Weathering the tides: newspaper readership in the Philippines and Myanmar

A typical newspaper stand in the Philippines, with people barely taking a glance on what’s news for today. (Mick Basa)

Down in Davao, a city in Southern Philippines, a class in a university pass the hat to acquire an Internet domain and web host package for their journalism project: an online news site.

Their project has never been done by previous batches of mass communication majors. The school’s idea was to prepare them into what journalism has turned into today. And the whole idea of migrating from traditional media projects like a newspaper is a reflection of what some mainstream journalists in the Philippines are doing.

Jefrey Tupas, then correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer for 8 years, is setting up an online news outfit NewsDesk which would be launched come February. He says it’s a realisation of a long-desired platform run by journalists and media workers themselves. Poor and delayed remuneration by big news organisations to provincial correspondents have been a long-standing issue.

“Most of us felt being in a network, funded by media capitalists, was limiting what we are and what we can supposed to do,” he lamented.

Their team is experimenting on what particular business model NewsDesk would operate and Tupas says “we still do not know how we will go through it.”

“We have started from scratch so we are banking on the help of friends. Some are philanthropic enough to help us. But everything came from our own pockets. We are exploring this idea where community will fund the coverage on a certain issue,” he says.

Looking for a lucrative business model is something Carmelito Francisco, editor of Mindanao Times, does not have to worry about, at least for now, as he believes the Philippine media print media industry has continued to thrive unlike what’s happening in Western countries where newspaper readership has dramatically declined.

“The community newspapers can still grow by concentrating on affairs of their host communities,” said Francisco.

With a circulation of 10,000 in Davao, the daily community newspaper competes with three other local dailies, Sun.Star Davao, Mindanao Daily Mirror and Edge Davao, which just recently began publishing from a weekly business newspaper into a daily community paper.

Like Mindanao Times, Sun.Star and EdgeDavao publish an e-copy of their newspaper online to remain relevant in the long time, says Francisco.

“There is no drastic change in so far as readership is considered. But there is already, although gradual, an interaction between the media and their readers (both print and online) and we must sustain this not only to continue attracting these readers but also because this will result in better bottom line,” he says.

But Francisco admits community newspapers have had a hard time as advertisers are shifting to online media.

“Many advertisers even turned to bloggers (many of them pretend to be legitimate journalists),” he said.

Times are changing, he says, and traditional media have to adapt so a newspaper with a developed, interactive website, can sell itself in a wholesale manner to advertisers.

“Remember that in all of media, newspapers have the credibility so with its updated website itself. Of course, many, if not all, newspapers rely on advertisement as not one has existed because of subscription,” he said.

Francisco says there has been no drastic change in readership, although figures have shown a decline in newspaper readership in the Philippines.

In 2006, Raymund Mercado, spokesperson for the Newspaper and Magazine Dealers Association in the Philippines, noted that readership in the Philippines decline by 10 percent a year, saying “fewer young people are buying papers and that older people are getting their news from the net or TV.”

This trend prompts many to jump into conclusions that Filipinos are not “readers” when it comes to news and information consumption.

But Philippine audiences have found Internet to be a better conduit as most of the content they can access online is free.

This is why more and more online news organisations in the Philippines have started to emerge. Last year, Maria Ressa, former senior vice-president of ABS-CBN News and Curent Affairs, left the Philippines’ biggest news network and started her own social news site Rappler.com, producing video newscasts and documentaries as well as the usual text and picture stories you see on online sites. But it does not run a TV channel or a radio station. She calls it convergence.

(Video courtesy of European Journalism Centre)

Because of this trend, newspaper sales have declined due to increased competition from television and Internet, says Francisco.

Meanwhile, the Philippines ranks fourth highest time spent per visitor on social networking sites in the world, with an average of 7.9 hours, only behind Israel (10.7), Russia (10.3) and Argentina (8.4). And news organisations here have utilised social networks to drive traffic to their online sites.

“Social media can be both a threat and support. The traditional media must and should use it to its advantage rather than fear it. Updating content through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and the like can enhance the delivery of news,” he says.

“But one good thing about all of this will be compelled to enhance themselves so they cannot be left alone.”

In Myanmar, social media have been working well to the advantage of newsrooms.

