In this information age, it’s easy to aspire anything you want to do with your life. You only need a piece of paper, a relatively fast personal computer, the Google and a will to share your thoughts. Then you can be an instant amateur-informative writer. A simple idea spark, and information are all at your dispense. I am very happy writing articles from time to time. My inspiration switch to higher ground whenever I read a relative number of comments from my published anecdotes and informative stories. These fueled me to write more and changed my senseless Saturday to a valuable one.

When I wrote “Ang Parola Sa Atin”, I visited lots of website as my source information. Then there was an article I stumbled upon which makes me astonished. It's about a breakthrough research by an Oil explorer. "Ragay Gulf has a potential source of hydrocarbons which makes up natural gas". I hope my newly found information will not make you disinterested if you had already read such news. For others, lets me share you an informative one.

Perhaps, almost every morning, Guinayanganin and other people living in this southern part of Quezon probably gaze towards its horizon. Never realize the present potentials of Hydrocarbon. At this very moment while we are sipping are coffee, a research drilling on Ragay gulf are taking place. Over 4 years since 2003, numbers of contractors has been passing its interests on Ragay Gulf Service Contract 43(“ SC43”) see link, and recently a company PEARLOIL(Ragay)Ltd, has assumed operatorship of the said contract. Ragay Gulf under our nose has been studied by known Oil Research conglomerates including PNOC(see link). Such research had produced 93 reports,303 maps, charts and related seismic data. As I read the articles (referenced and bibliography citations have links below) more of it were Geological and Seismic data which even my geek mind cannot (most of it) perceive. I only absorbed and probably had grasped are mundane activities and typical layman terms they have written. Apparently, paying attention to my high school and college Chemistry has paid off at least I was diluted most of the info. Contracts that were approved by the government are mostly Geological and Geophysical studies, 3 to 4 drilling of Wells for researches purposes in the span of 4 to 7 years (see link). Positive news were published by Oil and Gas magazine- that Ragay gulf geology has highest percentage of similarity to Palawan and Nido thus making the Gulf having carbonate potential in frontier basin. I’m sorry but the information is mostly jargon. Yours truly hate it making myself a big parrot, saying things that even I have certainly no idea, nevertheless the exact meaning of it. My point is, Guinayangan with its vast numbers of professionals, probably has produced at least one Geologist or Chemists that can enlighten us in layman version of that information written on my links; to make us understand the easiest way to know whether possibilities are really not that remote; or it will benefits all the towns surrounding the Gulf. As of now research still inconclusive but positively on steady progress till 2013.

If God’s will, Guinayangan shall going to have a different life far from what we had in foreseeable future. Think about what manpower and human resource it needs. That its entire technical human resources they require will be source among us Guinayanganin. My once thought about that forsaken gulf altered my true beliefs that things happen for a reason. If really all that maturity of sedimentary deposits in Ragay Gulf is a divine interventions, we (Guinayanganin) are at the dawn of success.

-by Cornelio Cenizal


References:
Linda R. Sternbach,John R. Conolly. “Philippine Ragay Gulf geology similar to Palawan and Nido.” Offshore Magazine, PenWell,August 2000: 1-4.

PNOC Corporation.
PNOC Exploration Corporation (accessed September 24, 2009).

Scandinavian Oil.Gas Magazine. “By Province.” Scandinavian Oil.Gas Magazine. Oct 5, 2007. (accessed September 25, 2009).

Pascual, Redentor D. "Upstream Petroleam Activities In the Philippines." 5th PPM Workshop Sulu Sea-East Palawan Basin Case Study. Cebu City, 2006. 1-6.

All Saints day are coming, there were people I loved whose memories keep pervading my mind and I recall them the very moment I am jotting down my itineraries this coming November 1. I sit down for a while and pay respect to their courage. All in all, are just melancholy feelings of missing them though I know it’s hard to pay respect for they have no graves. So I will just find a way to make them feel remembered.

