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Published: October 21st 2007
Spanish Day
Enjoying the posher side of life with Maria at the Spanish Ambassadors residencePlenty of excitement this month with a visit to the Manila (the big city!), a rebel raid on the local police station and more illegal mining to report on.
First up because it’s the best picture is a visit to Manila. From here in the provinces the big city is a big deal. A whole week of luxuriating in hot showers, chocolate, wine and good food! The flip side is choking on the pollution and crowds.
The Local Government Unit that I work for was invited to give a presentation at a Geographic Information System (GIS) conference in Manila. I volunteered to do it - no one else wanted to! The conference was organised by ESRI and their Philippine distributors. My presentation was about our experience of using GIS as a tool in the FLUP project I worked on last year. For the presentations we were in breakout rooms so only about one third of the 200 delegates were watching. I got a nice plaque of appreciation (what will I do with that?) and a good book for my efforts. The best moment was at the cocktail reception when the delegates dived on the buffet with sharpened elbows devouring
Digging for gold
Not a very big hole yet but they grow! it like piranhas in a feeding frenzy!
I wasn’t in Manila on my own, Maria was there as well. She was able to come to the conference and I was able to go to the event she was there for - a reception at the Spanish Ambassadors residence to celebrate Spanish Day. The residence is in a gated village called Forbes Park, the smartest address going. The guards on the gate were very confused as we walked in asking directions - where was our driver?? As we walked through the village cars kept coming past with police escorts and flags on the bonnet, yes those were the other guests! When we got there it was a lovely open air buffet setup with gentle music, sofas set round the swimming pool and lots of very dressed up people. The speeches were wonderfully short, the food and drink excellent. The invite said 2 hours we stayed 5 and in true volunteer fashion were the last to leave.
Travelling back from Manila was a jolt back to real life as I spent a night sleeping on the floor in the ferry terminal waiting for a boat. The 11pm sailing didn’t. The
Sacks of money?????
These sacks of rock are carried about 30 minutes by hand to the roadside for 1 peso (less than 1 penny) per kg. 5am sailing overslept. At 8:30am we got on board I found a bench and went to sleep again, when I woke at about 10 the scenery hadn’t changed. What’s amazing is that no one seemed bothered, no complaints just quiet acceptance.
Now the excitement! At the end of September the police station next to my office in Cantilan got raided by the NPA - that’s the armed communist rebel movement. The raid was carried out on a Sunday lunchtime. About 40 ladies and a couple of kids (all armed even the 10 year old) burst into the police station shot a couple of the police officers and made off with a swag bag full of arms and ammunition. About 20 guns mostly M16s, a few thousand rounds of ammo and even grenades. Other groups setup road blocks on the roads into and out of town. No civilians were injured or targeted, the police officers were only injured. No more action since then its gone back to being a sleepy town. You can read a full (official) report at http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&sec=reader&rp=1&fi=p070927.htm&no=10&date=
Back in the forest we got tipped off about another illegal mining operation looking for gold in the hills.
Strangely there is no hostility my colleague Rommy and I turn up at these illegal sites - no one believes that anyone will do anything to regulate anyway so why worry about being secretive! In this case we were told that a permit has been applied for although not issued yet. Application is considered a rubber stamp process which up to now is probably true. I have been asked to help draft a mining policy for the Local Government Unit which should pass into law and through that we will hopefully tighten up the regulation of these activities.
My final topic this month is a bit of a charity fundraiser. Ibuan is a small village of about 70 households located up in the forest. It’s an indigenous peoples community at the poorest and most disadvantaged / discriminated against end of the scale. But the people are also some of the warmest, most welcoming and friendly I have ever met. They have a small primary school in the community which does some adult education as well. The school struggles with very poor funding even relying on volunteer teachers. (Viv will remember visiting here - possibly the only white lady ever
to have done so)
So here is the idea - instead of going out and buying me a nice Christmas card, postage to the Philippines etc what I would like is donations for Ibuan primary school! Via my next blog in late November the children and teachers will send you all a seasons greetings message. In return they need some new textbooks which we can buy here cheaply and easily if we have some money. One book costs the same as one nice card!
If anyone knows a school or group that would like to exchange greetings send me a message!
Now the practicalities, I cant use Just Giving because we are not talking registered charity so unless anyone knows another way what I suggest is: For internet bankers I can send you my UK account details by email, for people who prefer cheques they can go to Mum and Dad in Bournemouth. Around Christmas (probably just after) I will total up, convert pounds into pesos and take the head teacher shopping, then report back with a blog from the handover ceremony. Simple!
That’s all for this month. I hope everyone is well (no winter flu
The school entrance
The head teacher on the right in black with some of the children from the school yet) and whatever you are doing wherever you are its going well.
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Ross
non-member comment
Books vs Cards
Nice plan Matt - my inner Scrooge has always despised Christmas cards as utterly meaningless and a waste of perfectly good trees (I'm sure you've got a view on that!). Now I feel invigorated to fight the enforced jollity of a hijacked pagan festival with my own brand of drunken grumpiness that I feel suits the occasion much better...