New forum member from the Philippines

[tagalanao]

Dan,

Wow, your troops in Marawi! I did see a few of them last month, when US Embassy folks asked me to use some of my pictures for a photo exhibit on Muslim Life at the King Faisal Mosque compound also inside the Mindanao State University campus. There were some US soldiers, too.

You got the names of towns wrong. Must be difficult for an American ear to get the spellings right. Hehe ... It's Tamparan, not Tampuran. Malabang, not Malibang (and don't ever say you're going to Malibang, coz you'll hear everybody laugh!). Butig, not Butic. This used to be site of a big camp of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), next only in size to the central headquarters in Matanog in Maguindanao. I've visited the camp a few times doing journalistic work.

I've ridden on a helo, too, crossing Lake Lanao. This was during the war in Lanao in 2000, as I actively covered it for a Manila paper as the hostilities started in the town of Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte, just 15 minutes from my home. We could feel the ground shaking when Air Force planes drop bombs in Moro rebel strongholds.

AFAIK, American troops were actively involved in Lanao in the early 1900s, led by Pershing. I heard there was fierce fighting in the coastal town of Bayang in Lake Lanao, similar in scale as those in Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak of Sulu.

Bobby T.

Originally Posted by wilked aka Khun Deng

Iligan you say, we still fly supplies in there for our guys on the ground in Marawi. Just returned from 7 months in the Philippines and was lucky enough to get to Mindanao twice. First time to Marawi and a smaller town on the east coast of Lake Lanao called Tampuran. The second time all the way down in Lanao Del Sur in a little town called Malibang.

At a function in the Town of Tampuran I was talking to HRH The Sultan of Butic Nash Adur and he told me there was an American living near there that was trying to write a history of Mindanao. I have a contact to some professor there I'll try and dig up and send you.

Loved the photos- phenominal. Probably a smart choice to get out of the journalism field also considering your geography.

Favorite memory of those trips (besides the people) was flying over (helo) what we thought were birds but soon realized was a school of flying fish in the middle of Lake Lanao

Again Welcome
Dan