dream dec2508

was on a jeepney curve going downhill overtake many cars almost caused smash up among 10-wheel trucks and cars bumped a stopped jeepney it feel into a tennis court under shades of talisay trees i was carrying a sack of copra got torn tried to sew with a white cord asked the driver his liability in the accident took another ride on a tricycle a beautiful girl -- a student was with me white chinese looking kissed her in the cheek when she got off her necktie navy blue in color embroidered with initials of her school, i was supposed to be going to university of san carlos walked from where the girl got off men that dont look golf players were playing golf on the street hitting their balls on windows of vans suspecting them their intention was to break the windows to steal the vans they played their golf like they are playing tennis hitting and returning i fear i might get hit in the head by the golf balls as big as tennis balls dimpled and dark in color climbed wall middle of street soldiers were there in their trucks didnt mind i climbed. got inside an old man's walled yard he was playing with a gecko and a baby rat on pool of shallow unclean water, got angry that i was not interested in his animals my purpose getting inside his yard was my fear of getting hit in the head by golf balls, got out of his yard proceeded walking cannot locate anymore where san carlos university is thought of taking a taxi dream changed was among children 2years old, two girls and a boy, one girl her legs parted her big genital cleaved open up the penis threshold, another girl was lying legs together genital bare but no open

Subano's Fragant Areca Nut

It's one of the fragrant smells in the forest near river banks where they usually grow. No manufactured perfume is similar in fragrance with the Subano betel nut. The scent is far-reaching and sweeter in the early morning and late afternoon when evaporation is almost absent. When the areca bud opens the many flowers inside hundreds in numbers send out scent to attract pollinators. But the areca nuts are never planted in homes

For Academic Visitors, Places to Visit in the Zamboanga Peninsula

For academic visitors who need to do researches on the Subano peoples on their language, their culture, their literature, their way of life, these are the mountain communities to visit in the Zamboanga Peninsula where the last of the pure Subano speaking generation are still available for recording and videoing as they chant their epics for days up to a week, GUMAN in their language, dance their dances, sing the songs, recite their garays, sing almost rapping their ginarongs.

Titik - A mountain community some 50 kilometers from the town of Bacungan, Zamboanga del Norte.The community is reachable only by illegal and unregistered passenger motorcycles from the town of Bacungan officially known as Leon Postigo. The old lady who chanted for an Ateneo de Zamboanga University scholar in 1997 for his thesis about Subano gumans hopefuly is still alive. The lady speaks only the Subano language

Pangandao - A mountain community 18 kilometers away from the town of Manukan, Zamboanga del Norte. The community is reachable by illegal and unregistered passenger motorcycles from the town of center of Manukan or by copra trucks. Climbs to the copra trucks to mountain community is unscheduled althou almost daily copra traders in the town dispatch their trucks to carry copra down to the town for scaling. Chanters of Subano epics (gumans) may still be around although no researching scholar were known to have been to the place for the purpose. Singers of the Subano ginarongs, a shorter form of chanted or sang Subano literature are still around. Singing or chanting of one story could last for hours.

For Tourists, Places to Visit in the Zamboanga del Norte Area

Aligway Island - Part of Dapitan City (Zamboanga del Norte) visible from the shores of the towns of Manukan, Roxas, Katipunan, Dipolog and Dapitan City. About a fourth of the island is rocky. The The island is of natural white corral sand belonging to Dakak Park and Beach Resort. The island is around 10 hectares in size. No wildlife except the two kinds of wild brown pigeons that feed with the residents' chickens. A community ordinance prohibits the hunting and hurting of the birds. Other birds also reside in the island, the locally called golansiang black in color, red eyes, belonging to the starling family. Small brown birds of thrush family and thumb size birds, yellow chest and greenish brown body feathers of the humming bird family also reside in the island. No land snakes so far found. Water snakes are sometimes found among corral rocks trapped by the receding tide. Cemetery 18 graves, houses of light materials more than one hundred. No electricity, no water system. Rainwater is collected by the residents into drums and containers. Drinking water, other than the bottled mineral waters come in black former soy sauce containers from Dipolog and Dapitan.

Libuton Cave - Located in a mountain community seven kilometers from the town proper of Manukan, Zamboanga del Norte. Libuton Cave is the path of an underground river with undiscovered source and drops vertical into an abyss-like hole nobody knows where the water goes from there. The entrance to the cave is a tiny hole as small as a 29-inch television. Once inside after a short crawl spaces widen. The underground river is host to albino looking fishes and freshwater crustaceans due to absence of sunlight.

