It's 38 years since...

First of all, thanks be to God for reaching this 38th years of life on Earth. With the instrumentality of my loving parents, I was born in Ilagan, Isabela. It is now a city that's around 400 kilometers north of capital city of Manila. I am really grateful to reach this age and with God's permission, more years to come and go.

Second, I wish to earn more money because that's the only thing that I don't have much. I could help family members and the community I belong to more than the usual I can. This is in support of realizing our dreams and inspiration. I can also realize my personal dream of having my own house in Baras, Rizal as it now is being constructed that I got from pre-selling since year 2019.

Third, I always wanted to continue and finish my degree in Mass Communication while working in call center. God-willing, by age 40, I am already a degree holder or later than that. I want to be part of the mainstream media industry someday here in the Philippines.

Predominantly

Why are you a Catholic? It's because Philippines is dominated by Roman Catholic and you were born a Filipino. Why are you a buddhist? It's because Japan is dominated by buddhism and you were born a Japanese. Why are you a Hindi? It's because India is dominated by Hinduism and you were born an Indian.

Let's try to turn things around. You are a Catholic member, what if you were born in Japan, will you be a Catholic still? Will you be converted to Hinduism? That's the big question.

It's not because your country is dominated by this, dominated by that, then you are obliged to be there, to be part of this and that. All you need is to do is to think if you have to be there.

I was born Catholic and got baptized by them when I was a newborn. I even got the chance to meet the so-called godparents when they were introduced to me by my parents. There are only four of them, to my knowledge. And all I need to do is to think if I have to be a Catholic forever. I'm no longer a Catholic now since I was using my mind.

So I have been to many groups like born again christians, pentecostal, visisted baptist and mormon church, listened to Almeda, listened to iglesia ni kristo, listened to Vilarde but they were nothing. Until I found the radio program Ang Dating Daan during my fourth-year high school. That's the story so far.

Buwan ng wika 2021

This whole month of August 2021, Filipinos celebrate this Buwan ng Wika. In a quest for national identity, Filipino based in Tagalog became an official language along with English. Filipino, as aymbol of nationalism still borrowed words from Spanish and English. So let me explain further why decolonizing the Filipino mind is a failure experiment since 1987 and the people behind the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) are failure, too.

This year's theme: Filipino at mga Wikang Katutubo sa Dekolonisasyon ng Pag-iisip ng mga Pilipino. I believe it's no longer imposible to decolonize the thinking of Filipinos. A call Center agent like me speaks English and Spanish. In everyday life, I speak Filipino with local fellows and I speak Ilocano with my parents and relatives. Even Jose Rizal knew more than 20 langauages in his time. What I mean is, from our past, in our present and in the future, Filipinos will continue to speak English and other non-Philippine languages including French, Chinese, Arabic and more. I still consider Spanish as our own language even if its official status was irresponsibly removed by the idiot framers of the 1987 Philippine constitution.

The Supreme Court of the Philippines, in its final decision, Filipino and Panitikan subjects are no longer required in highher education. Hoping that in our future generations of Filipinos will continue to speak a better English and re-learn our own Spanish, among others.

Out of 187 languages in the Philippines, Dicamay Agta, Arta, Katabaga and Ata are now dead languages. KWF which mandated for the preservation of languages failed to preserve these Philippine langauages. Mainly because they are focused on the Filipino language.

Today, there are more 95% of Filipinos speak English as second language, around 40,000 speak it as first language. Compared to Filipino language where only 42 million Filipinos speak it as native speakers. Local Filipinos even prefer English than the Filipino language in a dissertation.

My Lobo, Batangas experience

It was July 18 when I and my colleagues at work got the chance to travel to Lobo, Batangas for our outing experience off of Metro Manila. My idea of a perfect travel is to spend it with family and workmates. This time, I am with my workmates to get some sea, sand and sun exposure for this 2-days and a night.

So our travel started at exactly 7:00 am on July 18th. We were picked-up by the van at the right time. Our first stop-over was along the expressway to get ourselves refreshed with breakfast but I never bought anything. Most of my colleagues are smokers so they had the chance to do so at the bus stop.

Upon reaching Lobo town, we were able to visit the local market to buy some stuff for food. I was able to buy a Dito SIM card on that day.

Once we arrived at the place at around 12:00 noon, we got into a simple hut to have our lunch break. Thanks to our workmate Mary Anne who did all the food prepations before hand to resolve the hungerness! Dale called the maja blanca as mashed potato!

