Inabanga's Longest Woven Raffia

Inabanga is a municipality in the province of Bohol, Philippines. Livelihood in the area is mainly trading, fishing, farming and nipa thatch-making. Others are into weaving of saguran, mats, blankets, hats, bags and basket using materials such as 'buli' or raffia. This town's century-old raffia weaving tradition takes center stage in this article from Inquirer Visayas.


Bohol town targets ‘longest’ handwoven raffia
By Kit Bagaipo, Chito A. Fuentes, 5/25/09 Inquirer Visayas

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol—To gain recognition for its century-old raffia weaving tradition, the town of Inabanga, once the cradle of the Philippines’ longest revolt against the Spaniards, will soon roll out the longest handwoven raffia and secure its claim as the home of highly skilled and artistic raffia weavers.

Locally known as “buli,” raffia weaving was introduced to Inabanga in the early 1800s during the time of the revolutionary Francisco Dagohoy. The woven fabrics were then used as sleeping mats and guerrilla uniforms.

On May 19, Inabanga launched its bid for the world’s longest continuous woven raffia fabric—a project that costs P300,000. The completion of the 1.6-kilometer product is expected by June 29, a day before its annual feast, Mayor Jose Jono Jumamoy said.

Read the full article.

Danao sets good example for other Bohol towns

Danao is a 5th class municipality in Region VII, specifically Bohol province, Philippines. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 17,716 people.

This story from the business section of Philippine Inquirer extols upon the efforts of a man and a foreign organization to raise the living standards and improve the life of the locals of this town.

Turnaround time for Danao, Bohol
By Elizabeth Lolarga, 5/16/09 Phil. daily Inquirer

WHEN ASISCLO “Boy” Gonzaga, a farmer’s son, left Magtangtang, Danao, Bohol, to study in the big city, it was a sleepy rural agricultural town.

Decades later, he returned to Magtangtang a successful engineer and electric power distributor, and he was aghast to see that the barangay (village) of his childhood had remained the same, as did the people’s values.

His wife Natividad said: “The thinking then was, have as many children as you can. That way, you can send some of your daughters to Manila as maids, and they can remit money back to you.”

Social worker Dahlia N. Montecina, who was assigned to Danao after graduating from St. Theresa’s College in Cebu City, said that when she first entered the town in 2004, the sights that greeted her were of men playing tong-its (a card game) or mahjong, men drinking and idle women gossiping by the roadside.

Fortunately, those scenes are slowly disappearing, mainly due to the setting up of the Jose L. Gonzaga Farmers’ Foundation Inc. (JLGFFI) and the entry of the Australia Business Volunteers (ABV), a nongovernment, nonprofit international development agency with 5,000 assignments done in 15 countries.

Read the full article.

An article about Amarela Resort

This one from Phil. Daily Inquirer about one of the new resortsi n Panglao Island, Bohol which has piqued the curiosity of locals and tourists alike because of its unique furnitures among others.


Bohol resort is Visayan furniture showcase

By Marge C. Enriquez, 12 May 2009

MANILA, Philippines – After a French writer waxed poetic about Amarela in Panglao Island, Bohol, and its motley of local folk furniture, his countrymen have been checking the resort out to see if the write-up was honest or mere hype. This three-year-old, 26-room resort has become a must-go place.

Corporate lawyer Lucas Nunag was planning to build a vacation house in his home province. But when he started doing the paperwork for its construction, a clause cited that buildings should have a commercial tourism purpose in a tourism estate like Panglao.

Riding on the tourism boom in Bohol, the Nunags set up the resort named after their favorite color, yellow, which in Portuguese means amarela. The main three-story edifice was built from architectural salvages while the modern annex uses floorings from tiles and woodwork from old houses.

The colors are painted in bright yellow to enhance the wood tones; they’re complemented by blue. The main areas are the atrium, where shafts of light penetrate, and the dining area that faces the Mindanao Sea.

Amarela’s charm lies in the proliferation of vintage Visayan folk furniture and their reproductions whose simple and functional lines complement the building. Although in their time these furniture pieces were as plebian as today’s Monobloc chairs, their modest provenance strikes a familiar chord, especially to Boholanos.

The locals would tell the owner they once saw similar pieces in their grandparents’ home. The presence of these folk furniture in the new environment adds warmth and introduces the enticing quality of the aged, the time-worn and the most cherished. They provide the important ambiance of comfortable equanimity and mellow well-being.