Le Yi Myit, senior reporter of The Voice Weekly, one of the two weekly news journals suspended in July 2012 by Myanmar’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) for allegedly violating government regulations, says reporting about natural calamities have been efficient as their audience get the information fast through their Facebook page.

“Sometimes people need to know the information (such as earthquake and flooding) as fast as possible. That’s why we can’t be competitive by circulating on print alone,” says Myit.

And for one, engaging with audience through social media is still a challenge in Myanmar, with efforts to modernise the country’s telecommunications legislation in the works. Phones are also expensive (starting $285) and not to mention – slow Internet speeds.

So Myit believes people in Myanmar will continue to read newspapers as the traditional medium is an ideal conduit to discuss in-depth reportage, something Soung Oo Ko Ko, editor of YC Online News, agrees.

Myanmar’s private newspapers can only publish weekly journals. The government recently announced it would begin issuing licences to private-owned newspapers before they could publish their dailies this April.

Myit says newspaper readership in Myanmar will continue to thrive. Their journal, he says, publishes nearly 100,000 copies. He says the figures significantly climbed after the 2010 elections and the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“But now, there is another set of challenges for print media such as competition, talent, market and distribution for the coming daily newspapers,” says Myit.

Censorship in Myanmar loosened up when the government began reforming media regulations in August. So private newspapers like The Voice Weekly no longer have to go through the regulatory board before printing.

But Myit believes as long as there is a need for in-depth and critical journalism, “I don’t think print is going to die.”

“Social media will be able to upload short news immediately. But it cannot publish news analysis,” says Ko.

(A report by Mick Basa, Nay Aung Khine and Wendekhar / Asian Centre for Journalism)

Tawi-Tawi: Journey to the Philippines’ westernmost frontier

BONGAO, Philippines – Never mind being stuck in an island where electricity and mobile phone network coverage is bleak. In Tawi-Tawi, disconnection from the normal routine is the only path to savour this place endowed with horizons of untouched white shores.

It’s the Philippines’ westernmost frontier and locals can spot first-timers in a breeze: visitors’ faces light up as they gaze at the beaches and the majestic Bongao peak, a sloping stretch of elevated land patched with trees that makes the provincial capital stand out from its two hundred other islands. In early mornings, low clouds cover the hill’s crest that resemble a flower horn cichlid’s forehead, best seen at the Sandbar resort, where facing against the Bongao peak is another breath-taking view of the white sand beach.

Literary named for its geographical isolation from any other places in the country, Tawi-Tawi comes from the Malay word “jauh” which means far. But its moniker no longer holds true today. Travelling to Bongao from Zamboanga City is now a 50-minute journey by air – although many of the locals opt to travel by boat that reaches the Chinese port overnight. Traders bring with them Malaysian noodles, canned goods, cereals and coffee from Zamboanga.

But perhaps its geographic isolation (cartographies ten years ago don’t have a detailed map of Tawi-Tawi) is what makes it exotic and deeply inviting among tourists aside from the ambition to have a picture taken with the sandbar in Panampangan at the background.

There aren’t too many tourists here, Salvacion Pescadera, the province’s tourism head, told us. “People fear Tawi-Tawi because it’s part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.”

New-found friends at the refurbished Sheik Makhdum Mosque (Photo by Jojie Alcantara)

What negative notion, I asked. Every people we meet at the market and villages joyfully respond to the Islamic “as-salamu alaykum” greeting. The warm friendly reception is even felt more in mosques where devoutly religious Muslims, such as those at the Sheik Makhdum Mosque, spend most of their time reading the Quran. Islam was said to have first reached here in 1380, manifested by the mosque named after Sheik Karimul Makhdum that humbly stands before Bajau homes perched on stilts.

“Tourism officers in the province work hard to correct the negative notion,” she said.

Hard work must have been reaping rewards for the province. If there aren’t many tourists flocking Tawi-Tawi, then the fully booked Cebu Pacific I rode one Monday morning, which landed Sanga-Sanga airport, could have just been a dream.

Fresh catch at Bongao’s wet market

And the sight of exotic fresh catch displayed at the Bongao market was equally dream-like. It is amazing to witness how vendors and customers trade without those weighing scales which most people worry it’s helping sellers rip off buyers. Here, Lapu-Lapu is sold for P200 per dozen, Yellow Fin Tuna for P50 per five pieces and Sting Ray for P100 per piece.

