Tucked away on the southeastern tip of Cagraray Island in Bacacay, Albay is the luxurious resort of Misibis Bay (official website). I have been vaguely aware of this resort for quite a while now but it is only recently that I read up on it. Of course, I also searched for the resort in Google Maps and was pleased to see that has recent satellite imagery available.

Having only opened in late 2009, Misibis Bay is one of the three Philippine resorts that is accredited by the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, along with Discovery Shores in Boracay, and Eskaya Beach Resort on Panglao Island. Misibis Bay actually reminds me of Bellarocca Island Resort in that both are ultra-expensive, both have opened in recent years, and both are found in locations that do not come to mind when you think of popular beach getaways. But between the two, I think I would much prefer to go to Misibis Bay. :-)

© Misibis Bay

One great thing about Misibis Bay is that it has a breathtaking view of Mayon Volcano. And the view is just a backdrop to the plenty of activities that you can do at the resort. Misibis Bay has the usual water sports like scuba diving, wakeboarding, sailing, and jetskiing. If playing in the water is not your thing, then there are also rentable ATVs that you can use to explore the surrounding area. Located nearby is the Cagraray Island Eco-Energy Park Adventure Zone which features a zipline and an obstacle course.

One fun trivia about Misibis Bay is that it was the pit stop for the 5th leg of the 4th season of The Amazing Race Asia, which was won by a team from the Philippines (yay!).

If you want to learn more about the resort from the perspective of a guest, then these two series of blog posts, one by Calvin and the other by Anton are quite informative. You might also want to check out

As a belated tribute to the 150th birthday of our National Hero, José Rizal, let’s look back at the five Rizal-related sites that I have featured here in Vista Pinas throughout the years. Surprisingly, all but one are found overseas. Then again, this should not be a surprise. Since I also feature Philippine-related sites on foreign soil, there should be a higher proportion of Rizal-related overseas sites since Rizal’s travels around the world have left an indelible mark in the places he has visited.

I will definitely feature more Rizaliana sites here in Vista Pinas. Hopefully, Google will add satellite imagery of Dapitan, which is possibly the second-most important Rizal-related place in the Philippines after Manila. There are also Rizaliana markers in Daet and Dumaguete, so I expect to feature them as well in due time.

So without further ado, here are the five Rizal sites I’ve featured before in chronological order.

Dr. José Rizal Park in Seattle, WA

The first Rizal-related site I ever featured is a public park named after him in Seattle, Washington. Although Rizal had never set foot in Seattle, the sizable Filipino community in the city successfully petititioned to have the new park dedicated to Rizal.

[Posted: June 17, 2006]

Rizal Shrine (Calamba, Laguna)

The next site I featured was Rizal’s childhood home in Calamba, Laguna. Now this residence functions as a museum to Rizal and is one of the Rizaliana sites included in the Department of Tourism’s Lakbay Jose Rizal @150 project.

[Posted: July 24, 2007]

José-Rizal-Straße in Wilhelmsfeld, Germany

One of the foreign cities Rizal stayed the longest was Wilhelmsfeld, Germany. In honor of him, a street in this small town was named after him. There’s a park in his honor also found in this town but that will be the subject of a future article. :-)

[Posted: June 20, 2009]

1 D’Aguilar Street

Did you know that Rizal practiced medicine while he was in Hong Kong? If you read the article I posted a few months back, then you surely would have known. This site was one of the places I had on my list of things to see when I went to Hong Kong earlier this year.

[Posted: March 14, 2011]

2 Rednaxela Terrace

This residential street in Hong Kong was also another place on my HK list. This street was where Rizal and his family stayed for a while because of harassment from the Spanish authorities back home.

[Posted: March 18, 2011]

Just like Balicasag Island, Pamilacan Island is another island of Bohol that is located quite some distance from the mainland. If Balicasag is famous for its scuba diving and coral reefs, Pamilacan is famous for its dolphin and whale watching, though it does have some dive sites of its own.

