Km 256 in Sta Cruz Zambales

Barangay Naulo Km 256 in Sta Cruz Zambales is a five hour drive from Quezon City. It is a quaint quiet barangay of a town North West of Metro Manila. The last town of Zambales, it is the favorite hangout of those who want recluse and exclusivity.

The dark blue sea and sand complement the long stretch of uninhabited shoreline both in the North and South. You would think that no one inhabits the place except for a handful of fisherman you’d spot at the horizon.

The prize you earn for a long ride to Manila is this idyllic place. Yet it has the convenience of a big rest house, furnished kitchen and master’s bedroom, television and Globe, Smart, Sun signals. What our practical group mates like best is a Pamilihang ng Sta Cruz is just over 10 kilometers away.

Some snapshots of the neighboring town Candelaria, Zambales and the activities this 23 April 2005.

Do we let Elvis finally die? Elvis is alive and recharged!

At the UP Lagoon Dec 9 Friday.

UP MOUNTAINEERS with AVENUE PRODUCTIONS present
ELVIS RECHARGED! a concert to raise awareness about the renewable energy bill.

It intermittently rained that day. Everyone was so busy. Not many volunteers came. Yet there was still fun. This project held every Christmas at the UP Sunken Garden has become an institution for UP and for the mountaineers. It’s kalokohan mixed with kagagohan under the guise of an affordable concert by known and less known rock stars. From the UPM site, Elvis had its first concert in 1993 “1993 The First "Elvis" Concert rocks UP. UPM Hosts MFPI Congress traverse climb on Mt. Banahaw from Dolores to Tayabas. Bridge is destroyed to prevent further trail abuse.”

Romeo ever since produces the Elvis concert to the delight of the UPM. He said in an article at the peyups.com portal on dekada 90’s “Ako na nga lang ang nagtitiyagang mag-organize ng Elvis. Nagbayad pa ako sa generator, di naman nagamit. Dati, may apat kaming kalabaw, ngayon binenta ko na ang dalawa para lang d'yan. Early '90s pa lang, Elvis na 'yan. May t-shirt kasi akong "I've seen Elvis" noon kaya 'yun na. Minsan nagsasawa na 'ko sa pangalang Elvis. Parang gusto ko nang palitan. Joseph Estrada kaya?" maigsi niyang pagmumuni.

This last Elvis was not that good for Romeo. He claimed he lost lots of money because the support did not come and the supporting group suddenly disappeared. He thought at the spur of the moment, “last ko na yata ito.”

Will you guys allow this to happen? Let this event, almost an artifact of Metro Manila climbers end up as history? Hope not. Romeo is holding an art exhibit on 26 Jan at the 4/F of SM Megamall. Should we help him recover?

Chito Razon 26Dec2005

Reason to Give

Accenture, an IT company based in Makati and Ortigas responded to the call of MFPI for assistance to the bursted dike and flooding victims of Mindoro by raising at least over 50 bags and boxes consisting of 3 25 kilos of rice, at least over 5 cases of instant noodles, several cases of canned goods, clothes, shoes and other items in plastic bags. Goods were systematically collected from their 6 installation offices spread out mostly in the Makati Business District. They were neatly packed and identified for easy distribution. This noble undertaking at Accenture was initiated by their senior officer Mr. Benjie Madolin who is an individual member of the MFPI. A junior employee and a resident of Calapan, Wendell Custodio helped promote the solicitation along with his colleagues Alex Ocampo and other team members.

What they turned over to MFPI needed a dedicated van to transport them all. Their donation filled to capacity a pick up and will most likely need seven tricycles to complete the transfer in the HALMS center in Calapan. To show how dedicated they were, they even manned the turn-over to HALMS early morning of Saturday, a day before Christmas. Alex Ocampo rode on the Roro where the goods were given revenue free transport courtesy of the shipping lines and the local disaster units.