Of course, only fools would look forward to seeing concrete jungles in Tawi-Tawi. This isn’t a place to search for man-made structures – except for the sacred Mosques that are marvellous to look at while the Islamic call to prayer fills the air. There are no malls but there are groceries and small trading centres downtown. But majority of the province’s trade happen at the port area where one could find food stalls, pawnshops and currency exchange stalls at every part of the streets.

It’s proximity to Sabah, the Malaysian Borneo, has influenced Tawi-Tawi’s culture. Here, you would find Bahasa Malaysia to be a useful language as many of its people speak it aside from the widely spoken Tausug and Sama.

Tourism in Tawi-Tawi is on its infancy stage, Salvacion tells us, as promoting this group of more than 200 islands to Filipino and foreign tourists are coupled with a laboured explanation that it is, indeed, safe to be here. But this place could be the Philippines’ next top tourist destination when it reaches at the ripe stage. Anyone going here will cherish being the tranquillity of the province, a gift to this place barely reached by many. The absence of urbanity is offset by the warmth of its people, eager to listen to tales of the tourists of how they have fell in love with their hometown at first sight.

For now, this westernmost Philippine frontier shall wait patiently for its influx of tourists whose ambition would be to tick an item off their bucket list.

(Published in M Magazine’s Dec. 2012 issue)

Plastic ban stifles Philippine vendors

DAVAO CITY — Agdao Public Market is fringed with long queues every morning. These are not eager shoppers. They’re vendors waiting to get their daily ration of biodegradable plastic bags.

“It’s really hard, we have to adjust to the whims of the cellophane trader. They (traders) only gives us two packs for each of us,” said Josalle Linasam as she plucks the leaves of spinach she sells in her stall.

Linasam, 31, has been lining up everyday for the past two weeks for her 100 bags, ever since Davao banned non-recyclable plastic bags.

“So when sales are high, we would run out of plastic bags because it’s not easy to just buy more,” Linasam lamented.

Davao lawmakers passed the ban on non-recyclable plastic in 2009 but the city only started to enforce it this year. Anyone caught breaking the law pays a fine of P300 (US$7.16). 139 violators were punished two days after the ban was implemented, news reports here said.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) says the bulk of garbage in waterways, mostly plastics in 2011 reached 17,087 kilograms.

“And it’s exactly why this kind of plastic is prohibited. When disposed improperly, they clog the waterways and cause flooding when there’s torrential downpour,” said Jim Sampulna, DENR’s regional chief in Southern Mindanao.

Joseph Felizarta, Davao’s environment officer,pointed to another reason to ban nonbiodegradable plastic: to lessen the impact of climate change since it releases dioxin, a highly toxic compound.

“If nonbiodegradable plastics are also thrown into sanitary landfills, it produces methane gases,” Felizarta added.

But the bid to deal with climate change and pollution is also creating unintended consequences.

“Our expenses have increased and we are facing a deficit,” said Linasam.

At the Bankerohan market, a thirty-minute jeepney ride from Agdao Public Market, vendors echoed the same sentiment. Fruit vendor Cinderella Ronquillo, 62, says her profit “now goes to the (biodegradable) plastic.”

Two packs of 50 cellophane bags, says Ronquillo costs her P64 (US$1.51) a day. Two packs of nonbiodegradable plastic would only cost P40 (US$0.96). Now, the premium she pays is cutting into her average daily income of P780 (US$18.64).

Small traders talk about how they’ll make ends meet. Now they wonder whether the law is there to help the environment — or just to single out wet market vendors who struggle to put food on the table.

“We can’t do anything. We have to follow it or else we will have to pay fines,” said Linasam.
(Mick Basa/Asian Centre for Journalism)

Philippines fortune tellers

At the heart of Manila lies, Quiapo, the old downtown. Home of the Quiapo church. And the place where some of the most unusual trades can be found. Fortune telling is one of them.

I met Vivian Alcares sitting before a table filled with decks of cards, patiently waiting for customers under an unforgiving midday sun. Telling fortunes to strangers for decades, she says it’s been her way to make help people.

“I’ve helped many people by interpreting the signs revealed by my cards,” she tells me.