Located more than 10 kilometers away from its parent town of Baclayon, Pamilacan Island is a whole barangay in itself and is home to more than 1,000 people, or around 200 households. Its main industry is fishing, though some of the fishermen also engage in the tourism trade as well, bringing people on their boats to see the dolphins and whales. Among the species that can be seen are the Fraser’s dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei), the bottlenose dolphin (T. truncatus or T. aduncus), and the Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera brydei). These fishermen are trained to spot dolphins and have been taught how to properly approach them. It is said that a watching expedition with these fishermen will always be rewarded with cetacean sightings.

Boats on the sea from the Pamilacan Island shore. Photo by Beng Eusebio (CC)

Aside from the dolphin and whale watching, this island is also home to white sand beaches. The island has one commercial resort and it offers various activities such as kayaking, snorkeling, fishing, and island touring.

If you’re interested, you can check out this article by Ferdz describing his experience of seeing hundreds of dolphins during his trip to Pamilacan Island. This Bohol tourism webpage also contains tons of information about Pamilacan including some about a 200-year-old fort on the island’s northeastern coast.

To finish off my series on Philippine-related sites in Hong Kong, let’s visit 2 Rednaxela Terrace which is located in the Mid-Levels part of Central District on Hong Kong Island. This address is historically significant because this was where José Rizal and his family lived from 1891 to 1892. His family was persecuted by the friars back in the Philippines due to Rizal’s subversive novels and so they joined Rizal on his self-exile in this former British colony. Rizal would also hold clinic at what is now 1 D’Aguilar Avenue. See also a photo of his HK business card.

Just like the two previous locations I’ve blogged, this site has a marker installed by Hong Kong’s Antiquities and Monuments Office. However, unlike the marker on D’Aguilar Street, the Rednaxela marker is quite visible and is located in a high-traffic area, specifically beside the Shelley Street portion of Hong Kong’s famous Central–Mid-levels escalators, which is the world’s longest outdoor covered escalator system. As you can see from the photo I took, the marker is plainly seen erected beside the Rednaxela Terrace sign. (What’s “Rednaxela”? It’s “Alexander” spelled backwards supposedly due to a Chinese painter who couldn’t read English.)

Shown above is a more close-up photo of the marker. It reads (in English and Chinese):

Dr. Jose Rizal (1861-1896) National hero of the Philippines lived in this area with his family from December 1891 to June 1892

This concludes up my Hong Kong series here in Vista Pinas. I must say that researching about and finding these markers in Hong Kong was very educational. The Rizal-related markers are quite timely too since we will be celebrating Rizal’s sesquicentennial birthday this year! :-)

To continue my short series of Philippine-related sights in Hong Kong (started last week with 535 Morrison Hill Road), I now present 1 D’Aguilar Street located in the Central District of Hong Kong Island. This location is special since it was where Dr. José Rizal practiced medicine while he was living in this former British colony. The location is now occupied by the Century Square Building, a commercial tower.

The photo to the side I took when I went to Hong Kong early this month shows the current location of the oval marker created by the Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments Office. The marker is almost hidden on the red granite wall it’s installed on. It’s not very obvious that this site, surrounded by storefronts, has a historical significance. There are thousands of Filipinos in HK and I wonder how many pass by this road and don’t realize that our National Hero practiced medicine here?

Shown above is a more close-up photo of the marker. It reads (in English and Chinese):

Dr. Jose P. Rizal (1861-1896)

Philippine physician, poet, author and patriot practised medicine in 1891-92 in a clinic which once stood on this site

What I find very interesting is that it seems that this marker has changed positions at least two times. It appears that the stores in front of Century Square Building change or renovate far too often that it involves reinstallation of the marker. Right now the marker is installed on top of a red wall. In December 2008, this marker was in the same position but installed higher up as can be seen in the bottom two photos on this page from the Philipping Consulate in Hong Kong. In 2007, the marker was in a more conspicuous location as seen on a photo on tutubi’s blog.

