Stories

85 year-old retired businessman keeps active by gardening during the pandemic

June 7, 2021

by Yvette Tan

The COVID-19 pandemic has almost everyone to shelter in place to curb the spread of the virus. This has resulted in a loss of jobs and opportunities for many people and industries. For others, the forced isolation has given them a chance to discover new hobbies and interests or revive old ones. One of the most popular hobbies taken up during the pandemic is gardening, which has regained popularity due to its stress and anxiety-relieving properties as well as a possible small-scale solution to a household’s food security. 

For retired businessman Sebastian L. Angliongto, 85, being forced to stay at home gave him a chance to fall in love with growing food all over again. 

A son of Davao

Angliongto was born in February 1936, eight months before Davao became a chartered city. The youngest of three brothers, he lost his mother at the age of six when the Japanese bombed Davao in World War II. He was with his father, Alfonso Angliongto Sr., when the latter was assassinated by a business rival four years later. Angliongto’s father, who hailed from Tawi Tawi, is considered a pioneer of Davao City, and a barangay was named in his honor in 2006. 

Angliongto initially wanted to study engineering so he could work in the USA, but his second oldest brother persuaded him to take up agriculture, reasoning that they were planning to shift their family business from shipping to farming. “Being… their youngest brother, I accepted his advice despite not being happy because I wanted to be independent and leave for the U.S.A. to forget from our tragic past,” Angliongto shares.

Though Angliongto graduated with a degree in agriculture from UP Los Banos in 1959, the Davao City native made his mark as the owner of Angliongto Investment and Development Company, a real estate development business that specialized in constructing commercial buildings and warehouses. He is also a devoted family man to his wife Teresita Luy Estrada and their children Jan Carlo and Angeli Therese.

Miniature fruit trees

Since Angliongto and his wife are seniors, both have been staying home since March 2020, when community quarantine was imposed in the Philippines. This allowed him to finally put what he learned in college to use. 

“With the pandemic, to keep myself busy at home, I decided to develop three garden plots.  My Chinese friend, Tony Tiu, gave me 10 packs of various kinds of vegetables from Mainland China. In the vegetable garden, we have pechay, red lettuce, patola, squash, camote tops, upland kang kong, alugbati and carlan tuber,” he shares. “My wife, Tessie, landscaped the other remaining areas. [They contain] her collection of various kinds of flowers.”

Angliongto’s house, a sprawling bungalow on top of a hill, is located in the second oldest subdivision in Davao City. It was designed by his wife, a trained architect, and sits in the middle of two lots that total 1180 sq.meters. A lot of it has been dedicated to miniature fruit trees. The list of what’s planted sounds like a fruit stall: “one grafted Maharlika rambutan (a popular variety whose flesh is easily separated from its seeds)… evergreen sticky flesh avocado, one Chinese pinkish pomelo, and one rare fruit tree called abiu (Pouteria caimito), which bears fruit that tastes sweeter than star-apple with only two seeds,” Angliongto says. “Abiu bears fruits all year round, [as do the] red and white dragon fruits planted at the back of our concrete fence.”

He’s also planted “a magnolia jackfruit in a half drum filled with compost, a guyabano seedling, and a mango seedling grafted to three kinds of mango scions—a carabao yellow mango, a Florida red mango, and a giant sized Indian mango.”

Anglingto explains how he grows his miniature fruit trees: “It is a technique to develop miniature fruit trees due to limited space by cutting a whole steel or plastic drum into half with their respective half size drum planted in the digged soil hole so the fruit trees, as they grow, their roots will spread downward from the drum instead of going sidewards,” he says, adding that his miniature pomelo tree has produced over 100 pieces of fruit to date. 

Angliongto beside his aibu tree.

A garden of food

Angliongto explains how he constructed his garden plots: “I elevated the plot, filled [it] with pure compost soil mixed with fertile vermicast,” he says. “The vegetables are all organic without inorganic chemical manufactured fertilizer nor spraying with insecticide.”

To ensure the crops were always sufficiently watered, Angliongto hired a plumber to drill a deep well. “[He] drilled almost 90 feet deep and was able to hit fresh water,” he says. “We installed a 1 1/2 gould pump motor to store water at the water tank to shower the plants every morning if there was no rain in the previous night.”

His biggest challenge is pest control. “Vegetables are sensitive to insect attack. [To prevent this,]  some [crops] are covered with green fishnet. Some I use a blower or water sprinkler to drive [pests] away.”

He also admits that tending a fruit and vegetable garden is time-consuming, but likens it to raising a family. “It is tedious work,” he says. “Vegetables are like babies. You have to take care of the veggies with tender loving care.”

