con't... (message board 26)

Name:   Edith Egargo
Address:    Belgium
Email:   dithje34@hotmail.com
Date:   2/2/06

Hello! Samarenos and Gandarenos!!! and Hi! to Lt.Pico kmusta na u! hws ur life now!!!!!!

Name:  Leo Baena
Address:  37673 Rushing Wind Ct., Murrieta, CA 92563, USA
Email:   Waray-upay@hotmail.com

Date:  02/01/06

Kumusta sa tanan nga mga taga Catarmananon. It's been a while since I talked to my old friends. Tonight, I recieved a phone call from a friend that I haven't spoken for over 19 years!! She made me realized, I have been away for a long time. I thanked her for remmembering me. I almost forgot, I am still a waray-waray... God bless you all!!

Name:   Antonio Morales
Address:   Catbalogan, Samar
Date:   Feb 1, 2006

I think that we should exercise some restraint when we try to react to a reader's comments.  The reaction written by Prof. Torres was an overkill to the comment made by Phillip of Israel.  Such a lengthy discourse did not answer the comment but tried to insult Phillip. Prof. Torres, an intellectual, must first and foremost be careful about bragging that he was once a big-time professor at UP. Huwag mo nang buhatin ang sarili mong bangko.  We know that you "have been" (as evident in all your articles here in samarnews.com or in gugma) but what you are now is more important.  Enough of those bragging. I am among those people in the Philippines who no longer believe that political scientists or politicians can lead us somewhere.  The former merely defines political problems and the latter creates them.

We need people who could solve the problems not just keep on defining them.  We have a bunch of political science graduates in the Philippines but what happened to the political situation in the country. Not even the UP-Polsci giants Nemenzo and Abueva bragged about their contributions to the political development of the Philippines because they too believed that they have not made significant impact.  Don't kill me for writing this one Sir (Academic freedom lang to Sir! – the right of the student to disagree with the professor).

Name:    Lani Thompson
Address:   Canada
Email:  blthomp@telus.net
Date:  Jan 31, 2006

Maupay nga bag-o nga tuig sa iyo nga mga igkasi ko taga Samar. Kon maayon dinhe mga ka boardmate ko sadto sa kan Basiloy Boarding House sa Seaside sa UEP e-mail ak niyo. Kumusta na kam mga taga eastern, western and nothern samar.

Name:   Cesar Torres
Email:   Cesar1185@aol.com
Date:   30 January 2006

To Philip in Israel: A Clarification

I wish you were more specific in pointing out the article in Gugma to which you took exception. I have scrolled for several hours on the Gugma list, up and down, down and up.  And frankly, it seems you are referring to the "article" of Mr. Armando "Boy" Ridao which is not really an article, but a personal letter to me.  If I am wrong, please correct me.  It is not nice to express your unhappiness with what we are trying to do through innuendos, considering the many things we are doing -- you looking over your shoulders in Israel if there is someone who looks like a Suicide Bomber who will lift you to Paradise to make love with 72 Virgins and I watching out for some Skinheads and White Supremacists who will shoot me so that I can go back to Samar in a spiritual form.

If you are referring to Mr. Ridao's letter to me, I am afraid that I will have to disagree with you. Boy is more than a brother to me.  And that article was not intended for public consumption.  But considering his analysis of Philipine society, I was just so glad that he had shared with me what he has been doing in the Philippines since we took different paths in 1985 he, being left behind, working with the farmers, the peasants, the fishermen, the trapos, the ex-rovolutionaries, European NGOs, etc. and I coming here to California. Please read it again and try to separate the chaff from the grain.

I was so very happy with his letter, at what he is doing, and his hopes for my country and the more than 87 million Filipinos -- 8 million are like us in Diaspora, something similar to what your bosses in Israel did for centuries, and 8 million are Muslims who have been thrust into a struggle with the Christians because of the battle in 1492 in Granda.

