I Am Blogie

The year 2009 was marred with quite a few happenings that caused a lot of heartaches, to say the least — natural and man-made disasters, unconscionable acts by governments, clashes between rival parties, economic downturns… And yet, we have survived and we have forged on.

The reason for our endurance may be attributed to the successes that we have witnessed as well in 2009. We Filipinos have found heroes among our ranks, in spite of a government that has left more to be desired… if indeed this present regime intends to leave.

So now we’re on the threshold of a new year, and at the tail-end of a waning decade. I pray we will have much opportunities to conclude the first ten years of the new millennium on a positive note!

And on a lighter note, here are photos of the Christmas lights display that has become a tradition in the city, courtesy of Mana-Davao. Last Christmas was when I started documenting this spectacle, although I’d been making a point of enjoying Mana’s Christmas lights for some years already. This year, most probably due to a growing audience each year, they’ve put on a more spectacular exhibit.

Here’s a short video I took of Mana yesterday. It’s amazing how many people now visit the place, just to take in the sights.

Happy New Year, everyone!

As everyone probably knows, typhoons do not hit Davao at all. But that doesn’t mean we don’t experience flooding in some vital parts of the city. For years and years, flooding — due to bad drainage and sewage systems — has been a malignant problem, and nothing seems to be happening to completely address it.

We might not have typhoons or storms in Davao, but the infrastructure problems in Marikina and other parts of Metro Manila do exist here. Therefore Dabawenyos must not be complacent nor myopic: the kind of devastation caused by Typhoon Ondoy in Metro Manila is not so far-fetched as to be improbable in Davao.

We have seen our share of flooded streets, and even kind of expect it in certain areas when heavy rains fall. No killer floods so far in recent memory, but at the rate our city is developing — ergo, generating garbage and wreaking havoc on nature — imbalance in our ecology could bring on a deluge we most probably won’t soon forget.

The good news is, there are champions within local government who are espousing awareness and preparedness. One of them is Councilor Leonardo Avila III, who has raised the red flag of climate change and its destructive effects. Avila chairs the committee on the environment in the Sangguniang Panlungsod. He has called for the revisiting of Davao City’s land use plan and the taking of climate change into serious consideration as a factor in development.

Much like the case of Marikina’s land development, Davao is mired in chaotic zoning and city planning. Looking at a map of the city, one clearly sees the hodge-podge arrangement of streets and public infrastructure. More serious than that, our watersheds, catchment areas (natural formations, such as valleys, that protect against flooding), not to mention hills and forests, have already been tampered with; ergo, making our city even more vulnerable to nature’s calamities.

Dabawenyos should rest assured that we have highly-trained and effective response teams here: the 911 emergency response center, the fire brigades, the local chapter of the National Disaster Coordination Council. However, prevention is still way better than restoration.

Due to what transpired in Metro Manila recently, we must, from now on, keep in mind how vulnerable we are. I totally disagree with the sitting president’s declaration of a nationwide state of calamity (much more with the proposed length of time it’s supposed to be in effect), but we mustn’t put it out of our minds that our safety and prosperity could be at risk if we do not prepare ourselves and our community. Again, we must not be complacent. We — the government and the private sector — must work hand-in-hand to plan well ahead, and get the plan implemented, in order to prepare for any calamitous eventuality that Mother Nature might throw at us.

Local government modernization  |||  New emergency response center  |||  Dabawenyos help out

The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Kristie Kenney, is often in Mindanao, attending to the various projects and commitments that her government has in the Philippine South. But this time, she made a special stop while in Davao just to meet and get to know some of the bloggers here.

Last year, I had a chance to meet the U.S. embassy’s press attaché and spokesperson, Rebecca Thompson, in Tagaytay for the Media Nation conference. Then a couple of weeks ago, her office contacted me to get a group of bloggers together for a meet-up with Amb. Kenney during her brief stay in Davao City. I thought it would be good to have a diverse collection of bloggers, and I came up with this seven: Jaime Haw (Apple® fanboy); Migs Hipolito (mobile technologies); Ria Jose (politics, lifestyle); Rhodilee Jean Dolor (family, business); Sarah Matalam (community work, motherhood); Lyle Santos (nursing, Internet); and Brendel Balaga (nursing studies).

During the very informal — in fact, very up close and personal — get-together with the ambassador today, we came to know a personable and gregarious woman. Far from what all of us were expecting, this charming lady appeared very down-to-earth, and loves basketball; she can even keep up with any sports fan on the latest in PBA stuff. (She was practically gushing when she told us that she was going to do the meet-and-greet for Kobe Bryant, who’s scheduled to come to the Philippines soon.) By the way, she also got herself certified in scuba diving here in the Philippines.

