Tacloban City

I went ahead the Secretary for the 33rd Founding Anniversary of DepEd Region VIII in Tacloban City. The actual venue of the celebrations is the DepEd Regional Office in Palo, Leyte.

When I arrived at the airport, I got to see the new planes used by the Philippine Airlines for their PAL Express flights. This one came from Cebu direct to Tacloban.

While in Leyte, I was booked by the regional office in Mac Arthur Park hotel now managed by the Philippine Tourism Authority.


In the evening of the first day, I was treated to dinner at the Ocho Seafood and Grill restaurant.

There they have fresh seafoods for customers to choose from. Once you pick a fish, you tell them how you want them cooked or ask them for the best way to serve your meal. I had plentiful and it was fun.

Cebu City travel

Last September 8 to 11, I went on a trip to Cebu City for the 3rd National ICTs in Education Congress hosted by the Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development Incorporated (FIT-ED) with the Department of Education (DepEd) Philippines.

It is the first time I truly saw Cebu. The last time I was there for a management committee meeting, I only got glimpses of the place.

Mactan-Cebu International Airport is, I believe, the smallest International Airport I have seen.

We stayed in a dormitory at the DepEd Eco-Tech Center in Lahug Cebu City.

It was a pretty nice place almost similar to the cottages of the Baguio Teachers' Camp - commented one of the reporters who were with us.

The rooms were quite cozy and are affordable at about P270.00 per night sans meals.

Why eat indoors when you can try some of the fine food outside? Just a few meters from the gate, there are makeshift stalls that serve regular and exotic meals.

Romy, the driver assigned to assist us told of servings of eels and grasshoppers in the stalls.

Unfortunately, we only learned about this during our drive to the airport for our return trip.

Traffic jam

On my way home this evening I witnessed a traffic jam that I could only used to imagine. I'm afraid I was unable to get a photo as the drivers and commuters may get offended. They are after all caught in a jam while in the middle of their excitement to get home.

But I did get a snap shot from Google Earth and drew some lines using GIMP image editor of my Linux OS on the place as what I have seen.

This jam is so tight the traffic enforcers may need to be creative enough to untangle it. And I can only ask you to imagine. Just imagine the line of vehicles on all lanes reaching back from about 200 meters to as long as a kilometer.

And everyone has only one thought in mind: to get home as soon as possible. And I mean everyone including those who caused the jam.