Chicken Statue - Inside the Manukan municipal complex along the national highway is the statue of a male bantam. Inside the statue is the municipal historical museum. The chicken statue is around four stories high from the ground to the tip of the crest and a length of 30 meters from

the tip of the bill to the end of the tail

Jose Rizal Shrine - A small park of about 15 hectares in size in Dapitan City where the Philippine's most important hero, Dr. Jose Rizal was exiled by the Spanish government from 1892 to 1896. A view deck for a complete view of the historical little city is placed on top of a rock above the park is reachable by winding foot trail. The Pulawan Harbor to the west is also visible from the view deck The house of light materials Jose Rizal built as his dwelling during the period of his exile is preserved inside the park. A museum also inside the park houses the collection of items Jose Rizal used and faded photographs about the hero.

Villa Ester Resort Mountain - A mountain resort nine kilometers from the national highway, a part of Roxas, Zamboanga del Norte. The resort swimming pool is feed by a spring that contributes to the water of Dohinob Daku River, Cottages of all-bamboo materials thatched with marsh palm leaves are available to guests.

Dakak Park and Beach Resort - A world class cove beach resort located in Dapitan City.

Franceso Paliola Murder Site - Inside the Adaza Estate in Jose Dalman, Zamboanga del Norte, close to the shore is the murder site of an Italian Jesuit missionary priest by the name of Franceso Paliola. The very spot on which he died is enclosed in a steel fence piled with corral rocks and planted around with dwarf cypresses. He was tasked by his superior Jesuits in Dapitan the evangelization of the Subanos in the Manukan and Ponot (now Jose Dalman) areas between 1642 and 1648, the year he was murdered. Although not regarded as holy as no work for the sainthood of the Italian priest is being done, people come to visit the murder site to say prayers to seek the murdered priest's guidance and to light candles around the steel fence. A framed psychic picture as to how the priest was killed hangs on an altar by the murder site. Franceso Paliola was the first foreigner to have learned the Subano language.

Hotels
Sunset Boulevard Hotel, Dapitan City
Camilla Hotel, Dipolog City
Top Plaza Hotel, Dipolog City
West End Court Inn, Dipolog City

Restaurants
Jollibee, two hamburger restaurant branches in Dipolog City
CL Fastfood Restaurant
Jos Inato Restaurant
Big Joe Restaurant

How to Get to Zaboanga del Norte
One hour flight from Manila to Dipolog. The route is serviced by Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific with one flight each daily. By boat, 24-hour travel from Manila to Pulawan Harbor, Dapitan City serviced by Aboitiz-Jibsen and Sulpicio Lines, Inc with one boat each weekly. And from Cebu, six hours of slow, diesel smelling, old boats departing there at 10 o'clock in the evening and getting Pulawan Harbor 4 o'clock in the morning.

SUBANO Manggahat the lies and the truth about it.

Stories are told about the Subano manggahat but nobody really knows for sure if there really were manggahats. There is no equivalent term for the character in the lowland. But they were believed to be vengeful characters from a Subano tribe out to avenge the death of a member of their tribe whether of natural cause or in a fight or in a murder among themselves. They are sent out by their tribal head or they go on their own to kill anybody they find, bring home the body as offering to their gods, whether a fellow Subano of another tribe or a lowlander. The manggahat leaves home with a provision of cooked aromatic rice preserved to last more than a week by sesame oil wrapped with the green leaves of binonga, a forest tree frequented by small birds of thrush and starling families for its fruit the tree bears the whole year round. Nobody really took chances on a manggahat that they either believed as truth or laughed at as untrue. Mothers tell tales about manggahats to lull them in their afternoon sleep. They were believed to tie red cloth around their heads with big knife like a man about to go on amok. Police in the municipalities around the Zamboanga peninsula has not recorded any killing incident perpetrated by a Subano manggahat. Except for the killing of a boatmaker in the public forest of Manukan, Zamboanga del Norte which was attibuted to Subano manggahats but later turned out to be a plane murder by Subanos due to an old grudge.

