con't... (message board 19)

Name:   Perlita Calagos Swinbank
Address:   119 Hawkesbury Crescent, Farrer, Canberra, A.C.T.  2607, Australia
Email:  perlitz888@hotmail.com
Date:  15/9/005

Hello! Anyone who would like to join our group called "Friends of Samar" are welcome to send us a note. We specifically target our projects towards Catbalogan and the Sierra Islands. This is just a group of friends from Catbalogan and Australians who had visited the place were were touched by what needed to be done so, we are doing our "private charity". Our motto is "for people who wants to make a difference. This week we have invited Myrna Recamara to come to Australia. She is our Scholarship co-ordinator from Samar College where we are sponsoring 6 students. She is arriving on Sunday and our luanch will be attended, hopefully, by no less than the Philippines Ambassador to Australia. Send us some tips!

Name:   Melanie Gadores
Address:   Dededo, PMB 555 1270 North Marine Dr. Ste. 101, Tamuning, Guam 96913, USA
Email:   outragous_me@yahoo.com
Date:  9/9/05

PANAWAGAN!!! "MELANIE GADORES, LOOKING FOR the RELATIVES in WESTERN SAMAR BASEY"

Hi! ha iyo nga tanan! at kumusta! labi na ha akon ITAY PEDRO GADORES at INAY ESPE. PLS. kung sino ang nakakaalam sa kanila ipag-alam sa or email at: outragous_me@yahoo.com. Matagal ko nang hindi nakikita ang Lolo at Lola ko sa Basey. Hindi ko alam kong buhay pa sila o hindi na. The only thing I want for this coming Christmas is... to see them again, alive and healthy. I miss them very much.

Kumusta sa mga kamag-anak kong mga GADORES dyan sa WESTERN BASAY SAMAR, KM.6 SAMRAK. Si MELANIE GADORES ITO. Aadi ako itay PEDRING at inay ESPE, buhay pa! Pls. wag nyong isispin na nakalimutan ko na kayo.  Mahal na mahal ko kayo

Name:   Girlie Grimaldi
Address:    New York, New York, USA
Date:   9 September 2005

Mr. Gaspay, if it's not too much to ask for, can you please provide a link to Samar State University (SSU) from Samar News. I'm so proud and happy to know that Samar finally has its own university in Catbalogan.  Kudos to our present and past political leaders who worked diligently and made this a reality to benefit generations of Samarnons. Thank you very much and keep up the good work.

Name:  Palacio Ingrid
Address:   Dalupirit, San Antonio 6000, Northern Samar, Philippines
Email:   ingrid-arzaga@hotmail.com
Date:   September 8, 2005

Hi!! to all Dalupiritnon and all barkadas and my kababayan..... just say a great hello to all of you in Samar specially to all my school classmates at SAN ANTONIO RURAL HIGH SCHOOL. And all my friends anywhere in the Philippines, just email.

Name:   Venjie Gerente-Berongoy
Address:   705 Newbridge way, North Las Vegas, Nevada  89032, USA
Email:   venjieb@yahoo.com
Date:   09/08/05

Can you please publish some pictures from Saint Mary's School intramurals, especially from the 4th year high school students? Big shout to Dave Niko Gerente-Berongoy...

Name:   Joni Bonifacio
Address:   Abesamis Store, Allen Ave., Catbalogan, Samar
Email:   trexlore@yahoo.com
Date:   Sept. 7, 2005

SPELUNKING IN CALBIGA OCTOBER 28-30, 2005 - THE LANGUN-GOBINGOB CAVE CALBIGA SAMAR PHLIPPINES

Dear fellow cavers,

Are you type of person who wouldn't dream of littering, exploiting endangered species of animals, offending your environment and natural heritage, or type of person who simply enjoy the breath taking sceneries and take pictures with different extra ordinary rock formation, or just enjoy beong in the wilderness that momentarily get away from buzzling life in the city?

Why not join the 3rd SPELUNKING IN CALBIGA sponsored by the Trexplore Adventure Club featuring the country's biggest cave, the Langun-Gobingob Cave in Calbiga, Samar to held on October 28-30, 2005 (Friday-Sunday).

Our goal is to promote the great potential in the ecotourism of Samar's caves at the same time, our awareness to conserve and protect its archaeological importance.

Maximum of 30 participants only nationwide first come first serve bases of discipline mountaineers, cavers and environmentalist including young professionals, nature lovers, teachers and even government employees.