One of the first things Angliongto did was construct raised beds for his garden.

Passion and duty

The harvests are all for the family’s personal consumption. “So we do not have to go to the wet market to buy them!” Angliongto says. “Some are made into fresh salad and some for soup and some are lightly fried with ground lean meat or chicken without skin.”

He adds that the family also enjoys fresh fish such as pompano, kitang, and bangus, which they get from his son’s friend, who owns a fishpond. 

Angliongto offers some advice for seniors to keep healthy during the pandemic. “With the pandemic, we have to be careful of exposure to COVID-19 from going out. [We should] keep ourselves busy [to prevent] being bored, [and] also to expose ourselves to sunlight and stay healthy by drinking at least eight glasses of water [a day] to prevent dehydration, [especially] with the present summer [heat]. It also helps to stretch our muscles to [avoid] old age pain.”

A giant radish harvested from the garden.

Gardening has certainly helped this retired businessman stay fit. He plans to keep growing vegetables, “…and maybe plant pumpkin or kalabasa by letting the vine sprawl temporarily in our grass garden. And also, upo to replace the patola at the trellis above the vegetable garden plot.”

Though he misses going out and longs for the pandemic to end, he’s very happy to have reconnected with an interest from his past. For him, growing food at this time is not just a passion, but also a duty: “With some of my knowledge as a retired agriculturist, what good is it if not to practice what I know at this time?”

Photos courtesy of Sebastian Angliongto

Source: https://bit.ly/3iltSqi

Great man, great ideas

March 10, 2021

By: Cielito F. Habito

The University of the Philippines recently honored one of the most accomplished men I’ve had the honor to work with. Dr. Emil Quinto Javier, National Scientist, former minister of science, University of the Philippines (UP) president, UP Los Baños chancellor and many more, was conferred the Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, by the UP in his home campus at Los Baños last Saturday.

The UP president and members of the Board of Regents were there, along with numerous other officials, colleagues, protegés, and friends who braved the resurging pandemic to witness the dignified — and yes, physically distanced — ceremony. Having recently turned an octogenarian, he looks anything but one. Being a nearby neighbor in Los Baños and fellow member in several bodies, I’ve witnessed first-hand how he still keeps a punishing schedule and workload. He is a consummate agriculturist by his heart, head, and hands — getting the last dirty in the soil as he tends a small farm of his own nearby. No one can be more credible in advising our agricultural policymakers, and he cannot but get the respectful ear he deserves from our top decision-makers in the sector.

But this piece is not about the man, but his wisdom, which he shared a generous dose of with his audience last weekend. And he did it by way of what first seemed a scathing censure of his very alma mater, where he has had multiple perspectives as a student, faculty member, administrator, and alumnus. Each role added clay to the masterpiece that “EQJ,” as he is known to associates, has evolved into through the years.

Painting a sobering picture of the sad state of Philippine agriculture today, he went on to hold UPLB responsible for the sorry state of this sector that has been host to most of the Filipino poor. My immediate mental reaction was to dispute liability on the part of UPLB, believing that UPLB had in fact not been listened to enough by the politicians and some less-than-honest officials who have managed our farm and fisheries sector over decades of lackluster performance. I had come to my own conclusion long ago that the problem with our agriculture lies not in lack of capability to make it thrive through using the right knowledge and practice, but rather, in various persons and institutions who have pushed the sector in wrong directions. How else could we have ended up trailing far behind our neighbors whose pioneer agricultural scientists trained and studied with us at UPLB?

And this is where I began to see Doctor Javier’s point in saying that “we (at UPLB) were part of the problem.” As he listed six areas of reform UPLB must pursue, his first item immediately resonated with me: UPLB must build strength in the long-undervalued social sciences — economics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology included — and their crucial application to agricultural policy and governance. He recalled how the late great Dr. Gelia Castillo, National Scientist in Sociology, had once lamented that social scientists were “second-class citizens in a world-class university” that UPLB is — and he noted that they appear to remain so today. “It is about time to recognize… that the greater challenges in our agriculture are not so much the agri part but the culture dimension…. In fact, the bigger and more problematic part of our challenges in agriculture had to do with governance and social conflict.” Touché.

UPLB’s new chancellor, Dr. Jose V. Camacho, is a social scientist (and economist) who could very well spearhead the needed change.

