Share in The Jester-in-Exile's Mindanao Experience!

Summary: I left a significant portion of my hypothalamus in General Santos City.

(Fine, fine, it's not as snappy as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", but it'll do, methinks. Me has no heart, you see tee hee hee)

Seriously, after sixty-one-and-a-quarter hours in Mindanao, I have memories to last quite a while.

"After a while", folks, because by hell and damnation I will go back for more visits than you can shake a stick at.

Fine. Enough of the pasakalye. On to the story.

***
And so here I am going to share with you good folks the jester-in-exile's Mindanao experience.

I loved it.

Leaving Luzon

After grabbing Ria's invitation for a non-Mindanawon blogger to speak at the Second Mindanao Bloggers Summit, I had to rush through what remained of my work week. It was during Kinosis' Thursday gig at Skylark Bar and Grill that I received a call from Boss Bariles himself, the illimitable Avel Manansala, and got my travel and itinerary details.

(By the way, folks, Kinosis' song "Sana" was voted last Sunday as the Stand-Out Track of the Week on NU107. On behalf of Angel, Chris, and Arnel, thanks very much for your support, everyone!)

Come Friday end-of-workday, I had to rush to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 from Makati. Thankfully, I made it to my Cebu Pacific flight on time -- but as is quite unsurprising for chaos central I had to "kontrata" the cabbie so as to get him to get me there on time through the traffic.

(Seriously, Makati cabbies? Heck, chaos central cabbies? They. Suck. Sweaty. Balls. Buti pa mga taxi sa probinsiya.)

It wasn't my first time to ride an airplane, although it was my first time to ride a domestic commuter flight, and my first time just so happened to be care of Cebu Pacific. Observations on the CebuPac flight from NAIA T3 to Davao International? The ticketing crew and the crew at the gate were rather brusque and/or condescending, but the cabin crew made up for that with their friendliness. The deluxe bus ride of Victory Liner from Cubao to Baguio seems to have better service and amenities than does the commuter flight, and the commuter flight's quality of service seemed to be at par with Victory Liner's ordinary aircon Cubao to Baguio bus' service (except that VLI has onboard movies instead of CebuPac's inflight "bring-me" games). Also, snacks were for sale and not complimentary; not really an issue for me (CebuPac being a budget airline) but the prices seemed kinda steep to me... fifty bucks for cup noodles? A hundred for a can of San Miguel? Susme, folks.

Well, it's a commuter flight -- a no-frills airborne bus.

(Oh, but this pissed me off, not about the crew, but the passengers: I saw quite a number of passengers not following basic instructions on seats being returned to the upright position on takeoff and landing, and bags being stowed either under the seat infront or in the luggage bins above. Pang-asar. Therefore, a suggestion -- perhaps not only should cabin announcements be made in English and Filipino; it may be useful to give a third spiel using the language of the destination airport.)

Our plane flew through the rain, and I was able to spot a few lightning flashes from a few kilometers away. Pity that I was in the seat between the aisle seat and the window seat, and as such was unable to get shots, let alone good ones.

Oh, and I need a better cellphone camera to do that too. Heh heh.

I spent the flight contorted in my seat trying to type notes for my presentation for 2MBS -- in the end, I wasn't able to get much done, not because of the contortionism but because of my excitement. First time in Mindanao? Gimme a "hell, yeah"!

First Night in Mindanao

The first thing I did before deplaning after our 8:15 PM-ish touchdown was to put on the floppy hat. Hey, I went to Mindanao as the jester-in-exile, and there was no way in hell that I wouldn't BE the jester-in-exile.

It was all I could do not to kiss the ground, thinking, "Mindanao! The fellow in the floppy hat has arrived! Moohoohahahaha!"

I wanted to dilly-dally a bit to take photos of Davao International Airport, but I knew that Boss Bariles had sent someone to pick me up, and with us having to travel back to GenSan I didn't want to be a nuisance passenger. So, as soon as I went through the arrival area, I looked for any indication that there was someone waiting for the jester-in-exile.

JM of gatorprojects.com was the first Mindanao cyberdenizen I met, and we shared a laugh over me not being the sort of person he was expecting (he said he was nervous, thinking that he was meeting a professional dressed in business attire, instead of the jester-in-exile dressed in uber-casual threads and a floppy hat with bells hahaha). Stowing my gear, I insisted on getting on the flatbed of the pickup truck so as to be able to soak in the sights, and while on the road we chatted quite a bit about Mindanao, Davao City, the Davao provinces, General Santos City, and whatnot.