I requested Ray Gaspay to post Boy Ridao's letter to me without asking his permisson.  In the first place, he was somewhere in the mountains of Quezon, or Mindoro or Mindanao, helping the Filipinos.  So there was no time to edit that letter, to change the fonts, and to change the colors, etc.  I could have done that.  But I had no time to do that either.

If that letter to me did not meet with your standards, it was not Mr. Ridao's fault.  It is mine. 

Anyway, I am old enough to realize the validity of this expression in English, I don't know if the Jews have a similar expression:  "One man's meat is another man's poison." 

Also, in this world Philip, we would be naive to expect a 100% approval of anything, much less articles in Gugma.  Even Yahweh with all His powers could not do that, even among the Jews themselves. And yet He could command thunder and lighting with His thunderous voice.

And you would recall the "dialectical" process of Hegel.  This would be a boring world if there is nothing but "Hossanahs".  Have you read "The Brothers Karamasov" by Dostoeyevksy?  And the idea of the Grand Inquisitor where humans have become simple-minded, not disagreeing with anyone?

I hope you can be a little more charitable to Boy Ridao and the others who are trying to survive with dignity while helping our people back there. Again, try to separate the chaff from the grain or mistaking the bukog or hingbis from the meat of the fish.

Finally, Boy Ridao is not a politician.  He does not give a hoot about the trapos, like we have in Samar, perhaps your perception of what politicians are. And pardon my lifting my own chair, I am writing here as a Political Science Professor in the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Sigue.  I apologize for this public disagreement with you.  But this is part of life, a healthy exchange in ideas.  No malice is intended.  Besides, I don't want you wasting your time responding to me or trying to put me down.  And I don't want to do that to you either.  There is so much that needs to be done in Samar.  We cannot afford to be putting each other down. Exercises like this are for the simpletons.

On another topic, do you have an organization of Filipinos in Israel?  A younger brother of a former student of mine who wanted to put up a kibbutz in Gandara used to share his thoughts in Gugma. He had worked in Israel.  We were happy because we could learn so much from the Jews.  How they were able to make the desert bloom and their excellent intellectual, artistic, scientific achievements.  But they can be full of themselves sometimes. 

Again, if my supposition is wrong.  Please tell us.  We are old enough to know what we need to say.  Besides, we are not ordinary, sensitive, brainless Filipinos who will just lash back at you because you disagree with us.  I think we are better than that.

Finally, no "fella" was marketing anything. 

Thank you Philip.

Name:   Joni Bonifacio
Address:   Allen Ave., Abesamis Store, Catbalogan, Samar 6700, Philippines
Email:  trexplore@yahoo.com
Date:   january 29,2006

2ND EXTREME CAVING MARCH 24-26,2006 FRIDAY-SUNDAYS 3 DAYS EXPLORATION / 2 NIGHTS INSIDE THE CAVE THE LANGUN-GOBINGOB CAVE CALBIGA, SAMAR PHILIPPINES

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 2ND EXTREME CAVING sponsored by the Trexplore Adventure Club featuring the country's biggest cave, the Langun-Gobingob Cave in Calbiga, Samar to held on March 24-26,2006 (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 50 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 our website : www.bonifaciojoni.blogspot.com

Name:   Dae
Email:  daenthelife@yahoo.com
Date:   January 28, 2006

I am looking for Jeramay. She owns a small store, recently married a western man and has a young son named Leone. She lives in Lapu Lapu or Leyte. Thank you.

Name:   Philip
Address:  9/7 Zirelson St., Tel-aviv, Israel
Email:   philip_thedreamer@yahoo.co.uk
Date:  1-27-2006

I like it, the way Mang Cesar Torres coin his thoughts about “the coming bloodbath of Perlas ng Silangnan” it’s a nice and tidy promotion of an oncoming upheaval. Like the preachers of doomsdays they are powerful spells. The same as the corrupt politician who uses billboard to announced that the project that are going on is by Congressman, Governor or Mayor So and So. This is just as nasty as it stinks.

