Mountainprovince.net

By Glo Abaeo Tuazon

The rain poured endlessly with the pain of it all. The denizens of the skies crying in silent unison as the country bashed its head against the rocky walls of misery and oblivion. The soft ticking of the clock on St. Peter’s gate becoming grossly noisy heard on land. The wind howled, the oceans crashed, the skies opened in disbelief over the slow destruction of this once tiny land that could have been paradise lost. Struck with the blunt blade of indifference and greed and infamy, it bleeds on all sides.

LUZON was lying on her stomach, her head bashed in and incorrigible. VISAYAS has her limbs scattered across the shores of her beaches and MINDANAO is hanging upside down from the ankles. The sisters tortured by the very people they protect and cuddled for centuries. The Philippines is my Beloved. My existence is rooted in her soils. I have loved her every curve and bend that nurtured me like a seed and saw me grow to the gnarled, sun-reaching being I am today. The story of its people whispered to me by the wind as I steadily caught every day amidst the heat and the fog and the rain. And I saw the coming of people as I grew, the years packing in more and more until the country seem to burst at the seams. Read the rest of this entry →

By: Glo Abaeo Tuazon

Email: twilight_glo@yahoo.com

The old Eucaluptus trees drip their willowy fingers into the murky waters of the lake. Reminiscent of the romance of the place, even the boats now seem to tire of their sorroundings.

The city begun to tire. Then it started smelling tired. Lately it simply smelled. The stink permeating the once beautiful place I proudly called home. I spent all my life in this city. Aside from the occasional travels away from home when my job calls for it, I was stuck here…willingly. I was born here. For all I cared about I am one of the luckiest people to have had the opportunity to be rooted in this tiny but beautiful and tranquil place. Until about lately.

Though I may not be very old to have seen the glory days of Baguio, I would sink to the stories of my folks about those times when much of the place was still exceedingly safe and fascinatingly serene. In my very young mind then, I would often see the place as shrouded in some kind of mystical tale. Like most young girls were enthralled with buds and blossoms, I would without a miss liken Baguio City with the many blooms during summer and the cold, misty tree-lined promenades comes the last quarter of the year approaching December and the Holidays. We kids would delight in the very simple things such as trees to climb, grass beneath us to roll on, the rain to soak in and the rivers to thrash about and catch tadpoles from. To me that was a blissful phase. I was full of life and hope that I thought I could walk barefoot into the sunset.

Vegetable traders sit inside and around their stalls at the market, cleaning their products for sale day in day out unmindful of the changing world.

Growing up I have come to understand the meaning of change and transition. I would not have minded at all, the saying that change is inevitable, an accepted line to me. But it all came down in one big swoop that is both unnerving  and scary. To this day, the anxiety of what worse things to come fills my subconscious, like a gnawing thought, stale and rotting like the garbage around the city streets, growing maggots with the passing days. Decaying with every passing minute and not many seemed to mind. I once thought the blind were unfortunate, the thought seems to change now. In more ways than one, they are luckier than us. They do not have to see all the pains in this world. They are content with the colors in their minds borne by the smell, the sound and the feel of the things as they see fit with their “fingers”. Because when they see with their hands, they have the option to just let go of what they see when it hurts, like a  finger burned. Read the rest of this entry →

By Agueda Ambasing

A free learning and earning scheme for youth volunteers of the Department of Labor dubbed “ Kabataan Information Technology Opportunities (K-Ito), has benefited 164 youth, teachers, barngay health workers, barangay officials and twenty volunteer youth mentors in Mountain Province. Marcial Pachingel, Labor and Employment Officer III of the DOLE’s Mountain Province Field Unit said that the successful implementation of the program has enabled computer illiterate participants to discover the benefits of information technology.

In the program’s scheme, IT-literate unemployed youth have been tapped to mentor participants in computer operations and to learn how to use the Internet to access online government programs and services.  Participants from the barangays of Bontoc incluing Poblacion, Tocucan, Samoki, Bontoc Ili, Guina-ang, Talubin, Calutit and Antadao in Sagada, Lagawa in Bauko, Tue and Kayan in Tadian were tapped for the program.

It was a youth-mentoring- the- computer illiterates- program so that computer technology graduates from Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc. and other schools were tapped to teach and earn at the same time. Participants were required to complete a 22 hours training and the youth mentors earned a stipend on a per hour basis. To implement the program, Xijen College was tapped as the partner institution. The college’s computer lab was the venue for a majority of the trainings. Barangay halls were used as the training venue in Tadian and Bauko. The progam started in April 2010 and ended in the second week of June 2010.

By: Glo Abaeo Tuazon

The body that won Jesse Sabater 2nd place during the 2010 NPC USA Championships.

 The silverbacks of the urban jungle, all 500 or more of them from America trooped to Las Vegas, Nevada  last July 30-31, 2010 to compete for the top titles during the 2010 USA Bodybuilding Championships. These men and women were also hoping aside from bringing home the trophies to achieve Pro status in the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB). Among them is Jesse Rae Depaynos Sabater, a Baguio Boy now based in Oxnard, California.

       Sabater qualified for the Welter weight classification division and beat 16 others to come out 2^nd (at 154lbs) losing by only 1 point to two-time winner Luis Santa of Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was a heavy and tight competition between Santa and Sabater, the both of them gave the judges some pretty difficult time deciding who goes 1^st and 2nd. Santa, in an interview hosted by Shawn Ray admitted he did not feel he was the only guy to beat because “Sabater also came in great shape” and that “Jesse was a great guy and a great competitor.”

       This would put another one to Jesse Sabater’s added trophy collections of the NPC USA Competitions putting the Baguio Boy one of the best in his field of sports. In his track record Sabater was in 7^th place competing for the lightweight division in 2002. Gaining some pounds he elevated to the welterweight division and stayed there since 2006, and was 1^st Runner Up to Perry McRae. In 2007, he went home bagging the same 1^st Runner Up trophy a bit behind Mark Harris. Re-entering the competition in 2009, he ranked 7^th, again with Luis Santa at 1^st place. Read the rest of this entry →