For these 3 days cave exploration and 2 nights inside the cave, a total of P500 per person will be collected by Secretariat upon registration to cover expenses including your souvenir kits, transportation within Calbiga Entrance fees, Mayors permit, lantern, Calbiga local tour guide and trexplore explorer guide.

We would like you to shoulder your own food for the duration of the trip. Bring also with you caving equipments like caving helmets, caving suits or clothes, headlights, flashlights, extra batteries and bulbs, camera and camping equipments like tents, slepping mat and sleeping bags., camping stove and cookset, trekking shoes and trekking sandals etc...

Please informed the Secretariat by mail or by telephone your confirmation and for your reservation. Our office is located at Rm.No.6 2nd Flr. Abesamis Bldg., Allen Avenue, Catbalogan, Samar. Tel no. (055)-251-2301.

You can call or text also at 09192943865 (For Joni) or email us at trexplore@yahoo.com or trexplore2@yahoo.com for more information you can visit:  www.bonifaciojoni.blogspot.com;  www.samarnews.net/calbiga.htm

DISCOVER CALBIGA SAMAR THE LANGUN-GOBINGOB CAVES 

Location: Calbigan Samar, 52 kms. from Tacloban, the cave is 6 kilometers away from the town proper, accessible by foot. The Philippines' biggest karst formation and one of the second largest in Southeast Asia, the 2,968-hectare cave system is composed of 12 caves with wide underground spaces, unique rock formations and sub-terreanean water course. The surface area of Calbiga Caves has a "mid-mountain forest" forest which is the habitat of some threatened wild species like bats, cave crickets, eyeless shell fishes.

It was first scientifically exlored in 1987 by an eight-man team of Italian speleologists who belived there are still several hundred of kilometres of galleries waiting to be explored. The karst has an estimated total surface area of 900 sq. km. The main cave in Langun, has a chamber that could be easily fit in three football fields. The other big caves are Gobingob and Bitong Mahangin.

WHAT ARE U WAITING FOR COME AND JOIN US....FIRST COME FIRST SERVE 30 PAX ONLY NATIONWIDE...

Name:   Alpha Omega-Salinas
Address:   Carlsbad, CA, USA
Date:   9.2.05

Hi to my fellow Catbaloganon, especially to my best friend Mafe Piczon-Borja I miss you, I haven’t heard anything from you pls. email your recent phone or cell no. thru alpha0salinas@yahoo.com and hello, to all my batch mates of SAMAR HIGH-Batch `90. MABUHAY!!!!!

Name:   Abe Garado
Address:   San Francisco, California
Email:   abegarado@sbcglobal.net
Date:  Aug. 29, 2005

Mr. Ray Gaspay, we the Guiuananons of Northern California would like to ask you a big favor. We have been receiving news, thru telephone, from our love ones, local government representatives from Guiuan that the national government had already released the funding, sometimes in May of 2005 when President Arroyo visited Calicoan Island, to finish the road construction from barangay Ngolos to Sulangan in Calicoan Island. A reliable source continued to say that the road construction funds in the amount of 5 million pesos is supposedly under the control of Cong. Libanan of Eastern Samar. Could you, thru the power of your media channel, extract and confirm this public information for us. Please publish the result on your website so the Guiuananons and other concerned individuals in other parts of the globe will get to read your finding. Thank you.

Name:   Jonel Badiola
Address:   lahaina, Hawaii  96761, USA
Email:   m0l0ka11an@yahoo.com
Date:   august 29, 2005

Aloha..jus wanted to drop by and give muh support to this site.. this site is the bomb.. love it.. takes away some loneliness of bein away from pinas.. cant wait to get back there some time soon.. aloha and god bless to all…

Name:   Edith E.
Address:   Frankenweg 16, Antwerp  2500, Belgium
Email:   edithje_115@skynet.be
Date:   aug 28

Hello! Samarenos I’m happy to find this website, Good morning to all n have a great weekend! Kumusta Gandaranon!!!

Name:   Mr. Ivy K. Lingaton
Address:  J.D. Avelino Street, Calbayog City
Date:  Agosto 26, 2005 tuig san aton Ginoo

Dear Ig kasi ko Samareños,

Una sa tanan magpasalamat kita sa Kahitas-an nga an usa nga mantas nga heneral an sa katapusan guin-tangtang na ni Goyang Arroyo sa iya puwesto di-in damo an nagkamatay ngan nagkahihibang antes ini nahitabo nga pagtangtang kan Palparan. Nasering si Palparan nga damo an namatay o pinatay nga mga NPA?  An buwa pala iton.  An kamatu-oran damo an mga mahigugma-on san kalinaw san Samar an namatay, waray mga sala nga parag-uma guinpamatay sin wara la rason o maupay nga katadungan waray pa labot san damo nga nagkawara nga mga tawo nga gindukot san mga militar.