And it’s not just about telling fortunes, she says. A day sitting at Plaza Miranda, rain or shine, business must go on — for it is by the number of customers that determines how much she would earn every single day. Her profit is what she spends for her family to survive.

But not all days are prosperous for the 63-year-old, she says. When there are no customers, there’s nothing to buy food, an irony among fortune tellers — for they themselves don’t know what tomorrow has in store for them.

(This piece is an assignment for my Multimedia Journalism class at the Asian Center for Journalism.)

Philippines journo gets threat after posting “scandalous” photo of Catholic church

Karlos shows the photo that went viral on Facebook

A journalist from Davao, Southern Philippines, is getting threats and hate messages after posting a photo of a half-naked man being forcefully driven away by security guard inside a cathedral.

Karlos Manlupig, a freelance photographer of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, says one of the blackmails he has received comes from an anonymous user who threatened to circulate posters of him with a message that reads “wanted gay terrorist and rebel.

The Facebook photo has gone viral, with more than 11,000 users sharing it as of press time. It first appeared Friday afternoon, a day where Christians, the majority population in the Philippines, commemorate the death of Jesus.

Philippines cancer survivor turns cigarette boxes into rosaries

Elena Mabano turns an empty box of cigarettes into something Catholics may benefit. (Mick Basa)

Gently mounting each bead onto a pin until finally making a loop, Elena S. Mabano is reminded how she has endured life’s painful battles in every rosary she makes.

A devout Catholic, she calls herself, 57-year-old Mabano scours empty cigarette ream cartons, cutting them into long narrow pieces, with each strip rolled into a bead, an unusual material used to make a string of beads to keep count of a religious devotion.

“I don’t really tell them (customers) that it’s made from cigarette boxes because they don’t bother to ask what it’s made of,” she says.

Surviving cancer

Mabano, a cancer survivor, said her only intention of turning the cigarette boxes into rosary is rooted on her belief that not all things that end on garbage are waste.

Diagnosed with endometrial cancer in 2008, Mabano had to undergo surgery, only two years after she went under the knife to find treatment for her Lumbar Disk disease.

“Because of my positive outlook, I think I was healed. I went to healing crusades and asked God to be merciful to me,” the mother of seven children recalled.

Second life

Mabano, 57, is a cancer survivor and a devout Catholic. (Mick Basa)

Mabano says she wants her time spent just being thankful for the “second life” she has received after experiencing which she claims a near-death experience during her Lumbark Disk operation in 2006.

“It was a near death experience. I was standing before a view a mountain covered with forest while many people pass by me. I saw one of our neighbors who already passed away. My doctor said I was weeping when I was asleep in the recovery room,” she recalls.

“Now I see this as a mission because the Lord healed me. That’s why I am determined to continue what I started.”

Rubbish turned ‘weapon’

A box of a cigarette ream, she says, makes 10 rosaries. She varies the color of the beads by using different boxes of varying brands, all of which she collected since she started in 2009 from retail stores discarding the boxes like it could no longer be of use.

“Rosary is a weapon against evil,” she told this writer as she connected a crucifix into a chain of uncompleted rosary at her residence on the southern outskirts of Davao City, where she and some her neighbors have formed an all-women association focusing on handicrafts made of rubbish. Among their products, aside from rosaries, include hats, bags and bottle holders made of plastic bags used by grocery stores and malls.

Livelihood

Her group, the Toril Kalambuan Association, started last year and is a beneficiary of the local government’s program to develop women groups to create their own product and make them available in the market.

“We started making rosaries in 2009 but we did not have a market until 2011,” she said.

Their association is yet to pick up profit, she says. “Very few are interested to join crafting the rosaries because it is meticulous job and many want their money earned in an easier way.”

Helping others

But with a desire to help others not only in encouraging other women to join her association, Mabano said she also gives out rosaries to children every Flores de Mayo.

Asked if she had any bitter feeling towards God for the series of painful battles she has gone through despite her being a faithful Catholic, she says: “a faithful Catholic goes through many trials and problems. So that when God calls them, he knows how because he can relate how Jesus suffered on the cross. A life of a Christian is not a purely pleasurable life. There will be tough times.”