That early day of December 5, 1993, over the horizon, hazy wind darkens the skyline, must be a perfect storm looming over the Ragay gulf. “Hilaaa! Hilaaaaa!” – “Ay…Ginuuulpi!! , Ay…Ginuuulpi!!-(lifting chants read as "Eye-Gee-Nole-Pee")”- voices of fishermen were chanting while there were hauling and pushing large boat out of the water. Lifting chant orchestrates fishermen to synergize lifting and act as cadence on pushing particularly heavy object. Rhythmically blended with the yelling of words like “Gwarne, Gwarne!!” (It’s a seamanship knot tying order making a clove hitch on boat‘s bowline), sound of these chants and hails were across the hissing wind as I peeked from our living room. I gazed outside our crooked window-deformed by constant blows of strong wind and heard those loud voices. I had been accustomed to those sounds on every eve of storms ever since I was a child. Activities like these are essentials in securing and mooring boat to prevent damages during typhoon. When I was a toddler I was just looking at them from afar and admired their team works. That day I became an able bodied man who can help with mooring boats. I wore a jacket, suited a bonnet, went out and joined them. My father, uncles, cousins, neighbors were all helping. Looking at the scenario, I had a premonition; it was a strong one by just associating all the commotions from past typhoons. Typhoon Monang(International name "Lola") were coming with her strength of 170 k.p.h. to 200 k.p.h wind. She must be one of strongest that would soon to hit Luzon. It’s going to be a busy day at shore.

For hours we have been tying and fastening every stress point of our boat. After a while my sister invited us with my cousin Joey for a short coffee break-just next to the place from where our boats were docked. That was a good coffee though a bit lighter, but the weather added taste to it and fill the aroma, He told us that Felix Jr. was detailed somewhere in Gaboc. My cousin Felix Jr was just 2 years younger than me. With all his siblings and his father were all shaped by the sea. You can tell even at his young age, biceps are fully developed perhaps strained by too much pulling of fishing nets. They were exposed to the sea, though our both fathers were fishermen, we grew differently; my father is a type of man who don’t want us to be like him when we got old. Perhaps my cousins were kindred more to fishing rather than to do nothing after all. Felix Jr. was one of the crews of large fishing boat F/B De la Paz. She was a “Buli buli” a derived type of fishing from Moro Ami about 80 footer outrigger boat with bamboo as lee pods similar to a trimaran. Felix Jr along with Miguel Carreon and his friend Eto Gonzales were detailed as “Taong-Bangka”. In fishing, these tasks were actually able bodied man to guard and secure boat at time of storms. That means whatever the case they don’t leave the boat at any cause. F/B De la Paz was moored at the firth of Salt River near Gaboc. That firth was best for mooring large fishing boat. With its riverbanks as the mooring cleats serving the depth of mid river as best for fishing boat waterline draft. That salt marsh usually best to moor large fishing boat rather than pull and secure offshore. That makes her location favorable as safe haven from typhoon.




That very night inevitable and violent storm hit Quezon. With her gale wind washing out all boats off shores, we were all seated and waited inside the house. We were chatting, were exchanging and telling stories with each other, while others were sleeping. Whistling of wind outside really couldn’t put us to sleep. Perhaps we were all worried what the shores might have looked like after that terrible storm. Experiencing the typhoon in urban areas and cities are different than coastal places. You can actually feel and hear vibrations of large waves bombarding the shores. We had felt the force that augments more our worries to many of us. At 4:30 AM the “Ganti” came. “Ganti” is actually a local term for the tail and spiral band of the Pacific typhoon. It is the moment where its wind shifted to opposite directions signifying the first spiral band and the eye were already passed.”Ganti” winds are dangerous due to typhoon clock wise swirling behavior making the wind swooped from sea directions. More hours had passed and the storm has subdued. 7:00 am everybody went out and checked their houses for damages and boat if there was none drifted elsewhere. An hour before lunch, news came over to one of my cousins. He said that f/b De La Paz were very unfortunate, it was hit by a “Buhawi” and was wrecked her apart, by looking at the files of timbers and rubles you could clearly estimated that no one would ever lived with such damage. All of her crew who that has detailed were missing. And right before night came my uncle went for search and rescue. Circled nearby coastal water of Gaboc, for the possibilities that bodies may have been drifted by strong current and wind. Hours more and we heard a news. Eto were found in Dancalan tied in 2 poles of “Katig”(outrigger). Speechless and seemed couldn’t believe he was alive. They asked him if he can tell whether Mang Miguel and my Cousin Felix were still alive or what did he may recall possibilities of their survival. He said “Your cousin (Felix) woke me up from deep sleep and tied me to this bamboo and seconds later I was drifted by large waves, and it was dark, I couldn’t see anything. I owe him my life”. During every typhoon, usually it is pitch black, nearby houses were no electricity, absence of stars add more darkness that he described.