Tal-tal, Subano Wedding

The Subano tal-tal is the equivalent to the lowland people's wedding. The word taltal rhymes with the Pilipino word kasal.which means wedding. It is a primitive type of wedding but the ceremony is accepted by the Philippine Government as a legal valid wedding. Only the Timuay (tribe head) can officiate the wedding. He's authorized by the Philippine government with a license from the National Census and Statistics Office. It is totally different from lowland people's wedding mostly in a Catholic ceremony that its is integrated in a mass. In the olden times though the Philippine Family Code was put to practice, Subano tal-tal was not recognized by the Philippine government as a valid wedding. The Timuay had to be granted authority as a way of preserving their culture, their practices. But the Catholic Church is not accepting the Subano tal-tal as the ceremony is pagan, it doesn't mention Jesus Christ in uniting the couple.

SUBANO Buklog

The Subano Buklog is a celebration usually held after a good harvest of mountain rice and sturdy mountain corns (they call "tinigeb" that lasts in their barns until the next cropping without being eaten by weevils.) The festivities last for days. Preparation begins with the building of stage-like flatforms mostly of bamboo materials and logs of young trees where their dances are performed and their prayers are said. The pounding and winnowing of red aromatic rice to be cooked and served in the celebration is also a part of the preparation. The rice is pounded on giant mortars by three pounders each with pestles alternating in pounding the rice. Each mortar loads around three gantas, old grains measure, equivalent to around 10 kilos. Winnowing is done on a nigo, an oblong tray made of thin bamboo (rimmed around with a pair of rattan slats) to separate the grain from the chaff. Animals such as pigs domesticated and wild and goats to be butchered on the occasion are brought to the buklog site freely donated by neighboring tribes. Drinks they call "pangasi," stored in giant china jars aged by burying for years underground are likewise donated by neighboring tribes aside from the celebrating tribe's own pangasi. It is a kind of wine fermented from cassava. Two tastes are available in the buklog. One sweeter for women and another one stronger for men. In the entire duration of the buklog celebration the wines remain in the antique giant chinas the Subanos call bahandi meaning treasure.. It's drank without decanting into bamboo tumblers but strawed with a bamboo pipe of the bagakay variety. The celebration includes chewing of betel and areca, chanting of ginarongs accompanied with gongs, usually in lewd language to draw laughter. In some Subano buklog the celebration culminates with the chanting of gumans that chanting is done in stages and last for two days up to a week. But the Subano buklog like traditions and practices of other indigenous peoples, is in danger of becoming a thing of the Subanos' past the present and succeeding generations have no way anymore of knowing what it is except in blogs like this. The chinas they store their pangasi are all gone now, sold as a result of hardship to antique collectors at prices almost a give away because the Subanos don't know the value these antique giant chinas. And the Subanos donot own anymore the lands they use to till to grow their rice and corn necessary to carry on up to these days the Subano buklog.

SUBANO, an endangered language

The Zamboanga Peninsula is a piece of land almost detached from mainland Mindanao like a tail of an unknown headless animal heading for the Pacific. The isthmus between Panguil Bay that separate Lanao del Norte from Misamis Occidental and Illana Bay that separates Lanao del Sur from Zamboanga del Sur is what connects the Zamboanga Peninsula from the rest of Mindanao island.

The original inhabitants of this piece of land are Subanons. They are all over the peninsula from the western end of Zamboanga to the entire province of Misamis Occidental. They own the land without possessing documents to prove ownership. They lived nomadic life clearing vegetations to grow their crops moving from one area to another when the land becomes less fertile after a few cropping. When settlers from the rest of the islands of the Philpppines came to the peninsula, they moved to the mountains where the new settlers are least interested. They remained there until today.