I came from a Hong Kong family vacation this weekend, and to share my experiences—the Vista Pinas way—I will do a 3-part series about three Philippine-related sites in Hong Kong (similar to the 3-part series I did for Cory Aquino). The first site I will feature is 535 Morrison Hill Road in the Wan Chai district in Hong Kong.

This address was where the first Philippine flag was sewn by Marcela Agoncillo, her daughter Lorenza, and José Rizal’s niece Delfina Herbosa de Natividad in 1897. Marcela’s husband, Felipe Agoncillo, a lawyer and diplomat, went on a self-exile to Hong Kong when he was tagged by the Spanish authorities as a subversive. Marcela and her children followed afterwards and their residence at Morrison Hill Road became a safehouse for other Filipino revolutionaries. Gen. Aguinaldo himself came to this place after the Pact of Biak-na-Bato and there he gave Marcela the designs for a national flag. The rest is history.

To mark this occasion, a marker was installed by Hong Kong’s Antiquities and Monuments Office at the site where the residence used to stand, which is now part of the Morrison Hill Road Playground. Shown below is a photo I took of the red oval marker’s location in the playground. (That’s my younger sister, looking at the marker, by the way.) The blue arch is the back entrance of the playground along Oi Kwan Road and you can see the other side of the entrance in this Google Street View (the marker is behind the bushes to the left).

Shown above is the marker itself and on it is written the following inscription in both Chinese and English:

In May 1898, In this vicinity, the first Philippine national flag was sewn by hand by Dona Marcela Agoncillo, wife of Felipe Agoncillo, the first Filipino diplomat, assisted by her daughter Lorenza and Mrs. Delfina Herbosa Natividad, niece of the Philippine National hero Dr. Jose Rizal. This flag, which became the rallying symbol of unity for the Filipino people during the Philippine revolution, was officially unfurled during the proclamation of Philippine independence on June 12, 1898 in Kawit, Cavite.

This marker is installed to commemorate the historical role of Hong Kong in the Filipino people’s struggle for independence.

I’ve been wanting to feature this site for years now, but I had a hard time doing research about this historically significant site back then. Fortunately, when I was learning about Hong Kong for my trip, I found this sort-of press release by the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong about the three sites I am featuring now. The pictures accompanying the article provided me with a visual to look for. But it was this blog article by Tutubi giving me the very important clue that 535 Morrison Hill Road is now in a playground. From there, it was extremely easy to find the place in Google Maps. Thanks Tutubi! :-)

I’ve already featured one geothermal power plant before and that is the one at Tiwi, Albay. Well, if you want to visit a geothermal power plant and you find Albay too far, the nearest one to Metro Manila is the Mak-Ban Geothermal Power Plant located primarily in Bay, Laguna and with facilities also in neighboring Sto. Tomas, Batangas and Calauan, Laguna. The name Mak-Ban comes from the two dormant volcanoes nearby: Makiling and Banahaw, though the power plant is much, more closer to Makiling than it is to Banahaw.

According to this very technical article from the National Geothermal Association of the Philippines, Mak-Ban harnesses the geothermal energy located in the Bulalo Field, which is associated with Mt. Bulalo and Mt. Olilia, two smaller peaks located on the southeast flank of Mt. Makiling. (Mt. Bulalo can be seen on this map while Mt Olilia is the smaller peak to the southwest of Bulalo.)

Photo taken from the NAPOCOR website

Mak-Ban all in all has 6 plants: Plants A and B with two 63-MW units each, Plant C with two 55-MW units, Plants D and E with two 20-MW units each, and a binary plant with five 3-MW and one 0.73-MW units. The satellite image thumbnail shows the largest facility of the power plant and where the transmission lines originate from. By panning around in Google Maps, you should be able to see the other plants and facilities scattered elsewhere. I wasn’t able to find a map of the facilities so I have no idea which building corresponds to which plant. :-p

The power plant was first commissioned in 1979 and used to be under the Napocor. But because of the power generation assets privatization effort of the government, Mak-Ban and Tiwi were both auctioned off as a single package in 2008. AP Renewables, Inc., a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation, won that bid. Aboitiz is in charge of the power generation, while the supplied steam generation is under Chevron Geothermal Philippines Holdings, Inc. Basically, Chevron is in charge of the drilling and the steam while Aboitiz uses that steam for the turbines that power the electricity generators.

