As I write this, I am in recollection creek. There is grief in the air. Ambrose Sagalla is someone I knew very much. First, as one of my karate instructors and co-karateka under the Japan Karate Association (JKA). Second as my student (he took up MS Rural Development at Benguet State University) and I was his professor in Development Communication and Communication Strategies. And followingly, as a co-worker in community development (we shared the same belief that only when people are conscientisized would they be able to to rise from their apathy). Beyond all, I was a drinking buddy–we laughed to our hearts’ content at everyone’s joke and shared a wise word or two when discussions got serious or otherwise.
Ambrose Sagalla was first dan brown belt in karate under sensei Kunio Sasaki in 1975. It was when the first JKA world karate tournament was held in Baguio City. In the finals of the kumite (sparring) he emerged champion over 6 footer 3rd dan black belt Shien Huei of Taiwan. He became the first Igorot karate world champion, a feat not even the late Arsenio Bawingan Jr. ever attained. Ambrose was always humble in victory. He dedicated his winning to his instructors Sasaki, Bawingan, Cesar Pelingen, Chris Torcedo, and Jerry.
We don’t want to spend our time criticizing the Honorable Representative of Mt. Province, Congressman Victor Dominguez because 1) he is getting old in years and 2) to be honest, we also admit that we grudgingly respect his achievements as a politician.
To have maintained a long political career — spanning from the 70s (?) to the 2ks — speaks of his ability to harness whatever political tools there are that one needs to remain in power or to win in the game of politics.
As promised, here’s TruBlue’s Eight Random Facts about his ego. The rules are at the start of Bill’s post and, are you kidding, who should I tag next? Anonymous 1:01, 1:02? Hehe, so lucky you, I’m not tagging anyone:
1. Other than gobbling on dark chocolates and ice cream (except vanilla), my real passion is flying helicopters. Remote control, that is. This includes trucks and cars. Already crashed two helos. For environment’s sake, I fly electric types, not nitro/gas.
To be honest, we are not sure whether this project is good or not. But since both the Mt Province provincial government and UNICEF believe that it is worth funding then maybe it is worth funding. What do you think?
Please note that we grabbed the picture above from a random website and that it doesn’t depict the toilet bowls that the provincial government is going to distribute. If our computation is correct that the budget for each bowl will be around P348, then we’re pretty sure that they will be distributing less fancy toilet bowls. The one in the picture is not actually fancy but you know what we mean.
Ahn Nyeong Hah Se Yo! We’d like to say “Hello” and “Thanks” to our regular visitors from South Korea 🙂
The above video shows some of our kailiyans performing a courtship dance during the Arirang Migrant Festival. Thanks to rbusiley for uploading the video.