The language they speak are distinct from the Subanos of Misamis Occidental and the Subanos of Katipunan, Polanco, Pinan, Sergio Osmena, Josefina, Domingag, Suminot, Midsalip, Bayog, Leon Postigo, Siayan, Roxas, Manukan, Jose Dalman, Sindangan area. Their language is also different in the areas from Salug, Godod, Buug, Diplahan, Imelda, Siay, Naga, Kabasalan, Titay, Tungawan, Liloy, Labason, Gutalac, Baliguian, Siocon, Siraway, Sibuco, the barangays around Zamboanga City. Still their language is different in the Dumalinao, Lakewood, San Pablo, Guipos areas down to Margosatubig, Vincenzo Sagun. It is a lanuage difficult to learn unless learners are exposed twenty four hours a day for six months to a year to the language. Some Subano words are difficult to pronounce; some words are spelled easily but pronounced differently which makes the language difficult to learn. No published rules on how to pronounce and spell their words. Neither published rules on how their verbs are conjugated and on how their nouns changes from singular to plural. The only way to learn to speak write and read their language is to live to with them. And while their language is different, there are some words they share with some major languages in the Philippines. Niyog which means coconut in Tagalog, Tausog, Ilocano. and other Filipino languages, also means coconut to the Subanos. Patay which in Pilipino means dead is MYATAY in Subano. And in some pronunciations, the pronunciation of IW like magiliw, a word in the Philippine national anthem, the Subanos pronounce as MAGILIO, the way Tagalog speaking people in Liliw, Laguna, would pronounce the name of their town as LILIO. When a Subano sings the first line of the Philippine national anthem he'll say "bayang magilio." Although not exactly the same, in Bicol a language spoken in the provinces of Camarines Sur and Norte, Sorsogon, Catanduanes and most of the northern part of Masbate, SIRA means fish. In Subano, the word for fish is SARA

Until the early 1950s, the Subanos remained in their mountain homes rarely having contact with the settlers in the lowland except when they came down to sell orchids, forest ferns, baskets and return to their mountain homes with salt, salt-preserved fish. soap, kerosene, matches and other necessities they want to enjoy from time to time. They come down to the lowlands through foot trails carrying their wares on their shoulders and heads.

With the advent of heavy equipments, the foot trails were widened into mountain roads. The lowland influence then became easy to creep into their way life and into their language. By the late 70s and early 80s, Subano children began to feel ashame to use their language in conversations among themselves especially when there are non-Subanos listening. The death of the language officially began when the last of older generation of Subanos that speak no other language but their own were all gone. The younger generations of Subanos who have acquired both the lowland language from their lowland peers and the Subano language from their parents do not speak the Subano language anymore to their children cutting off the passage of the language to the next generation of Subanos.

Within the next 40 or 50 years the Subano language, will be, not just dead but extinct. By then Subano will be a language nobody neither speaks nor understands

Some conversational Subano

Piag andaw - Good morning
Piag sises'lum - Good afternoon (between 9am and 2pm)
Piag delabong - Good afternoon (after 2pm and before 6pm)
Piag gabi - Good evening
Ta' don - I don't know
Da' masunay - I don't understand
Ta' pagaw? - Where are you going?
Ta' ma pangay? - Where you been?
Santa' me'n? - How much?
Gataw Buwid - Mountain man
Myatay na 'leh - Already dead
Muli na sug balay - I'm going home now
Malo gusay - Always have sex
Muli na sug buwid - I'm going to the mountain now

Subano Basic Vocabulary

buwid - mountain
dupi - rain
geto - dog
b'ring - cat
lusi - penis
ba'a - vagina
gataw - man
libon - girl
mamag - betel
bunga - areca
gapoy - fire
gandaw - day
gabi - night
sises'lum - afternoon
suba - river
sara - fish
saraan - viand
palay - rice
timuay - tribe head

Subano Garay 1

Subano:
Nanowa ma magunsawa naowg
Bos na saa naugulang nga na
Pigunlaan mo gupiya i'g gubalol naowg
Anon nalang gumang i'g gumbal buntod

English:
When are you getting married girl
Will you wait until you're old
Don't waste your cunt
As food to hermit crabs

Subano Garay 2

Subano:
Si yaya Maria
Detub suba neglaya

English:
Old mary
Castnets in the river

the coin diver

It was Sunday morning and the sun slips from the horizon to float freely in the sky. Only one old, diesel smelling, slow, passenger boat that crosses to another city in Mindanao was moored on the pier. The other boat that shuttles between the city and another smaller nearby island had left earlier. Only the two cranes with its gantries raised to the sky working on the pier expansion made the pier seem busy.

Down beside the aft of the old boat was a Badjao couple in their canoe and their daughter less than three years in estimate was inaudibly sobbing from hunger. Hunger was reason enough to cry but she was too weak for the effort to really cry. They’ve been displaced into a civilization they can not assimilate. Except by this trade.

The wife grabbed the baby to coddle her in her arms resting its buttocks on her lap then put her left nipple on the baby’s mouth to pacify her not really to feed her. The baby was naked and her thin genital, wrinkling from inadequate nutrition was cleaved to the eyes of the boat passengers as she turned her head to her mother's unhealthy milkless breast. The romblon hat her mother wore hides her face from the glare of the morning sun as she suckled.