If you’re interested, there’s a Facebook album showing a group of students’ field trip to the the Chevron steam generation facilities at Mak-Ban.

Today is a milestone for the Philippines as the country celebrates the silver anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution. Twenty five years ago, Filipinos took to the streets and staged a peaceful protest on EDSA to support the defectors of the Marcos dictatorship. The nearly bloodless mass action led to the downfall of a strongman and the installation of a humble housewife as President. Today, it’s quite fitting that the housewife’s only son is now President of this great nation (though it’s a testament to democracy that there are people who freely disagree!). :-)

Even now, we see the fruits of that historic revolution elsewhere in the world as people stage protests against dictators and oppresors who have clung to power for decades. In Tunisia and Egypt, the citizens held mass rallies and protests. The result? President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who held Tunisia in his grip since 1987, has fled the country. Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s dictator for almost three decades, has resigned. Other countries are following suit and I hope that these will all be resolved peacefully, unlike what is going on right now in Libya, whose dictator, Muammar al-Gaddafi, is trying to avoid his two neighboring countries’ fate by resorting to extreme violence.

Photo by Jimmy Hilario. (CC)

In honor of the People Power Revolution milestone, I’m featuring the EDSA Shrine located at the intersection of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue. Most Filipinos are religious and many believe that the Virgin Mary interceded and helped the country in 1986. Thus, we have a shrine to Mary to commemorate the event. (For the secularists and non-believers, we also have the People Power Monument further north along EDSA, and which I have featured here on Vista Pinas three years ago.)

Officially named the Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace, Our Lady of EDSA (official website), this landmark was contructed in 1989 and functions as a church where daily masses are held. The shrine, which is under the Archdiocese of Manila, features a large sculpture of the Virgin Mary on top of the building. This was created by the late Virginia Ty-Navarro. (Read more about the shrine’s history.) In addition, the shrine is the location of the first station of The Way of Mary, the last project of the late Jaime Cardinal Sin. Eighteen other similar stations are located along Ortigas Avenue towards Antipolo City and the twentieth and last station is located at the Antipolo Cathedral.

Incidentally, two days ago marked the fifth year of Vista Pinas. It was on February 23, 2006 that I wrote the very first article. Yay! I decided to mark that milestone by blogging about the more important People Power Revolution milestone. :-)

Well, here’s a resort in Subic Bay that seems to be trying to be everything: White Rock Beach Hotel. It’s basically a beach resort with all the usual amenities for leisure and team-building (like an open field and a wellness center) and facilities/equipment for water sports (like for jet skiing and water skiing). Aside from those usual stuff, the resort also has some sporting facilities like a bowling alley, billiards tables, and a gym, but what I find slightly weird is that the resort is also a waterpark with not just one, but two, wave pools! I guess Subic Bay itself isn’t wavy enough? Hehehe. They should add giant waterslides to complete the site!

Photo from the website.

Maybe it’s just me but if you heard the name “White Rock Beach”, you can’t help but think of a white-sand beach, right? Well, it’s quite obvious from the satellite image that the beach is far from white. But if I’m not mistaken, there is indeed a white rock on the resort’s northern beach: there’s a white thing that’s quite visible in the satellite image. I wonder if that is naturally white or if it was just painted? :-)

Anyway, if you want to learn more about White Rock, then check out their website, which like their wave pools, they apparently have two of: whiterock-beach-resort.com and whiterock.com.ph.

While I prefer blogging about mostly permanent structures here in Vista Pinas, I have, on rare occasions, featured ephemeral stuff especially if they’re interesting and lucky to have been caught on satellite camera and then subsequently selected by Google to be included in Google Earth and Google Maps. Two of these are the 2007 World Light Expo, and the visible effect of El Niño at the San Roque Dam.