Covering Mindanao storm for the first time

Emilio Mabalio hopes to find his missing relatives so he could finally lay them to rest

Covering disasters in Southern Philippines was something I have never done in the past for a couple of reasons. First, I’m new to this field since I only started in 2009. Second, this is the first time in decades that a storm badly hit what was once called “typhoon-free” Mindanao, to borrow one of the words of Sec. Lualhati R. Antonino, the chairperson of the island’s socio economic planning agency.

Our managing editor, Fil Sionil, phoned me Wednesday (Dec. 23) afternoon while I was in Davao City looking for human interest stories I could write for our paper on the 25th. ”I want you to write a story about the flood survivors so we could put it on print on Christmas day,” she said.

My blood ran cold.

“How could I do this?” I asked at the back of my mind. The road going to Cagayan de Oro is a disaster itself. Traveling from Davao City via Bukidnon now takes 9-10 hours, said the driver of the Rural Tour bus I rode Wednesday evening. Immediately rushing home after Fil’s call to pack my clothes, I went to the terminal 7:30 in the evening. Had adrenaline failed to keep me going, I would have arrived Cagayan de Oro Thursday afternoon, a big mistake for broadsheet reporters who wish to make it to the daily midday deadline.

I arrived Agora terminal in Cagayan de Oro just few minutes before sunrise. While sipping the first coffee of the day, questions began to pop out of my mind: What am I going to do first?

Stepping out from the terminal, I began to converse to residents, asking them to help me find where Barangay Macasanding was, the village hit worse by tropical storm Sendong (International Code: Sendong). Urgency, said my friend who works for a TV Network, is what pushed me to wrap this coverage.

Here is a copy of my December 25 story for Manila Bulletin:

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines — The day Jaydhan Sapio asked his mother to come over their shanty this week to attend his six-month son’s christening today turned vain.

Sitting on a bench with his daughter held close to his chest, Jaydhan recalls his most traumatic incident in his life like nothing had happened. His face was blank, like most other survivors who found temporary shelter just a stone’s throw away to where I found him.

Floating iron bars swept by the raging floodwaters tore his mother’s right thigh apart, causing serious injury which eventually led to her demise Saturday morning (December 17, 2011).

“I was very close to my mother. We never saw it coming,” the 23-year-old construction worker, whose grandfather and nephew are also missing, said.

“She repeatedly called our name until her last breath,” he added.

At least 1,080 dead bodies have been recovered in Northern Mindanao since Christmas eve. And officials say a thousand people are yet to be rescued.

Like him, 60-year-old Emilio Mabalio’s relatives are missing. And until this day, his efforts of returning to the now devastated Sitio Cala-cala in Barangay Macasanding are for his hope that someday he would find them.

“If they are already dead, I just want to see their bodies so I can finally lay them to rest,” Mabalio told the Manila Bulletin while on his way to Sitio Cala-cala, scouring for anything he could while at it, possibly looking for signs of his relatives’ lives.

“They’re still in my mind every time I go to sleep,” he added.

At least for now, he said, the searching will never end.

Luck came down on Epafrodita Padilla, 39, when her 14-year-old daughter held her in his young arms and fought the torrential water.

“He is my angel. Without him, I would have been floating dead,” she said.

But everyone in their community, she said, were unprepared as they thought Tropical Storm Sendong will just be like any other storms they have had in the past.

“It was the worst of all the storms we have encountered here in Cala-cala,” she said.

Michelle Malate used to have 14 cousins. She now only has one remaining, Maria Jane, who is turning one-year-old today.

But while the search for her missing cousins continue, Michelle fears Maria Jane will be celebrating Christmas without her siblings and other cousins.

“We feel that she knows exactly what is happening here. When we say her missing cousins’ and siblings’ names, she begins to cry,” said Michelle, who said she he wants to see the rest of her cousins and that her hope has not gone out of flame yet.

“Christmas is about being happy. Before the storm, my cousins and I talked that we would exchange gifts even though the items they would wrap weren’t expensive at all,” she recalls as she fights the tears falling from her eyes.

The Balili siblings, too, say it is their darkest moments of their lives. The torrential downpour washed their parents, leaving the four children orphans.

Rolando Balili Jr., the eldest son of their family, shares his grief as flashbacks of the distressing event recur in his mind. His two children, too, are missing until this day.

“My parents reminded me to take care of my children and my three other brothers,” 29-year-old Balili said, adding that the chance in finding their mother again is far from possible.

