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08.01.08BSU’s Squash Noodles
Earlier, when we came across news reports that a noodle factory will be built in Benguet to produce vegetable noodles, we wondered how vegetables — particularly the green, leafy ones — can be turned into noodles. Well, the folks at Benguet State University proved that you can make noodles out of squash as you can see in this Inquirer interview with Dr. Violeta Salda of BSU’s Vegetable Processing Center. I suppose this is a good project because it opens a market for squash farmers. -
05.03.08A GMA-7 Report: Illegal Quarrying in Tuba, Benguet
Mike Enriquez, GMA-7’s talking head and news reader, reports on illegal quarrying in Tuba, Benguet. This is the first part of the report. You can watch the second part here. It’s good of course that a television program is doing these kind of stories. The more illegal activities are brought to light, the lesser the probability that people will undertake them.
Having said that, I must say that its really frustrating to watch Imbestigador. Why? Because it only goes after the small fish. Puro naman pipitsugin ang iniimbistiga ng programang ito. Its reports are mostly about barangay captains who are corrupt, or army soldiers who did something wrong, or some principal out there who was misbehaving.
I don’t think Imbestigador has ever made an investigative report on corruption and illegal activities that are of national significance. I remember watching an Imbestigador episode during the time when Gloria admitted that she manipulated the elections in Mindanao. Mike Enriquez, with his booming voice, did a very short segment on the scandal but then he based his report on the investigative work of PCIJ.
I was like, “What a shame. GMA-7, the biggest network in the country with all the resources at its disposal, is depending its report on presidential cheating on the work of a small, underfunded, struggling but gallant media organization?”
Then and there, I stopped watching Imbestigador. And I lost respect for its talking head. Pipitsugin lang pala ang kaya nilang imbistigahan.
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04.24.08Benguet Cowgirls
Wow. You got to be impressed with these girls. Can you imagine yourself grappling a bull to the ground and tying it up? Our Benguet State University coeds were able to do that during a rodeo contest in Masbate. They made the Inquirer as a result. Congratulations, cowgirls.
Coeds turn cowgirls in Masbate rodeo
By Jaymee T. Gamil / Inquirer
MASBATE CITY – At this time of the year, most “colegialas” can be found on the beach, flaunting the latest swimwear and perfecting their tans. Janice Mino and Juanita Palileng of Benguet State University (BSU), however, choose to spend the summer in Masbate’s dusty corrals, wearing denims and wrestling bulls.For three years, Janice and Juanita have been roughing it, along with teammates from the BSU Highland Cowboys and Cowgirls, at the cattle sports events during the Rodeo Masbateño festival in Masbate City. The rodeo is a yearly event to celebrate the island-province’s “cattle country” culture.
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04.23.08Kapangan’s Silk Cocoons
Let’s give kudos to whoever thought of introducing silkworm farming in Kapangan. It seems like its going to be a success. Photo credit: John Javellana/Reuters.
Silkworms give Philippine farming town a makeover
By Manny Mogato/Reuters
KAPANGAN - Hundreds of white mulberry trees have started to cover mountain slopes deep in the northern Philippines’ Cordillera region, changing not just the landscape but also making over the image of a poor farming town.Up until the early 2000s, the upland villages of Kapangan, a vegetable growing town of 18,000 people in Benguet province, was widely known as one of the country’s largest cultivation areas of an illegal plant — marijuana.
“We’ve started something to erase that tag,” Roberto Canuto, a public attorney in the province who was elected mayor in 2007, told Reuters. “We’re determined to be known as something else, perhaps, the silk capital of the country.”
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04.23.08Update on Strawberry Woodstock
We received a note from Ramon Zialcita of Baguio Market Network informing us that the schedule for Strawberry Woodstock which was originally set on April 25-27 has been moved to May 29-31, 2008.
So change your schedule friends, especially if you are planning to watch this event via the internet. You can watch it on the Baguio Market website. Meanwhile, here’s the list of artists who confirmed their participation:
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04.19.08Dear Ignacio: No Need to Be Ashamed
Our kailiyan Ignacio Canuto should not be ashamed for billing Gloria. Ket inala met ni Gloria diyay strawberry, di dapat lang nga bayadan na. That’s P6,000, pare. Malaking pera iyon. Dapat talaga nga mabayadan.
If anyone should be ashamed, it should be Gloria’s staff because this is something they should have handled smoothly. Isuda ti dapat nga maba-in. Otherwise, Gloria will be liable for stealing if this is what happens wherever she goes, i.e., that she and her people harvest the produce of others without paying.
Ano kaya ang masasabi ng ating kailiyang si Presidential Assistant on the Cordilleras sa bagay na ito? Hehe
Farmer ashamed on billing Arroyo for harvest of strawberries
From GMA-7: The farmer who billed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the strawberries that she picked is now the one with the “strawberry” cheeks.Ignacio Canuto wrote a letter to La Trinidad Mayor Artemio Galwan saying that the whole thing was “an unfortunate and embarrassing experience.”
Canuto said that it wasn’t him who personally asked that Mrs Arroyo pay P6,000 for the 60 kilograms of the strawberries that she and her entourage picked from Canuto’s farm in Betag village last Black Saturday.
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04.19.08Blast From the Past: American Governor of Benguet Investigated
So these “indiscretions” by the American Governor in Benguet must be one of the ways how American mining companies ended up owning much of the province’s rich mines. Funny how he was only charged with “indiscretions” when he was practically stealing the land of the iBenguets. But then again, at least he was charged with something unlike Gloria and her alipores who will likely get away with their various crimes against the Republic and its peoples.
Source: New York Times
