Hybrid public transport

During a trip to the Municipality of Lubang in the island of Lubang, Occidental Mindoro, I chanced upon this hybrid public transport:



This is a tricycle that carries the body of a jeepney. It has two seats in front and two two-person seats facing each other at the back. Its 'hood' resembles that of a jeepney including headlights, radiator grill, bumper, crash bar and vertical posts.

I haven't really tried riding one because we were on a tight schedule and I was the designated photographer at the time. The next chance I could get to visit Lubang and stay longer, I will make it a point to ride one.

Lubang Island has two municipalities divided by a mountain range. The other town is Looc. The only ways to get to Lubang from anywhere in the Philippines including mainland Mindoro is from Manila via Roll-on, Roll-off ships, a medium sized wooden ferry, a not so often 60-person commercial flight via AirLink, and chartered planes.

Lubang is so isolated and inaccessible that crime rate is down to zero and the land and its beaches still virtually virgins.

If you do plan to visit Lubang, please be sure to have a mobile phone using SMART telecom as there are no other service providers in the island.

Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon

I got a chance to be on an official visit to Cagayan de Oro City and Bukidnon a couple of weeks back.

Upon arrival at Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro City, we had a quick breakfast at Koresko Hotel in the outskirts of the city before returning to the airport once again.

From there, we took a light plane (a Helio Courier I believe is the name) owned by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. SIL has a language center in Nasuli, Bukidnon and operates the light plane to ferry their linguists from one tribal center to the other.

I noticed during take-off that the plane was parked beside some assets of our Philippine Air Force based in Cagayan de Oro City.

Among our humble air assets are:



MG-520 attack helicopters,



UH-1H helicopters and OV-10 Bronco counter-insurgency aircrafts.

As we took the 45-minute flight to Malaybalay, Bukidnon, I can't help but appreciate the beauty of the Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon landscape.

I am amazed by the shaping of the lands by shallow rivers - that I believe to be the venue of the popular white water rafting.


There are, of course some farm lands that abound the area. They farm almost every crop from rice, to corn, to bananas, to pineapples.


Others even built their on inland resorts (I think) on these untouched lands whose access roads remain to be dirt roads.


In Bukidnon, we met with local officials, teachers, parents, and students and distributed the LGU-private sector led, and later DepEd supported, Essential Health Care Packages. These packages include toothbrush and toothpastes for oral health care, solid and liquid soaps for hand washing, and medicines for de-worming.

Later that day (and after a butt-aching 2 hour drive through winding - twists and turns sharply - road), Cagayan de Oro City's representative to Congress (one of two that they have) suggested adding a fourth component of the package - a feeding program. He suggest that kids with clean teeth, clean hands, and worm-less tummies are not complete without proper meal.

In the evening we stayed at the simple yet comfortable Discovery Hotel and Restaurant located near the Mallberry Suites Business Hotel and Robinsons Cagayan de Oro.

It was a wonderful experience to see CDO and Bukidnon. I get to meet its people, savor some of its delicious local delicacies and (ehem!) flirt with its ladies (just some smiles, winks and small talks and nothing else).

You should see it for yourself.