“She has hypertension and overweight. And the carcasses recovered by authorities don’t have any of her distinct physical features, not to mention that the rotting bodies have inflated,” he said.

His father, who bore an overgrown scar on his chest, could also no longer be found for now.

“It’s a painful and bitter feeling,” he explained.

Many of the residents here fear from returning back to what used to be their homes. They say they want to live a place far from water, one that is safe from storm.

But for now, family members who survived while experiencing the pain of losing their loved ones, as well as the fears that the missing ones are already dead will have their “saddest” Christmas in their lives.

“This is the saddest Christmas in my whole life. No amount of fun can take away the pain. I just want to see their bodies so I can have a peace in mind. I was 15 when I became pregnant to my eldest child,” said Romelyn Nulla, 23, whose live-in partner works in Saudi Arabia and is yet to fly to the country to be reunited with her.

“My (husband) who works in Saudi Arabia sent money to buy my kids bicycle on Friday morning. But they have never used their father’s gift,” she said.

Weak consumption during long holidays

It’s a long weekend in the Philippines. With schools, banks and business establishments closed, most people here are at home.

For those who find their living every single day, the long holiday was bad for their business.

30-year-old Julieta, a vendor selling sweet coconut water near a major park here in this city, says she barely had anything yesterday, making only 100 pesos ($2.37), four times less than what she earns on normal days.

“I used to earn 1000 during the Kadayawan, though normally I earn 700 out of the 400 pesos capital I use to buy all of these ingredients to make my products. But with the holidays and few people going out, I only earn 100,” she lamented.

Bad business for some, good for others. For the tourism industry, Mindanao Business Council chair Vicente T. Lao said it would benefit well.

The President declared Monday and Tuesday as official non-working holidays at all sectors in the country to celebrate the National Heroes Day and the end of the Islamic fasting, respectively, making it a long weekend from Saturday down to the last day of holiday.

It’s an ironic picture of what the government wants to achieve: encourage domestic tourism and private spending. Businessmen complain they have lost productivity and the hassle of preparing mandatory holiday and overtime salaries in a short period of time.

“In terms of business its negative because our monthly sales are lessened. For us, nobody goes to our stores because the people are on the streets,” an entrepreneur told this writer.

Despite this, majority of of Filipinos took advantage of the government’s ambition of giving the people “full and uninterrupted opportunity” to holidays. They say the long weekend means more time for their families, a tradition Filipinos value the most.

Davao welcomes guests with a “punch”

A month ago, Davao City became well-known for its Mayor who punched a court sheriff. Criticized and praised by many, the talk about the punching became so popular that tourism groups here were able to turn it into something the city could benefit.

But unlike the jab that hit the face of an unfortunate sheriff, this punch does not hurt anymore. A fruit concoction made of guava, pummelo and calamodin prepared by a chef from a local culinary school, this punch serves as a brand new hospitality gesture for those who fly to this city.

“Fly to Davao and we will welcome you with a good punch,” says an advertisement showing a fair-skinned woman wearing a Lumad attire, raising a glass of the so-called “Davao punch”. It appeared on national newspapers this month, drumbeating an annual festivity every August, Kadayawan “the King of Festivals.” Horror for some, fun for others.

Telai Jarabelo, a resident here, says she finds the advertisement amusing. But she says people outside the city might not find it funny at all.

“I think it was funny. (But) I believe it’s only amusing to Davao people. Because non-davaoenos were against the punching incident,” she says.

Mayor Sara Duterte admits she was surprised and was even asked if she could be photographed with the fruit punch as the brains of the creative advertisement wanted her to be the endorser for the month-long event itself.

“I didn’t saw it coming that they were planning it for Kadayawan. They wanted me to be the one in the advertisement but I refused because I felt it wasn’t a good idea to have me in the picture. It’s as if we’re making fun of what happened,” she told this writer in a cocktail party  organized by the Indonesian Consulate Monday night as they celebrate their 66th Independence (Ulang Tahun Kemerdekaan Republik Indonesia).

Jason Magnaye, City Tourism, Investment and Promotions acting chief, said developing the so-called “Davao punch” into a marketable tourist product that could be served in restaurants is not far from possible.

The city government here is eyeing to turn the concoction into an economic activity, creating livelihood especially for women, said Duterte.