Since I’m a UP Diliman alumnus, I’ll feature another one: the very popular UP Fair. This event, which happens every February during the Valentine’s Day week at U.P. Diliman, is organized by the University Student Council (USC). The organizing of the program for each particular day (almost always a rock concert) is auctioned off to various student organizations, of which the majority of the winners are fraternities. The fair usually runs for the whole seven nights of the week and the most popular nights are Friday, Saturday, and Valentine’s Day itself. As far as I can remember, the fair grounds has always been set up at the Sunken Garden inside the Academic Oval and contains a stage for the nightly concerts, numerous retail booths, and the occasional carnival ride.

Photo by Maxi Adrian San Agustin. (CC)

The UP Fair is probably the biggest student-organized event in UP Diliman. It is also probably the most notorious event with numerous incidents of violence marring the festivities. The combination of UP Diliman’s open nature (though the campus security has been tightened in recent years) and the nightly rock concerts have attracted plenty of youth from the lower classes of society. Thus, there have been numerous incidents of gang violence as many of these youth try to get inside the fair grounds or encounter rival gangs.

The satellite imagery (thumbnail above) was taken on February 13, 2007 and so we’re seeing the fair grounds as it was three years ago.

Anyway, I’ve only been to the UP Fair a few times during college and I’ve never been back there since I graduated. I can still remember getting on stage at the UP Fair one time as part of a campaign sortie when I was running as one of my department’s representatives for the College of Engineering Student Council. That night’s sponsor fraternity is affiliated with my party and they had us candidates go on stage to lay our platform. Thankfully, it was not as embarrassing as I feared. :-)

How about you? Have you been to the UP Fair and have you got any interesting stories to tell?

Just like White Island, which I blogged last year, Camiguin’s Sunken Cemetery is one of most popular tourist attractions in this island province. The sight of a concrete cross rising from the sea is one to behold and this view has provided plenty of photographers with amazing shots. And because this cross is located off the western coast of Camiguin, the best time to take a picture is during sunset, when the silhouette of the cross is framed by the setting sun. To see what I mean, just look at the shots by travel blogger Ferdz over at Flickr: photo one, two, three. Beautiful!

The cross (that white boat-like shape in the thumbnail above) is the only visible reminder that there was once a cemetery in this place. Camiguin’s capital used to be the town of Catarman and the poblacion was located in this area, in what is now Barrio (Barangay) Bonbon.

Photo by Shubert Ciencia. (CC)

In 1871, a volcanic fissure opened up and erupted along the western flank of Mt. Hibok-Hibok and the catastrophic ground movement sank part of the town into the sea and took the cemetery along with it. Because of the eruption, the town center of Catarman was relocated south into its current place. The erupting fissure became a dome now called Mt. Vulcan. A subsequent eruption starting in 1948 further submerged the cemetery such that it now lies 20 feet below the sea’s surface (before, times of low tide would make the cemetery visible from the shore). The locals then erected a cross in 1982 to mark the cemetery’s location, first on a floating platform before being attached to a concrete base.

Tourists can visit to the cross platform by hiring bancas along the pier facing the cross. What many people don’t know is that the cross is hollow, as can be seen on a photo on this article). The bancas can also be hired if you want to go diving to see the cemetery itself (that is if you’re not scared, hehe). The old tombstones have become a base for coral growth and there are plenty of fishes in the sea here.

It’s been a while since I last featured a lighthouse, and it has also been a while since there’s been a sight that was a superlative in some respect. So let’s now fix that by visiting the highest lighthouse in the Philippines, the Cape Bojeador Lighthouse, also known as the Burgos Lighthouse after the town where it is located. This lighthouse lies at the northwesternmost corner of Luzon and guides ships passing through the Luzon Strait. The tower has a height of about 16 meters and is positioned on a hill about 70 meters above sea level, making the lighthouse’s lamp the highest in the country.