From Wendel and Alex’s accounts, HALMS representatives received the contribution and quickly sorted them out at their center where the bags multiplied a hundred fold. Contributions from other unidentified donors arranged by Mr. Manny Yu have previously been allocated for dispatch earlier.

Truly the recipients of the goods contributed by Accenture and by the other unidentified donors and volunteers will not only get temporary relief but some warm glow this damp Christmas. Through HALMS, the local government units and residents, these goods will not only go along way but will reach to far flung places in Mindoro. We leave it to our Calapan sponsors who know best the needing recipients.

Christmas last year, we were dampened by the flooding in Quezon and Baler. This Christmas, it was Mindoro, Palawan and Bicol. These incidents deliver a powerful message. They remind us that we, living in the comforts of our homes are a blessed lot. It is but proper that we give and help. Still, there is Christmas. Most of us have a lot to be thankful for this season. Maligayang Pasko po!

Chito Razon 24 Dec 2005

* * *

Dear MFPI members and friends,

Over the weekend, we received urgent appeal from Halms for the flood victims of Calapan and Oriental Mindoro. Another downpour of heavy rains submerged these areas even deeper into flood waters.

A total of 1,666 families or 7,878 persons are still staying at the 31 evacuation centers in Calapan City and municipalities of Pola, Victoria and Naujan, 1,292 of whom are children.

We are appealing to all for your generosity during this season of sharing and hope. Due to logistical challenges, we encourage cash donations. However food, medicine, and used clothes are also very welcome. Further, we are also looking for parties who can lend their vehicles to transport these goods from Manila to Batangas City.

Regie Pablo is currently coordinating with Halms, Batangas Backpackers and the different NGO partners of MFPI in this drive. Dodi Principe will be heading the actual relief goods transportation and distribution in Mindoro.

Mark Murcia is in charge of volunteer recruitment and deployment to Mindoro. For now, we are requesting for 10 volunteers who can be deployed on Dec 22 and return by Dec 24. All interested volunteers, please get in touch with Mark via mobile no. 09178414614.

I will be coordinating the relief goods solication and collection. There will be 2 relief goods drop-off centers:

1. Unit 2 Ground Floor, Midland Mansions, Benevidez St., Legaspi Village, Makati. Look for fellow mountaineer, Edison Sismundo.
2. We will be at the Pioneer Grill patio area on wednesday/Dec. 21 from 7:00-10:00 pm to accept volunteers and relief goods.

As this is a continuous effort until these areas recover, all parties outside Metro Manila who wish to help may send their support to Unit 2 Ground Floor, Midland Mansions, Benevidez St., Legaspi Village, Makati.

Thank you all!
Manny Yu

North Side Katipuian

North Side 

Katipunan

Katipunan 

13 Hours on the Road SLEX

Subject: 13 Hours From Sucat To Bicutan
From: cbrazon@worldtelphil.com
Date: 1997/08/18
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino


13 hours. Yes that's how long it took to cross the 4 km stretch from Sucat South Luzon Expressway to Bicutan Monday night when the monsoon rains caused a giant gridlock out of Metro Manila. The rains caught the city and the government flatfooted. DZRH went on special programming. So did DZBB and DZMM. You know when the government is unprepared-there are no politicians on air. Except for MMDA Chairman Prospero Oreta who simply had to say give in to all the requests of the annotator for towing trucks, the traffic brigade and the state of the raincoats and rubber boots-lines he has been saying for the pas days on radio. I heard Mayor Marquez say at 4 a.m. that it was OK to take the Santos Road to the South.

Following morning was devoted to discussion not on how to get us out of the gridlock but on whether there would be classes and offices or not! And which government office is responsible for announcing this when we haven't even gone home yet! Mayor Binay was cold about the whole situation and wouldn't even volunteer his towing trucks.

