Category Archives: Banaue

From the Rice Terraces to Policy Advocacy

By Gina Dizon
KIANGAN, IFUGAO – Governor-elect Teddy Baguilat Jr lives and breathes home. Home is the rice producing province of Ifugao which boasts of its stairway terraces to the skies, the famous 8th wonder of the world. (Ed’s note: Officially, there’s no such thing as an 8th wonder of the world, see our earlier post here.)

Rice being the top product of the province, the young governor sees rice culture as a vital source of livelihood and a potential source of income to be developed too.

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Movie Review: Batad sa Paang Palay

The movie is about an Ifugao boy and his all-consuming desire to own a pair of shoes. Honestly, I find it a bit hard to be drawn into the story and to sympathize with the boy mainly because I kept thinking, “Hey kid, it’s 2006. You are from the Cordilleras where there are ukay-ukay/wagwag stores in every corner. Surely you can buy a used pair of shoes for P50.”

So I must admit that for most of the movie, my mindset was like, “What is the fuss about? Take the kid to an ukay ukay store and be done with it. It’s not like he is dreaming of a pair of shoes worth P5,000.” I might have been willing to suspend my disbelief if the movie was set in the ’80s where owning a pair of shoes was more of a financial challenge. Or if the boy was dreaming of something that is harder to buy now, say a cellphone or a computer.

Having said that, I would still say that the movie is good and is much much better than the mindless crap that local movie producers are making these days. However, I might have been better off if I just bought a VCD copy of the film since digital movies like Batad really do not project well in movie screens. [Based on experience, much of the color in digital movies gets lost in in the big screen so they sadly end up looking lifeless and grayish.]

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On Juan Dontogan’s Surrender and Confession

Now that our kailiyan Juan Dontogan (or Duntugan) has confessed to and apologized for killing Julia Campbell, should we now end our coverage on this case?

Well, not yet. We will continue to cover the case but we won’t be posting as many updates as in the past. Also, our updates will be focused more on the forthcoming trial of our kailiyan since authorities will reportedly file a homicide case against him. Why he did what he did and the consequences of his crime are some questions which we hope will be clarified in the coming days.

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Missing in Ifugao: Julia Campbell, US Peace Corps Volunteer

Read Julia’s blog here.
Watch video updates here.
Read updates on the case against Juan Duntugan (People vs. Duntugan) here.

UPDATE 18: The Philippine Star has a report on the memorial held for Julia in Fairfax, Virginia: “Between 250 and 300 people, mostly friends and relatives and Peace Corps colleagues including Karl Beck, US Peace Corps Director to Manila, attended the memorial service. Close family members wore leis around their necks to commemorate the time she spent in Hawaii where she attended middle school.”

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