Photo by John Ryan Cordova. (CC)

Built in 1892, in the same era as the lighthouse at Capones Island, the Cape Bojeador Lighthouse is one of the most popular tourist attractions this side of Luzon and possibly the most visited lighthouse in the country. I think it rivals the nearby Bangui Windmills in terms of tourist arrivals. From the main highway, you just need to turn into an inlandward road (there’s a sign marking the entrance) and then drive up a spiraling road (quite visible in Google Maps) encircling the hill of the lighthouse. If I’m not mistaken, basic lodging and amenities are provided for tourists at the pavilion beside the tower.

Because of its stature as one of the best-preserved Spanish lighthouses in the Philippines, the Cape Bojeador Lighthouse was declared a National Cultural Treasure and a National Historical Landmark.

If you want to learn more, then this narrative at WaypointsDotPH contains tons of historical information about the lighthouse. Plus, it has lots more pictures. :-) The Heritage Conservation Society blog also has a long article about this lighthouse.

I’ve featured the controversial C-5 Road Extension before and there is still a long way to go before the full circumferential road will be completed, linking R-1 Road (or the Coastal Road) all the way to R-9 (or the MacArthur Highway). Complementing the C-5 Road is the C-6 Road, which is an even bigger circumferential road that will mostly lie outside Metro Manila. This road has the working name of Bulacan-Rizal-Manila-Cavite Regional Expressway and may be named as the Padre Jacinto Zamora Super Highway.

Construction has already started and visible portion is in Taguig City. It’s still not completely open to traffic because the surface is still unpaved but joggers, runners, bicycles, and tricycles have been known to use the road already. Currently, the southern terminus is at Barangay Lower Bicutan in Taguig and connects with the intersection of M.L. Quezon and Gen. Paulino Santos Avenue. From here, the nearest major intersection is the Bicutan exit of SLEx.

Just like with the C-5 Road, we can expect the completion of C-6 Road to be fraught with lots of delays and tons of problems. Buying the right-of-way will definitely be a huge impediment and that’s not counting the bidding of construction which are often corruption magnets. If you’re interested, go to the C-6 Road thread at the SkyscraperCity Forums to follow up on the developments of this road. (Plus they have tons of pictures and maps to help illustrate the discussions.)

Today, July 16, 2010, marks the 20th anniversary of the devastating 1990 Luzon Earthquake. One of the cities most devastated by this disaster is Baguio. Plenty of buildings in the resort city collapsed and landslides left Baguio isolated for a few days. One of the famous destroyed buildings in Baguio is the Hyatt Terraces Hotel located along South Drive. The central wing of the hotel collapsed on itself killing 98 guests and hotel employees. To this day, the site of the former hotel remains undeveloped and is a famous supposed ghost haunt in Baguio.

Photo by Ferdz Decena.

Before the hotel’s collapse, the Hyatt was one of the “in” destinations in the city. Baguio was a popular convention and conference destination and the five-star Hyatt was probably the top hotel in Baguio for booking. Its magnificent terraced lobby (see these pictures shared at SkyscraperCity) was a sight to behold and its location near Camp John Hay was ideal. In addition, a casino was housed in the building. In fact, a seminar organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was being held in the hotel when the earthquake struck. Many of its attendees were among the casualties.

Read this Inquirer article where a former hotel manager at Hyatt recounts her harrowing tale of the hotel’s collapse and her subsequent rescue. The photo above by Ferdz Decena shows what remains of the fountain that was found in front of the hotel.

What I most remember about the impact of the earthquake at Hyatt was that our family doctor was among the dead. Aside from that, the earthquake was not quite memorable in my young mind aside from the news coverage. I didn’t feel the tremor since I was in a school bus on the way home from school.

How about you? What were your memories of the July 16, 1990 earthquake?

If you’ve ever been to Baguio and looked around at the surrounding mountains, then I’m sure you have already seen the Mickey-Mouse ears pair of radar dishes nestled on a mountain peak to the south of the city. Well, that mountain is called Mt. Cabuyao and those dishes are for tropospheric scatter communications. These dishes were built by the Americans and was meant to link to a similar site in Taiwan and then to Okinawa.

