Andap souvenirs featured in fund-raising dinner

THE new craftsmen of San Antonio de Padua Parish of New Bataan in Compostela Valley raised enough funds for their initial woodworking tools under the "Andap ng Liwanag" project by a group of friends from Davao City who taught residents how to belonging to the basic Christian community of Barangay Andap how to make crafts from the debris around them.

Initiated by friends gathered by sculptor Kublai Millan, the expertise in working with wood for furniture and furnishings by businessman and furniture designer Jon Traya was shared to the community through parish priest Fr. Edgar Tuling.

Sunday Essays: Spider fighting: For adults not kids?

AROUND ten years ago in the Philippines, spider fighting or “pasabong ug damang” in Bisaya is a favorite pastime for kids especially boys. The kids will usually look for spiders and put it on matchboxes to bring it to various friendly matches in their community and even at school. Whoever wins the fight will receive another spider as a payment for losing the match. However, nowadays, it is not only played by kids but is also played by adults with money at stake.

Spiders are mistakenly classified as insects but the truth is they are not. These spiders belong to the class of the Arachnids such as scorpions and it usually hunts for insects as its food.

Sunday Essays: In the red light district

THE phenomenon of prostitution has now become more prevalent in Davao.

According to Talikala Incorporated, a non-government organization, an estimated number of 400,000 to 600,000 women and children are bought and sold for prostitution here and abroad.

Reflection

"PERSEVERE, honest and dignified." That's how I described the characteristics of a journalist. The profession that serves as the eye and the voice of the society, this is journalism.

A special program about to end

FOUR years of being in the curriculum means four long years of writing for truth and telling only the truth.

I've never been in the world of Journalism before, not until entered high school. High school gave me more opportunities among which was the special program in journalism where I learned to write news, feature, and editorials and write them as many times as I can.

Learning

"LEARN as though you would never be able to master it; hold it as though you would be in fear of losing it." -- Confucius

I once joined the school paper in my elementary days. But I never thought that I would continue that in my high school days. I don't know when what I was doing made me a campus journalist. I don't know where I got my passion for writing.

Preparing the young for climate change

MARIO Bantilan, an informal settler at the bank of the Davao River along Jade Valley Subdivision, Barangay Tigatto was almost in tears as he narrated how he and his family almost died when the river overflowed in January.

“My family and I were awakened from deep slumber by the sudden upsurge of water from the river that swallowed our house fast,” he said in the vernacular pointing on a muddy space where his shanty once stood. All their belongings and working tools were carried by the rushing water.

Lent, prayers, Carmelite Monastery

FOR the believers and devotees, nothing beats the power of prayers. As Mahatma Gandhi puts it, prayer is not asking; it is the longing of the soul.

In the coming Lenten season, the Roman Catholic Church and the Catholic devotees will be in full prayers again as they start preparing for the Ash Wednesday on February 13 signifying the first day of Lent, the season of preparation for the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

Sunday Essays: Crystal and leaves

IN ANY city in any world, drug abuse is a problem. No matter how developed or poor a country is, drug abuse is always present. Anybody can be addicted to illegal drugs, minors, people of age, even senior citizens. A vice so flexible and available is a vice difficult to quit. Illegal drugs, their trafficking and usage isn’t simply a crime, but is also a social issue.

Davao City has its own share of drug problems, and has agencies dedicated to stopping them. Davao’s success in its anti-drug campaign however still remains a question.

Sunday Essays: Blinking traffic lights

THE traffic signal light system of Davao City started as a dream for former mayor Rodrigo Duterte. In his inaugural speech as mayor last June 30, 2004, Duterte said that this project would be achieved before his term would ends. True enough, before his term ended, the city implemented its traffic system with road sensors and CCTV cameras.

According to the City Information Office, the implementation of the traffic light system has undergone three phases. Phase 1, which costs P140 million, was the signalization of 29 intersections including civil works and cable layout. This phase also included the widening and pavement marking and installation of traffic regulatory, warning and guide signs.

On-the-job: Learning is fun at Sun.Star

by Noah Villocino

TO BE honest, I wasn’t able to absorb the ideas and information Ma’am Stella taught us because I was late during the first day of our OJT. But my classmates told me that she was a great adviser. She could make them laugh, and she could make them absorb things easily.

On-the-job: Telling the story

by Jane Mathelda Ebero

THE world of journalism is telling a story but demands appropriate information. And like any other it requires clear writing. Get what's important then write. There are things we should remember in clear writing.

On-the-job: Journalism: a career path

by Hazel Mae P. Villegas

AS WE enter the building of one of the most prestigious newspapers here, we see an ordinary office workplace where there are piles of papers under desks and lots of computers and comfortable chairs facing these. But what’s unusual is that most of the chairs are unoccupied, meaning the people are not yet around and it’s already 10 a.m., an office hour.

Conservation work isn’t easy

IT WAS a short walk by normal standards, less than an hour up. Except that the forest floor was teeming with leeches.

Unprepared for that, I was in trekking shorts and sockless Sanuks. It made the trek literally creepy, I was trekking like some pro on a trail jog.

Journey to my dreams

IT WAS April 28, 2012. Rome, as summer breaks, was swarming with tourists from all over the world. The seat of the Holy See – the Vatican – is the center of attraction for here lies the biggest cathedral in the world, the St. Peter’s Basilica, and in here too are kept priceless pieces of work of art, carved in and from marble stones and brushed by world renown artists among them Michelangelo and his legions of students and contemporaries.