I had to get some sleep after getting in to our room service. The room was nice and the ambiance is good! I can't even hear the karaoke singers outside of the window even though they do belching high notes of the songs being played. I just needed the sleep to keep myself healthy at all times.

We had our dinner and chit-chat during the night hours. Bonfire didn't go through. That was the plan after dinner but it's a no. They just had had their session instead, so I chose to go to sleep.

The next day, we had our free breakfast served. I was not able to go to swimming but only got some photos of my self later and more photos after that.

I am just excited to start using Dito's SIM for Internet browsing and video streaming when I got home!

I miss this place because...

The first reason why I miss the place I was born is because of its fresh air, fruits and vegetables available in the backyard. These are readily available at home actually. You don't have to buy almost anything to live in the countryside. It's almost free! I can eat fruits like bananas, guava, mango, etc. I can cook vegetables for lunch with family.

Another reason is when I go back to the province, I enjoy the scenery of travel. From Manila to the north, you will definite enjoy the scenic view of Sierra Madre mountain range, rice fields, valley of mountains and more. It's like enjoying the beauty of nature while traveling going north of Manila.

Going to North Luzon is not an easy task specially when you got to travel with an ordinary bus. Riding an ordinary bus (buses with AC) for long travel is beneficial due to the flow of the air versus the AC-bus. But still, this mode of transportation is economical for passengers like me, compared to airplane travel.

As I am saying earlier, I miss this place. My family members are there living in the province of Isabela. Can you figure now the name of the place I was born?

I'm happy to see that people like you reads my blog. I promised this year to keep posting at least once a month to spark my interest in writing blogs consistently. I will be happy if you can reach me through my email to say something about my blogs and also your place of birth as well.

Last time I visit this place was January 2017. As of this posting, it seems like forever that I never had the time to visit Isabela since that year. I hope to see my family again before the end of the year. I wanted to enjoy with them before the calendar touches 2022.

Always remember to find time to go back to the place you were born. To see family and friends again after five (5) years, a lot of things happened. Like birthdays, weddings, celebrations, anniversaries and more. I am no longer expecting to see relatives from both my father and mother-side as much of them already moved to different places due to work and pleasure.

Getting time to prepare for a travel back to the place I miss should be as easy as one two three. As long as you arrange your work schedule first, have enough time to file vacation and the money needed to travel. Going back to the place you were born needs some effort financially.

And the moment you have enough budget to see the place again, don't forget to buy pasalubong along the way. A lot of stores are open 24/7 in Nueva Vizcaya province. You can buy G&B buko pie, kakanin like rice cakes, fresh and fried lumpia,

Not everything has been said and done. You can do a lot more things like going to restaurant at bus stop stations for various refreshments to keep you hydrated and active while you're on travel. Take some pictures of the surroundings while you're on a stop. Also don't be shy to talk to people in the locality. Have them add you as friend on Facebook specially if you spot a cute person along the way. LOL

Also don't forget to learn the local language as much as you can. Our brains is trained to be bilingual. Being bilingual is good for the mind and health. Specially if you can speak fluently in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, etc., these languages can be beneficial to your career as well. But don't forget our local languages. Isabela's local languages are Ilocano, Ibanag, Gaddang and Yogad. Any of the four will be great!

Know that my place of birth that people speak Ilocano and Ibanag. Tagalog is also prevalent in the place and English is commonly used in business and government. You will still road signs written in English than Tagalog.

Oh, there you go! Thank you for patience in reading this blog. This post is still considered short. I estimated it that you can read this post for less than five minutes. So, did you figure the place now? Send me an email to gerryyabes@gmail.com if you already know the place.

An open letter to batch 2021 of Isabela NHS

Dear class of Isabela NHS 2021,

You must feel excited to go out of our city (Ilagan City and nearby towns in Isabela province) and seek for your future! The feeling is mutual when I graduated 20 years ago at Isabela National High School.

Photo grabbed from Google Image search

Before you leave the premises of our prestigious school, enjoy your last moments with your classmates and friends. I know that some of you may not have yet definite directions or paths in life. This maybe the last time you see some of your classmates and friends. Enjoy it. I encourage you to cherish these moments. Take photos and videos as remembrance. I know that you're tired of doing homework, projects, you name it. But remember to keep and cherish your notes, letters, test papers, projects and sorts of.

19th Sabbath anniversary

A million thanks to God for another milestone in the church. Come March 12th, it will be my 19th year sabbath after accepting the doctrine of the Lord through baptism. For years to come, God-willing, I will continue the faith I learned in the church and be a living example of the gospel of the Lord. Thanks be to God. To God be the Glory!