(Oh, and he lent me his camera. FTW!)

We drove to this place called Basti's Brew and Coffee Station to pick up Blogie, a Mindanawon blogger I'd had the privilege of meeting in past blogger events in chaos central. I later learned that Basti's was pretty much Blogie's office haha.

(Of course, I say that with a great deal of envy -- not only are chaos central coffeeshops expensive, few of them have the free wifi connection that Davao City's establishments have. Kainis.)

Blogie stowed his gear in the pickup's cab and joined me on the flatbed (JM climbed in the front offside seat because it was getting a bit too cold for his comfort). I enjoyed quite thoroughly the data I was getting by picking Blogie's brains; if there's anything I like a lot, it would certainly include getting the unvarnished truth on matters that interest me.

Like, f'rinstance -- the main reason Davao City has become progressive and successful is today is not Rodrigo Duterte (although he has had a hand in it), but more of the Dabawenyos at large saying "enough!" to the things that blighted their fair city and getting together to do something about it. The Davao City Chamber of Commerce & Industry is vibrant and active, working hand in hand with the community and the local government, and they themselves have made the effort to change things. Heck, the Mindanao Business Council (did I get the name right?) seems to be a driving force for development and positive change in Mindanao even more so than some of the local governments.

One of the many things that we were able to discuss was that it doesn't help that mainstream media does not seem to give a fancy flying shit when they make mistakes that screw silly the average reasonable non-Mindanawon's perspective. Blogie and I spoke quite a bit on how mainstream media in general has dropped the ball on Mindanao reportage, focusing on the "sexy stories" of blood, bullets, bombs, and bodies. Heck, as I was told the next day, it seemed fairly callous of mainstream media to make distinct the good news of Mindanao as if good news from Mindanao was rare and therefore newsworthy, instead of giving the stories straight to the public simply as news.

We also talked quite a bit about the Mindanao economy and how the Philippine's major southern island's progress seems to be gravely underreported in favor of news of the conflict (the conflict that just so happens to be largely limited to the ARMM and not, as MSM tends to imply, the whole island). The economy of Mindanao is such that it is already contributing quite a significant amount of money to the country's coffers, by and large from the agricultural, aquacultural, fisheries, mining, and logging industries, but I am fairly convinced that the urban centers do have quite a lot of development opportunities for information and communication technology and light industrial manufacturing. Yes, folks, I'm convinced that we ain't seen nothin' yet.

We made a quick pit stop at a roadside coffeeshop (our driver had an early day, and the rather drizzly weather wasn't helping his concentration), and after a quick break we climbed into the pickup and went on our way. The Davao City-to-General Santos City road was of comparable quality to the Pangasinan-to-Baguio (via Marcos Highway) route. In the cab, Blogie continued his introduction of Mindanao, Davao City, and GenSan to me, and our conversation drifted eventually to the blogging phenomenon in Mindanao.

If there's anything I've learned from that conversation, it's these four things: ICT is one of the methods that will provide information that the "traditional gatekeepers of information" -- that is, MSM -- will not provide when they yet again drop the ball; ICT is one of the methods that can help galvanize a populace towards resolving issues and working towards a common goal, and; ICT is one of the methods that will help in promoting C2G/ G2C (citizen to government/ government to citizen) responsive governance. It was during that conversation where I felt a deep pride and a little bit of envy listening how engaged quite a number of local government officials are with their constituents, and how blogging was one of the methods of communication that enabled these officials and their constituents to work towards the progress of their communities.

This inspite of what seems to be callous neglect of the national government, of mainstream media, and of quite a number of outsider individuals, it seems to me. If anything, the success of Mindanawons is largely through their own efforts and by their own hard work; let nobody convince you otherwise, folks.

We arrived at the hotel Boss Bariles had so very kindly had me billeted in -- East Asia Royale Hotel -- and I was far too psyched to settle in and rest. Instead, I worked on my PowerPoint slides, a little bit of text, and even went down for a mo' just to get connectivity (there is no wifi in the rooms, bleh). Eventually, I made myself get a power nap to rest up for the Second Mindanao Blogging Summit.

