Mitsuru

i used to play  this a lot  back in the days  growing up in  Tiwi  when  the Beatles  ruled the Radiowealth turntable  at home . listening  to a 45 Parlophone record  me and my friends  would sing-along-   "Obladi-Oblada, life goes on bra..." 👁   seeing as we were only 7 or 8 years old, we found the “mention” of a bra in a song quite hilarious *Memories of Childhood in Tiwi #1970sTiwi #TheBeatles

In 1880, Gobernadorcillo* Higino Templado conceptualized and constructed Tiwi's first town plaza in order to provide the community with a wholesome place for people to gather on Sundays and holidays to relax and watch the Comedia or local plays. Municipal President* Mateo Clidoro (1926-1931) initiated the naming of the town plaza to Plaza Templado in honor of Higino Templado during his incumbency. His successor, Mayor Lino Clutario (1931-1934), with monetary donations from the townspeople, was instrumental in erecting a bust of the late mayor Higino Templado at the center of the plaza, where it remained until it was relocated to give way to the building of the "Kiosko" during the term of Mayor Eleodoro Cortezano (1948-1951). Mayor Cristito Cirujales (1952-1955) contributed a water fountain in front of the kiosk, while Mayor Jose C. Templado (1956-1959) in turn built a concrete fence surrounding Plaza Templado in the mid-1950's. Some of these contributions can be ...

When I was about 11, my Dad gave me a cassette tape of Chopin’s nocturnes and told me to just listen to it and let the beautiful melodies carry me to places that I have never been to. "Just go with the flow," he said. Although I did not quite get it then, I certainly understand it now. I had it on my Walkman and cassette player for years until it died a natural death due to the inevitable wear and tear. I have since bought a similar recording on CD years ago where I would usually listen to the very familiar tunes in my quiet moments. It helps my mind relax and dream of the future in stressful times. And today, I am returning the favor. I say Dad, let the familiar melody of your favorite nocturne bring you joy wherever you are today. Requiescat in pace. Happy Birthday Akihiko-san!

You used to tell me when I would admonish you about your drinking that just like Edgar Allan Poe with his Amontillado, you need your beer to summon the creative spirit from deep within you. Yes, you were quite an artist albeit a temperamental one everyday you pursued the muses, challenged the gods and wrestled with the demons that came your way. Although in the end you succumbed to the frailties that made and unmade you. This I can say-- You put up a good fight, laughed your heart out and enjoyed the ride… Tonight, I will drink a bottle of beer in your honor but instead of an Ice-cold San Miguel, I’ll toast a Michelob for you. So, I say Kampai to you Akihiko! +++ My Japanese father AKI was born in autumn 2 years after the end of the Second World War and left in May, 18 summers ago to play chess and drink with his buddies in the great beyond. He would have been 61 today. # I'll share with you this lovely piece of music by Stanley Myers. It is the theme from o...

I was 13 and had just came back from a day of playing ball with some friends in the neighborhood basketball court when I saw my Lolo and Lola huddled with serious looks on their faces around the old Sanyo, listening intently to the commentator’s pronouncements and unmindful of everything around them. After the radio announcement, my Lolo could only mutter in his soft voice that, “Marcos is finished.” The assassination of Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. or Ninoy on August 21, 1983 further stirred my interest in Philippine politics. I decided to know him better and managed to learn more about him-- from the stories and anecdotes passed on by people who were old enough to remember him to the old issues of the Philippine Free Press and other magazines in our possessions at that time. My uncle who was in the United States would send us photocopies of the San Jose Mercury News and the New York Times as well as betamax tapes of news about the assassination from foreign networks that were not av...

Tomorrow is the start of the three- day Fiesta celebration in my hometown Tiwi in Albay in honor of the town’s Patron Saint, the martyred Saint Lawrence and the Miraculous Our Lady of Salvation, the Patroness of the Diocese of Legaspi. It’s a celebration witnessed and participated upon by various pilgrims from places all over the Bicol region and beyond. Although I am not that religious anymore and a self- confessed non- practicing Catholic nowadays, I just cannot forget the customs and traditions that have been a part of my growing- up years. Yes, I still remember my religion class quite well, also being a “Sacristan” when I was a kid helped me a lot in knowing things beyond the four Evangelists. In fact, I still can recite Padre Huestro and Dios Te Salve Maria in a heartbeat. The Fiesta is usually highlighted by a colorful grand parade through the crowded streets of the town participated by various schools, organizations and local government units and culminating with the tradi...

My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune. ~Graycie Harmon The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. ~Honoré de Balzac HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! From your Prodigal Son. :)

Today is the 10th Anniversary of the “mysterious” death of the flamboyant front man, Michael Hutchence of the Aussie band INXS . Although they were not that “big” in the Philippines during that time as they were more famous Down Under and Europe, I was familiar with some of their songs like Original Sin, Disappear and The Stairs just to name a few because I’ve read about them in those small Php 5.00 “Song Hits“ (Yes, fellow music freak, Jingle and Moptop were long dead in the late 80s and early 90s) and of course, with the help of that FM radio from far away Naga City. Come to think of it, the FM stations from Naga have a better and stronger reception in Tiwi to this day than the radio stations from Legaspi for Tiwi is actually located in the “other” Albay- Camarines Sur Provincial Boundary wherein the farthest barangay, Mayong is just separated by a bridge from the Partido area which comprises the towns of Sangay, Goa, Tigaon, San Jose, etc. and also the home of the Fuentebella...

