Visiting San Miguel de Mayumo: Meeting the Mayor (Part 1)

San Miguel de Mayumo or Municipality of San Miguel, named after the archangel and the Kapampangan word for sweet. The municipality drifted apart from the tradition of Pampanga and made their own distinct identity.

We were shown around the Municipal Hall. On what seems to be a modernized bahay na bato (stone house) with its stone ground floor and wooden second floor.

The building is cool and yet the people are warm. The staff was there to assist us and our host Architect Ervin Garcia mad eusre everything went smoothly.

Despite her problems with her tonsils Mayor Marivee ” Ivy ” Mendez Coronel welcomed us with a smile and even a whiteboard. She tried to answer some questions and talk about her plans for her city.

Our host Architect Ervin Garcia with Mayor Marivee ” Ivy ” Mendez Coronel.

Participants of the event were also given Ceritificates of Participation and also a souvenir pictures all courtesy of Municipality of San Miguel.

Presentation of Certificates by Mayor Ivy and Arch. Garcia.

Mayor Marivee ” Ivy ” Mendez Coronel aims to help the small and medium business of San Miguel and to also promote tourism for her municipality.

The municipality is at a crossroad leading to many destinations and surely the warmth of its people will not fail those people going to north of Luzon.

Our sweet adventure begins with warm greetings and pleasantries.

Group photo with our awesome San Miguel people. (photo grabbed from Tubong San Miguel).

Here are FB links if you want to learn more about this amazing destination: Official Page and Tubong San Miguel

President Rodrigo Duterte's SONA 2017: The battle cry for murder, hypocrisy, fake data, and the drug war

It is another year and the Poong Messiahd (a pun on the word Messiah and the tagalog word may sayad, which means crazy), the great overlord of death, Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Dutertards (Duterte fanatics) and the bobotantes (stupid voters) held his second SONA (State of the Nation Address) or hate speech because he thinks its cool to be bad-ass and idiots like the drama.

I will take everything into consideration and see what matters or what have you. I didn't listen to the actual speech because believe me it's very hard to understand the accent, enunciation of the Mahal na Nazeraan (a pun on the Black Nazareen and sira, wich also means crazy). 

Sumaatin nawa ang banal na putangina. (May the holy son of a bitch be with us.)

Following is a full transcript of that SONA, as delivered:

Kindly sit down. Thank you for your courtesy.

When I was a member of Congress, I… my seat was over there. The seat… the lady with a violent — not violent but rather violet dress… seated. But I was always absent, together with the Speaker and Tonyboy Floirendo, who is still absent until today. [LAUGHTER] And that started… Ay nandiyan ba? Sorry. But his propensity started almost 17 years ago when we were members of the 11th Congress.

Here he is proud to be always absent. He got paid for being absent. As if that is a skill similar to what Manny Pacquiao has been doing consistently since he became a politician. So being lazy is a virtue for Duterte. Also his joke is lame. Politicians have no sense of what a good joke is.

Express passport application in the Philippines is not Express at all

Today (July 11, 2015) I had my scheduled passport appointment at the Department of Foreign Affairs East District at SM Megamall.

I arrived early with my printed form, NSO birth certificate and photocopy of my two IDs. Of course the Php 1,200 express processing fee. I arrived 30 minutes before.

The process itself was very simple. First you go to the verification desk. They will look into your appointment printout and then you will be sent to Processing. You will be asked to show your NSO birth certificate and two original IDs with their photocopy. A ticker will also be added to your forms as you do the whole process. Then you will be asked to pay the fee at the cashier. Yes that is Php 1200 gone in a few seconds. Then the last part is the encoding. You will be asked to check your info on the screen. Get your picture taken. Asked to sign. And then you are done. The whole process so so simple and easy. It took me around 30 minutes.