From the radio broadcast it seemed to me that the South was completely shut off from the metropolis. The coastal road, NAIA road and the SLEX were in a standstill. Traffic in the Expressway was caused by the incessant rains and flooding, the volume of vehicles building up and the buses/ trucks catching up with the light vehicles later in the evening. At SLEX, main blocks were the flooding at the Bicutan interchange, at the Motorola (which settled down early in the morning) Bicutan, Magallanes, Vito Cruz, Quirino and others not reported.

As I moved out of C5 at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and saw the snake of vehicles wanting to get into the South, I pictured their future the next 13 hours. It can be shorter if the rains stop, longer if the government doesn't wake up.

Life in Katipunan

Life in Katipunan
Written 19 June 1997

My Katipunan used to be a quiet street that connects U.P to Aurora Blvd.
Now it connects Bulacan to Laguna.
It has become like an EDSA. Worse it is now EDSA with the LRT construction constricting travel in the major thoroughfare.

Crossing the overpass that links Loyola Heights to Blue Ridge used to be a feast for the eyes. The Sierra Madre on the Marikina side steals the attention from the windshield. On a clear day, Mt. Makiling in Laguna is also visible. We have now been denied this, censored by a high wall that almost says, "You are not entitled to this appreciation." Thank you to whoever initiated this project.

Katipunan-C-5's traffic is well managed by MMDA traffic aides, religiously. Even with the volume of vehicles, traffic flows. Innovations like counter flows, closing P. Tuazon crossings; no U-turns are regular occurrences. To a certain extent they yield faster flows. At least you know you'll get to Corinthian without much stress.

But what’s irritating is:
When some big shots stop traffic, violate traffic flows using uniformed men in big motorcycles to push them upfront. Our poor MMDA aides just have to give in to their bullying, while we have to wait.
When the pacing is too slow that blind beggars queuing up for your window also builds up.
When the aides in rare occasions are not in their post unpredictably. Could it be it's their payday? Or some politicians used them for other purposes? Or they simply just gave up? I couldn't see the pattern.

Patient as we are, we just have to surrender to progress. Wait for the newly trees planted at Ateneo to grow and provide the shade in future summers to come. Or savor the end to end of Sta. Maria Della Strada to The Mormon Church in White Plains while they are still there..


19 June 1997
Chito Razon

"Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone." -The Dhammapada

Pinoy Mountaineer Big Brother Reality Climb

Inspired by Pinoy Big Brother Reality Show over ABS-CBN
Also similar to My Private Eye and Das Experiment
Put together a select group of mountaineers with various orientations and origins in an exotic mountain like Talinis, Halcon, Banahaw or Pulag. Let them camp for 45 days cover them online 24/7 broadcast over Discovery Channel. They are exposed to adverse and challenging situations trekking, rock climbing, river crossing, camping, rappelling, cooking, socializing, drinking, tree planting and other environment friendly undertakings.

There are only three rules:
1. Respect for nature
2. True to one self
3. Survival of the group

An omnipresent leader called Expedition Brother gives out daily tasks and missions for the moment. He could be a past federation president, pioneer club founder or the head of the Mt. Everest team expedition. A web cam follows the trekkers wherever they go day and night including their private moments.

Every other three days, one of them is booted out. Criteria? Least deserving, high risk, not a team player, threat to the environment. The remaining three win an all expense trip for a month stay at the Himalayas plus a promise of international fame. All of them get a Land Rover Discovery 4x4 all terrain sports utility vehicle.

Who could be nominated? MFPI club members, MMS, Pinoyclimbers, PALMC egroups subscribers, Visayas, Mindanao, Cordilleras mountaineers, member of the Everest Team and other pioneer clubs in the Philippines. For added excitement, Singaporean, Malaysian and Sherpas can be invited.

What situation can the Expedition Brother give? And if there are sanctions, they could be like cook for all fetch water, sweep, and install bolts and hangers on new walls, set up the camp for the community, chronicle all daily activities, chart our compass courses, bring down trash, clean up.

