ninth ray ba kamo?

ay sus! sa kagustuhang magpapogi sa mga kapatid nating muslim abe gusto mo pa sen. gordon na kabitan ng isa pang sinag ang araw sa ating watawat? ano ba nangyari sa iyo?

kung inaakala mong ganun kadali yun na parang nagguguhit ka lang gamit ang lapis tapos buburahin mo pagkatapos sakaling di mo magustuhan eh nagkakamali ka. sagrado ang bawat sinag na nakapalibot sa ating araw.

alam nating nakipaglaban din ang ating mga kapatid na muslim nung panahon ng kastila, amerikano at hapon. sabi nga, nauna ang mga kapatid nating Muslim dito sa pilipinas. at alam nating lahat na ang buong bansa ay nakipaglaban upang hindi tayo masakop ng mga ganid na dayuhan.

isang malaking kahangalan kung babaguhin pa ang nasa watawat natin. ang araw, sampu ng bituin at ang kulay asul at pula sa ating watawat ay nanahimik tapos bigla na lang guguluhin nang hindi man lang pinag-isipan. mas marami pang bagay ang dapat asikasuhin. marami pang bagay ang dapat busisiin at napakarami pang bagay ang dapat pagtuunan ng pansin.

sakali mang dagdagan ng sinag, aalma din ang ibang bayan sapagkat kasali din sila sa himagsikan, mayroon ding ipinakipaglaban at higit sa lahat bahagi ng pilipinas.

kung nais mo lamang bigyan ng malinaw na representasyon ang mga kapatid nating muslim, hindi issue dito ang sinag sa ating watawat. sino ba naman ang may-ayaw ng pagkakaisa.

isipin mo ito sen. gordon, nanahimik ang mga kapatid nating Muslim. hindi kailanman pinakialaman ang watawat sa mahabang panahon o ang bawat simbolong nakapaloob dito. ikaw na mismo sen. gordon ang nagsindi ng mitsa upang magkaroon ng di-pagkakaunawaan ang bawat mamamayang pilipino.

8x

I've been in love. Not once, not twice but 8 times. But why I failed to meet the "man" for me?

I'm not saying "right" man because there's no such things as right or perfect. Maybe destined but I don't believe in destiny and soul mate. All I believe in is that with every choice you make, you'll be responsible for it, accept whatever it is.

I really don't believe in this saying or words that if you are lucky enough to have good job and family, you're not lucky when it comes to love. Life is not tagged with luck. So why do people keep on saying that or those?

Now, where is the guy for me? Where have you been all along?

Ang "hina" ko sa Globe!

Mag-iisang buwan na ang pagkaasar ko sa signal ng Globe.
Sobrang hina ang reception ng signal. Naisip ko na ang lahat
ng pwedeng isipin hinggil sa pagkakaroon ng signal ng Globe
sa cp ko. Una, inakala ko na sira ang phone ko. Subalit, mali.
Kabibili ko lamang ng cp kong 7210 Supernova nung Nobyembre
at talagang buong-buo ito dahil isinaksak ko ang ibang sim card
at punong-puno naman ng signal. Pangalawa, inisip ko na sira
ang sim card ko dahil on-off nga ang signal subalit mali ulit.
kasi nilagay ko sa ibang cp yung sim ko at may signal naman.
At kahit bukod tanging sa area ko lamang sa opisina wala akong
signal. At kahit sa garden malapit sa Rada St. in Legaspi Village,
wala talagang signal. At ang panghuli kong ginawa, tumawag ako
sa Customer Service ng Globe para ireport ang signal ko.

System Administration Failure daw? Ha? Ano un? Pinili daw
ng network provider na putulin ang signal sa ilang area ng Makati
dahil sa ginagawa daw ito. OK, tanggap ko na yung reason, ngunit
bakit bukod tanging ako lang ang walang signal sa office namin?
Isa pa sa area din ng Makati Square at Waltermart Makati, wala
talagang signa phone ko.

Tumawag ulit ako sa Customer Service ng Globe. Sinabi ng agent
na yung number ko daw kasunod ng iba pang number ay talagang
nakararanas ng signal interruption. Hay, hindi naman ganito dati.
Kabi-kabila yung pagpropromote ng Globe na pinalakas na ang kanilang
signal ngunit bakit may mga ganitong pangyayari?

Mahirap ang sitwasyon ko ngayon kasi gustuhin mang tawagan ako
ng mga mahal ko sa buhay at pati ang aking mga kaibigan at kaopisina,
hindi nila ako mare-reach dahil sa signal ng Globe ko.

Walang problema ang phone ko, walang problema ang sim, walang
problema sa area, Ang network provider lang talaga ang problema.