My father would have been 60 years old today but he died young at age 43 from complications of his excesses in life. I remember my Dad mostly as a beer- drinking, chain- smoking, black- coffee drinking, temperamental man who spoke English, which he learned from my mother, mixed with the vernacular he learned from the Istambays in our town. He was a young man of 21 when he first set foot in our remote town in the Philippines as an eager member of the Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV), Japan’s version of the US Peace Corps in trying to make amends for the war that devastated his neighbors years back. It was in Tiwi, Albay famous for its Hot Springs and Pottery among others where he first made his mark in the Philippines. He was assigned as a Ceramic Technician and had a hand in the rehabilitation of the Ceramic Plant of the town. And with the cooperation of some local folks, he was instrumental in making maybe the first and probably the only Japanese Garden in the Philippine...

MAALAB NA PAGBATI SA IKA- 35 TAON NG KAPATIRANG PI SIGMA Agosto 15, 2007! (Paragon of Scholarship/ Paglingkuran ang Sambayanan) 'twas 14 years ago (UERMMMC Batch 93) SO THE PEOPLE MAY KNOW... OF LIVES AND SACRIFICES FOR THE PEOPLE On December 1987, Edwin Laguerder (Batch '79, UP), an adviser of a farmers' organization in Davao, was brutally murdered by unidentified men. The following month, Bernie de Guzman (Batch '82, Chevalier School, Angeles City) who joined the left, was gunned down along with his companion by the Philippine Constabulary (now known as the Philippine National Police) troopers in Tarlac City. On July and September of 1988, Benito Clutario (Batch '77, UP) of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement or KMU, the most militant nationalist workers' union in the Philippines) and Benjamin Lazaro (Batch '77-C. UP) of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) involuntarily disappeared at the height of the ...

I’ve been so busy the past week that I hardly had time to update my blogs although I was able to spare a bit of time to take a peek on some of the blogs in my blogroll on some nights that I was home. Anyway, I read in the March 15, 2007 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer the news about the National Power Corporation’s cutting off supply to the entire province of Albay because of the Albay Electric Cooperative’s unpaid debt in the amount of a whopping P981.3 million . At first, my mind tried to brush it off but my heart begged me to say my piece after I realized that Aleco is so much in the red and could accumulate a debt that will reach a billion pesos in the next few years or so which will have a very negative effect to the lives of the people of Albay. It used to be a profitable cooperative run by honest and hardworking people in Albay where the welfare of its constituents were paramount and service excellence its battle cry. In fact, my Grandfather, Jose C. Templado used to b...

It was 38 years ago today when my Dad, a Japanese who was a member of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV) met my Mom who was his English Teacher in Tiwi, Albay in the Philippines . My father, at 21 years of age, was the youngest in his batch of "Peace Corp Volunteers" in 1968 when he was first assigned in our town that he called home for more than 20 years until he died due to complications of Emphysema in 1990 while my mother was a fresh Journalism graduate of the University of Santo Tomas who opted to teach English and Literature in her hometown. They met at a Dance Party where they were introduced to each other by the town mayor, no less. At first, my Lolo opposed their relationship due to the bitter memories of the war and filed a complaint with the Japanese Embassy wherein my father was subsequently pulled out of his assignment and recalled back to Japan where he wrote my mother in his funny English everyday. Soon after, he returned to the Philippines as ...

“Where were you in ‘86 EDSA Revolution?” This caught my eye while on a jeepney cruising along the Quezon Bridge near Quiapo a long, long time ago. It was written on a wall of an old dilapidated building along the Pasig river. The handwriting was crude. written in black paint, and whoever put it there and for whatever reason we will never really know. But it was a good question, come to think of it, for this year's 21st Anniversary of the People Power Revolution, an event that changed not only the history of the Filipino nation and its people but also proved to the world that change could be achieved peacefully. The people in the communist world soon followed thereafter as they emulated and learned the lessons of our unique form of ending a tyrannical regime without bloodshed. Thus, we Filipinos could lay a claim that we had a hand in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the communist bloc in the late 80s to the early 90s and in the process changed the lives of millions ...

I was about to punch in to start my day at the Emergency Room of Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital in Michigan when my cell phone buzzed. I could feel the heat of my blood rushing under my skin when I heard what the person on the other line have to say. It took me a moment or two before I summoned the courage to ask the Clinical Coordinator for the day to allow me to go home and check the news online myself-- And there it was on the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines Star, ABS- CBNNews and other news websites the grim reality and horrific pictures of the devastation brought by the super typhoon Reming (International codename: Durian) to Albay Province and Legaspi City , places that I am very familiar with and known like the palms of my hands. I scanned the pages and my eyes caught the heart-rending, gut-wrenching stories of tragedy and despair of the people; my people, of whom I am very much familiar with their way of life and customs but you could only take a deep breath to relieve t...

The Philippines’ Mt. Mayon, the most active volcano in the island has once again shown the world her legendary beauty albeit dangerously during the past few days. But I can only watch the colorful but deadly spectacle on the videos available in the Internet having been left the Bicol region a couple of years ago and now living half a world away from my hometown of Tiwi in Albay. Mayon, which rises at 2462 feet above sea level, is one of several active volcanoes in the Philippines (the Country being part of the Pacific Ring of Fire) and one of the most destructive wherein in 1814 buried the town of Cagsawa, killing an estimated 1,000 residents where the only reminder of that fateful day is the famous Church ruins and its Belfry which is now a National Park that attracts thousands of tourists year round. The volcano, which is famous for its almost perfect cone, was named after the tragic maiden in the Bicolano legend of Daragang Magayon (Beautiful Maiden in the local Bicol dialect...