The Jester-in-Exile Goes to the Second Mindanao Bloggers Summit

I got up early to get breakfast at the hotel's lounge, after which I went to the lobby to wait for my ride. There, I was able to engage the security guard on duty and a bellhop in conversation.

(Aside: at breakfast there was a power failure; later that day I learned that the hydroelectric plant at Maria Cristina Falls or something no longer had the capacity to serve the island, and it was when I was already leaving when I saw that Mindanao's space and near-absence of typhoons and severe bad weather would probably make it ideal for micro- and macrogeneration via solar fields... not sure about wind power viability, though.)

Interestingly enough, these folks are far more blog-aware (for lack of a better term) than their chaos central counterparts, it seemed to me, and they spoke of how blogging was probably the only information resource that had far more balanced reportage than that of the big media outfits based in Metro Manila. They spoke of how they hoped that 2MBS just might make the information dissemination on Mindanao facts and opinion better and more widespread.

I asked the guard what the 2MBS theme's translation meant -- the theme was "Mindanawon, Paminawon Intawon: Blogging the Mindanao Consciousness" -- and the guard said that it meant "Mindanawon, Let's Speak Out". I was rather tickled pink that the presentation I prepared for the Second Mindanao Bloggers Summit was in line with the theme. Great minds think alike moment, I was thinking nyahahahaha.

After a while, I asked the guard about particulars on the venue of the event, which was the Family Country Hotel and Convention Center. It turned out that it was near enough to walk to, so I sent a message to Boss Bariles that I decided to walk to the place. Going through the Gaisano Mall driveway, I eventually found myself at the venue, a quaint little place off one of the major thoroughfares of GenSan.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I was very nervous as I went into the venue. I greeted familiar faces like Blogie and Ria, and I finally met Avel in person. The welcome was so warm and sincere that my nervousness increased -- hey, it's not often I get to be in a gathering of warm, friendly folks -- so it was with a bit of trepidation that I prepared my gear and my mind for the little talk I was to deliver that morning.

A few minutes later, one of the hosts, Jo Lapore, approached me to get to know me enough to introduce me to the crowd. She's such a sweetie, let me just say; it was fun to watch as she and Migs hosted the event.

After the invocation and the national anthem (folks, shouldn't we just skip the invocation and go straight to the anthem? After all, such events are secular) Avel spoke first and gave a little overview of 2MBS and what to expect for the day. Blogie spoke next about the history of the Mindanao Blogging Summit, and it was only then that I learned that the summit begun from a brainchild of our favorite e-governance advocate Councilor Peter Lavina of Davao City. It was because of all the things I had learned previously and was learning then at the event that my nervousness increased. Seriously, I thought to myself, this summit isn't something to sneeze at.

Councilor Meg Santos then delivered Mayor Pedro Acharon, jr's welcome message to the participants -- it was interesting to hear the words of the mayor, who quite obviously saw how blogging can contribute to progress and governance. I did not know it at the time -- yes, friends, I am kinda leery of political types, as you know -- but I would learn later that the mayor indeed was sincere in his care for the welfare of his constituents and his concern for the online community.

Then I was introduced, and the fellow in the floppy hat went to the front and harangued the Mindabloggers for a bit tee hee hee. I messed up my final slides because I was enjoying the energy of the Mindanawons and their obviously deep love for their community and their strong pride of place. Ah well.

(Aside: I hope nobody puts up a video of my expletive-ridden talk heh heh. There are a couple of moments in the talk that brought smiles to the faces of the Mindabloggers, bless 'em, but I'm not too sure how I can tell the stories with humor. Heh. EPIC PHAIL.)

After my talk were the talks of Walter Balane of Istambay sa Mindanao and of Hector Minoza of Mindanaokini. I wasn't able to get much from their talks, as well as those of the rest of the speakers (thus, I urge you to visit Migs' blog for more detailed coverage of the event; I'll look for other coverage posts as well) because I was outside picking the brains of Millet "Khalela" Kaindoy, one of the GenSan's city government staff. We talked about everything I could think about regarding GenSan -- governance, education, economy, fighting corruption, environment, politics, the media, tourism, et cetera ad nauseam nyahahaha -- and quite frankly I got so much information unavailable because of MSM's underreportage and neglect that I thought it would be a good idea for the Filipino Voices crew to schedule a fact-finding trip to General Santos City. There's so much to learn from the "Generals", as they call themselves, and quite a bit of it are developmental programs that are success stories in their own right.

