biking against violence against women

miyen versoza being interviewed by GMA 7 before the early morning bike ride.
DENR bike group
joy waiting for start of the 6:30 AM bike ride last sunday.
kaligtasan ng kababaihan laban sa karahasan ... tungkulin ng bawat mamamayan.
joy buying pan de sal after the bike ride.

joy and i joined the short advocacy bike ride against violence against women. miyen versoza, executive director of the national commission on the role of the filipino women, led a group of bikers around quezon memorial circle as one of the culminating activities of this 18-day advocacy. however, she accidentally fell on her bike at the end of the bike tour. i took photos of her minor injuries but i had my own accident with the film.
while waiting for lunch in a restaurant, i opened the back of the camera to retrieve film and was surprised to see part of the film still in the spool naked. i think the rewind lever got disengaged on rewind and caused the film to tear.
photos were taken with the rollei 35s with ilford hp5 plus film. these are some of the few shots that survived the mishap. signs of accidental exposure are evident in some.

waiting for lunch.

the ballroom shoes or the garrote

i have always wanted to own two-toned satin shoes. they would look great with my rangefinder cameras. but these shoes are not made for street-walking. they have velvet soles!
the wife used to be with the UP Filipiniana dance troupe and she loves dancing. so what options does the loving husband with two left feet have? well, maybe, i won't get the garrote if i abscond but i know it does not hurt to learn new tricks. not too much, anyway. and besides, yielding to her desires has its bountiful rewards in the evenings.

shopping in vietnam

she brings out the calculator and coyly shows you a figure.
you press cancel and press a figure close to what you like. she may frown or laugh. just smile back and remain firm and cheerful.
after several minutes of exchanging figures, a compromise is made.
and the transaction becomes a pleasant social exchange.

my friend dindo showed me how to do it. as a matter of fact "my friend" was the first thing he told me to say when i haggle. and the calculator is the medium of translation and transaction. many of the vendors do not speak english. but it does not bother them if you gently touch their arm or hand to press on an amount. they have no hang-ups with touching so long as it is not the head! it is rude to touch someone else's head. and the haggling can take 10 minutes at least. it also pays to know a reasonable price as the vendors tend to overprice. sometimes, the reasonable price is 30% of the price she gives you. they are generally honest but they are wily. it really helps to say "my friend" as you show the numbers you pressed on the calculator.
you may encounter snooty vendors who may shrug you off. i have heard of tourists waved off by vendors who are tired of haggling.
vietnam offers good quality silk, bags (many are copies though), shoes, lacquer work and other handicrafts. their paintings are good and cheap investments also.
so, there, the metro male has learned the art of shopping in vietnam.

the irosin man

left to right: noel vasquez, sj, oyen and eddie dorotan, allan and maribel dionisio, joy and myself in a wedding anniversary of common friends pia and jam malanyaon (http://tinyurl.com/2tp2ey)
irosin hit the headlines during the martial law years when the NPA raided the town hall and raised their red hammer and sickle flag in a brazen show of force. they held fort for a few hours one morning while the whole town froze. otherwise, irosin was a sleepy class 5 town with decrepit roads but great sparkling hot springs situated at the tip of sorsogon. some movie mogul made a movie out of the incident bearing the town's name as title.

eddie dorotan was a fresh graduate of PGH at the time and was initiating cooperative farming that aimed to finance health services. it was one of the early prototypes of the successful community health financing programs in philippine rural areas. the military branded him a communist, a sympathizer at best. but the NPAs branded him a CIA lackey because of his ties with the jesuits. somehow, the NPAs consider the jesuit order a front of the CIA. he was easy target. why he managed to keep on was due to several factors. a major factor was the support he was getting from the farmers. theirs was a formidable organization of farmers in sorsogon. perhaps, it helped that he was part of a well-respected clan in irosin. his brother was a former mayor affiliated with Marcos under KBL. it might have also helped that another brother died a heroic death protecting his wounded NPA comrades in a skirmish with the military. (i was there when the family just recovered his mangled body that was dumped in a dry well. i heard that he was a high-ranking cadre of the NPA). the dorotans was a small philippine republic with the full political spectrum of society represented.  he called it a mini-republic where democracy was practiced.

cory came to power and the political waters became potable. he became mayor for two terms. he converted irosin into a town with well-paved farm-to-market cement roads, a modestly equipped district hospital whose reputation as a reliable hospital spread even to the visayans who would take the boat and brave the waters to avail of their services. these accomplishments made him one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines in the late 80s. he kept a clean and efficient government with meaningful participation of people's organizations.

i looked up to eddie. he was the rare model who opted a path that was more in keeping with the times. while many doctors brag about their jetlags during their aseptic lectures, eddie dorotan lived a life of simplicity and a rare brand of patriotism. he spoke none of its travails even when he lost in the congressional elections. he just went back into NGO work doing what he knows best -- being a doctor of the people in the grassroots.

i met him in a wedding anniversary a few months ago in his usual faded maong pants and sport shirt. (http://tinyurl.com/2a45kx) he was also with his ever-loyal and loving wife oyen (an astute social development manager), a gorgeous daughter who is now a lawyer, and two of his handsome sons who are in college and doing well. he also has a daughter doing post-graduate medicine specialization in USA. i almost forgot his twin daughters who are also in college, one of whom is my wife's godchild.

i am watching pampanga as another ed, a priest, has again been making headlines lately. fr. ed panlileo is actively supported by tootsie herrera, a leading figure in his election bid and his current reform campaign, a nurse, a kumadre, and a co-worker from my NGO days.