Warrior Pilgrimage

Featured in Blogger on January 8, 2012

I HAVE NEVER BEEN to Ubay, Bohol but, today, I'm gonna change all that. Yes, the today I mean is the night of October 14, 2011. Tonight, I'm going to board a boat from the Port of Cebu for Talibon, Bohol – my first time. We leave at 10:00 PM but I already slept an hour ahead on a cot too small for my frame.

Yeah, it really is small and I remedy that by changing position: with my head at the bulwark side and my feet hanging ...

Featured in Blogspot on August 17, 2011

MY WIFE WOKE UP early and begins to prepare for our trip up north in Catmon. A good neighbor will be laid to his final resting place on this day, February 13, 2011, and we have to be there to pay our last respects. My other (living) neighbors have already gone there the night before and the bulk would be coming also today.

It is already 7:45 AM by the time we were on the street to hie a public utility jitney that would take ...

Featured in Blogspot on July 15, 2011

I AM OFF AGAIN for Manila. Prepared hard myself to have a “conscious” sleep so I wouldn't oversleep, of course, and miss my 5:00 AM flight. It had been raining for the past six days and I don't see any reason this weather would slack for a day or two and that makes me somewhat worried in the back of my mind. One thing that assures me though is when it is raining in Manila it is hot in Cebu and when it is hot in Manila it rains in Cebu!
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First published on April 11, 2011.

MY CELLPHONE DELIVERED its message at four dawn. It woke me up! It is cold and it is November 17, 2010. Gotta go and catch a fastcraft for the port of Ormoc and an overland trip to Tacloban City in Leyte. A package laying idle in Ormoc City needs to be delivered to Tacloban ASAP...READ MORE (Press CTRL + mouse click)

Featured in Warrior Pilgrimage on March 1, 2011

I HAVE NEVER been there. I sometimes pass by the place going to Santander and know that it is Oslob when I see the welcome sign. But not today, August 18, 2010. I have an errand to do here.

Oslob is a seaside town in Southern Cebu. It has powder-white beaches along its coastline and pristine blue-green waters near the shore where the sand bottom could be clearly seen from the highway. It is 116 kilometers from Cebu City ...

Featured in WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE on February 1, 2011.

VISITED MY OLD friends in Danao City on July 21, 2010. I call them Mr. Fine and Mr. Coarse. They are craftsmen skilled in the repair of small handguns and they are a father-and-son tandem. I used to go there once every 3 or 4 months to answer some of my friend's favor to have their pistol or revolver checked for flaws and to improve its features. But not anymore.

This time, I'm dropping by just to say hello and keep ...

Featured in WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE on January 9, 2011.

I RODE ASTERN ON the motor tugboat, M/T Koala. The double-engined little tug crossed the Mactan Channel from Pier One, Port of Cebu, to the seas off Bagacay Point to rendezvous with another tug, the M/T Scorpion. It is May 23, 1986 and it is near dusk.

Going back, I applied for a slot of apprentice marine engineer with the National Stevedoring and Lighterage Corp.1 (NSLC) where they own a fleet of tugs and barges. A ...