How’s that for a new topic for our climbing socials. Any other wild ideas?


-tochs 30 August 2005

Links to Updates Phil Presidency

Get updated on the state of the Philippine Presidency.

What keeps me informed are:

• ANC Channel 27 Sky
• Manuel L Quezon III Blog http://www.quezon.ph/blog/
• Peyups.com Current Events http://peyups.com/threads.khtml?forum=5
• By Jove Blog http://jovefrancisco.blogspot.com/2005/07/down-slow.html

Coron Sanitarium

Sanitarium 

Travel as Paulo Coelho writes in "The Pilgrimage"

Travel as Paulo Coelho writes in "The Pilgrimage" makes us see the world in a new light, " . . .  since all things are new, you see only the beauty in things and feel happy to be alive."

Ernesto "Che/Fuser" Guevara narrates a similar experience in the movie "The Motorcycle Diaries." Traveling with his biochemist friend Alfredo Granado in a motorcycle from Buenos Aires Argentina to the San Pablo leper colony in Peruvian Amazon in 1952, he asked himself towards the end of his journey, "Was my vision too narrow? Wandering around America has changed me more than I thought. I am not myself anymore. At least, I'm not the same me I was."

This is a turnaround from his earlier outlook on why he and his buddy are traveling. Asked by the hungry and jobless miners why they travel, he answered, "We travel just to travel." The miners were stunned as they travel to look for work so they can eat.

As a result of this experience that spanned over 6,000 kilometers in Latin America in more than a year, Che saw a different world; from a fun filled detached life to a world of oppression, injustice, pain and suffering. His two weeks as a medical volunteer at the San Jose leper colony made him see extreme anguish in all dimensions of man. The lepers, separated from the healthy by the river made him see that there are extreme separate worlds in Latin America. This moved him eventually on changing it by founding a revolutionary communist and Latino movement.

In a way, our visit to the Culion Leper Colony even without the patients can be likened to Che’s journey in the 50’s. Through the pictures at the Culion Museum, sighting of the hospital and the lecture of Dr. Arturo Cunanan, the head of the Culion Leprosy Control and Rehabilitation Program at the Culion Sanitarium, we visualized the pain the ostracized 7,000 patients underwent during their rehab. They were in an island detached from the rest by the Luzon Sea, over 360 kilometers away from their families. This travel challenged us to look beyond our comfort zones, seeing our world in another light.

Returning back to city from our weekend adventure, we can only be thankful that we have been spared of the pains of perpetual separation. If at the least the experience in Palawan awakened us that we should be empathetic to the sick, our Coron Waters Adventure then gifted us with a valuable treasure that could not be matched by all the sunken gold in the Philippine Seas. Yes, even the sick deserves to be happy and alive.

-Chito. Originally written 28 March 2005, modified 20 May 2005

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In the movie Kingdom of Heaven which was aptly described as the Kingdom of Conscience, the masked king of Jerusalem, King Baldwin who was afflicted with leprosy said to Balian (Orlando Bloom), “Leprosy is God’s vengeance against the vanity of our kingdom. As wretched as he is already, they believe that the chastisement caused by the disease is more severe and lasting in hell.” He complains “it is unfair.”