(I'm going to be sending an email to both Avel and Khalela to ask for more details on these things -- if anything, I'm fairly certain that I won't get much from the national networks and broadsheets on the topics Millet and I dwelt on for much of the whole day.)

One of the things I kept on emphasizing to the bloggers I had the good fortune to have conversations with was that the Mindanao blogging community have successfully gotten together and started what I believe to be a powerful information network; I kept on stressing that since that has been done it's time for the Mindabloggers to start connecting to the rest of Las Islas Filipinas and the rest of the world. Paminawon intawon, Mindawanon, ya know?

I hung out at the venue after the event to wait for the evening bloggers' fellowship, and begun to organize the photos and notes I made. After, I went inside and joined the Mindabloggers for sashimi night (yummy!), where a freshly gutted-and-gilled monster of a tuna (of which the locals assured me was still tiny for a tuna WTF) was sliced and diced for us.

It was then that Mayor Jun Acharon entered, and after the requisite photos, introductions, and such I was able to interview him for quite a bit. Unfortunately, this little pissasheet cellphone camera failed a number of times in the recording, such that you folks won't get the full measure of what I learned that evening: that Mayor Jun was an official concerned primarily with the welfare of his constituents, the development of GenSan, and the growth of the community rather than his personal political ambitions. Here are the only two videos that survived recording and transfer to YouTube (stupid little software conflict bleh):





After sashimi night, we had dinner and were treated to performances by the city government's own pop-rock/ contempo band GenRhythms and a theater outfit called Teatro Ambahanon. We pah-tayed for quite a long while, but since I didn't have any idea what was going to happen after the party, I left to walk back to my billet. I took some time at the lounge to write up a post, but ended up putting up a little album without captions before feeling the need to get a nap... which I needed since we had to get up early for the bloggers' tour of GenSan.

Thanks and linklove to the event sponsors:

CO-PRESENTERS:
Mayor Pedro B. Acharon, Jr.
Congresswoman Darlene Antonino-Custodio
NOKIA (Philippines), Inc.
Department of Tourism XII
ABS-CBN Regional Network Group
Bariles Republic
Mindanao Bloggers
Gen. Santos City Tourism Association
SOCCSKSARGEN Bloggers

GOLD SPONSORS:
Friendster
Globe
ACLC-Skeptron Ventures, Inc.
Grab A Crab Restaurant and Coffee Club 101
Gregoria Printing Press

SILVER SPONSORS:
NoKiAHOST.COM - P5/day Philippines Webhosting
Asia United Bank
Family Country Hotel & Convention Center
East Asia Royale Hotel
Fine Pixel Advertising
IDEAS

BRONZE SPONSORS:
GensanSALE.COM - AnyThings for Sale in Gensan
Blogging from Home Book
Pacific Seas Seafood Market
Generals Logimark Exponent
Prints and You
Writing Edge
Forest Lake San Carlos
Rolees Bakery & Cafe
International Container Terminal Services, Inc.
Jehzlau Concepts
Techykid.Com
JaypeeOnline.Net
Blue Media Communications
Shalom Wizard Academy
Dreamworld Travel and Tours
Sta. Cruz Seafoods, Inc.
Dellosa Design Build Services
Kristan Bookstore
Dole Philippines
Husky Bus Lines
Shakey’s Pizza
Family Brand Sardines
Gaisano Mall of GenSan
Chowking - KCC
Jollibee National Highway
Proctor & Gamble Philippines
Mega Sardines

Touring GenSan, The Day Trip

I got up early, had breakfast, and returned to the Family Country Hotel to rendezvous with the Mindabloggers for the GenSan tour. Getting there, I was able to speak with a number of bloggers regarding topics that I am admittedly not too good at -- you know, SEO, blog promotions, and whatnot -- but I hope I was able to convey accurately the things I learned from the masters of these topics.

We rode to the General Santos Fishport Complex in a convoy of four vehicles, but since I was not in seminarian sandals instead of shoes, I had to join another group of Mindabloggers. I was amazed at how large fish could be, and was even more amazed that the fish we saw were smaller than those that were brought in before dawn.