Here too are preserved ruins of the glory that was Rome ‘which sat on the seven hills and from her throne of beauty once ruled the world’.

Seeing it first hand

EVERY step collides with every breath I take while absorbing the fact that I actually am seeing the place the news around the city are processed.

Having been studying about journalism for four years was already such an amazing experience but experiencing what it is like to be in a newsroom is so much better. I can see every cubicle where the writers process their stories and I think to myself, I just might be in that cubicle some day.

Fun, after the panic

SATURDAY morning, the clock apparently sensed that I was in a hurry. It stopped working as I rushed to prepare, as if an earthquake was ripping through our house.

I rushed downstairs to fix my things and then left the house right away. I had to suffer through the scorching heat of the morning, I felt relief upon finally getting a cab.

Sunday Essays: Increasing HIV cases

UNPROTECTED sex is the main route of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. People living with HIV may appear and feel healthy for several year, but the virus is already there.

From 1984 to 2010, there were 4,971 HIV Ab sero-positive cases reported in Davao. Seventy-five percent were males.

Sunday Essays: A life well lived

IN TODAY’S world, people who are 24 years and even older usually haven’t done much. They either live their lives trying to pretend to be someone they are not or just let themselves ride the flow of life. Seldom could we meet a person who seemed to be great at everything. Seldom could we meet a person that we could consider a perfect gentleman, brother, son, student, and friend. Seldom could we meet someone like Labrador Jalandoon Jr.

Marshland in distress

WE ENTERED the Agusan Marsh to listen to the stories of how the Manobos who live there in floating houses survived the December typhoon. We heard more than that.

Yes, there were stories of big waves in what was normally quiet lakes and marshes, and the wind that was whirling in full view contrary to what they have been told from childhood that you cannot see the wind. There was illegally cutting of endangered species of trees, 100 of them in fact that a community confiscated but which the one claiming to be its owner is doing his best to grab back. The more distressing fact being that the person is a barangay captain of one of the marshland people. Then there was also their long malingering problem of steady inflow of river waters from Agusan River that is now killing the marshland trees.

Poverty and abundance

POVERTY and abundance. Two opposing words yet equally real to one school that looks like a nipa hut if not in its faded name posted unperturbed in one corner of the amakan-designed wall.

While Barangay Dahican is known on its stunning crescent-shaped white sand coastline facing the Pacific Ocean, a silent but crowded elementary public school lies in the middle of the urban poor.

That feeling when you are talking to the EIC of Sun-Star

RIGHT in front of you, there she is Stella Estremera --- lecturing about the world of Media. It was such a great experience.

February 09, 2013: Our school -- Davao City National High School and the special Program for Journalism (JPJ) Organization Conducted and OJT for fourth year JPJ students and on that first day alone, we experienced things beyond our expectations. Sun. Star Davao, a community newspaper, the biggest here, welcomed us with warm hearts.

Knowing the different media

EVERY day we get a lot of news and information from people talking about the hot issues inside and outside the country. Despite our busy schedules we manage to listen and watch timely news. News and information is part of our everyday life.

Through the print, TV, and radio we know the everyday life of others. We know the lifestyle of famous people, the victories of Filipino athletes in national and international and international competitions, tragedies, and stories of ordinary people who stand out for one reason or another.

Reporters and journalists

WE WERE to undergo an On the Job Training one Saturday in compliance with our journalism subject before we graduate. Sighs. I went to the assigned place half-heartedly. I was afraid I won’t do anything good since writing isn’t really my forte. But I was wrong.

My friends and I are fortunate to have an open discussion with the Editor-in-Chief of Sun.Star Davao, Ma’am Stella Estremera. As we went on with our discussion, I realized something crucial, that in my four years of studying, I had forgotten to ponder over.

Sunday Essays: A noble way to die

“IN THE end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

This quote, made popular by an American president, greatly summarizes the life of the well-loved Jonaf Ortojan.

Sunday Essays: How Nanay Wienda survived Pablo’s wrath

THE traumatic experience of a Typhoon Pablo survivor kept her sleepless for weeks. A Baganga, Davao Oriental native Nanay Fredes Wienda Tripole, 53, still remembers the frightening evening when tropical storm Pablo hit their hometown and wrecked their livelihood.

Her husband, Romeo, 67, and her two grandsons Clinton Jon, 11, and Kirk Anthony, 15, experienced the same nightmare.

Watersheds, our treasures

THAT our city can still boast of biodiversity that other cities have long lost is a pride our generation and the future generations can hold dear, but only for as long as each preceding generation takes care of it for the next generation to enjoy.

This is apparent in the biodiversity found in the Talomo-Lipadas and Panigan-Tamugan watersheds in a study conducted by the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) as commissioned by the Interface Development Interventions Inc. last year.

A Kublai outside Mindanao

ARTIST Rey Mudjahid “Kublai” Ponce Millan is known as a Mindanaoan sculptor who builds huge monuments all over Mindanao.

But every once in a while, he goes out to build similarly imposing artworks, like this one in Iloilo City at the LifeBank Rural Bank of Maasin (Iloilo), Inc. in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo.

Sunday Essays: Republic of family affair

POLITICS the Philippines should, like as any part of the world, be about leadership. Not a family affair.

Philippines is enjoying the privilege of being democratic. We have all the rights which a citizen deserves to have and that includes the right of holding a public office.

Sunday Essays: False façade or true public service

ARTICLE II, section 26 of 1986 Philippine Constitution states that, “The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties may be defined by law.”