Culion Fortress

Grilled view from Culion Fortress 

The original infinity pool 

Mt. Tapyas

On top Mt. Tapyas 210 Meters ASL 718 steps

Culion Church

Church in Culion 

Lagoon Viewdeck

Viewdeck on the way to the Lagoon 

Ridges

Ridges 

Last Chance at the Last Frontier

26 participants had a taste of the last frontier of the Philippines through the Coron Waters Adventure organized and led by PALMC President Banny Hermanos this 13-16 May 2005. Ably assisted by PAL employees and affiliates, Dexter Macapagal and Bunzoi Anonuevo, this 2.8 day-revitalizing weekend (67 hours) was spent mostly on water; 52 hours in, above or under water, 15 hours on land. What is Coron Palawan but islands, water, diving, snorkeling, swimming, shipwreck spotting, trekking and eating that logged in about 75 kilometers moving around the group of Calamian Island. Count the adventures in this action-packed weekend: trek to Mt. Tapyas elevation 210 M ASL, 718 steps for the initiates, lapping at the Kayangan Lake, the cleanest in the Philippines still, snorkeling at the Twin Lagoon and Barracuda Lake, lunch at CYC (Coron Youth Club) island, dock at Banana Island, walk around the Culion Leper Colony, search for pearls at the nearby Pearl Farm, look for shipwrecks at Lusong, dive for giant jellyfish at Skeleton Island, snorkel at corals at Siete Pecados Marine Sanctuary. While at the Banana Island exclusively for us, a series of activities naturally happened aside from the usual tent pitching, seafood grilling, bonfire and socials. Would you believe, basketball, Frisbee throwing and competitive beach volleyball? To cool down the active bodies as we end the adventure Sunday afternoon, we were treated to a hot spring bath at the Makinit Hot Spring. Refueling the energy of the participants for the two days at the island were seafood preparations by Chinese chef Stephen, Boholana Virgie and initiate May. Cooking was done mostly while the group was in transit. Consider yourself disabled without a boat. Moving us around hopping from one island to the next was St. Joseph the Worker Boat captained by Toti and his assistant Tony. Readings by Lito Nazereno showed cruising speed of about 24 km per hour (slower than Super Ferry's 30 km per hour).

Travel like a time warp has a way of transforming us to the past. Our visit at Culion brought us back to the Spanish era in 1740 where the church served at the sanctuary of the soul and a fortress defending the land against the invaders. Visiting the Culion Leper Colony and the Culion Museum set us back to 1906 when the colony was institutionalized and supported through intervention of the American Governor General Leonard Wood. While snorkeling peeping at the corals, we recall in the not distant past that the corals then were more abundant and alive. We hope that as the people of Calamian Island preserved their historical artifacts, they will do the same to their fast dwindling natural resources.

In 2000, travel writer Amadis Ma. Guerrero wrote about enchanting, craggy Coron Island enjoining readers to visit it before its turns commercial, expensive and spoilt. This year, through the selflessness of ace photographer and club president Banny, we were able to catch still the pristine and natural wonder of Palawan for a measly P 1,000 a day. Do not tell that to the other excursionists we were with the WG&A. They spent a lot more and saw not as much. How else can we express our appreciation but say profusely our thanks. The next time we visit, we may not like what we will see. Timely, we were at the last chance at the last frontier of the Philippines.

-Chito 16 May 2005

For a sampling of fotos visit http://tochs.blogspot.com/

Everest, The Elusive Filipino Dream

Notes on Mr. Art Valdez' talk in the PALMC assembly on the First Filipino Ascent to Mt. Everest

This climb has ever since been a vision of the original MFPI founders. Its attainment remains to be elusive but the developments in the last century are slowly and painstakingly bringing them closer to realize the dream. This is with the help of the younger climbers in collaboration with the seasoned ones. The climb to Everest is a
climb via the traditional way: train and complete as a team. There will be neither be shortcuts nor fast tracks.

The process and hopefully the successful step is a testament to the faith in the Filipino, that yes, the Filipino can.

As the first Filipino mountaineer steps on the roof of the world for the first time in 2007, underneath that foot are the shoulders of the members of the Filipino team, the entire nation and the Filipino climbing community.

To climb this way, the climber must be prepared physically, psychologically, emotionally and financially. Of these, it is the financial that may be the most difficult to hurdle.

Art enjoins PALMC to support this grand endeavor. He invited Chairman John Fortes to organize a send off party at the base camp.

Chito at the PALMC Training Center 4 May 2005 with Mr. Fred Jamili and Mr. Larry Honoridez