iti nalibeg a danum iti alas dies ti bigat.

8.

Stop it! Stop it! Was the Caucasian lady in red-blue jogging jeans screaming?/Saan!Saan! Um-umkis kadi ti Caucasiana iti nalabaga-asul a pantalonna/Was she terrified of the camera aimed at the grove of pine trees/
Disappearing behind the mists/Mabuteng kadi iti kamera a naipaturong rimmuong dagiti saleng a langlangeban ti angep?Or was it a hound dog barking in nightmarish dreams?/Wenno nangngegmo’t taul ti mangnganup nga aso kadagiti bangungot iti rabii?

9.

Whatever, arise, my friend, and walk again the meandering path/Tumakderka, ketdin, gayyemko,unorem manen ti umuleg a dana nga agawid/
Home where waits the New York Times’ best-seller ./Iti balay a pagur-urayan ti numero uno a libro ti New York Times .

It is a must read tonight while brown men toil, their hue turning bloody red/Kasapulan a basaem ita a rabii bayat nga aguper iti taltalon dagiti kayumanggi a tattao a tumingtingra a dara ti kudilda iti init/
In the sun in the country of shattered windows and vanished dreams./ Iti naliday a pagilian dagiti narumrumek a tawa ken natungday nga arapaap.

Journal of January 17, 2010

It's almost 3:00 a.m. Cellphone ringing. Call from Tito in California? Nope, it's only an alarm. Went down to have the cp charged. Yesterday, I was writing my column on presidential hopefuls but could not finish it for submission to Star Northern Luzon in San Fernando City. Hope to complete it today. It will be my birthday tomorrow, supposedly. Frank Cimatu and Ariel Agcaoili sent their greetings, Frank at Facebook. Muchas Gracias, amigo mios.
There is nothing in my mind now but I shall go on writing what comes to mind, an advice from Julia Cameron,the American writer. Am I thinking what? There is a noise in the kitchen. Must be the cat looking for something, or monitoring small mices. The other day, it caught one in its mouth and was playing with it. It would throw it away, and then catch it in its mouth and the ritual is repeated.
it is april 23. mama is supposed to come to baguio today but she called she would be making the trip tonight. the buyer of the lot in burgos village has not come and may not have the money that rene is borrowing. rene and his family are going to singapore on monday. they will be residing permanently in the island-state.