March 2008
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03.17.08Question of the Day
Like, uh, Metro Manila has tourists? Or just passers by? Seriously, I haven’t met anyone who goes to Manila to do touristy stuff. Practically all of them, whether foreigner friends/colleagues or Filipinos, pass by Manila because they have to and would like to get out as soon as possible.
This should be a challenge to Metro authorities because, as things stand, Manila really has a bad reputation as a tourist destination. Anyways, related story from which the above image was captured is here.
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03.17.08Medical Technology Board Exam Results — March 08
Congratulations to Deborah Balangcod Basalong of Saint Louis University for landing in the top ten in the March 08 Medical Technology board exam with a rating of 84.00%. You can see the rest of the top ten here.
For the complete list of board passers, you can check out the names here.
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03.17.08More on Our Bago Kailiyans
Note: This is a sticky post. You’ll find more recent posts below.
Here’s a video of Engr. Orlando Balloguing, President of the Bago National Cultural Society of the Philippines Inc. (BNCSPI), talking about the Bago tribe. [Thanks to the Sagunto Star for helping us with the name of Engr. Balloquing.]
As we blogged about earlier, our Bago brothers and sisters usually come from the Cordillera/Ilocos boundary towns such as Bagulin, La Union and Bakun, Benguet as well as in non-boundary places such as Candon, Ilocos Sur and Barangay Sagunto in Sison, Pangasinan.
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03.16.08Cool Stuff
Here’s a story about a kailiyan from Sablan who is making money by selling used clothes (a.k.a. wagwag a.k.a ukay ukay) on e-bay. Maybe I should open an account with e-bay and start selling things through the internets, eh? Hmm, since I now have a paypal account, I just might do that. Pero ano kaya, mabenta? The world famous Sagada marijuana? Or sayote kaya?
‘Ukay’ fashion goes e-Bay
By Vincent Cabreza/InquirerBAGUIO CITY—“Where in this country can you sell a whole wardrobe reconstituted from ukay-ukay (secondhand bargain clothes) fabrics for under $400 (P16,000)?”
Check out the online trading over at eBay. For the last six years, a stylist from Sablan town in Benguet has used the Internet to market Baguio’s underground wagwag (a local term for ukay-ukay) and the Benguet weaving fabrics popularized in the 1970s and 1980s by businesswoman Narda Capuyan.
Hilson Busoy, 36, says women and gay men from the United States have found a taste for the Baguio-bred fashion, and have tried to outbid one another for such simple things as blouses put together from discarded Versace fabrics and lined with woven ikat.
Busoy grew up in a town that has yet to find its identity. Sablan is only an hour’s drive from the summer capital, but unlike other Baguio neighbors like the vegetable-trading town of La Trinidad or the mining town of Itogon, the community’s primary trade is banana.
“I am a businessman. I know what sells,” Busoy says. This real-world acumen is what drew him to eBay.
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03.16.08Diaspora
Here’s a story written by a kailiyan which pretty much reflects the experience of thousands of Igorots/iCordilleras and millions of Filipinos who, despite their misgivings, end up working abroad. Our best wishes, Rolly.
Originally published in the Inquirer’s Youngblood section:
Patriotic doubts
By Rolly Allan MatinekLittle did I know that one day I would join the ranks of Filipinos dispersed around the world, who now make up more than 10 percent of the Philippine population. While it is no secret that most Filipinos harbor the desire to get out of the country in the hope of improving themselves and upgrading their socio-economic status and living standards (as well as that of their families), it was not really my “cup of tea”—as they say here in England—to work abroad.
On board an international flight with a one-way ticket, my priced laptop and my passport stamped with a foreign visa, I still could not believe that I had turned my back on my idealism. I love my country, especially my little town of Sagada in northern Philippines; and I consider myself a patriot. If I try giving this as a reason for not leaving the country to someone I meet on the street, I’d be met with rolling eyes and be called crazy. Every time a colleague or a friend left Philippine shores for the same job but with a much better compensation abroad, I wished him all the best, yet at the same time felt not a pang of envy, only sadness for the loss of one more talent.
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03.16.08March O8 Criminology Exam Results: UC/BCF Rules
Cordillera based schools particularly UC/BCF just keep on rolling when it comes to criminology licensure exams. Congratulations to our kailiyans who made it to the top ten as well as to those who passed. You can find the list of board passers here.
From GMA News:
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The University of the Cordilleras (UC) topped the nationwide criminology licensure examination this year, keeping to itself the top licensure spot for the past 23 years.Data from the Professional Regulatory Commission released on Thursday shows that UC graduate Marlon Lagadan Caltino ranked first after garnering a rating of 89.35 percent in the exams.
Caltino led 927 successful candidates out of a total of 3,318 examinees nationwide – a measly national passing rate of 27.9 percent.
Caltino’s four other schoolmates also placed in the top ten of the March 2008 Criminologist Licensure Examinations. Out of the 82 examinees from UC, 75 passed representing a 91 percent performance rate.
Other UC graduates who share the limelight with Caltino are Jesson George Rafael Domogen, 3rd Place with 87.70% rating; Ronald Clemente Abuan, 7th Place with 86.20% rating; Denver Junior Santiago Agustin, 8th Place with 85.85% rating; and Faith Bomowey Bangcawayan, 9th Place with 85.65% rating.
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03.14.08How Poor Are We?
A little over one in four (28%) families in the Cordillera are poor according to the National Statistics Development Board. The number increased from 25.8% in 2003.
So which province has the most number of poor people? Abra with a registered 22,484 poor families. The figures for the other provinces are as follows: Kalinga – 16,113; Mountain Province – 14,254; Apayao – 12,928; Ifugao – 11,082; and Benguet – 10,990.
Meanwhile, Apayao and Abra are included in country’s list of 10 poorest provinces in terms of poverty incidence. Poverty incidence in Apayao is recorded at 78.5% while in Abra the poverty incidence rate is at 50.1% .