Days came, search and rescue goes further than places where body has supposed to be found. Searching has gone desperate; we had all given up and lost hope. In a terrible sea storm even a great swimmer is not in advantage and most likely to drown than survived. 2 hours in a bare cold water and it can bring you to Hypothermia. Temporary paralysis follows, shocked, cramping, disorientation, losing your composure and drown. Weeks after, my Uncle Felix despite his seamanship skills told him that its hopeless, he has blinded by hope that my cousin still could be found. He was really in pity on disdaining him for staying at home and detailed him as “Taong-Bangka” instead, amidst the storm. “I shouldn’t have let him” crying as he said it. Two weeks after, a story in nearby town Tagkawayan, circulated that a man in descriptions of Mang Miguel were dredged in a fishing net, scared and disgusted by the awful smell of decomposing body, they threw it overboard without confirming if that was him. All was left is the description of sea jacket and built of Mang Miguel that makes his families accepted the horrific fate. Until now his body is nowhere to be found. A day after the second week, a telegram and UHF Radio came from Buenavista Quezon that a body was salvaged near the salt marsh swamp of “Sabang” and buried the body right after retrieval without embalming since body was in decomposition stage. All we know are descriptions of his clothes that he wore before his watch that night. Fitting the description of Felix Jr, we all assent that it was him. All of us, my sisters and cousins went to nearby town by boat to pay respect to Felix. We requested that body be exhumed to confirmed but my uncle conceded and relinquished his crying over two weeks of searching.




Voyaging back to Guinayangan that day, has made my mind thought of how cruel was the sea to all of us, I begun to enumerate names whom I know since childhood, the many who were lost, Janggo, Mang Miguel, Joel Berroya, Felix Jr and many names I couldn’t enumerate though I still can recall every incidents, for almost every super typhoon many had been lost somewhere in Ragay Gulf. No burial or funeral for their bodies (all we remembered were memories of them) left to us specially my young cousin who was my friends and playmate during childhood. Today Uncle Felix could not bear the demise and make pity of him. Months after, he was gone different. He is no longer left home for social interactions. Since 1993 till now my uncle never gone out of the house for no reasons. A clinical depression had him. He make himself desolated and confined in his room and making his mind depressingly hope he can reverse the many who were lost. It was very sad for him that we almost deprived him from knowing that his brother (my father) has already passed away worrying that his passing might again aggravated his already worsened conditions.

I hope this short story may reconnect you to our roots. May all friends of Felix Jr. and rest of people I mentioned once again remember them. My thoughts and prayers to all people we have lost and dearly loved.


-by Cornelio Cenizal

Photos Courtesy of Olivia Cenizal's Friendster
Map Courtesy of PAGASA Archive

Crops for "palitan" sa prinza

By now, some Internet savvies here know the site Sulit.com.ph and buy and sell swapping corners. Others perhaps are adept in swapping fairly or profitably with goods and stuffs. Weather you swap or doing it for fun, or making it as way of throwing things you don't need in place of more valuable and interesting gadgets, it is still came from old way of doing it. Barter or bartering.