Coins were thrown to the water for her husband to dive. Each time the coins were long in coming, she asked the passengers to throw some more using the Badjao language the passengers don't understand but nevertheless knew she's asking for coins. She never raised her hands with an open palm the way beggars do. She extends her hand as though she is reaching another hand for a handshake. Her people never considered this begging but a legitimate trade. Her husband provides a diving show to the boat passengers by allowing a few seconds before he follows the sinking coin underwater.

The family knew there was not enough time anymore for the day’s business. The boat leaves in a few minutes and the next ship from a Malaysian city arrives at dusk and so coin diving is impossible.

The boat blew its horn twice to signal departure and the funnel sent black smoke into the air to get ready. The couple knew what it meant so the wife added a little amount of loudness to her voice.

"Sige na" she shouted in their own language.

The mooring ropes were removed from the bollards and were dropped to the water and almost instantly, the ship carried by the current drifted a few inches from the log fenders. The winches hummed as it rolled to gather the ropes into the giant spool. The engine rumbled and the water ruffled with the heavy movement. The wife dug the paddle to follow the boat while she called for more coins. From crystal clear, the water turned deep blue-green and the dune-like bottom sand and a few debris and some garbage of an uncaring city began to get obscured. Some passengers remained leaning on the railings watching the couple waiting for some diving exhibition. One passenger who was lying on his cot, not pleased by the entertainment, stood and approached the railings.

"Why these people don’t find work," he murmured.

He dipped his hand in his jeans pocket and the wife saw it. She directed her hand to where the man stood.

"Sige na! sige na!" she called, her voice carries the tone of begging now.

When the man got his hand out from his pocket, his palm had three pieces of yellow coins. The husband’s face lighted to show willingness to give the man entertainment if entertainment is what the man is looking for in exchange for his last minute generosity. He grabbed his daughter from his wife and put her on his back and the baby dutifully clang to his father’s neck as though she knew that this is an early practice in the trade. The passenger threw one of the coins and father and daughter instantly leaped into the water. They landed a few meters away from where the coin dropped. Some few seconds later, two gleaming heads bleached brown by iodine and sunshine were back on the surface. Father shook his head thrice in quick succession to free his eyes of the stinging saltwater that drips from his forehead; daughter wiped her face with one hand for the same purpose while her other hand remained clinging to her father’s neck. They swim towards the canoe as the wife rows towards them to meet them. His forefinger and thumb touched his mouth where the coin is clipped between his teeth and then extended the hand to the side of the hull of his boat to drop the coin there.

A few seconds after father and daughter climbed back to the canoe, the second coin was thrown. It was almost like torture as oxygen had just gathered back into their lungs. He put his hand on his forehead like a visor and lowered his face almost touching the water to locate the coin. The child on his back was a censored sight. Her legs parted as her toes dug the side of her father’s waist to avoid somersaulting ahead into the water. The watching passengers were divided between laughter and pity. Once the sinking coin sent a whirling gleam to the eyes of the coin diver, they slipped into the water in that position.

Up in the big boat the passengers were held in suspense. But not the wife. She knows her worry can’t do any help; she knows the diving skills of their men even before greed fishing destroyed with dynamites their fishing grounds to steal their fishes.

The coin whirled too far. It sunk in a zigzag motion in obedience to both buoyancy and gravity. Two times his palm missed the coin. The bottom sand was just a few kicks below before he finally caught the coin.

Father and daughter resurfaced nearly half a minute later and too far from where everybody’s eyes expected them to emerge. Once more the wife rowed towards them to meet them.

Slowly, the old boat turned south to set her on course. Once the prow found its destination in the horizon, the tail boiled. The last of the three coins was still in the fist of the passenger. He threw it but a bit too close to the bubbles of the propeller. The husband handed the baby to his wife and for a few moments thought about diving for it. He changed his mind. Instead, he dangled his right foot on the water to help his wife counteract the current the old boat created and gave the coin thrower a blaming look. His eyes locked on the man’s blurring face like a jet fighter on its target. The yellow coin may not mean anything to that passenger but it means so much to the couple like food that slipped from the mouth irretrievably into an unclean surface.

But the boat sped up now and the distance it gained had freed the passenger from the eyes of the coin diver.