Mt. Cabuyao is actually just a child peak of the taller Mt. Sto. Tomas whose peak is located about 2.5 kilometers further to the south and 200 meters higher. Mt. Sto. Tomas is the highest peak nearest to Baguio. As such, the peak has tons of TV and radio masts serving Metro Baguio.

Photo from Arcibaldo.

Check out this snippet I took from this web page that talked about the history of those dishes:

As a result we were able to have the Armed Forces of the Philippines acquire the site we selected on Mt. St. Tomas, which we called Cabuyo. The US Army was then allowed to be a tenant on this site. This resulted in a program to improve this link and make improvements in the extension of this system through Taiwan and on to Okinawa. This was known as the Phil-Tai-Oki Troposcatter System. Page Engineers won the contract and they installed two 120-foot troposcatter dishes at Cabuyo.

I thought that these dishes had something to do with the weather, but as mentioned above, they are for communication purposes. Now the question that I haven’t found the answer for is whether this site is still operational. Can anyone enlighten us? :-)

Update: William in the comments said that his former company took over the dishes back in the 70s and as far as he knows, the site is no longer used for communication purposes.

Since I’ve featured Iloilo City’s Jaro Belfry more than 2 years ago, I guess now it’s time to do a post about the belfry’s associated church itself, the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral (Wikipedia article). I’ve said before that the Jaro Belfry is among the minority of belltowers that stand apart from its church. In Jaro’s case, its church and belfry is probably the farthest apart in the country.

Anyway, the Jaro Cathedral, being a cathedral, means that it is the seat of a diocese, and since it is a metropolitan cathedral, it additionally signifies that the diocese is an archdiocese, namely the Archdiocese of Jaro, and has suffragan dioceses under it, which are the dioceses of San Jose de Antique, Bacolod, Kabankalan, and San Carlos. The archdiocese is one of the oldest in the country and was once under the See of Manila.

Photo by Kurt Guirnela. (CC)

The cathedral is officially called the Parish of Our Lady of Candles (Nuestra Señora de Candelaria) whose feast day is on February 2. The statue of the Virgin Mary above the entrance, according to Wikipedia, was canonically crowned by Pope John Paul II in 1982 and is supposedly the only religious image in the country to receive such an honor. She has also been designated as the patroness of Western Visayas. In addition, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary is also another patron saint of the parish.

Finally, according to the marker on the church placed by the National Historical Institute, this church is where Iloilo’s preeminent son, Graciano López Jaena, was baptized.

Located quite a bit to the north of downtown Puerto Princesa City in Palawan is the Ramon V. Mitra, Jr. Sports Complex. This sports complex was named after the city’s preeminent son Ramon Mitra, Jr. who became the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1992. He died in 2000 at the age of 72 due to liver cancer.

The sports complex was refurbished a few years ago since Puerto Princesa City became host of the 2008 Palarong Pambansa (National Games) held from April 20 to 27. This is an annual national amateur sports event for high school and college students representing their administrative regions. Unsurprisingly, Metro Manila has been the overall champion for five years now, from 2006 to 2010. Puerto Princesa and Palawan have used this Palarong Pambansa to promote their place as the Sports Tourism Capital of the Philippines.

What you can see now in the thumbnail image is the main site containing the requisite track and field stadium. To the side are what I assume are tennis courts and further to the south are the swimming pool and basketball courts.

Check out this runner blogger’s post about the quality of the facilities back in 2009. I wonder if Puerto Princesa is succeeding in maintaining the quality up till now.

I’ve already featured Pangasinan’s San Roque Dam back in 2006 and there I showed a side-by-side satellite imagery of the area before the dam was completed and after the dam was completed and the reservoir was filled up.

