New forum member from the Philippines

[tagalanao]

Originally Posted by MABAGANI

The Battle of Bayang May 1902 marked the first of the large scale campaigns by the American forces in Mindanao near the so-called end of the Philippine-American War. During the hundred year anniversary I heard there were talks of rebuilding the old forts to commemorate the event.
After my stay, part of my exhibit ended up at Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro, if you get a chance to visit, there's old photographs and a chronicle of the fighting throughout the occupation.

I was in Bayang twice last year, doing a photo essay on "rido" (clan wars) for a Manila magazine. Looks like there was no rebuilding there. What I did see were an entire village abandoned coz all the houses were set on fire. The warring factions were on opposite sides of the village, and the government has put a platoon-sized contingent of Philippine Marines to prevent further bloodshed. Before the Marines, this abandoned village became their battleground. Now, they only do sniping coz one village is on lower ground facing the lake, another is atop the hills directly across. A few weeks before my visit, a newly married woman was hit in the chest by .50 caliber machine gun fire. On my 2nd visit, just hours before, enemy from higher ground also fired their guns toward the underdogs in lower ground.

I swore I won't go back to that place again as I experienced the scariest moments of my life there.

Originally Posted by MABAGANI

Can you post a nice pic of the lake overlooking the MSU campus?

Hope we're still on topic here ... But I oblige, coz if there's someone to be warned by the mods, it should be Mabagani being the senior member. Hehehe ...

Top photo is the view of the lake from MSU's golf course. 2nd pix downtown Marawi taken from the same angle. 3rd is the famous "Sleeping Lady," the mountain across Lake Lanao, which can also be viewed from MSU on a cloudless day.

Bob