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I’m loving the new in-house app on Facebook called Questions. As soon as I saw it on my account, I ran a couple of polls for Davao Delicious and, as a coffee lover, one of the first ones I did was for the best coffee shop in the city. Here’s the result after 138 votes: [...]

From my first time there and up to now, Picobello Ristorante Italiano has always been one of my most favored restaurants in Davao City. Their unfailingly delicious Italian dishes are a mainstay in the city’s culinary culture, and the restaurant now holds the distinction of being a gastronomic institution hereabouts. It was entirely unsurprising, therefore, [...]

[Media Release] Relive the comfort and joy of the Crocs’ Classic that started the “Feel Good Revolution”. Ever since the launch of the original Beach and Classic styles, Crocs has pioneered a variety of designs that has redefined comfort footwear. We invite you to revisit the footwear that started a whole new genre. Finally, you [...]

Ten artists from Cebu, Davao, Manila and France will converge this 28th of March in CULTURAL CONFLUENCE II, an art exhibit that aims to cross boundaries in terms of artistic expression and cultures.

First ran in Cebu City last year at the SM Art Center, the Davao Museum of History and Ethnography takes the challenge this year to bring together artists from different geographical locations and artistic traditions & leanings, to initiate fresh connections and foster new perceptions.

Featured artists are Lito Pepito, Arnel Villegas, Josie Tionko and Jurie Jaime from Davao; Cesar Duazo-Pepito and Darby Alcoseba from Cebu; Seb Chua, Armida Francisco and Louie Ignacio from Manila; and Rémy Rault from France.

The exhibit will run at the Davao Museum’s Don Antonio O. Floirendo Gallery until 28 May 2011. The Davao Museum of History and Ethnography is located in Insular Village Phase I, Lanang, Davao City. For inquiries, call (82)233-1734.

[Media Release]

We do have tourist attractions in Davao City (and in other parts of the Davao Region) that are worth promoting. We have various festivals and activities to offer our visitors. We have fine hotels and excellent restaurants. We have travel agencies and tour operators whose services are at par with their Manila counterparts’. And Davao has several advantages over other destinations.

But what of the disadvantages? In our eagerness to promote our city and our region, we often fail to look inward and, thus, neglect to see the things that need improvement.

Traveling to some cities in Europe late last year, I was much impressed by the tourist services available to visitors. In Rotterdam, The Netherlands, there’s an office that’s clearly visible to arriving train passengers, and I was able to get a map of the city there — for free. The man behind the desk was very helpful in pointing out the points of interest in that western Dutch city, and gave some suggestions on what to do given my limited time in the area.

In Budapest, Hungary, a policeman I approached for directions back to my hotel also apprised me of the various museums and other interesting leisure spots on both sides of the Danube.

Closer to home, in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, tourists are regaled with a wealth of information to help ensure a satisfying stay in these well-regarded destinations. You get a feeling that there’s concerted effort to take care of tourists behind the tourist assistance counter, at the airport information center, even in public parks. You get this feeling because the people involved in tourism-related agencies (whether public or private) seem to be well-trained and well-informed.

The Department of Tourism (DoT) has been undertaking a series of consultation sessions across the country to inform hotels, travel agencies and other tourism stakeholders of the Implementing Rules & Regulations of the Tourism Act of 2009 (or Republic Act No. 9593, embedded below). In Davao, the consultation sessions happened yesterday, attended by various businesses and organizations. (Fifty tourism-related establishments out of hundreds, though, isn’t a very encouraging turnout.)

I hope that, beyond the implementation of bureaucratic measures as laid out in RA 9593, such as new forms of required accreditation, the Davao City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) would adopt a holistic approach to tourism promotions, as well as to actual tourism operations. I believe that, for tourism in Davao to become more viable and vibrant, everyone must be in on the game.

OK, let’s have something concrete, so that I don’t sound like a pedant here. I used to work for Casa Leticia as its front office manager (among other things). We were very serious — as I’m sure they are still very much so — about our motto: “Where you matter most.” We did everything to make sure that our guests were satisfied with our facilities and services, so that we could reasonably expect return business from them.

One day, one of my newer receptionists was surprised when I asked the hotel driver to bring a group of visitors to another hotel. My reasons for doing that: first, we were fully booked; second, the guests were loyal patrons who, unfortunately, arrived without a reservation; third, and most importantly, the net effect of my action would show our visitors that they did matter a lot to us, and it would leave an overall good impression not only of our hotel but of Davao City. (The guests appreciated the gesture so much that we didn’t lose them at all — on succeeding trips to Davao, they always checked in with us.)

That example is, admittedly, a very small thing. But imagine a whole bunch of small things that, taken together, would add up to something much bigger than their sum. Especially if all those little actions were tied together by a single motivation, an overarching goal, then surely Davao would experience a boom in tourism arrivals.

We need a citywide consciousness of the importance of tourism, and the responsibility that that entails. To do that, we need a rallying point, a battle cry, or whatever it is that would bring everyone under a unified purpose.

With fresh, young blood in leadership roles in the tourism industry today, I am confident that there is only one way for us to go, and that’s UP. At the helm of DoT Region 11 (covering Davao City, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley) is Arturo Boncato, Jr. In spite of his youth, Boncato is an industry veteran, having been the director of sales & marketing of The Marco Polo Hotel for several years. And before that, he was the brains — and oftentimes the brawn as well — behind the first professional events organizing firm in the city.