Well, I recently saw that Google added some high-resolution satellite imagery in Pangasinan dated last April 3, 2010 and it dramatically showed the effect of the El Niño phenomenon on the water level of the reservoir. Quite visible in the satellite imagery is the light fringe surrounding the reservoir which depicts how much lower the water level is at the dam. Below is a side-by-side illustration of the water level at the dam at its peak level (imagery taken on November 25, 2006) and the April 3 imagery. You can see both images for yourself on Google Earth using the historical imagery feature. Notice that in the 2006 imagery, the water level has reached the spillway to the left of the dam while in the 2010 imagery, the water level is far from it.

Using Google Earth, I estimated the water level in the 2006 image to be around 280 meters above sea level while the 2010 water level is around 240 meters. That’s a difference of about 40 meters! I don’t know how much that translates into cubic meters of water. (Note: these water levels are just estimates since Google’s terrain data, which is based on SRTM, is not high-resolution.)

I haven’t featured Surigao del Norte yet here in Vista Pinas so let’s go to Siargao and see the tiny island of Guyam! (Guyam Island is spelled as Guyang Island in some online databases.) Try to imagine the typical tropical deserted island having a small grove of coconut trees and where shipwrecked people usually get stranded on. Well, Guyam Island looks like one. I’m guessing that it is precisely Guyam’s cliché tropical island image that is the reason why it was featured on the cover of the 8th Edition of the Lonely Planet Philippines travel book.

This uninhabited islet, about 150 meters in diameter, is not really an island one can get stranded on because it is located merely 2 kilometers from the main island of Siargao, facing the town poblacion of General Luna. And it is around 10 minutes away by pumpboat. I’ve even read that you can supposedly swim or walk to the island during low tide and that it is definitely reachable by just kayaking.

Photo by Richard Parker. (CC)

Guyam Island is surrounded by nice white sand (some say it’s powdery while another account says grainy) and it’s a nice place to have a daytime picnic (there are huts there), to go snorkelling, or simply to bum on the beach. The island also supposedly offers a nice view of the raging surfing waves that Siargao is best known for.

Despite being tiny, this small island has quite a lot of charm for the island lovers, and one blogger has even declared Guyam Island as one of his most favorite islands in the Philippines.

Europeans are sick and tired of seeing windmills but in the Philippines where these tall, sleek, and white towers of power and beauty are still a novelty, the Bangui windmills are a veritable tourist spot in this otherwise unremarkable Ilocos Norte town. Operated by the NorthWind Power Development Corporation (NWPDC), a Danish company, these windmills generate around 25 MW of electricity and provides about 40% of Ilocos Norte’s power requirements. Phase 1 of the project constructed 15 windmills with each one 325m distant from the next and stretching for almost 3 kilometers along the Bangui Bay coastline facing the South China Sea. There’s supposed to be a Phase 2 that will increase the number of windmills to 20 in 2008 but I can’t find any information that this additional construction indeed pushed through. Update (July 19): due to additional satellite imagery added by Google on July 14, I can confirm that there are at least 19 turbines now, so Phase 2 indeed pushed through.

Photo by John Ryan Cordova. (CC)

The Bangui farm is usually stated as the first wind farm in the Philippines and the largest in Southeast Asia (no other country in SEA has the wind potential of typhoon-ravaged Philippines). But the windmills of Bangui are not actually the first wind farm. If my research is correct, the 3-windmill 180-kWh wind farm in Mahatao, Batanes, which I’ve featured before, was constructed earlier. But the Mahatao farm is a hybrid diesel-wind farm and that makes the Bangui farm the first pure wind farm. I wasn’t able to feature the Bangui Wind Farm before now since it was only late last month that Google added high-resolution satellite imagery of this area. In fact, only the 10 westernmost wind turbines are covered by the imagery. The rest cannot be seen. Update (July 19): due to additional satellite imagery added by Google on July 14, we can now see 19 turbines.

Incidentally, the windmill in the thumbnail picture above is the third one from the west. If you check it out in Google Maps and pan a bit to the southwest, you can see a couple of buildings and I am assuming that this is the visitor center that NWPDC constructed to cater to the throngs of tourists that flock to this area.

If you want more information, then this PCIJ feature article doesn’t disappoint.