I Visited the Gugma Han Samar Cyberspace Movement and its full of thoughts, feelings, judgments, views and opinion. But like a shriek, I also found a politicians billboard there, a kind of billboard that present who he is and what he has done, kinda’ loud actually (while other writer did not do so). It was written in blue fonts by a certain writer and noted by the chief editor. You can find it after his article. See it for yourself guys…politicians can never be humble they are as stealth as their minds that escapes, even from themselves. They are attention grabbers. Good marketing fellas. Is this double standard????

Name:   Cesar Torres
Email:   Cesar1185@aol.com
Date:  26 January 2006

Kudos to three ladies from Villareal, Samar who are in California and Arizona: Florentina "Tening" Ygat-Pascual, Socorro "Coying-Suki" Ygat-Segado and Geri Hilvano-Hayes.

Tening was past leader of a group of Samarnons based in San Diego. And Suki Segado, you are familiar with her novel way of celebrating her birthday where the gifts to her went to the Samar Rainforest Fund, the Home for the Aged in Catbalogan, and perhaps to the Homeless Children too.

Tening's organization composed of Samarnons in San Diego and where Tening is just some kind of "primus inter pares, donated a stretcher, 3 wheelchairs, 2 nebulizers to the Samar Provincial Hospital. They were bought and/or ordered already by Geri Hilvano-Hayes. Geri was the hermana of the Sto. Nino fiesta in Guintarcan.  And it seems her husband went with her to Guintarcan also.  And there was fun and dancing of the curacha.  The gala will be used for some civic projects in Guintarcan.

We are proud of these three Villahanon girls -- Florentina Ygat-Pascual, Socorro Ygat-Segado, and Gertrudes Hilvano-Hayes.

May their tribe increase for the good of Samar and Villareal.

Name:   Joe
Email:   joe98200@gmail.com
Date:  Jan. 26, 2006

Maupay nga adlao ha iyo ngatanan. Taga Catbalogan ako, pinanganak ngan dumako ha Catbalogan pero diri nahihingalimot it akon gintikangan. Ini nga mensahe ay karuyag ko la maihayag an tunay nga paggugma hini nga persona. Just click the link and you will be blessed.  http://www.jmanjackal.net/eng/engtalk.htm

Name:    Adelbert S. Batica
Address:   207 W. 31st Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408, USA
Email:  abatica@hotmail.com
Date:   Jan. 25, 2006

This is just a follow-up to my response to Professor Cesar's earlier posting on developments in Latin America.  It looks like that in Perú, Bolivia's next-door neighbor, another indio (a retired Army Colonel) appears to be gaining ground and unless things go wrong, will make a strong showing in the April, 2006 presidential election.  Given that he leads in the polls, Col. Ollanta Humala might even clinch Perú's presidency.  The colonel belongs to a rare breed of military officers - very nationalistic, pro-poor, and pro-agrarian reform (alright - he's left-leaning!). He and his brother (an Army Major) gained prominence in 2000 by staging a rebellion to call for Alberto Fujimori's removal from office. Both brothers went to jail for their action, but Ollanta was pardoned by the interim president who succeeded Fujimori. His younger brother, though, is still in jail for leading a coup to protest the current president's pro-globalization policies.

Military men with a social conscience are not exactly rare in Latin America, they come to the surface when the time is ripe, like they did in Uruguáy in Seregni's time, or in Perú in 1968, when Gen. Juan Velasco, another progressive general, unseated a conservative government and launched radical reforms, including agrarian reform and national industrialization.  The Humala brothers are in the Velasco mold (Velasco, though a descendant of Peninsuláres, was nevertheless strongly pro-indio).

I look at Perú with great interest because I consider it my adopted country, having lived there for a year in 1979 as the country as transitioning to civilian rule.  To this day, I haven't let go of fond memories of living in that poor country, especially working in the rural areas. My hope is that, should Col. Ollanta and his Partido Nacionalista Peruano win the elections, that they have enough courage to make good on their promises to uplift Perú's poorer sectors.  If, indeed, they are followers of the late General Velasco, Perú's poor might yet see better and brighter days.