According to connoisseur and furniture maker Osmundo Esguerra, Bohol, Leyte, Cebu and Siquijor share the same design aesthetics. The lines are spare, the pieces are held together by solid mortis-and-tenon joinery. Carving is not as elaborate as the furniture from the other provinces and the favored woods are molave or tugas and balayong or bayong, which are abundant in Bohol. Esguerra says the more sophisticated craftsmanship are those made for the ilustrados and the churches.

Click here for full article from the source.

Breathless in Bohol

In this article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer dated May 2, 2009, Ms. Tessa Prieto-Valdez narrates of her unforgettable stay in Bohol. I'm sure a lot of others who have been to the islands have the same experiences. She stayed at the Amorita Resort, a place I have yet to go, and one I've heard a lot of good reviews about especially from tripadvisor.com.

See more about this on the article below.

Breathless in Bohol
By Tessa Prieto-Valdez

IN THE beginning there was Bali. And then there was Boracay. But today, there is Bohol.

Bohol is the new Bora. And the heart of the province is Alona Beach, a lovely, white-hot strip of sand on the island of Panglao, just a quick drive from the provincial airport in Tagbilaran.

Alona Beach is, of course, named after sexy screen siren Alona Alegre who made local temperatures sizzle while filming the movie “Esteban” with FPJ in the ’70s. Since then, Alona Beach has been the destination in Panglao, which now has 30 beautiful resorts all over it.

With all the buzz about Bohol, my family and I decided to spend our Easter break in Amorita (www.amoritaresort.com), which according to tripadvisor.com is the best resort on the island today. Amorita is short for “beloved,” and indeed there is much to love about the resort.

As with so many success stories in our country today, Amorita’s starts with an entrepreneurial young lady, Ria Hernandez Cauton, who acquired the property in 2005 and has since transformed it into a world-class resort. The key to such success starts with service, and Amorita’s is at a level that is hard to match.

Rolly Navallo, their guest services manager, took good care of our whole family during our weekend there. As with most great vacations, it’s the little things that make the stay in Amorita memorable – preparing outdoor dinners on the veranda especially for us, supplying a babysitter for my 3-year-old Athena while we went scuba diving, and so many other amazing yet unobtrusive little touches that made my husband Dennis and I talk about how soon we might go back before we had even left.

Bohol is just a great tourist destination. Aside from the beaches, there are a hundred other things to do and do them all we tried. A 20-minute boat ride away is Balicasag Island, still one of the best scuba-diving destinations in the Visayas.

The small island is dominated by a lighthouse and underwater is a beacon for marine life. Off one of the islands’ tips is a spot called Black Forest, with schools of huge, silver jacks enjoying the swift currents. We were glad our dive shop, Bohol Oceanic Adventures, had sent two excellent divers to take care of us, Rommel Ortiz and King Ramos. Balicasag is also a marine sanctuary and it was really great to know that another of our country’s excellent scuba-diving locations is being protected.

Between dives, the Amorita staff prepared a picnic lunch for us and we took the time to shop for necklaces and other trinkets from the local vendors. I always like stimulating the local economy wherever I go.

See this link for the full article from the source, Breathless in Bohol.

Can-uba Beach pic

A nice pic of Can-uba Beach taken last month with an unwilling young male, model. :)

San Isidro, Duero, Bohol is now on Blogger map

San Isidro is one of the barangays in the municipality of Duero, Bohol where majority of the folks earn a living by farming. This place lies amidst the verdant hills of barangays Cansuhay and Mambool.

The barangay has a patron saint, San Isidro Labrador, and holds its annual feast on the 2nd week of May. This year, it falls on the 14th of May. It is also at this time of the year when San Isidro natives who have gone to other places travel back to visit love ones, while others mainly to celebrate this festivity. It is almost as if a grand reunion is being held.

Wow! Jagna Municipal Office is Wifi connected

Yes, people. This town has it! So anyone who has Wifi ready laptops or PDAs may now surf the net without a fee simply by sitting around the area.

It has pretty excellent reception. Even much better than some wifi hotspots in the Greater manila area. More so, covered benches abound in the area since a tennis court sits right beside the municipal building. And, unlike in Manila, laptop snatchers are yet to be heard in these parts.

This is really good news. I was in an urgent need to be online due to changes in my travel schedules, and to my surprise, I learned about this in-time news.

What a relief for people who can't survive a day without being online. Wow! Very good news indeed.