Benguet
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04.02.08Girls and Boys and Their Big Toys
Here’s a video of an airsoft group based in La Trinidad, Benguet. The video gets repetitive when you reach the midpoint but the soundtrack still makes it interesting to watch. Nice editing too.The group has a website here for those who are interested in joining STEALTH a.k.a. Special Tactics and Extreme Airsofters of La Trinidad Highlands.
VIDEO CREDIT: rastah87
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03.29.08War of the Day: Mandapat vs. Fongwan
Cartoon source: Hindu BusinessOnline
Word war. Word war. We love us some word war between top government officials in the region hehe. The issue appears to be whether public utility vans (FX?) should be banned in Kennon Road. Mandapat has banned them. Fongwan objected to the ban.
We honestly don’t know who is right here. But shouldn’t the ban be based on how heavy or how big/bulky a vehicle is? Not whether it is public or private?
If we remember correctly, and we may be wrong, trucks and public buses were first banned in Kennon mainly because they’re either too big or too heavy and their size/weight will affect the “safeness” of Kennon Road.
Now, if public utility vehicles are really just like private vans in terms of size and weight, then what’s the rationale for banning them that doesn’t apply to private vehicles? But as we said, we haven’t really delved into this issue to know who got it right in this debate. Maybe some of you can enlighten us.
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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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03.05.08Photo of the Day
Orange skyland. February 2008. Barangay Asin in Tuba, Benguet. Photo courtesy of my once favorite newspaper.
According to my good friend Gina, orange (the color not the Nueva Vizcaya fruit) has a calming effect. I’m not sure about that but maybe she’s right. Maybe this is the reason why God in his wisdom usually paints our sky orange. Maybe it’s his way of telling us, “Calm down, you silly people. Calm down.”
Anyways, it’s the middle of the week where I sit so I’m looking at this picture to calm myself down.
P.S. Sabi pala ni Gina, isang rason daw kung bakit orange ang kulay ng mga damit ng mga Ananda Marga at ng mga Buddhist monks ay dahil sa natatanging “calming effect” ng nasabing kulay na ito.
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03.04.08MarcOzymandias
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, a man named Marcos, who fancied himself as the legendary Malakas built this monument for himself in the mountains of Tuba, Benguet.
He wanted a grand monument. It would be much much grander than Mt. Rushmore because he will have the mountain all to himself unlike Lincoln, and Washington, and that other President who had to share the limelight with the others. Co-starring lang sila habang si Marcos ay main and only feature.
But Marcos wasn’t contented to be the only dweller of the mountain, so he kicked out the Ibaloys who lived there since time immemorial.
And so the days passed. And the days turned to years. Then the century turned. Then this is what became of Marcos.
PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Zapata/Baguiocity.com
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02.11.08Our Town: Kapangan, Benguet
This video shows the inauguration of the Kapangan Municipal Hall (probably the best-looking town hall in the Cordilleras) and the unveiling of the statue of former Benguet Governor Bado Dangwa.
Cheers to whoever thought of putting up the statue of the Governor. We need more statues of Cordillera leaders like that. [Question: Is it me or would the statue look better if the Guv’s pose was designed to be less stiff looking?]
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02.08.08Stat of the Day
130,200
A total of 130,200 fully grown marijuana plants worth P23,640,000 were reportedly uprooted in the town of Bakun by the Benguet police. Source here. It would be interesting to know how they came up with that figure. Can you imagine them counting “one thousand and one….. five thousand and four… one hundred thirty thousand two hundred”?