By the way, those of you who enjoy reading Da Professor's postings should check out the Gugma Han Samar webpage, all you have to do is click on the blue globe on the front page of Samarnews. Salamat nga damo ngay-an it nabasa hit kan Profesór mga sinurat.  Ngay-an...36th Anniversary na yana han "First Quarterstorm" (January 26, 1970).  I was in Manila at the time, in fact, close to where the action was.  My warm greetings to all those who were there, and who were participants in this monumental point in Philippine history.  Bisan la kita natika-lagas na, banat la gihapon.  At the same time, let us also remember those who offered their lives for the cause of human rights, democracy, and a better Philippines. 

Name:   Cesar Torres
Email:   Cesar1185@aol.com
Date:  25 January 2006

To  philip_thedreamer@yahoo.co.uk:

REGARDING OUR OWN WEBSITE:

Thank you Mr. Dreamer.  Are you in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland?  I was afraid you were going to say you are having nightmares at some of my postings here because they are not the ordinary pangumusta.

We have our own website.  Click on GUGMA (in the homepage of this website), that is our own website. The website of the Gugma Han Samar Cyberspace Movement. It is like a more specialized website of SamarNews.com.  It is also maintained by Ray Gaspay.

There is no need to create another website.  We are very proud of what Ray has been doing for our Samar and for us Samarnons all over the world.  There are postings which even the national media and other more popular websites do not have.

We are reminded of Jose Rizal, his idea of the "Social Cancer" more than a century ago.

And I thought this was original with me, the idea also of the "Filipino Metastasizing Syndrome".  But it is not because I recalled our national hero and what he said and why he offered his life to us. Imagine that!  Not crying out. Not flinching when all those bullets were ripping into his breast, stilling his beating heart. And for what?  So that the kawatans, the nincompoops, the trapos, will have a field day in Perlas ng Silangan.  Of course, they are swaggering in Samar, right?

In our interactions with each other, even here in America, if we do not get our way, if we are not elected President, Chairman, Leader, etc., we leave the group.  We form our own group.  This is not only true in the barangay level.  This is what happens among our trapos and their trapostic ward leaders.  This is even true among the revolutionary movements, among the "Progressives".  You ask around what I mean.

So in the process of "metastasizing", the host dies.  I hope that in our "national metastasizing", that Philipine society will not go the way of Rwanda, Somalia, and Cambodia. I don't know if the trapos understand this.  And if their supporters are aware of this. I think not.

When we put up the Gugma Han Samar Cyberspace Movement, a cousin based in Norway wanted to create another website.  Jobal, our IT genius in BBCS, also volunteered to create another website.  But I insisted that there is not need to do that.  Let us stick to SamarNews.com.  But for the more specialized and highbrow topics that we will discuss, i.e., the columns that are published in the "Filipino Insider", a monthly supplement of the "San Francisco Chronicle", like revolutionary movements, and the Frente Amplio, we request Ray to post them in our Gugma website.

The idea is for all visitors to Gugma, and other websites that are linked to SamarNews.com, to take a look at what is happening in Samar, in the Eastern Visayas Region, and other parts of the Philippines.

Mr. Dreamer, join us in two Yahoo Groups that Mr. Adelbert Batica, the expert on "Frente Amplio", has created -- "GugmaHanSamar@yahoogroups.com".  Another one which I consider to be the elite among all Filipino egroups is the "Filam-Forum@yahoogroups.com". In this egroup, we are not the ordinary yak-yak egroup.  We do that in our individual emails.  We are so pressed for time Mr. Dreamer. So we say: "Ten thousand years is too long. Seize the day.  Seize the hour."

And "Kon diri kita?  Hin-o man?  Kon diri yana?  San-o pa?"

Thank you Mr. Dreamer.

Incidentally what is your dream for Samar for Pilipinas in some specified time period?