For the city, the CTOO is now under the direction of Jason C. Magnaye, who brings to the local government years of invaluable experience in the business sector. Magnaye was the executive director of the highly-acclaimed Davao City Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Also, he is concurrently the head of the Davao City Investment Promotions Center.

Good news for WordPress.org users! The cool features you find on WordPress.com are now a plugin away. Automattic has recently released Jetpack: a neat collection of admin and user-interface enhancements for your self-hosted sites.

Matt says that Jetpack is “a way to provide feature parity between WordPress.com and WordPress.org for everybody.”

I noticed that my WordPress.com stats weren’t displaying anymore (but the traffic stats were still being collected), so I investigated, and found out about Jetpack.

When I installed the new plugin, it took over my stats and now I have a smarter stats program for my WordPress-powered sites. And it seems to me that the stats look a lot more accurate now. (If you’re using the old WordPress.com stats plugin, Jetpack will deactivate it for you once the latter is activated.)

Jetpack includes several other features, such as an embedding facility (via shortcodes) for Scribd, YouTube, SlideShare, etc.; Gravatar hovercards; Sharedaddy (which you see below each of my posts here); and more. Do read up on the FAQ.

Upgrade your site to Jetpack now and give your WordPress a boost!

Disclaimer: Automattic’s Jetpack is not related to the Mozilla Jetpack in any way; but they’re both OK with sharing the name.

[Media Release]

Gov’t panel chair cites role of military, police in GPH-NDF peace talks

Davao City, 18 March – Government chief negotiator Alexander Padilla on Thursday underlined the role of the military and police in pursuing a negotiated political settlement with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF). Joining Padilla were Government of the Philippines (GPH) panel members Jurgette Honculada, Lourdes Tizon and Ednar Dayanghirang.

The armed struggle pursued by the CPP-NPA-NDF is one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies, causing untold death and destruction over four decades, and stunting the country’s economic growth.

In a consultation with top officials and local commanders of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the Commission on Audit headquarters here, Padilla shared the results of the GPH-NDF formal talks held on February 15-21 in Oslo, Norway. The Davao consultation is the third that the peace panel has conducted with the AFP and PNP to ensure continuing dialogue and cooperation in support of the peace process with the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Providing updates were MGen. Arthur Tabaquero, head of the Eastern Mindanao Command (EASTMINCOM) and PDir. Victorino S. Panganiban, Jr., head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (DIPO) – Eastern Mindanao. Also present was BGen. Reynaldo Ordoñez, Senior Military Adviser for the GPH Panel.

The call for peace resonates among military’s rank with Panganiban quoting one soldier thus: “We, soldiers and police, want peace the most because it is we who do the fighting, who risk life and limb for the cause we believe in.” Tabaquero said, “We must always nurture in our minds that peace talks and the peace process, no matter how long and tedious, give us hope as a nation.”

Padilla stressed the active participation of the military and police in generating and nurturing ‘new spaces’ for peace building. “Our security forces can get involved in community dialogues, promotion and protection of human rights, peace and order keeping, reform advocacy, among others,” he said.

Padilla underscored the need for military and police in closely coordinating with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the negotiating panel in implementing AFP and PNP policies and programs that have direct impact on the peace talks, such as the AFP Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) and the PNP Internal Security Operation (ISO) Campaign Plan.

He also said that the security forces’ implementation of the Suspension of Military Operations (SOMO) and Suspension of Police Operations (SOPO) also contributes to moving the peace talks forward as this helps create a conducive environment for negotiations.

“We want to know how the military and the police think in relation to the peace process. We want to know how we can be of help to each other,” he related. “It has been an opening and welcoming experience for us to be talking to our uniformed and armed personnel both from the police and the military.”

Peace settlement as only alternative

Padilla said the government and the NDF have agreed to complete the agreements on the substantive agenda in 18 months. Agenda items include socio-economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and cessation of hostilities and disposition of forces.

Despite some doubts that a peace deal cannot be signed by both parties in the given timeframe, Padilla remains optimistic that “now is the best time for them (NDF) to negotiate” because there is no other option in ending the 42-year-old armed conflict but to pursue a peace agreement. “We believe in two things: the insurgency cannot be won by armed might, and the CPP-NPA-NDF cannot win by armed struggle. The only alternative is to negotiate a political settlement,” he said. (OPAPP)

Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul (ธันย์ฐวุฒิ ทวีวโรดมกุล), a Web designer associated with the website, norporchorusa.com, was sentenced to 13 years in prison “for transgressing Thailand’s draconian lèse majesté law and breaching the Computer Crime Act.” (Source: Political Prisoners in Thailand) The website in question has been branded by the Thai government as subversive as it is linked to [...]

“Kinilaw” is our word for food eaten fresh and raw, usually referring to seafood-based appetizers. There are probably hundreds of varieties of kinilaw — varying in preparation, ingredients, etc. — and these differences are usually influenced by geography. The basic kinilaw is made with raw fish and vinegar. But even that has its variations, in [...]

As I’ve indicated here, I am in favor of having an association of Filipino bloggers, and one that will have a nationwide scope and reach. I have already attempted to address concerns about potential drawbacks here, so I will leave it at that. And, I have shared my thoughts on what sort of organization I [...]