Sea, sand, the original mosquito,revengeful nit and suicide attempt at Guimaras

It was a very humid night. My alarm clock started to clamor as it struck 1:30 in the morning. I woke Louie up and we started to get dress and pack our things then, we headed straight to the nearest Select store at shell station in Rufino, Makati to eat noodles and had some fita bread. After eating those foodies we rode a cab bound to NAIA terminal 3.

I was excited. Nervous. A bit. Though I had made a crime and create some stories that I am sick so that I can take a trip (sometimes you need to lie just to get what you want—forgive me Lord) I still overcame the guilt and decided to come with Louie. While inside the cab, I stitched stories and dreamt of the marvelous get-away. At least, if someone asked me how far have I been then, I would have answered Iloilo. Yes! We’re going to Iloilo in Visayas. Moving on, we had reached our destination. We arrived in NAIA at 3am. I was pissed off cause the cab driver refused to give us our change. Maybe Manong was thinking we had lots of money cause we’re about to leave via plane and so I forgave him for that.

Louie’s colleagues were inside. I got a chance to meet them and of course it’s not easy for me to memorize all their names cause I’m not good with that. I only would remember you if you have done good or bad to me then I could say at least I have known you. We explored NAIA. Had been to the second floor, the mini stop and all, the washrooms, observing people how were they doing cause I guess 80% of people inside NAIA were leaving and the remaining would be their family or friends who happened to be their companion or what we called in Filipino as “taga-hatid”.

It was our first time to ride on a plane. It was also my first to see and deal with the airport personnel. I had learned that you could request for your seat say, you want to sit beside the window. But you could do that only if you came first for the check-in. What ever seat number I had, I don’t give a damn cause I was so excited to ride on a plane. We paid our terminal fee of Php 200, had the x-ray machine check our belongings and had ourselves inspected.

When we were about to board the plane, the cabin crew instructed us to go outside and use the rear door. Imagine, it was the three of us who happened to go downstairs and use the rear door instead. And who’s the other one with us? Well, a guy named Louie too.

We went inside and looked for our seat then checked my things. I switched off my phone and after a while, we were instructed to have our seat belts fastened. The flight attendant said we were about to leave so we have to watch them doing the safety precautions inside the plane. I was just wondering why the FAs failed to show their sweet smile and they all looked so serious. Maybe, they had a bad morning and they don’t feel like doing what they were doing.

I tried to sleep on the plane. My ears were getting heavy with air and it was so painful. I had a chance to see Manila at dawn while the lights were still lit on. Our flight was 5:45 in the morning and we were expected to be in Iloilo at 6:45. All in all, it was an hour flight to our destination.

We had reached Iloilo three minutes ahead of time. I grabbed my things and left the plane at once. Iloilo airport was small but it was so nice. We went outside the airport and I was awed to see people endorsing or selling something. What caught my attention was the “sexy Pamela” tag a woman used to show us on and it belongs to Louie’s co-worker named Pamela. After several negotiations with the shuttle driver, at last we were set off.

Bound to the port, I fell asleep and failed to see the city. I was awakened when Louie said we were on the place. I thought we would just stay in Iloilo but we were actually going to Guimaras. And how are we going to get there? Simply, we rode a water craft/motor banca to Iloilo. It was a 15 minutes ride to Guimaras and when we got there, negotiations with the multicab and jeepney drivers were staged. We need to hire either multicab or jeep at a cost of 400. But people there insisting we should pay 500 and more because all in all, we were 16 in number.

As expected, I slept again and been awakened when we reached the Alubhon market. Others went to the market to buy our food and I asked Louie to accompany me and looked for comfort room cause I really needed to pee. We went inside the market where we could smell dried fish. We asked the vendor for the nearest comfort room and we went there at once. Not bad at all cause the comfort room gave real comfort plus it’s clean.

Back to the jeep, we have talked and told stories about work and some personal tales. After an hour, we have reached the place—Raymen Resort in Nueva Vista in Guimaras, a place full of excitement.

We considered Pamela as the head of the group cause as the other members had said she was familiar with the place and all. Pamela together with Ate Helen and Ate Cris made arrangements for our rooms where we could stay until tomorrow.

The sight was fun and relaxing. The beach was marvelously beautiful. The sand was white as the ebb flowed. Everybody was excited to jump in to the sea and bathed while the sun kissed our skins. We feasted with lots of food—inihaw na lapu-lapu, paksiw na bangus, hotdogs on a stick, grilled liempo and chicken. We had laughs and much fun during our stay in the resort. We had lots of picture taking and until evening we were all happy. We also had met two foreigners from Sweden who were awed with the delightful taste of red horse beer and extra joss energy drink. Their names were Stefan Holm and Alex. They even ate dinner with us and stayed with us that night.

