The 2008 fiesta photos are now available for viewing.

Big thanks and appreciation to our webmaster Alfonso Varon, and picture contributors Albert Gallardo, Maridel Olandesca, Adelfa Vestidas and Marilou Lozada.

Photos of the Black Nazarene and SOMA coming up ! 

……..

August 7 Update- thanks to Ms. Maridel Olandesca

The Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila is staying in Sapian for 9 days- from August 5 to 13, 2008. This is the first time that the Nazarene had left Quiapo; this was made possible through the efforts of Mayor Arturo Orosco. The devotees organized vigils at the Roman Catholic Church in Poblacion, Sapian, Capiz.

Muntinlupa, the sister town of Sapian had donated 10 computers to the Municipality of Sapian.

2008 photos are now available for viewing at the Pictures Gallery: Thypoon Frank photos, schools and municipal events.  Fiesta photos coming soon!

2008 Fiesta Queen: Ms. Denise dela Torre
2nd Princess: Ms. Jay Anne Orillos
3rd Princess: Ms. Camelle Oroceo Diyanggco

HAPPY FIESTA SAPIANONS !!! I wish I am in Sapian right now! The thoughts of religious ceremonies, festivities, gourmet selection, and dances made me wish I could leave the winter cold and just ride a broomstick and zoom all the way to Sapian. If only it’s that easy : )   

I rang Sapian today and learned that a lot of fiesta photos were taken. We could all thank Maridel Olandesca and Adelfa Vestidas for that. We might get some photos from Malou Obligacion of SNHS; and I was told that Nene Gallardo (from Canada) took several photos for Sapian Online as well. Very nice!!! Thank you all so much in advance. Bisan sa pictures won lang, makakita man kami. 

I talked to Arnz Caberte last June and he told me that Sapian was heavily affected by typhoon Frank, he was directing the process of tidying the mess at the back of the town market. In other parts of the town, some houses were damaged and trees uprooted. Maridel Olandesca sent us some photos of the devastation. We will show everything once we get organised here in the website. I bet the typhoon has long been forgotten now that the town festivities had started.

Our thanks and appreciation to Ms. Maridel Olandesca for sending us a lot of photos. It will be displayed at the pictures gallery as soon as it is ready.

I- WEBSITE UPDATE

Before I left for Sapian in May, the administrators viewed the website’s statistic. It showed that eventhough people are not posting, we have a lot of traffic. People are reading especially the news items, the articles, and the most popular ones are the photos.

It is a little disheartening to see that Sapianons are not posting but I would like to think that it has nothing to do with indifference. I believe it has more to do with the culture. This is a little hard to explain so I will just leave it at that. What is important is that people are still obviously interested. 

To those who got my grip about the culture thing, this is what I want to say. If you are still caught up in that, how long are we going to wait for you to overcome that? One may say: “ahhh, I’m too shy to participate”, or “ahhh, I’m too busy”, but please don’t say “ahhh, is that all they can do?.” Alfonso, Civic and I, did the best we can and will do more. What we want to see is for more supporters to come forward and help out.

We now live in the global world, let us shake off the negative culture that doesn’t serve us anymore. SOL will continue whether you help us or not. But we can accomplish much, much more if more people make an effort to contribute.       

When I came back from Sapian, I got a lot of news information with me. I have talked to few people in Sapian that could help us improve the content of the website. I left 2 digital cameras there so we can have more photos. My problem is that I don’t have enough time to digitise all these and we have no working bees in the website. There is a need for us to get organised and share the workload.

I PROPOSE TO FORM COMMITTEES, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Send an email to sapianonline@yahoo.com.

Please don’t be shy, WE NEED YOU!!! (more…)

The messageboard is now online. I apologize if it looks very different from before. My goal for this version is to integrate every parts of the web site into one.

 In addition, it seems that the guestbook won’t be back. I don’t see why the site needs a guestbook when we already have a messageboard. The guestbook became a messageboard in the past anyway, so I’d rather eliminate that redundancy and nuisance in moderation.

After a couple of years, version 3.0 of Sapian Online has materialized. For the rest of the day, I will be restoring posts and pictures. For now, enjoy the new look and refresh your memories. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Firefox users may have trouble viewing the sidebar headers, we’ll fix that.

WHEN: December 31, 2007 - January 1, 2008 (EST)
WHAT:The whole Sapian Online will be down for a scheduled maintenance.

Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your cooperation.

Petropolitik, Sapian and China - Twelfth in a Continuing Series

The increased gas demand in Sapian may partly be attributed on the increased number of vehicles of more affluent Sapianons, and partly because of the improved quality of roads.

In the past, our national highway had been in a terribly despicable state. Most Youngblood contributors may not have recollection of what an ordeal it used to be just going to Roxas City. Public utility jeeps (PUJs) have been very few and I could still recite most of them from memory, namely, those of Nong Turing “Comos” Baldesimo, the Dennis series of former Vice Mayor Nita Baldesimo, a few from Dapdapan, i.e., the Monica of Nong Willy Martinez and that of the Bonaleses, and later, of Nong Loret Flores, driven by Nong Meo, and Nong Dodoy Teddy Vista, and Nong Culasing in Maninang. Aklan-bound, there was Kitahanon, and Nong Odong Vista’s Kamihanon. Later on, the family of Totit Obuyes acquired a few buses. Iloilo-bound, were R&K and later, Ceres would survive the grueling route. Nong Emoy Garcia and Nong Verino and Nang Rosit had the first tricycles to shuttle between Polacion and Crossing Talaba. In short, transportation was very, very scarce, and there was probably be one PUJ on every hour. You had to plan a trip to Roxas City. Leave as early in the morning as possible so you can return home just before dusk. Nobody would ever know what was the loading capacity then. Everyone was just too polite to move over on the middle bench until there is just enough room to breath and blink your eyes.  On the middle bench, you would tumble and turn. Your elbow may not move from Majanlud to Kilometer One. You had to disturb at least two other passengers whenever you straighten up a numbed leg. 