Daing na Kalaso

I found that if you love blogging, and you cited nice information and excerpts something from it, you will always bring it to shareable thoughts, hoping it could benefit others. Either for plain fun, or just a mere passion from it. I was telling my sister the other day to send me dried fish or dried squid or whatever kind denizens of our sea. Since I’d been longing for it, when my nephew returns to our town, I asked him for it. Hoping I could make him refrain from busy school days, to relax a bit and attend Manlayo Fiesta. Thankfully he did. I open up the package right away and smell the awful rare scent of “Daing na Kalaso”.I was suddenly fondled by idea and out-of nowhere the scent infused me to remember the “Palitan, sa Prinza”. When you were a kid every little thing was kept in your memory. It only needs a certain triggers to bring it up. Sometimes, recollecting something and blogging makes other reader evaluate how old you are. In my case I am afraid that “Barter sa Prinza” is a thing of the past or still a mainstream of daily lives of people from Guinayangan. That makes me a bit odd telling unrelated events of stories


Prinza overlay from Google Earth Satellite photo, several houses now occupying the once "Palitan" trading field


During the 80s , every Saturday my sister Aileen packed these “Daing na Kalaso, and other Dried things from my father's small “Tuyuan”. I wasn’t really care about what she had been busied for that day. I was having a wonderful time with our "just had puppies" dog, I was busy counting puppies, identifying spots and unique marks on their body, I was thinking I could name them when they grew up. When suddenly the other brown puppy moved away from breast feeding session. And rushed away to my Sisters busy area of packing these Dried fish. Perhaps the puppy had irritated his nose with the smell of “Daing” . Annoyed and irked by its presence, biting and pulling newspapers that my sister use for packaging. My sister said “Do you know you can be barter for sack of banana or cassava?” as she was gesturing a finger to my little puppy. Or a “balde”(6 gantas) of corn, “You love corn don’t you?” My sister asked me. I became interested.”Oh that’s cool!” I love my puppy but I feel bad about my dog as I carefully made a box with vented holes to made him breath for he has a whole night to stay there. I was sleepless(not from his constant barking) and felt sorry for the puppy. He would be bartered, Oh no!

And so the following morning we rode a tricycle and off at the corner of Prinza street. Did I tell you it’s a busy day. Lots of people was rushing thru the foot of that hill looming ahead of us. So we briskly walked while I was holding the box of puppy. As we passed the last house on the street. It was a beautiful site. Just like a trading ground of all things I don’t know the exact size of the trading field but with my eyes remembered its almost occupied the foot of the hill (see my google map) . And we bartered , My sisters has extra sacks for the “Palit” it will be a busy morning I said, I was thrilled of how much traded crops we could take home with a basket of dried fish and (oh no, my Puppy). From 8 am to 11 am we bartered like real traders. I remember few pieces of dried “kalaso” bartered to a basketfull of cassava. Oh that was great. A kilo of dried squid for about half a sack of sweet potatoes. ’Couldnt be happier. Dried fish is fully traded, and the final items for barter my poor puppy. I remember a group of Aetas seemed no one was trading with them with their odd looking features inhibit them from good barter peer exchanges. I don’t mind them at all, my sister said lets go toward them," Do you know that we can trade with them nicely, better than everyone else around?"" "Oh really?" and off we went in their directions . I cant remember how my sister bartered with them I was turn-about giving farewell to my puppy, peeking through vented holes of the box. In the corner of my eyes I saw a successful bartering between them and my sisters, with the Aetas smiling revealing their browned teeth colored by constant chewing of “nga-nga”. I handed over them my puppy sobbing and teary eyes. I asked my sister so what do we have in place of him (wiping my eyes). She’s pointing to 5 sacks of corns. Wow. This is great. Are they nuts? (laughing), somehow my young emotions abruptly switched to enthusiasm,that was so many bunch of corns!.What do we do with that bunch of corn?. And we go home like swanky successful traders. In the afternoon we grilled the corns and boiled some of them and eventually sold them to Manlayo.

"I keep wondering why those indigenous people traded that much corns for a puppy."


When I reached High school, often times I visited some turf of my friend Ruel. They had about hectares of corn fields, we timely visited the harvest season. His mother usually made us Corn Cake(Maja) I am beginning to missed those.”You got lots of corn plants rows in here, how do you protect those, from you know?”I asked Ruel’s brother “We have dogs. Untied to guard the field.” Ah! now I know. I was goofed then(LOL) by the Aetas. We only had just 5 sacks then,but it was a field of corns they valued for a dog. A lesson for me had learned from there. Don’t underestimate the Aetas and the power of bargaining.