Masering si Palparan nga pagpasaka la kamo kaso sa husgado, pero maaram siya nga an mga testigos mismo nagkahahadlok kay bisan sino nga gamhanan nga tawo mag-aalang gud man pag kiha san militar kay labi na nga an presidente mismo an baga an bu-ang nga nakapit san iya pwesto bisan klaro na kaupay nga wara siya gahum nga igbutang dinhi si Palparan kay peke siya nga presidente!

Yana, an akon bati-bati nga mag-iiba kuno an huyop san hangin san aton mga kongresista nga wara na si Palparan. An akon masasabi... kagasa man sini nga rason.  Amo na ini an sinisering nga party san killing the impeachment?  Pero sayop man liwat ito nga pulong nga killing the impeachment kay an kamatu-oran, it is killing the moral values of the Filipino as a Nation under God!  We have to live by His commandments kay Kristiyano man ada kita.  (Amo balit nga kada adlaw nagmimisa ha Malakanyang?)

Ikaw Palparan, kun an nakakapahirayo sa imo sa Diyos an imo kamot, put-la ito nga imo mga kamot,  kun an imo maraot nga panhuna-huna an nakakapahirayo sa imo sa Diyos, putla ito imo ulo!  Pero una nga paki-ana, natu-od ka ba san Diyos? Nagpareho la kamo san imo Boss nga si Goyang, na-awil gud sa Malakanyang. . . klaro na nga nag-dag-dag bawas, nahuyot pa sa poder nga inagaw...  Hoy Goyang, kun an imo asawa an nagpapahirayo sa imo sa. . . . .  a basta. Nasering an akon lolo, sadto nga bata pa an kalibutan, kun nakakasala an tawo sin grabe nga pakasala, dagmit la siya nga kikidlatan.

Take Care and Luve tikang kan Ives

Name:   Tomo Magdadalos
Email:  TomoMagdadalos@aim.com
Date:  August 24, 2005

I hope this relief of Palparan will mean peace for the province, I agree with him that its "saddening" to see what he and the NPA's did to a peaceful people, caught between belief that each is right and the other wrong, they have this almost religious belief that by being strong and repressive they can terrorize people into submission.

Why can’t we ever learn to live together, have peace and prosperity? We have laws to tell (guide) us what we ought to do weather we like it or not. People who have no understanding of morality KNOWS the Moral Values by reasons and conscience. What the law requires is written on the hearts, while conscience bears witness to the conflicting truth and reality.

In our times it is often shown that believe in GOD does not have a higher morality than atheists, more violent crimes, proportionately are committed by theists than by atheists.

What I'm really trying to say "Don't play politics with people life" leave us alone, please spare us your political beliefs, we just want to live in PEACE! Join the main stream of society make love not war! In the last 40 years guns only brought in misery and despair to our people.

Name:   Cesar Torres
Email:   Cesar1185@aol.com
Date:   23 August 2005

Subject:  Please, we pray that you will not consider us enemies of the state

In case I missed sharing this with Atty. Domingo Lira, Jr., the Most Outstanding Alumnus of the UP College of Law and a Distinguished Sigma Rhoan. I am forwarding this to the Boto ni Alex.

For the others who might have read this somewhere else, like Jay Caedo, Satur Ocampo, ehe, sorry, Respicio pala, Nat, the love child of Sultan Kudarat, and Dr. Edong del Rosario (who has earned the displeasure of someone because of the the alalay of Abadilla), paki delete na lang please.

FYI. It seems General Jovito Palparan will be re-assigned from the Samar-Leyte-Biliran Region effective August 23, 2005.

Mr. Adelbert Batica whom I consider the expert on "Frente Amplio" among us Samarnons, and I, have been discussing whom to consider as worse -- the incompetent and kawatan civilian officials who might have been elected by our naive and easy to hoodwink Filipino masses or General Palparan who does not believe in negotiating with the MILF, with the MNLF, with the Abu Sayyaf or with the NPAs-CPP-NDF-Etc. We seem to agree that it is the corrupt, incompetent civilian "officials kuno", who love being addressed as "Honorable" even if they know they are so detestable and dishonorable who are worse than Gen. Palparan.