On rainy days, be prepared to take your shoes off. You’ll never know. In many instances, either its approach or the bridge itself is flushed away by flood water, or the road had suddenly melted into the surrounding rice paddies. Chances are, jeeps would either detour 40 miles, or stop dead then tell passengers to wade through flood and pump through mud to continue a journey on a waiting jeep. Summer months were as terrible with the clay that dried up into white, fine dust. You’ve had to wear a nose mask, cover your eyes and hair, and wear a jacket. Inside the jeep, air turbulence would cycle dust around. So you’re better off on the PUJ roof where air would blow dust away as soon as the jeep on the opposite lane had gone past, better than the hot, cramped, dusty “cabin” below.

For many of us, the best project for Sapian is to get road fixed. So, that was a priority research for me in Cory’s Malacanang. I found out then that help is on the way because the highway system, dubbed Panay Arterial Highway, was going full-speed ahead. The project had all the needed money from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In fact, the Aklan-Antique and Antique-Iloilo phases have been mostly completed. The Kalibo Highway I: Passi-Lanot Road was nearing completion. The part for Sapian was dubbed, Panay Arterial Highway-Kalibo Highway Phase II, Lanot-Banga Road, had been bided out. I closely watched developments on this project and gave periodic status reports to my neighbors, Mely Baldesimo, Edwin Padasas and Giovanni Obuyes. I also gave copies of DPWH reports to the late Uncle Alber Gallardo, who was then the ABC President.

The problem was, the winning bidder, Turno America, had difficulty getting its equipment through Bureau of Customs. Turno claims that as an American contractor trying to implement a USAID project, it does not pay import taxes for its equipment. But former BIR Commissioner Liwayway Vinzons-Chato insisted that since the equipment are capital goods that are going to generate income in the Philippines, import taxes have to be paid. So, there was the long delay.

They did not resolve the Customs issue until Mt. Pinatubo erupted. A few days after the disaster, Malacanang scuttled all available unspent monies to pay for reconstruction, including that for Lanot-Banga Road. So, we’re again back to Zero!

During the time of FVR, and long after the demise of USAID funds, DPWH had been breaking grounds and inaugurating new roads and bridges around the country, left and right. These projects have been funded through the Medium-Term Public Investment Program (MTPIP). If we could only do the same for Lanot-Banga Road. So, it had become my conviction to guide former governors Borda of Capiz and Nang Nening, Governor Corazon Legaspi-Cabagnot of Aklan, to be on the same page. I advised them to raise the Lanot-Banga Road issue in all venues and forums, including all presidential visits to any province in Panay, League of Governors of the Philippines, or Cabinet Officers for Regional (CORD) meetings in Malacanang. And they did, Governor Cabagnot, particularly. Then we shepherded it from our end, including the Presidential Commitments and Directives Database that I maintained. As FVR fondly said, it had to be like a bibingka: fire on the top and fire at the bottom. But things stood still.

When FVR visited Capiz for a 3rd Army event during the term of Capiz Governor Esteban Contreras, concrete strides were made. Governor Cabagnot came to see me at Roxas Airpot. She wanted to speak at the dialogue, but she was not on the program. I added her amidst protests by Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Director Gina Jota. I took the heat, provided she mentions the Lanot-Banga Road problem. In our coordination meeting in the residence of Mrs. Judy Roxas in Baybay to thresh out issues to be raised to FVR, Lanot-Banga Road was added as one item. That meeting was attended by former Governor Contreras, Mayor (now Governor) Vicente Bermego, as President of Mayors League, and Congressman Mar Roxas. Two weeks later in dialogue with FVR, with former Congressman Roxas as moderator, both governors raised the same road issue. In reality, the governors did not stand to gain any monetary reward for a DPWH-administered project. So, their efforts and time have been pure civil service. Soon after that visit, with bibingka fire working on top and bottom, Malacanang endorsed the project to Regional Development Committee (RDC) Chairman Hechanova as a priority project. It later came back to us in the Joint Cabinet/NEDA Board meeting as an update to MTPIP. My supervisor, Director Jess Albar, speaking to me about that Cabinet road item, “There’s your item, take it.” I gladly wrote into the Cabinet records the Cabinet approval of that project. As part of MTPIP, it would have a guaranteed budget appropriation on the next fiscal year. That next year, the project was again bided out and construction finally commenced. Dozens of subcontractors took part in the construction.

Youngbloods would not have to suffer the ordeal we went through. Anyway, I rode through partly completed highway in the late 90s, with dirt road stretches and base courses every few kilometers. It was not until January 2005 that I rode the full stretch of the proud Lanot-Banga Road.