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

[Spunjer]

bobby,

thanks for the pics!!! love that sarimanok! just wondering tho; did you take those pictures of moro weapons inside the museum? if so do you have close-ups of those sandatas. would be nice if you can post them as well .

as you can see, the majority of us can just dream of being there. maybe the next time i'm there we can hook up? once again, i truly appreciate you finally becoming a member of this forum.

also, thanks for that little bit of history...

[tagalanao]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

thanks for the pics!!! love that sarimanok! just wondering tho; did you take those pictures of moro weapons inside the museum? if so do you have close-ups of those sandatas. would be nice if you can post them as well .

I can't take good closeups coz there's separating me and the blades.

Originally Posted by Spunjer

as you can see, the majority of us can just dream of being there. maybe the next time i'm there we can hook up? once again, i truly appreciate you finally becoming a member of this forum.

also, thanks for that little bit of history...

Yeah, sure! Whoever comes here and wants to go to Marawi / Tugaya, I can show you around. As long as you're adventurous and willing to take some risks.

If you open Cato's book, I personally know some of the people mentioned in the Preface. Jam Maridul is a Tausug who studied at the Mindanao State University in Marawi at the same time I was in college at MSU's Iligan campus. Cesar Padilla is publisher of the Mindanao Scoop, a weekly paper in Iligan that I edited from 1998-2003. Al Quirante, I accompanied him in coverages to Marawi when I was starting out in journalism in the late '80s fresh from college. He taught in Marawi in the 60s and 70s, I think, and thus fluent in the Maranao dialect.

Maybe if I were here in Iligan when Cato visited Lanao, I may be in his Preface, too. I started as a journalist here in Lanao in '87 until '92, then moved to Manila to write for a daily paper (if you heard about the Philippine Daily Inquirer) and to be with my wife, who was taking her residency and fellowship at a hospital in Manila. We came home in '97, and I resumed covering Lanao.

BobT

[Battara]

Love the pictures, Bob, especially of the museum goodies. Are there closeups of the kampilans?

[tagalanao]

Originally Posted by Battara

Love the pictures, Bob, especially of the museum goodies. Are there closeups of the kampilans?

Sorry, didn't take closeups, coz of the glass. Even if I did, I knew I won't be happy with the results. My photographer mind was working more than my interest in swords.

Bob

[MABAGANI]

Originally Posted by tagalanao

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.

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

[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

[MABAGANI]

Originally Posted by tagalanao

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 ...
Bob

Nice historical backdrop..lol, tnx, I lived on campus during my stay, still as pristine as ever yet just beyond the lake...

[VANDOO]

A NEW MEMBER IS ALWAYS WELCOME. THE FORUM IS MADE UP OF SCHOLARS,COLLECTORS,DEALERS, ADVENTURERS AND EVERYTHING ELSE IN BETWEEN. WE CAN ALL LEARN AND OFTEN CONTRIBUTE BY ASKING A QUESTION,SHOWING OUR COLLECTION OR MAKING A COMMENT. THE SCHOLAR WITH MANY DEGREES IS A IMPORTANT SOURCE OF INFORMATION BUT HE GOT MUCH OF HIS INFORMATION FROM REFRENCES OR THE GUY WHO LIVED IN THE VILLAGE AND KNEW THE TRIBAL HISTORYS AND BELIEFS OR MADE THE ARTEFACTS. WE ALL SHARE A INTEREST IN ETHINOGRAPHIC HISTORY AND ARTEFACTS AND THE IMPUT FROM EVERYONE IS VALUABLE ESPECIALLY FROM SOMEONE WHO IS IN A AREA WHERE HE CAN DO ACTUAL FIELDWORK TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW. WE ALSO HAVE A LOT OF FUN HERE WELCOME!

[wilked aka Khun Deng]

Bob and Mabagani, Thanks for the corrections, seems like every map I read has a different spelling for the town names and trying to keep up with baranguays was a full time task that I never mastered.
I had known of the museum at Marawi through this forum and it was the one stop I really wanted to make, unfortunately due to time constraints and political sensitivities I was not allowed access to the town of Marawi itself, maybe someday when I'm a civilian.
Magabani, you make good points about previous US involvement in Mindanao, I just gave a short class to my guys that are scheduled to rotate down there about the proud history of the Mindanao peoples and the complicated interactions of all the stakeholders down there. I can only hope that it prepares them to be sensitive to all sides of the issues that they will have to deal with. The trepidation of US involvement, due to past history, was evident in most conversations I had with local officials. My dearest hope and the goal of our involvement there is to help create stable economic development and convince everyone (local and AFP) that a government responsive to the needs of its people is a must regardless of who's in charge.
Of course I always threw in references to the incomparable craftmanship found no where else in the world, in the hopes that the old traditions and weapons will not die out.
I found in all my conversations that the history I learned through this forum and simply knowing the correct terms for things immediately elevated my credibility both with the locals and the AFP. Thank you all for that.