We appreciate the removal of all anti-social elements in Catbalogan and Samar and Leyte – the drug dealers, the gangsters, members of private armies.

We would have sung Hossanahs to General Jovito Palparan if he and his group have waged a crusade against the plunderers, looters, and nitwits in the civilian government including members of their own group in the Philippine Military.

Unfortunately, this seems unlikely. Instead, we continue to believe that the tortures, the abductions, the atrocities committed against unarmed civilians who might have been listed by their personal enemies as "rebels" and enemies of the government were the handiwork of the forces of this government.  There was a discernible pattern in the killings, in the abductions, and in the tortures perpetrated on the hapless Samarnons and the Filipino people.

But we are also aware that we might be on the verge of a situation when the otherwise idealistic and highly nationalistic and patriotic groups might be deteriorating in their ideals.  Some people have referred to them as becoming ordinary extortionists.

Jose Maria Sison and his group should pause and reflect on what has happened to their idealism.

They might have created a monster.

And this government manned by some incompetents and thieves is not helping the situation.

++++++++++

--- In Filam-Forum@yahoogroups.com, "Cesar" <ceasar1185@a...> wrote:

Dear Sisa,

Thank you for your message which was posted in Samar News.com inquring where to send your ayuda to the victims of the cruelties in Samar. It jolted me from my reverie about the hardships in Samar, and what Bishop Jose Palma refers to as "the culture of fear and death" in our island. Of course we know that these hardships is a matter of degree --very intense and heightened in Samar, and probably less intense in other parts of the Philippines. But we all know that wherever we are, the hardships, the pain, the anxiety, and the misery are there.

At the risk of displeasing you with this seemingly boring and inappropriate information, may I nevertheless continue with this. I apologize Sisa. But we are afraid to be killed for the wrong reasons. We all know that life is so cheap in the Philippines.

Anyway on your inquiry, we have remitted to Mr. Ray Gaspay and Ms. Christine Casurao-Caidic an amount of more than P10,000. This is the limos for the families of the victims of the firefight in Jiabong which resulted in the death of four Samarnon, including an 8-year old boy. But apparently, it is difficult to look for the recipients of the limos because the families of those who died have moved from the barangay where the encounter happened. They do not want any attention to themselves anymore for fear that they are going to be killed also, even if they have not committed any crime. The limos is with Christine and Ray.

The families of those who died did not even claim the bullet-ridden bodies of their sons, and a daughter. They are afraid. It is not true that Samarnons are not afraid to die. They feel pain as anybody else. They are not abnormal.

A member of the Sigma Rho Fraternity, Atty. Domingo Lira, Jr. who is in America, contributed $120 to a limos fund also. Atty. Lira is the fraternity brother of Senator Angara, Senator Joker Arroyo, and Senate President Franklin Drilon, and my friend, the Senate Secretary, Atty. Oscar G. Yabes, among others. I have told Atty. Lira where his much-appreciated tabang will go. Sabi niya bahala na daw ako.

Mr. Quintin Lambino Doroquez, originally from Catubig, and one of the most erudite Samarnons I have ever known, donated $50.

A friend from Catbalogan who is in New York and was my fellow alumni in the UP College of Public Administration, donated $30. These donations I have remitted to the family of the late Constancio Calubid of San Andres, Villareal, Samar. If you remember, Constancio Calubid was beaten in front of his family of young children, hogtied, brought somewhere. He was found 12 days later in the Villareal, Samar Bayanihan Road with two stab wounds to the stomach, one to the neck.

Of course, I will have to inform the Office of the President of the Philippines and the generals about these donations. Our hearts go out not only to those who are considered "rebels". Our hearts go out also to the innocent soldiers who have to offer their lives because of the orders of their superiors who report to civilian officials some of whom are so incompetent and so corrupt that you want to cry.

I will have to inform the Office of the President and the generals that it is not only to the poor Samarnons to whom we are giving our pathetic limos. We have given to the elementary school in San Jose de Buan, this town has lots of promise but is located in the interior of Samar. We constructed a comfort room for the children there at the instance of Ms. Anita Sese (whose obsession is clean comfort rooms), donated books and other school materials also. Last Christmas, we Samarnons in the World Wide Web donated a small amount to the San Jose de Buan Elementary School so that they can have a happier Christmas Celebration.

We are not just helping the victims of the cruelties and the aberrations in Samar, Sisa. We have helped the father of my niece in Samar who is married to a soldier. His leg was amputated and they did not have enough money for his medicines. Another one is a principal in an elementary school. Her family did not have enough money also to buy medicines when she was in the ICU in Tacloban.