I ended up being a playmate of Josh, the three-year-old son of Iceah of Pinay Chicken Heart and Pastilan of Techno Techniques (both of whom just so happen to be friends with old college buddy Gemma of The Single Parent Talks. The little fellow and I were Calvin and Hobbes from the moment we toured the fishport's deepwater wharf, up until after our tour of Sarangani Highlands.

Sarangani Highlands (no website yet, pity) is a lovely little garden restaurant, I must say, and I urged Doc Abella, one of the proprietors, to have one made to give us northern denizens an idea of where we can go visit once we get a chance to fly south. She warmed to the idea; I suppose she realized that the average behavior of today's tourist is to Google about a place before planning one's itinerary, and having an online presence encourages visits.

Which gives me a good segue to something I want to emphasize for the sake of GenSan officialdom and the Mindanao people of the Department of Tourism: folks, you have to help these restaurants, hotels, and whatnot have an online presence, as well as perhaps providing incentives for local tourists to go visit Mindanao. Screw foreign tourism; there's not much you can do about all those rather uninformed travel advisories (and the national government doesn't seem to be of much help, as usual), so focus on helping us northern Pinoys visit your lovely island and find out about where we can go. I'm not sure if the local DOT have finally realized it yet, but the "long tail economics" approach will be of greater value to your tourism sector than focusing on them folks with the moolah to burn. Encourage your inns, bed-and-breakfast places, home stay-ins, budget restaurants, cheap transportation rentals and stuff to have an online presence so that we budget backpacking tourists will be encouraged to travel there and visit; heck, tap the local online community to provide means for these folks to get their own blogs and websites.

After visiting Sarangani Highlands, we toured Manny Pacquiao's residence (nice place, really; 'nuff said on that), and thence back to our billets. I took a nap as soon as I arrived to recharge a little for the evening.

GenSan after Dark

That night, I joined Avel, Blogie, Migs, Chattee (she's cute! tee hee hee), Bren (so is she nyaha), and Lyle (yeah, some say he's cute too, but I love only women; sorry, fellows wahaha) to Doc Abella's kind invitation to visit Sarangani Highlands during the evening. I wasn't able to take snaps of the ride to the restaurant that evening because Doc Ruiz (Doc Abella's partner in the restaurant) and I were talking up a storm about their wonderful place.

If you think Sarangani Highlands is pretty by day -- well, folks, the place is absolutely lovely by night. We spent a little bit of time before dinner to shoot a few photos before Boo, Doc Abella's guy Friday, ushered us to our table.

Dinner was delicious -- we had sinigang, pinakbet, and some chicken (I loved the sinigang and pinakbet -- just like gramma used to make, with the freshest ingredients to boot) -- and for dessert we had a lovely salad that I will personally recommend to you (whose name escapes me now, darn it! It was so good that I wasn't paying much attention to Boo -- sorry man heh heh -- because I was savoring the wonderful fruit flavors and the secret dressing). After dinner, we took a bit of time to take more photos of the place -- I tell you, Lyle and Chattee are quite the serious shutterbugs.

We left Sarangani Highlands for Coffee Club 101, where Lyle and Avel had an impromptu blog optimization session. I stayed outside for a bit to work on photo uploads and captions -- and a bit of chikatime with Councilor Meg (she recognized me! Shucks, I was tickled pink, let me tell you tee hee hee) -- before joining the Mindabloggers inside. You know something, Starbucks denizens? Your coffee place has nothing on Coffee Club 101, having better quality drinks at half the price, nor on its baristas, who are far friendlier than quite a number of chaos central Starbucks counter people.

It was a bit after midnight when we left Coffee Club 101... I felt kinda blue by the time I reached my billet, realizing that I had but a few hours left in Mindanao.

Leaving Mindanao

I had to take the first return flight of Cebu Pacific from the General Santos City Airport back to NAIA.

'Nuff said. There wasn't anything I like to remember about coming back to chaos central... except that I've promised myself I will find a way to visit Mindanao again.

Repeatedly. And often.

The end.

***
That's how my weekend went, folks.

Padayon, Mindabloggers! I hope to return soon.

Now to craft my thank-you letter to the GenSan officialdom. Later, all.



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