They planned to drink liquor and be merry. After eating our dinner, I decided not to drink. Louie and the rest of our friends drank near the bay and I just slept in our quarters. I felt strange that night that’s why I decided not to drink with them. Until, a strange thing happened.

Louie woke me up informing that Mike was missing. I didn’t know exactly what was going on and I presumed that he’s just wandering around. Louie went out of the room and I continued my sleep.

A loud, consecutive knocks woke me up and when I opened the door, Ate Wena, looking pale and sad, said that we had to go to the hospital for something bad had happened to Mike. Immediately, I went outside the room and saw a traumatic scene. Mike was lying. I thought he was dead. But when I heard him coughing, he was alive.

The story stirred clear to me when Smiley said that Mike was drinking with himself and got lots of booze that made him vomit and swam to the sea until he was nowhere to be found. Stefan saved Mike and Kuya Jun gave him first aid that’s why he was still alive.

People went panicked. I was on panicked. We brought Mike to the hospital. Manong said that there’s a nearest hospital and it took us half an hour to reach the said “nearest” hospital. We went to Guimaras Provincial Hospital. Pam, Kuya Jun, Louie and I went first to the information section of the hospital and gave details about what had happened. The doctor came and checked Mike. Luckily, if not with Kuya Jun’s first aid, maybe he was dead at the moment.

He was saved. Thank God. Louie and I helped by doing some errand in buying medicines in the pharmacy. Though it was already two in the morning, the pharmacy was open to serve us. Just knock on the door and you’ll get what you want. Then, Louie and I went back to the resort leaving Pam and Kuya Jun at the hospital.

At the resort, the group still continued to drink and wait for us for our news. They were all happy that Mike was saved but everyone got pissed off when they found out that Mike had planned to kill himself. Ate Cris was furious and even the rest of the group.

While drinking, they aired their side and posted their anger over Pam, Mitch and Mike. Mike failed to consider that he only got to the trip by using other’s name and even Mitch. Pam also had a full responsibility over Mike and Mitch but they let Mike did what he had to do. Mitch also never showed any care to Mike even they were friends. Those things and issues made us furious and tried our best to calm the situation.

Morning came and Pam, Kuya Jun with Mike went back to the resort. Everyone was silent and refused to talk over what had happened last night. In order to kill the issues, Louie joked about the mosquito in the hospital. He called it “original mosquito” for it was so big and what we had back to Manila were “fake” mosquito for it’s so small.

We decided to have island hopping so as to kill the boredom and to recover over last night’s trauma. We were so happy to see the sights, lots of islands plus the gossip and stories that the boatman had telling us. Even James and Kris honeymoon were in full detail and Judy Ann Santos shooting and Paolo Bediones getaway.

Islands had lots of stories. I heard that some of the islands in Guimaras were owned by German if not, retired US Navy and nun. Manong offered us to buy the island for 13 million pesos as well. And while we were sailing the deep blue sea, Manong kept on telling stories about the islands.

After our two hours island hopping, we hurriedly went back to our rooms and started to pack our things. We ate our last lunch at the resort and set off at two in the afternoon. We need to go back to the airport because of the 5:45 trip back to Manila. Luckily, Louie, and another Louie and me would take the last flight back to Manila.

While inside the jeep, I heard Cris and Belle were talking about a lady with a nit on her hair. Of course I knew who’s this girl would be (she’s the friend of the one who tried to spoil our night.) Sounds funny for me. Then I just uttered that “it” was her revenge because they kept on throwing issues to her. The revengeful nit it went. We just laughed. It also happened that while riding the jeep, her hair was blown by the wind and the girls were afraid of the strands of hair with nit. What if the nit travels to your hair? Then, eventually, we kept on laughing. We stopped to the market again and bought some Mangoes from Guimaras. I just bought unripe mangoes so that I could bring it home to Bulacan.

We had reached the airport. Of course for the last moment we had picture taking again. We bade goodbyes with each other and promised to keep in touch. Then the first batch flew off. Louie, me and the other Louie were taking the next flight and stayed at the airport and we just wandered and bought pasalubong and everything we liked. Louie bought me a fabulous native bag and we also purchased biscocho and piaya.

We flew back to Manila at 7:45 in the evening. While inside the plane, we had met a lady named Ms. Eva Padernal and she said she was a native of Iloilo and would come to Manila for a job. She was so talkative I dare said cause it happened that I had no chance to talk to Louie during our flight.

We had reached Manila at exactly 8:45 in the evening. It was an exciting trip for me.

waiting for your reply

i

i was reading the dailies

when my cellphone buzzed

an sms from an old buddy

asking "kmusta n po?"

and it made me wonder.



ii

after several minutes

i'm thinking if i would reply

then

another minute of thinking.



iii.

i just typed-in "i'm doing good."

and waited

for your reply

and it ended there

i guess.