STILL in Mindanao.
After Cagayan de Oro, my travel companions and I proceeded to Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay, which was carved out of Zamboanga del Norte in 2001. One of those instrumental in the formation of the new province was Atty. Bogs Din, who is married to Josette (nee Marquiala, as is BFF Noreen).
The Dins decided to make Ipil their home, and run a number of concerns there. One of them is Sibugay Express, the local newspaper. It also for years in the 2000s carried a previous weekly column by yours truly, “Paradigm Shift.” As did SunStar Baguio, of course.
The visit to Ipil was preceded by a brief side trip to Subanon to visit Marquiala sibling Marion, a professor married to a Subanon princess who had just been confirmed as the mandatory Indigenous Peoples Representative to the local government of their area.
What we saw of Subanon was all hill, dale, and green fields. As the evening came on and we sped to Ipil, the mountains visible from the road were as shadows mysterious, with many a secret hiding in them.
Ipil was a quiet town we were informed has many Ilocano settlers. Our hosts, Atty. Bogs and wife Josette, regaled us with stories of goings-on worthy of a telenovela. Perhaps they can find their way into a story I will one day write up as fiction.
It will include stops at checkpoints in a Mindanao under martial law, foreigners in danger, a love triangle turning into another love triangle, an almost lost laptop, and twists and turns worthy of a Ricky Lee screenwriting workshop.
It will include that in Marawi, there is not a single newspaper because as MSU Regent Cecile Maubay put it, “The people from Marawi don't like bad news.” Ergo, Marawi is a city of tarps. How so?
Every square meter of roadside in Marawi has tarpaulins. Tarpualins that announce graduations, board passings, board top-notchings, licenses earned, births, deaths, and – believe you me -- everything but everything in between. I would not be surprised if a tarpaulin in Marawi announced the passing of a dear or even inconsequential pet. As news media outlets in Marawi, Tarps. Rule. This phenomenon is by itself worthy of a serious academic paper!
As is the manner with which announcements are made, wherein whom the announcement is about carries all his/her names in the announcement. i.e., in MSU, there was an announcement about Annika Fatma Marmay Macaayong Watamama Biston Habib.
Marmay is Annika Fatma's mother's father's family name. Macaayong is Annika's father's father's family name. Watamama is her father's mother's family name. Biston is Annika's mother's mother's family name. A long way to Habib, I say.
See, this is part of why there has to be a Bangsamoro Organic Law. Give THAT some thought was we bid “Hasta la Vista!” to a Mindanao seen through road trip for bakets.
Next week, Canada.