Duterte became under fire since July for punching court sheriff Abe Andres during demolition row in squatter shanties. Cases of disbarment has been filed by a group of Sheriffs in the country. But the mayor, and even residents here, seemed to be unfazed about it.

Blending into the Malay world

KUALA LUMPUR – It’s seven in the morning and the sun is yet to rise in this Southeast Asian country, where the sight of skyscrapers is free from the grayish thin clouds of pollution we see in Manila. “Selamat pagi” is the morning greeting locals would greet you, matched with a smile reaching ear-to-ear.

We arrived Kuala Lumpur last July, with us are fellow Mindanaoans, Saudi Gandisa and Rahima Panondiongan, contestants of the International Quran reading competition, who by the way placed top five, beating some 70 other contestants around the world in reciting the Islamic book at the Putra World Trade Center. Officials of the National Commission of Muslim Filipinos and another writer from Davao City also joined us.

Mornings are relaxed and easygoing in the Malaysian capital, as early-morning shows on TV, with hosts sharing its viewers a new breakfast recipe each day, tell us. What a sweet respite for those sick and tired of waking up on daybreak and deal with heavy traffic on their way to work. Here, office hours usually begin at 9, my long lost Malaysian friend Ayumi, who for 14 years I haven’t seen, told me.

Kuala Lumpur is a four-hour travel from Manila. But for us living in the South, traveling to a country that could have been so near to us takes two flights just to get there.

Six hours of connecting flight, if combined, is worth it. The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), touted to be one of the world’s modern airports in Asia according to an in-flight Malaysia Airlines video, proved to be true when we first arrived. And the airport, itself, was already a tourist attraction, with people starting to take pictures at the arrival area.

Quite interesting though, KLIA is located in Sepang, Selangor – around 50 kilometers or an hour-long drive to capital.

Arriving at midday, our tour guide brought us to a restaurant that served Malay cuisine where we gathered for lunch, conversing with fellow Filipinos who were with us to attend the Islamic event – over a bountiful array of moderately spicy Malaysian dishes.

We made a stop at Putrajaya, a planned city located halfway from the airport to Kuala Lumpur, to walk around the federal administrative center of their government. The Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC), located on the top of Taman Puncak Selatan, is where Vina Morales and Kjwan performed their winning performance in the first IKON ASEAN competition in 2007. This is also where one could take a breathtaking view of public buildings located in the planned city, including the man-made Putrajaya Lake.

Malaysia seemed to build countless of structures and monuments for tourists to visit. I could go on writing this travelogue where we had been but I’d rather make it short. When in Kuala Lumpur, don’t leave the country without checking out the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower, two of Malaysia’ skyscrapers the world has known it for.

Being in Malaysia, for Filipinos like me living in the south, is like reaching homeland. Their food, often served spicy, makes it a factor why we call Malaysia our home. Nasi lemak: rice steamed with coconut milk and served with fried anchovies, peanuts, sliced cucumber, hard boiled eggs and a spicy chilli paste is a favorite, along with rendang, also a specialty of the Maranao tribe in Mindanao. Because Islam is the official religion, restaurants serve halal meals, making dining really convenient for Filipino Muslims, who may have had a hard time looking for Halal restaurants in the Philippines.

For those Filipinos who have learned to speak their language, Bahasa Melayu, would often be regarded as Malays, the majority race that inhabits along with the Indians, Chinese and other ethnic groups in Malaysia. My Bahasa Indonesia, on the other hand, helped me converse in daily chat – although there are some words Malaysians do not understand. That, too, made the locals think I am from Indonesia. English is widely spoken although the locals would be happy to chat with foreigners who speak their language well enough for a conversation.

And because two from our group knew how to speak Malay, our tour guide, who is said to be English-speaking as our Manila travel agent said, became too comfortable to speak Malay. That made Randy Usman, a deputy mayor in Davao City, and I, interpreters for our Filipino colleagues for the entire trip. We didn’t mind anyway.

With how we Filipinos look similar to our neighbor Malaysians, and sharing some similarities in culture, religion and language, blending into the Malay world is felt like a jump of blood – an estranged soul traveling back to his homeland, reunited with his siblings he has never met before.

Terima kasih, Tourism Malaysia, for the wonderful experience.