Category Archives: Pilipinas

Banca Boatyard

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This banca will take 5 days to finish and sells for 15,000 pesos

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Banca making is a livelihood here in Malapascua island

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He maintains the banca of others

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Working daily by the white sand beach. Such a beautiful workplace

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Men build bancas, women mend fishing nets

Meanwhile…

The partaking of some Cebuano fare which can only be captioned well in the local dialect, particularly:

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Lami gyud ang tinowa na isda

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Mao sad ang sinugba na isda

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Unya apilan kining guso, kanang utan gikan sa dagat ba

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Usahay mangita man ko ug mais kay bagay man sa tinowa

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Gimingaw man ko sa ngohiong ug puso

Piso Water

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ATM or iWater? (ATM – Automated Tubig Machine)

Such a common sight in Cebu is this drinking water vending machine of various color, model and style (of its box). What is typical is the faucet, the round 5 gallon bottled water as its source, piso coin slot, and the glassful amount of water that comes out for every one peso coin eaten.

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Lesser frequency of replacing the 5 gallon purified water in this dual container model

One has to bring some container to catch the water that automatically comes out of the spout once you drop one peso inside. I expect the water to be tepid, but amazingly it was cold.

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A trash receptacle at the side of the tubig machine

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Looks like a karaoke machine

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This one is chained as precautionary measure against thieves that may cart it away I suppose. Love the mayana plants on the roof

Cebuana Yakult Lady

Pintos

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Bus window peddling is one reason why I prefer ordinary non-aircon bus apart from the chance of smelling each passing town and having clear view of roadside everyday life

When traveling by bus to northern Cebu, whether to Hagnaya or to Maya, it’s highly likely that Ceres bus will have rest stop for few minutes in Bogo. A happy stop for it means one is almost at the end of the bus journey, and also it means the acquisition of pintos via bus window sellers.

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A pack of 5 costs 20 pesos

Pintos is distinctively Cebuano, a specialty of Bogo City that’s primarily made from ground corn. The smell of the warm corn husk wrapping is pleasantly barriotic, and snacking on pintos is akin to making memories where one would love to recall fondly this delight especially its texture, taste and aroma sometime in our lives.

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Honestly simple packaging of young corn husk

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For only about 15 minutes of stop in Bogo, bus vendors’ pintos will do for now

Bounty Beach

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A quiet beach where one can see solo travelers walking barefoot on the white sand. A quiet place to run too

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It's low season at this time of the year, but it doesn't mean the sun won't come up most of the time

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Mostly Europeans of varied ages are the frequent visitors of this place

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Setting foot on Malapascua Island instead of SM Aura where I've never been inside yet no matter all the hype of this and that coming to Manila, else I'll just be like the rest

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Original beauty remains despite of typhoon Yolanda's destruction of most boats and structures in this island. See that decapitated coconut tree courtesy of Miss Yolanda?

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Practically most boats are new in the island, as most boats were destroyed by typhoon Yolanda

Secondary Function

A beached banca’s great exposure to tropical sun makes it a practical option for clothes drying.

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Banca as clothes drying rack in Malapascua Island

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Fishing pants I suppose, also at Malapascua Island, Cebu

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Fishing pants in San Juan, La Union

Adlaw

Folk Oxymoron

Handwritten Illustration: Election Voting System

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“2016 Election” in the sample ballot in Figure 3. Figure 4 is cute but terrible for it can make someone a president of the Philippines in 2016

 

I came across this photocopied handwritten information with illustrations, promoting an election voting tool that is manual yet fast. Handwritten illustrations, instructions, including handwritten maps have certain kind of appeal to me. I’ve picked this somewhere in the exhibit area on an empty table but only get to read it at home. So, I didn’t get to see this “fast manual” tool at the Science Nation unlike the Smartmatic’s state-of-the-art touch screen voting machine, a super upgraded PCOS system where I got to touch the candidate’s name with picture beside it to cast my trial vote.

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They even made a pitch on the lower left “The excitement and suspense in watching the counting of votes can still be experienced!”

Well, this election voting system on paper says no electricity needed. Voting will be fast for instead of writing, one just needs to punch holes. Reminds me of the beginnings of computing systems where punched cards were used.  Also reminds me of the paper bus tickets in the country.  An entertaining read.

Pulot Boy’s Improvisation

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Old tennis racket repurposed into pulot boy’s ball snatcher by fusing some netting around the racket’s rim

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Pulot boy (ball boy) in action

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Convenient ball catcher, picker and collector

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More on ball boy in action

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Ball boys are maintaining the shell tennis court by marking lines using chalk and leveling the crushed shells using net mop

Anti-Malnutrition Chips

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At the science exhibit of Department of Science & Technology, I bought this chips to relieve my starvation in the duration of my 4.5 hours visit. This un-junk food was developed for the purpose of improving nutrition in young children. The snack is made from rice and monggo and it tasted even better than most local junk food, not that because I was starving but the taste is somewhat addicting. Similar to how addicting Chippy is.

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It’s rare thing where one can see DOST’s and FNRI logos in a chips pack. The high protein and energy content makes this a nutritious and convenient snack in evacuation centers for instance. Other than that, in preparing a disaster grab bag, why not put some Rimos instead of junk crackers inside. The disaster grab bag is a wise move already, having Rimos inside makes it wiser, I suppose.

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Mango Picker

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Manual fruit picker as seen in Science Nation exhibit by DOST at MOA

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Low tech practicality

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Head of the mango picker consist of blade in triangular shape housed in an acrylic like material to manually sever the fruit from the tree, and a net to catch it

Baby Wearing

Multipurpose Cauldron

Metro Mornings

Typical scenes everyday in Metro Manila mornings.

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They are most likely ambulant vendors that peddle inside a moving bus

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Car washing and other car services done on the road eating up a lane. Yet another typical scene

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Rain proofing a sidewalk carinderia by setting up tarp

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Mekanikong tsuper

Unnecessary Noise

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During my pre-college years back in Bacolod City, it seems there were more major storms then than in the last 15 years I’ve lived in Metro Manila. Back then blackouts were frequent and when hit by typhoons, blackouts will last for a month or more. A few days or even a week of that hardly affects our day to day life then. That was yesterday; today, a 12 hour blackout seems like a personal catastrophe for most. Man have created this dependency on appliances, gadgets and comforts that when deprived of, the noise from the complaints made the natural disaster look more devastating than it should be.

Yesterday afternoon in the wake of the storm, I surveyed the village where I live by running within its perimeter. There were several tree casualties, blackout like the rest of Metro Manila, but no flooding and no major debris blockage. It was very quiet in the village that I suppose residents must have fled to the malls because of electricity deprivation along with impending social media deprivation due to dying battery life of their gadgets.

Boxing Day Everyday

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At the checkout counter, bagging of groceries can be three ways: In one’s brought bag, in supermarket provided paper bag, or in supermarket provided used carton. It’s been this way ever since plastic bags were banned in Makati City.

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Used cartons for groceries

City Agriculture Office

Tent Shops