Badjao Elder

Just before our South Korean visitors from Soon Chun Hyang University left Sta. Cruz on January 18, 2014; they invited me and my colleagues for a short program in the Badjao area particularly at Apo Beach last January 17 in the morning. There I spotted this old Badjao woman, too old that she can no longer walk (she's already bed-ridden). She instead stayed in her house and enjoyed the presentation of the Koreans. According to my Badjao friends, this woman is a master weaver of romblon mat, a traditional skill which is sadly diminishing in their locality now because only very few young Badjaos have acquired the skill in mat weaving.

Bunotiro

This is an image I took in Ayala Agricultural Farm in Darong, Sta. Cruz. With huge plantations of coconut in the area, number of residents are earning a living out of coco farming while others are plain labor workers such as this one (bunotiro), someone who removes the husk. Other labors which I also personally know and tried during my younger days are pamonton,panungkit, pangariton, pamuwak and panglasik. To be honest, a lot of my successful neighbors and friends in Sta. Cruz deeply owed so much gratitude from this commodity they call "TREE OF LIFE".

Sea foods

It has been a routine for me and my wife to always drop by Sta. Cruz Public Market after every office hour everyday (except Saturday and Sunday) to buy some stuff for our dinner. One of the places that we always visit is the wet market sea foods portion where we could choose an array of fresh sea foods products such as fish, prawn and sea weeds among others. As the new year unfolds, prices of these commodities have gone up a bit higher as compared to ordinary days especially now that there is a threat of a typhoon expected to hit the Mindanao region.