Dan

[tagalanao]

Originally Posted by wilked aka Khun Deng

My dearest hope and the goal of our involvement there is to help create stable economic development and convince everyone (local and AFP) that a government responsive to the needs of its people is a must regardless of who's in charge.
Dan

Dan, next time you come around here, we should get in touch. As a journalist, I also get to talk to a lot of Moro officials and ordinary folks. Way back, I did some series of articles for my former paper (Phil. Daily Inquirer) on the peace efforts and the attempt of international donors, like your USAID, to improve the lot of the Moros. Last year, an Italian development agency asked me to do their sort of end project report here in Lanao del Norte. They showed me sample publications, complete with graphs and tables, but we found them boring. So I suggested we do it the jouralistic way, like a magazine. I did both photos and text. This was my output, PDF file compressed in Zip ...

http://www.timonera.com/pix/movimondo.zip

BobT

[Spunjer]

dan,
i hope you enjoyed your stay in the philippines. like i said before, it's too bad that i didn't get to meet you in person, maybe next time...do you have any idea when you're gonna be visiting again???


on the lighter note, are you converted krisman now?

[MABAGANI]

Originally Posted by wilked aka Khun Deng

Magabani, you make good points about previous US involvement in Mindanao, I just gave a short class to my guys that are scheduled to rotate down there about the proud history of the Mindanao peoples and the complicated interactions of all the stakeholders down there. I can only hope that it prepares them to be sensitive to all sides of the issues that they will have to deal with. The trepidation of US involvement, due to past history, was evident in most conversations I had with local officials. My dearest hope and the goal of our involvement there is to help create stable economic development and convince everyone (local and AFP) that a government responsive to the needs of its people is a must regardless of who's in charge.
Of course I always threw in references to the incomparable craftmanship found no where else in the world, in the hopes that the old traditions and weapons will not die out.
I found in all my conversations that the history I learned through this forum and simply knowing the correct terms for things immediately elevated my credibility both with the locals and the AFP. Thank you all for that.

Dan

When I was there the university held a tour of US historical sites within and around the city, the main resort there had planned to use the route to attract Americans if the political climate ever stablized. I remember a base from almost a hundred years ago still standing and used as offices. An interesting fact as the US neared the end of its occupation and readied the Philippines for independence was that there were Moro leaders whom protested to the US Congress and wanted the Morolands to remain part of the US rather than controlled by Filipinos. Its true as we go back into history we begin to gain a deeper understanding of current circumstances and how to resolve issues. Thanks for listening.

[wilked aka Khun Deng]

Spunger, Well I did come back with two kris and two gunong and the one kris IS the best piece in my collection (till my other Dha arrive from Mark). Not converted but definately an enthusiast. Sorry I missed you also however where you were was much more interesting than were I was.

Bob, with your permission I'd like to pass on your article to our guys who are going to leave in a few weeks as well as our Civil Affairs coordinator down there. We are continually looking for for Non Government Organizations who have the experience we lack and whose efforts we can support. The more we can convince the the Philippine forces to support these efforts the better the stability of the region, we have found that a concerted effort, executed in coordination, has a much better sustainability factor than individual efforts.
Surprising that it was an Italian company. One who became a great friend of mine down there was one Armando DeRossi who has lived and worked in the area for 30 years and besides his construction company runs a NGO called Peace and Prosperity for the Philippines, he also was named a Sultan for his humanitarian efforts throughout the region, in fact it was at his invitation that I was allowed to participate in the events at Tamparan and Malabang.

Will I get back down there, hard to say but possible, my boss has just extended me another 18 months here in Japan, partially because of my experience in the area and the fact that my unit has the mission for the near term. i hope so and the next time I'll fight harder to get out of the office and amongst the people. You'll be one of the first to know - guaranteed!

Dan

[tagalanao]

Originally Posted by wilked aka Khun Deng

Bob, with your permission I'd like to pass on your article to our guys who are going to leave in a few weeks as well as our Civil Affairs coordinator down there. We are continually looking for for Non Government Organizations who have the experience we lack and whose efforts we can support.

Sure, no problem. I did give a hard copy of that to one of your embassy boys who's Pinoy (Filipino) when we met in Marawi a month ago. I just hope he showed it to his boss. The embassy's public affairs office also used a lot of my photos for their Muslim Life in the Philippines magazine.[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by wilked aka Khun Deng

Surprising that it was an Italian company. One who became a great friend of mine down there was one Armando DeRossi who has lived and worked in the area for 30 years and besides his construction company runs a NGO called Peace and Prosperity for the Philippines, he also was named a Sultan for his humanitarian efforts throughout the region, in fact it was at his invitation that I was allowed to participate in the events at Tamparan and Malabang.

If you saw that picture of the Italian who was also "enthroned" a sultan in that Movimondo publication ... shortly after that magazine was printed, he was kidnapped. Although released within 24 hours coz the MILF and the Marines joined forces against the abductors. That Italian was pulled out from the country immediately. He was such a great friend; we worked closely together for that project.

Originally Posted by wilked aka Khun Deng

Will I get back down there ... You'll be one of the first to know - guaranteed!

Hope to see you then, and show you around Marawi's padian where you can buy all the blades you want.

BobT

[wilked aka Khun Deng]

I thought that story of Ismael sounded extremely familiar. "Muslim Life in the Philippines" was actually one of the projects we initiated and produced while I was there. My Information Officer was working on the second edition when I left. This small world keeps getting smaller. I'll shoot you an email as we're definately getting out of forum territory here.

Regards,

Dan

[rasdan]

Originally Posted by tagalanao

Dan,

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!).
Bobby T.

Way to go Marco!!