About a year ago, fear gripped this sleepy town due to heavy militarization. Several cases of human rights violations have been reported that includes the arrest of several Lumad farmers accused by the military of either members or supporters of the communist movement.

But many believed that the militarization in the area was part of the security of the mining operation of SMI in neighboring town of Tampakan, South Cotabato.

After almost two years of being hounded by the fear and terror, the villagers — Lumads, Muslims and Christian settlers — are now enjoying the relative peace in the locality.

While I’m currently in Baguio for an official business, I haven’t had a chance yet to shoot around the city. Maybe because of the weather here, a perfect place to sleep! Pretty cold up here, how I wish I could sleep all day.

So,  since I can’t get up very early, all I got for photo ops are these strawberries!

Click here to see more photos.

It’s been years that I wanted to shoot anywhere in Sarangani. A friend of mine who works at the provincial government has been inviting me too but I could hardly find time to visit his awesome province. Recently, I asked another friend if he could go with me somewhere in Gensan or any nearest town to shoot at any fishing community. It’s just for self-satisfaction and for my photo bank. Continue Reading »

I’ve been in Manila over a dozen times but it was only last July 22 when I was able to pass by the Manila City Hall at night. I’ve never been in this area before especially at night. I was with my friend Toto Divino that evening, we were from Manila Bulletin’s office. I picked up my camera bag from Albert Garcia.

The city hall looks nice to me. But I don’t know how nice it is inside and how nice are the people working in the city hall. Maybe it’s quite nice now than the previous administration.

Two weeks ago, t’was my first time to enter the former US military base — Subic. The US’ color is still very evident — the structures and even culture. What I love in the former base is its forest resereve area. There were signs of “monkey crossing” but I failed to see even one monkey. Instead, we saw bats soaring over the sky.

Modern monkey that ever came out from the jungles of Subic.