LIKE any “business” person, Mang Joel (full name Joel Gastorillo) thrives on having loyal clientele and trying to protect his turf.
I was able to persuade him to relax under the shade for an interview and he was kind enough to lend me a few precious minutes. In his line of work, every moment counts.
Each time a traffic light turns red is an opportunity to make a living.
MANILA, Philippines – An economic crisis pushes people to engage in sidelines or extra jobs aside from the regular job they are already doing. But for 21-year-old Rodel Rosario of Los Baños, a sideline means the only way of making ends meet.
Pushing a trolley from “Crossing” to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños has become Rodel’s “sideline” for two years now.
“Kung walang trabaho, ito ‘yung sideline ko ang mag-tulak ng trolley[If I have nothing else to do, I push trolleys for sideline], ” he said.
QUEZON City, Philippines – Medical board exam topnotcher Marlon Garcia always wanted to become a doctor.
“I learned to love the profession as I was studying and I got to interact with the patients,” said the 26-year-old Garcia who finds the Anatomy and Surgery part of the board exam the hardest.
Watch this video interview with Garcia:
In an interview with INQUIRER.net, Garcia said the country suffers from the unequal distribution of qualified doctors and the lack of adequate facilities to perform medical procedures.
He said most of the doctors are located in the city while far-flung provinces are in dire need of more doctors. [Read the rest of this entry »]
TAGUIG City, Philippines — Stacking a dozen plastic cups might sound like a parlor game played during children’s parties but some kids get to play it as a sport. In fact, a sibling of three Filipino kids showed that stacking can be serious fun.
The Purugganan brothers Andrew, 16, Brian, 12, and Steven, 11, have been playing and breaking records in this relatively unheard of speed stacking contest. They and their proud parents Danilo and Victoria Purugganan are in the Philippines as participants in the the Passion Rush at the Bonifacio Global City.
As the name implies, sport stacking requires players to stack up to 12 cups in a pyramid. While some people would take over a minute to stack up all 12 cups without them falling, these boys can stack the cups in threes, six, and dozen consecutively in less than 10 seconds.
There are four basic categories in competition level speed stacking. These are the 3-3-3 wherein the player has to stack nine cups in threes then nest them back; the 3-6-3 is with 12 cups where the goal is to stack three sets of cups in threes, six and another threes; and the 1-10-1 also using 12 cups.
The fourth category is the cycle stack, where the player is required to cycle through the three other categories. A fifth category is the doubles with two players doing a cycle stack with one hand each.
The youngest of the Purugganans Steven is currently the world record holder for three categories: 3-3-3 that he completed in 1.86 seconds; the 3-6-3 category in 2.34 seconds and cycle stack category at 6.21 seconds. He broke the 3-3-3 and cycle stack records at the recently held World Sport Stacking Championships in Denver, Colorado.
Steven and his brother Andrew also held the doubles championship title with 7.84 seconds, which they got at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships in Delaware. This was broken by Germans Timo Reuhl and David Wolf with a very close 7.65 seconds during the 2008 World Sport Stacking Championships.
Their mother Victoria said the boys only started playing less than two years ago after watching the competition on TV.
“They got interested in it so we bought them cups that they could play,” she said, noting that they first joined the New York State Championships in October 2007 and from thereon, they’ve been breaking records.
And like all athletes, Victoria said her children do some exercises before joining any competition, such as push ups and jogging. Even when they are not practicing, which she said is a lot, the boys still get to do other activities, such as playing other sports like basketball, swimming, baseball and soccer.
Victoria said she is proud to let her kids compete in a sport they love while still having fun. She hopes that her kids will pursue the things they like and be successful at it.
GONE are the days when you would hear a vendor shouting “Balut, Penoy!” in the streets in Manila early in the morning or late in the afternoon. In Pateros, which is known as the Balut capital of the Philippines, the scene just described remains.
“It’s a legacy of Pateros. And that’s what we’re trying to preserve,” said Menandro Concio, president of Concio’s Food Corporation.
Having been in the balut-making industry for 30 years, Concio wanted to save the striving industry of balut. In 2004, he introduced balut to the market in another form, which is the bottled balut or gourmet balut.
Balut is a duck’s egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It is delicacy in the Philippines.
MANILA, Philippines –When you’re single and a college graduate, would you rather be a mother of 11 kids who have come from different places and backgrounds?
For 20 years now, Erlinda Lubi has been a foster parent in the SOS Children’s Village Manila, where 32 homeless kids are currently housed.
Lubi, who is fondly called “Mama Erlin,” is now taking care of 11 kids from different age groups.
Lubi shares her unforgettable experiences as a foster in this video interview taken by multimedia reporter Morales.
What started the so-called “Pandangguhan sa Kalye” in Pateros.
INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Izah Morales finds out in this video interview with Parish Priest Fr. Orlando Cantillon, devotee Beth Adriano, and suman vendor Evangeline Macalipay.
Santa Marta devotees from Pateros dance the “Pandangguhan sa Kalye,” as spectators throw food called “pasubo.”
Local people consider Santa Martha as the patron of duck-raisers or “mag-iitik.” A procession is conducted with people carrying a pagoda with the image of Santa Marta stepping on a crocodile.
Wearing traditional costumes, the feast comes with the singing of kundiman songs while people dance in the street.
“WHEN you decide to become a nurse, there should be a passion to serve and to care,” said Aira Therese Salamanca Javier of the University of Santo Tamos (UST), who topped the recent Board of Nursing exams of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) with a rating of 86 percent.
She said that going abroad should not be the primary motivation to pursue a career in nursing.
Asked to comment on the controversial leakage of the nursing board exams in the past, she stressed that nurses should always stand for integrity and honesty because they’re dealing with people’s lives.
Javier topped the board exams out of 64,459 students who took it. She was a UST scholar for four years.
When you are on a foreign soil, you will need a map to guide you to where you’re going. But when the map is useless, the next thing you will do is to ask directions from the locals of the area. But what if no one understands a thing you’re saying. Sign language may help you a bit. But talking with someone who understands you is better.
My mom and I found ourselves lost in Macau after we took a wrong route going to Fisherman’s wharf for dinner. We should have walked but we took a bus with the thought that our destination is far from the Macau Ferry Terminal.
Our problem started when asked the driver if the bus was going to the Fisherman’s wharf. He did not answer, and I presumed that it was because he didn’t understand a single word I said. So from that point, we did not know where we were heading. Luckily, a woman who looked like a Filipino boarded the bus. When we asked her, she just said, “Naku, malayo na kayo. Bumaba na lang kayo diyan sa susunod na stop.” [Read the rest of this entry »]
AS cliché as his declaration may sound, the words of our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal still resonate up to this day: “Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan.”
On the 110th celebration of Independence Day, the Department of Education-Special Event Unit held the 4th Pambansang Gawad Ulirang Kabataan, which recognized five young Filipino students.
Among 51 nominees, Paul Julian Hao (Chiang Kai Shek College), Ben Ralph Yu (Davao City National High School), Stephen Panol (Fort Bonifacio High School), Jamil Repors (Kidapawan City National High School), and Kate Marie F. Benitez-Colmenares (Samal National High School) stood out as the grand winners of this year’s Ulirang Kabataan.
Being Filipino, the INQUIRER.net blog that celebrates the lives and achievements of Filipinos all over the world. Manila-based INQUIRER.net is the online home of the Philippine Daily Inquirer group of publications.