We express our gratitude to Ms. Christine Casurao for helping us in these tabang to the future of Samar and the Philippines, the children in San Jose de Buan Elementary School. I hope that Christine's sacrifices are not misconstrued by our people – the rebels and the soldiers alike -- who see danger in every shadow.

Even if we are Samarnons, we do not forget that we are also Filipinos. Hence, we have contributed to help some civic groups in Marbel, Cotabato in their projects to help the Lumads, the Muslims, and the poor Christians there; the children in Sulu and Tawi Tawi, the children in Hacienda Luisita; the disabled in Tahanan Walang Hagdanan; the children in Payatas where the UP Staff Chorale Society performed a mini concert last February 14, 2004 and to whom we donated an amount for the microfinancing program of the RVM sisters in Payatas; and the children of Pingkian.

We have contributed to the shipment of books in a poor elementary school in Bacolod. And since our roots are from Villareal, Samar also, we helped in alleviating the hardships of the fire victims this year. We have also adopted two elementary schools in Villareal, in addition to providing an ABS-CBN ETV system to the Lamingao Elementary School. I hope the school children are benefiting from that donation.

We are at the forefront of generating assistance to the Villareal Bayanihan Road Repair Project where the Villahanons from all over the world are doing what has never been done before in the history of the Philippines -- reparing and cementing a public, 8-kilometer road without the help, as far as I know of the Samar Provincial Government and the National Government headed by the embattled President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Of course, we did our best in helping generate donations to the families of the 1,600 Filipinos who perished during the typhoon and the landslides in Luzon last November 2004. Forgive my lack of humility, but as a Samarnon, I am proud to share the information that the esteemed Consul General of San Francisco, the Hon. Maria Rowena Mendoza Sanchez, has appointed me to be a member of the "Philippine Relief and Assistance Group" which she chairs and is based in San Francisco, California.

I am sharing this with you Sisa so that our people cannot accuse us of favoring one group of Filipinos as against other groups, especially our soldiers who are paid by our taxes who might kill you on the basis of your name and your organizational affiliation alone without any investigation. Of course, this might be true also with their perceived enemies.

We have been informed that if one gives a one peso tip to a tricycle driver in Catbalogan who might be linked to the NPAs in Samar, you can be killed for associating with the enemy of General Palparan and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Vice President Noli de Cashtro, and the mother and son tandem in the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines.

We are hoping Sisa that the leaders of our people, such as President Arroyo, the statesmen in our Congress such as Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. to whom we in the Internet look to for guidance and inspiration, Jose Maria Sison and his National Democratic Front who have been waging this armed struggle for the past 36 years with no end in sight, the powerful generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the United Nations, the Roman Catholic Church, other religious groups, and the powers that be in America, and us Filipinos all over the world can have peace in our lifetime so that we can diminish our anxieties, our fears, our hopelessness, and our tears.

I hope your name, Sisa, will not evoke the tragic story of Basilio and Delfin and their mother Sisa during the dark days of Spanish oppression.

Padayon Sisa while our hearts beat weakly in unison with the oppressed and the brutalized in our country, while blood flows in our veins.

Name:   Alice Hermosura Tagimacruz
Address:  Ottawa, Ontario  k1a1a1, Canada
Email:  alexa25@rogers.com
Date:  Aug 22 2005

Happy Fiesta to all Catbaloganon's especially to my family and friends I miss you all terribly. I miss the FOOD ! Especially the Lechon ! God bless to all.

Name:   Irene Cabanganan-Balajadia
Address:   San Francisco, California, USA
Email:   erine12397@yahoo.com
Date:  8/22/05

Happy Fiesta to all my fellow Catbalogananons!!!

Name:   Benjie Froilan
Address:   Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Email:   froilans@shaw.ca
Date:  August 22, 2005

Maupay nga patron ha mga taga Catbalogan...Namimingaw na gad ako hit patron dida sano daw la liwat ako makakapamatron. GOD Bless to all Catbaloganon...

Name:   Allan Pequinio
Address:   Deutz-Kalkerstr.62, Cologne 50679, Germany
Email:   allanpequino@aol.com
Date:   22.august 2005

Hi to everybody there in Calbayog, Samar. I visit my moms province last January 2005 with my family. I really enjoyed my vacation there. I was happy to met anti Din-din after 16 years. If someone knows her could you bring my regards to her also to Michael he is one of basketball player there in Calbayog. His team won the championship last February. Thank you.