She also blogs herself: check it out. While her blog is her own, she said it’s started to take the shape of an information portal for the embassy’s activities. For her own personal use, she’s on Facebook. Isn’t it quite refreshing to know that someone in her stature keeps abreast of Internet trends? So we couldn’t resist telling her about Plurk and how Filipino bloggers are engrossed in it. She does know about Twitter, but she said she prefers Facebook.

We had the opportunity to tell the ambassador about our blogs and about the Mindanao Bloggers community, in which she seems to be genuinely interested. The U.S. government and ours, in efforts to establish long-lasting peace in Mindanao, collaborate on development projects in the areas of education, agriculture, environment, health, prosperity, human rights. I suppose Kenney was keen on knowing how our community was contributing to the upliftment of Mindanao’s image through our various blogs.

Meeting Kristie Kenney, who has gone to more parts of Mindanao than I have, has inspired me to forge on and try to achieve my goal this year: to visit as many places on the island as I can. I asked her what places in Mindanao fascinated her, and she related how she was amazed by the tuna port of General Santos, as well as by the beauty of Tawi-Tawi and Marawi. How I wish I could go deeper south and see more bloggers’ communities in those areas get organized!

This was the first time that the head of a diplomatic mission to the Philippines has gone out of their way to talk to bloggers. And I hope it won’t be the last. We’ve invited Amb. Kenney to be our guest of honor at the Mindanao Bloggers Summit in Cagayan de Oro this October, and she has accepted in principle. It’s not certain yet what follow-up activities might happen between the MB community and the American embassy in the future, but I do expect a continued exchange of information at the very least.

After about 3 years in existence, and after all the activities that have given exposure to the MB community, this has to be the most fulfilling one for us yet. In behalf of the bloggers of Mindanao, I’d like to thank Ambassador Kristie and her staff for the wonderful morning today! Hopefully, this October again!

Copyright © 2009, Oliver Robillo.
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Davao City still enjoys the distinction of being the only city in the Philippines with an emergency response center available on call 24 hours a day. Just dial 911 on any landline or mobile phone (toll free) in case of emergency.

Recently, the Davao City 911 Emergency Response Center opened a new operations hub in the south — a stone’s throw away from where I live, in fact. The new center used to be a public market. And, for the life of me, I cannot fathom why the city government back in the ’80s decided to put a wet market in the middle of a residential district. Needless to say, it was a terrible idea. I’m glad that the city has found a much better use of the facility.

Here are some photos I asked Chattee Lara to take of the new center located in Juna Subdivision, Matina.

From their new base in Matina, these are the city’s services that will respond to emergency situations anywhere in the city: Emergency Medical Service, Urban Search & Rescue, Fire Auxiliary Service, and the K-9 Service.

Copyright © 2009, Oliver Robillo.
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Talking about coffee shops recently, a friend and I drifted towards those cafés we hadn’t been frequenting yet. One of which was Miko’s Brew, in Davao, located on Chavez St. (which is more known for lechon than coffee). And then another friend said that this coffee shop actually comes from Tagum, and that this city is now on the rise.

So, off we went to Tagum to check it out, my friend Rodney, his wife Emmy, Karen and myself. We also wanted to have a look at the night market over there.

It took us just over an hour to get to the capital of Davao del Norte from downtown Davao. Davao del Norte, or Davao Province, bounds Davao City to the north and the Agusan provinces beyond. The map here shows the route we took (thanks to Microsoft’s Live Search Maps).

The night market did not disappoint. In fact, we were impressed — it wasn’t what we were expecting. The night market, which happens only on weekends, is a string of barbecue stalls wrapped around the town plaza. But it’s not just a hodge-podge of vendors: the city set up durable, well-built stalls each equipped with a grille and food preparation area. Vendors rent stalls at, get this, ₱50 per day, inclusive of electricity. Beside the stalls are tented stainless-steel long tables for the patrons.

The barbecue bonanza — weekends, from 5:30 PM to 2:00 AM — has been going on for 5 years now, according to the locals. It was the initiative of Tagum’s mayor, reportedly after seeing the night market in somewhere in Thailand. Tagum is lucky to have such a forward-thinking chief executive. Mayor Rey T. Uy clearly has the economic development of his city in mind.

Another enviable development in Tagum is the city hall that’s being constructed now. As you can see in this perspective drawing, the new city hall will look like a proud beacon of Tagum’s bright future. It is scheduled to be completed in September this year.

There does seem to be a feeling of busy-ness in Tagum. Things seem to be looking up out there. While there are still a lot of open spaces, I prefer to think of that as the presence of huge potential. In fact, there are lots of ongoing construction projects, including two big malls. If only Tagum had their own airport, they would surely catch up to Davao and Cagayan de Oro pretty soon.

Copyright © 2009, Oliver Robillo.
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