My sister Allen


So, I phone my sister asking if there still a barter “Palitan” in Prinza. I was hoping I could make a relevant point before I wrote this article. She said “Di na uso yon!”.”Now those people are exchanging by house to house in place of trading area”. Concept of bartering still applied but the essense dies there. How such a good traditions died up like that?. Historically other places in the Phillippines called Bartering as “kambyo”, “kamkalatse”, or “tuwayan”. But it still exists as of today in Mindanao Region. The most recent I can remember “Palitan” still do exists in Guinayangan was year 1990.

I missed that old settings, nothing beats the enthusiasm when you were a kid with such memories. Unlike today you can “swap” over the internet. Usually a line in Google Adsense like “ Shitzu swap for PS3(Play Station)” things like “Playboy Magazines” swap for Nokia E71. An old setting was gone but trading essence still there. I guess we really have to let go of something old for something new, but for me, it is no way “new” because it is something borrowed.

-By Cornelio Cinezal

Repost from simpleoddmind.wordpress.com

Some of the Photos are courtesy of mindanao.com and ilocano.org
Map Courtesy of Google Earth

I keep Googling the other night till my fingers were numb, so that at least add an article regarding our small lighthouse “Parola”. I have found a related site about lighthouses in the Philippines and to my frustrations none of them are even close to Ragay Gulf. The site is quite informative yet shortlisted to very few popular lighthouses like Cape Bolinao lighthouse.( http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/phl.htm )

I phoned my seafarers friend who were my (Bunkmate or Mistah in PMA) back in the PMMA(Philippine Merchant Marine Academy). Wishing he could help me with my little curiosity. I narrowed his research to focus on and gave him the coordinate 13°54'52.39"N, 122°30'31.73"E where supposed to be the Lighthouse erected. My friend helps me and quote “To find its history is to find its purpose”. After all lighthouses were built to aid nautical navigation. Lighthouses give absolute bearing to ships or sea craft with reference to north. Signaling the ships its true relative position from the chart it uses.
He also said that in lighthouses the observer is always assumed to be at a height of 15 feet, although on large ships he may be 40 to 60 feet above the sea. Assuming a light at a height of 20 to 30 feet, the range to an observer at 15 feet above the horizon will be about distance is 6.4 + 14.3 or 20.7 miles.. This is known as the geographic range of the light. I recall the table in book of Navigation by Bowditch.



Charting the range it will depict a purpose of Catabangan Port or Ragay wharf. That “Mang Taning” my old folk use to tell me a story then that Catabangan once had a port, where large Log ships who carry Timbers and Logs to and fro the Stretch of Gulf. Also Ragay Gulf were mentioned numerous time in a book “The closing of the frontier: a history of marine fisheries of Southeast by John G. Butcher.” Where he documented that lots of fishing activity of foreign fishing like the Japanese sardines and mackerel trawlers during the 50s and 60s ( http://bit.ly/zRen4). With that demand I would assumed that lighthouse was served that purpose.



The book mentioning Ragay gulf in several passage.

I promised my father Estanislao that If I saw a book documenting the “Basnig” I will read and translate it for him. He died last summer that I haven’t told him I did. If he only knew that Basnig means “Bagnets” in English he would at least amazed what information Technology can do in either way of our life. It’s funny that fishing problem and its history of our gulf have been written by a foreign guy with statistics and data, we should be ashamed of our selves!. It means we really doesn't care at all about our surroundings. The book even documented and illustrates how “Basnig” catches fish. Though it’s late to fulfill my promise to my father, but at least someone like the British John. G. Butcher published a book about the gulf conditions from circa 1850 to 2000.



I never recalled that the (Parola) lighthouse was operating in my child hood days neither my father. That time It became a place for short picnics, sightseeing and boating destinations when checking in some Tagkawayan Resorts. I believe we associate Parola as our own in Guinayangan, but geographically it is part of Tagkawayan Quezon. Nevertheless we both owned it to say the least. I have to thank Second Officer Paul Carcasona to show me the Bowditch books to enlighten me with my unusual curiosity. To my father with his little educational literacy bring out the best out of me. To where you are it’s my duty to tell our kababayan about something we ultimately neglected, the gulf. It is from where he took all our source of food from my childhood to my teenage life, till I learn to feed myself. I hope someone could preserve it since nearby tourist destination like Sta Rita and rest of resorts may take advantage of the rare locations where Parola is in their horizon’s view that adds beauty in it.