Doctor Javier also called on UPLB to (1) elaborate schemes to consolidate our small farmholdings into larger, more efficient and viable operating units; (2) reorient focus from production to value chains, including farm export diversification; (3) enhance efforts in value-adding and food and beverage manufacturing; (4) manage the trade-offs between farm intensification and care of the environment; and (5) pursue new disruptive technologies, but biased to especially benefit small farmers. Until the country’s premier university becomes the vanguard in pursuing such change, outcomes in our most inclusive economic sector will continue to mirror its own sins of omission.

[email protected]

Source: https://opinion.inquirer.net/138334/great-man-great-ideas

A doctor’s tale: Stepping up in the pandemic

February 26, 2021

By: Delta Dyrecka Letigio


Dr. Bryan Albert Lim, an infectious disease expert, is considered by the Cebu City government an “esteemed individual” because of his contributions in the fight against COVID-19.| Contributed Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — He has no power nor position that would compel him to stand up and help Cebu City in the pandemic, but he has just the right expertise to do so.

Doctor Bryan Albert Lim, an infectious disease specialist practicing in Cebu, was brought to the forefront of the war against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the middle of what seemed like a helpless time in the city’s history.

It was May 2020 and Cebu City became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country with the rate of increase in cases surpassing cities in the National Capital Region.

When all hopes seemed lost, Lim volunteered to help the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) formulate the principles and the protocols in dealing with the pandemic, assisting the state’s health department in doing so.

The 37-year-old doctor graduated as magna cum laude for his pre-medical degree, Bachelor of Science in Biology, from the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu in the early 2000s.

An already great Cebuano mind, he left for UP Manila to take his medical studies and completed his Doctorate in Medicine shortly after.

He then trained at the Philippine General Hospital specializing on Internal Medicine and subspecializing on Infectious Diseases. He worked in both clinical medicine and public health before returning to Cebu City as an Infectious Disease specialist.

The fates have decided that Lim was needed in Cebu City at the time of the pandemic, because this specialist was what the city would need during these trying times.

“As a doctor, and an Infectious disease specialist, as well as a Cebuano, I felt that it was my moral, ethical, and intellectual responsibility to help out. Also, having worked with various private and government institutions, I felt that I could contribute in bridging different sectors. Besides, protecting Cebu is very personal to me, since we are fighting for the safety of our home,” he told CDN Digital.

In spite of his knowledge and expertise, the novelty of the coronavirus still brought fear to Lim as every response the city, the country, and the entire world had to do was then based on loose information of the virus continuously being studied for its virulity and transmissibility.

Furthermore, he was worried that because Cebu City’s health care system was not designed to handle a pandemic, it might eventually fail resigning Cebuanos to their doom.

Dr. Bryan Albert Lim is with local doctors in Cebu during the pandemic. | Photo Courtesy of Dr. Bryan Lim

Dr. Bryan Albert Lim is with local doctors in Cebu during the pandemic. | Photo Courtesy of Dr. Bryan Lim

“My fear was we will not be able to contain the pandemic since our existing health (care) system was not designed for the pandemic. So we had to do a lot of modification, coordination, and collaboration to establish a unified system. However, the pandemic came very close to home. I lost my father to COVID, and my mother also got COVID, thank God she recovered. So, now, COVID is very personal. I empathise immensely for all those who suffered,” said Lim.

The death of his father made him more determined to help the city face the pandemic. Even though he knew the virus would still be around until vaccines arrived and herd immunity achieved, the doctor wanted to give Cebuanos a fighting chance.

He believes that a strong unseen foe such as the COVID-19 can be defeated if the community works together with the government and the health care system.

He said that the work the EOC had done in the past year had proven the capability of Cebu City to withstand a global threat.

“Everything is 20/20 in retrospect. Of course, when you look back, you get to see where we can do better. But still, during that moment, it was truly a challenge since we never had a collective memory of a pandemic, and our systems are not built for that. I think I can say, our leaders did what they could with what we had. For me, I’d rather help rather than bark on the sides. Afterall, we have the same goal,” he said.

After a year of fighting the pandemic, Lim still has fears that people will soon forget what they are fighting for. He called it “pandemic fatigue,” which would lead people to forget the lessons of the past year and jeopardize all the work that the city had done to contain the virus and rebuild the economy.

The doctor can only hope that people will accept the presence of the virus so they can act on it and help prevent its spread especially that cases are once again rising in the city.

Doctor Lim is among the 20 esteemed individuals who will be recognized for their contributions to Cebu City during the pandemic on its 84th Charter Day on February 24, 2021.

Lim said he was honored and felt unworthy because many Cebuanos had done so much more for the pandemic. Yet he is grateful to have served his fellow Cebuanos.

