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Thanks to one of you who alerted us about the promotion of our kailiyans who are serving in the military:

Then Major General Nelson Allaga was promoted to Lieutenant General. According to the Inquirer, with this promotion Lt. Gen. Allaga now joins “other three-star generals as contenders to replace the Chief of Staff, General Hermogenes Esperon Jr.”

We first blogged about General Allaga here when he saved Gloria’s ass from those “disobedient” marines.

Anyways, aside from his talents in effectively spanking insubordinate subordinates and arresting suspected Abu Sayyaf members, General Allaga seems to have an additional talent in conducting lectures (or should we say “pen pointing”) as you can see in the pictures below:

Maybe he can become a professor when he retires? After all don’t military men retire when they’re still in their 50s?

The other kailiyan who was promoted recently is Brig. General Rommel Gomez who was promoted from Colonel. We can’t find any pictures of the new General but here’s two recent reports about him:

On the alleged torture of Aeta villagers in Zambales:

Inquirer report: In a phone interview on Friday, Col. Rommel Gomez, chief of the 703rd Infantry Brigade, which has command over the two battalions, urged those helping the Aeta to file the cases in court and have the erring soldiers summoned.“I will not tolerate these kinds of behaviors from our soldiers,” Gomez told the Inquirer.

On peace and order in Pampanga where the general is assigned:

Philippine Star: It quoted Gomez as urging the council “to take into consideration the possibility of working on a system, rather than a plan, and strategies on how to address social issues that breed criminality.”

Hah! That sounds like an academese language (or “professor speak”) if you ask me. Maybe General Gomez can join his superior General Allaga in becoming a professor when he retires, no?

Note: Everything is quiet in the rebel front so far. Come on, Ka Filiw, are you going to lose the public relations battle by default? Kailan may ma-propromote na iCordillera sa pinaka-inner circle ng NPA/CPP/NDF?

Related Posts:
Soldiers, Rebels, Rebel-Soldiers

Info source: Inquirer. Photo credits: Reuters and AP.

As promised, here is our post on Reynold Domalsin, the Igorot body builder who has successfully followed his father’s footsteps. Like his dad, Reynold has a number of body building titles to boast of the latest of which is Mr. Asia Pacific 2007 (Nabba International). Here’s a photo of Reynold with his female counterpart, Ms. Asia Pacific.
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Thanks to our tipster from Canada who wrote us about the achievements of Nick Domalsin. Here’s what he said:

I would like to contribute something to the article First Igorots to achieve…… in BodyBuilder category. The first Mr. Philippines is Nick Domalsin Sr. in 1962 and he is from Barlig Mt.Province. He founded the Baguio Health Club and the older Ayochok was his student & kabagian also from Barlig.

With that tip, we did some research on Nick Domalsin. Thankfully, we found photos and more information about him which you can see after the jump.
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How are our kailiyans faring in the ongoing Southeast Asian Games (SEA) in Thailand? So far so good. We have at least four medalists. At least? Well we don’t know all our kailiyans participating in the Games, so there could be more than four. Here are the Igorot/iCordillera medalists so far:

Gold:
Mariane Mariano, muay thai
University of the Cordilleras

Silver:
Benjie Rivera, muay thai

Bronze:
Eliezer Sunang,shot put
Jay Olod, muay thai

For more information on the medalists, click the following links: Mariane Mariano (Inquirer report); Benjie Rivera (From the Boondocks); Eliezer Sunang (Sagunto Star); Jay Olod (ABS-CBN).

Cheers to all of them.

Our quote of the day comes from Fr. Rex Reyes, the new head of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines:

“I will definitely strengthen the program on indigenous peoples, not because I am an indigenous person myself, but because the churches can also learn a lot from indigenous peoples’ sense of justice, community and stewardship of creation.”

“As Christians, we have to affirm all that is good in the culture of our indigenous communities. We can affirm, for example, the strong sense of community and culture of sharing of indigenous peoples as our safeguard against the individualist and consumerist values being pushed by capitalist globalization.”

Read the Inquirer story here. And our first post on Padi Rex is here.

Here’s more information on Jaylord Langbayan, the 16 year old kid who is going to participate in a United Nations special session on children. Read more about him in our first post. Now, here’s some info on where he comes from.

Jaylord Langbayan, boy, 16 years old
Jaylord is a senior student at Dipaculao National High School. He was born in Cainta, Rizal, where he spent the first seven years of his life. His parents worked at the nearby ceramics factory, but when the factory closed down, the family relocated to Mucdol, Dipaculao, in the province of Aurora, where his father’s uncle lent them a piece of land to till. His mother now works as a housekeeper and his father as a farmer.

Jaylord and his family had to adapt to a different environment after their relocation. But two years into the move, they became acquainted with the work of World Vision and their lives changed. His mother turned from a plain housewife to an active leader and Jaylord became a child leader in his community. He was elected as the Chairperson of the Luzon Coalition of Children’s Association of the Philippines (LuCCAP) and represents Luzon children in National Coalition of Children’s Association of the Philippines. His group advocates for four priority issues: Child Participation, Child Protection, Environment, Peace and Order. They are also trying to build a child friendly community.

Jaylord wants to be a Social Worker and a responsible writer and journalist.

Source: unicef.org