-By Cornelio Cenizal

Repost from simpleoddmind.wordpress.com

Every last Sunday of August, Manlayo a small Barrio in Guinayangan celebrates its “fiesta” in honor of Nuestra Señora de la Paz. Lavish with a day to recon my childhood memories, with my parents’ beliefs and my curiosity in etymology of name and words like "De La Paz". I feel, I was at least obliged to share a story about something. If my usage of “Wiki” is correct, ,Our Lady of Peace or Queen of Peace is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church. She is represented in art holding a dove and an olive branch, symbols of peace. Her official memorial feast is celebrated on January 24 each year in some other countries. Elsewhere, the memorial feast is celebrated on July 9.In the contrary, perhaps our day of celebrations rooted from social agreement from our old ancestors or early Church leaders then, which is, up to now it is last Sunday of August. But I believe it was chosen with a purpose. Personally with my assent of beliefs that she was chosen because of her being “Star of the Sea” , as Manlayo needed guidance and protection from the sea. August, perhaps it’s the month of “high tide” as ebbing of water observed to be relatively high during this season. Perfect for the “Karakol” or fluvial parade disembarking from boat when the Sea “Karakol” reaches each end and begin the famous “Street Dancing”. To my recollection this is the only Month perfect to this occasion. This is the month my father recall their catch was called “LAMAK” kaing-kaing(bountiful). This is the perfect moment for benedictions of her grants, celebrate thankfulness to the sea with its abundance.


My father’s “Basnig”crews use to tell folklore that in the night of the Storm Winnie(Typhoon Dading), year 1964 a lady appear near the shore and as if she was protecting our barrio. True or not, people like us don’t mind it at all. Respect and Thankfulness need no proof of factualism. A fire broke near the chapel of Manlayo during the 80s destroying and burning almost 50 houses with the chapel and houses behind her seems to be protected from the fire. Amazingly, chapel suffered only a minor damage from convection fire cause by adjacent burning houses. The Pura, Estenso, Beligon families and rest of my friends lived there were among the families witness one of the many consecrations of our Patron Saint.


No fiesta is fiesta if there was no “Karakol” when I was a kid ,I was about 8 years old we don’t mind the bountiful of food at the table as long as we witnessed the “Karakol at sea”. Watching from the distance, with my other friends, while clenching the mast of a docked boat, near our house to keep us from falling. We still have to climbed second level of boat mast to perfectly focus our sights. I have promised myself that if I reached my maturity I will not missed the “Karakol”. It’s funny that it’s my gauge of puberty though I can swim half a mile with that age I was still not capable of panic commotions when something happen in the boat. Dangerous as it looks I have never witness any disaster related to Karakol. My mother was hailing me to climb down the mast it’s dangerous she said. I shouted back “I NEED TO SEE THESE!”. “OO nga!” My friend seconded. Oh, I miss the day.



During those days, no quip! We (Manlayohin) had the most extravagant celebrations of fiesta among the Guinayanganin. It’s not a show-off but it’s our beliefs that sea will still bequeath as with the same abundance. Visitors and guest from all over town crowd our streets. It’s a feast! Indeed a feast!


I wished I could witness that again before I set sails from this life. My father departed us months ago. Though he has prevented us from going to Karakol, because of his overprotective type then, He knew we will enjoy it. So to the next generations of Manlayo, it’s your prime undertaking to bring those memories back and you shall capture it in Blog like repository. Use facebook or other sites. You! ,now had the tools and technology to at least share it with others. Unlike what we have here, though vividly clear it is not shareable by words. Happy Fiesta “Mga Kababaryo”. Mabuhay ang Manlayo.!!

-By Cornelio Cenizal

Repost from simpleoddmind.wordpress.com