Or instead of dreams, you have recurring nightmares?  Because in my case, unless we insist and our powerful people do not pause and reflect on the lessons of history, there could be a bloodbath in Perlas ng Silangan.  I suggest you start collecting hospital and medical supplies in the United Kingdom that we will send to Samar and Bangsa Malaya to help the wounded, the disabled, and the victims of the forthcoming bloodbath in our country.

Name:   Aida Uy Luma-Ad
Address:  Cany- Barville Str. 70, Woerth Am Rhein, Rheinland - Pfalz 76744, Germany
Email:   aidalumaad910@yahoo.com
Date:  January 25, 2006

Kumusta mga taga Calbiga labi na it taga 3. Agi balitaw hano it nga nahitabo dida ha blvrd...anyway kunta mahuman na ngan peace ha kita ngatanan, to Moi-Moi & Lec-Lec I miss you so much di bali harani na hi Mama Umuli.

Taga 3 mahidlaw na ha iyo salamat hit updated permi nga chika... To my Family God Bless always see you soon.

Name:   Philip
Address:   9/7 Zirelson St., Tel-aviv, Israel
Email:   philip_thedreamer@yahoo.co.uk
Date:  1-25-2006

WHY DON'T HAVE YOUR OWN WEBSITE?

To Mang Cesar Torres,

Good day sir. I salute you sir for your crisp write up of political issues and on other social issues. May I suggest that its time for you to create your own website if you dont have or if you have one please publish your links, we will be happy to visit you there. Thanks.

Name:    Adelbert S. Batica
Address:   207 W. 31st Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408, USA
Email:   abatica@hotmail.com
Date:   Jan. 24, 2005

Agidaw, ano - nga perestihon!  Di gud la haromamay it kan Profesór Torres hiton Frente Amplio. Maupay, Profesór, nga hi ikaw na yana it numero uno nga promoter hini nga bag-o nga kagi-usan, nga sering pa nimo - baga-baga na hin tsunami ha Latin America.  Ay la kahulop, kay ha Perú, pinili-ay nira dida hit abril, ngan it mag-uruna, it "llamado" nga candidato, hi ex-Army Major Ollanta Humala, nga sugad kan Evo Morales - usa gihapon nga lumad o indio.  Ini hi Ollanta, ngan upod na an iya bugto nga military gihapon, na-preso kay mga lider-lider in hira han mga landless peasants, kundi an higayon nga nakapa-preso ha ira - an ira anti-corruption campaign.  Both the Humala brothers are very progressive ex-military men, very nationalistic, and very, very pro-agrarian reform.  I think this is the new emerging leadership in Latin America these days.

In the past, we have to admit that an armed struggle was necessary to topple the Batista dictatorship in Cuba.  Kay waray gud iba liwat nga paagi hadto.  Even Castro himself gave parliamentary struggle a chance, but Batista decided to cancel the 1952 presidential and congressional elections and declared martial law.  We can't blame Castro for what he did.  But these days, the thing that worries most US policymakers is the fact that the Left can really win state power - at the polls.  And one by one, reactionary governments in Latin America are being replaced by progressive ones, like the recent phenomena in Bolivia and Chile, where the first woman president in all of Latin America (and a Socialist and single mother at that!) got elected.

We don't know how the progressive forces will at the polls in the Philippines, but let's remember that the victories of the left in Latin America did not happen overnight.  Frente Amplio was founded in 1971 by Gen. Líber Seregni, and in January '73 - the Uruguayan military staged a coup and sentenced Seregni and other progressive military officers to long prison terms.  The Tupamaros (who are still known by that name to this day) joined Frente Amplio in 1985, after the release of their founder (and now Senate President) José Mujica.  The left's victory in Uruguay was never easy, it took a lot of organizing, dialogue, give and take, a few failed tries - before victory was won.

The way I look at things in the Philippines these days, we really cannot afford any more bloodletting.  To tell you frankly, the country has already been bled dry.  Change is possible, but it requires a lot of patience and hard work.