“It is my hope that our love for Cebu will triumph over everything else. As I always say, the solution to this pandemic is love. When you love yourself, you would wear a mask and face shield, practice handwashing and physical distancing because you don’t want to get sick. When you love others, you protect the  elderly and the vulnerable. And when you love society, you become involved in the solutions,” he said.

Doctor Lim may not be a politican or a government employee, who is expected to serve the city during a crisis, but he was a Cebuano, who stood up to help with all that he could for a city he loved.

Source: https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/364896/a-doctors-tale-stepping-up-in-the-pandemic

Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio: Patriot and mother who used theater to teach values

January 12, 2021

‘Grand dame of Southeast Asian theater’ nurtured puppetry theater for children that has lasted for generations

By: Cora Llamas

The passing of Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio, National Artist for Theater, founder of Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas, and University of the Philippines (UP) professor emeritus, on Dec. 29, 2020,w at the age of 90 was greeted with the appropriate mixture of mourning and acclaim.

Widely recognized as the “grand dame of Southeast Asian theater,” Bonifacio nurtured value-oriented puppetry theater for children for generations. As has been pointed out by Nicanor G. Tiongson, cultural critic and professor emeritus of the UP Film Institute: “The wonder of it all is that she sustained her mission, putting up her own puppet group and venue. All other puppet theater groups have folded up but her group continues to perform folktales as well as classics like ‘Sita & Rama: Papet Ramayana’ and the sinakulo during Lent. The writing and production of original children’s plays, especially through puppet theater, constitute her niche in Philippine theater.”

The aforementioned venue, which was a house near UP that was converted into a theater and made possible by government grants, was also named after her: Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio Teatro Papet Museo. It was built in 2006, almost 30 years since she put up Teatrong Mulat, which her daughter Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete now runs, in 1977.

Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio with the puppet figure of Sita and Rama —INQUIRER PHOTO

Empower the children

While capturing and entertaining the minds of her young audience, her puppetry plays were also designed to empower children to take on life’s challenges, and consider the bigger world around them and the roles they could play in improving it—even during an era when the concepts of freedom and justice were hard to express.

Tiongson continues, “Always a mother before anything else, she used theater for teaching children values which were humane and antioppression. While activist groups were putting on anti-Marcos plays for adult audiences, she quietly did her part in raising social consciousness among the children.”

While Bonifacio immersed herself in and eventually taught Asian theater, specializing in the Japanese and Indonesian forms, she was first and foremost a patriot. Tiongson recalls that she was the first educator and playwright in her generation to switch from English-language to Filipino. During the height of activism in the 1970s, her book, “The ‘Seditious’ Tagalog Playwrights: Early American Occupation,” broke new ground and showed how unsung writers in the theater were exposing the abuses of American imperialism.

Chris Millado, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) vice president and artistic director, concurred how Bonifacio broadened his horizons as her student in UP. “She introduced us to that part of Philippine theater history and balanced our training. Our exposure was Western drama and the Greek tragedies.”

Almost 50 years ago, just when now renowned theater organizations Repertory Philippines and Philippine Educational Theater Association were building their repertoire and their audience, the Teatrong Mulat founder was “searching for the Philippine identity of theater. She brought in the Asian perspective, a different way of presenting theater, and producing and illustrating it in her work.”

Prolific

It is an understatement to say that Bonifacio was a prolific writer. She had written 44 plays, 26 books, one novel and 136 short stories. A majority of them were, unsurprisingly, for children and young adults. But her more adult material seared their denunciations of social inequality and injustice on their audience’s mind.

The National Artist continued encouraging her students, past and present, to grow with their art. Their “Tita Amel,” as they called her, had a motherly side that contrasted with the strict, tough-love approach that many directors and mentors at that time employed. Millado credits her for starting him in his playwriting career, by passing his script then as a young student to UP Writers’ Workshop, without his knowledge.

Bibeth Orteza, actress and playwright, and also a former student, described one of the readings that the future National Artist conducted when she took over from a director who could not be present at that time.

Orteza says, “She just didn’t just tell us what would work and what wouldn’t. She taught us, patiently explained what we couldn’t understand, saw through our obstinacy and ignored our yabang that insisted on what we wanted.”

Never a cultural snob

As she approached her sunset years, Bonifacio still found the time to participate in the theater community beyond her Teatrong Mulat, bumping into her former wards.

Former student Dennis Marasigan, now a veteran director, writer and technical director, says, “Despite her frail physical health, she continued to watch as many plays as she could. In 2015, when I was asked to recommend a possible recipient of the Philstage’s Natatanging Gawad Buhay Award, she was the first name that I mentioned.”

Despite her lofty stature and the many national and international awards she gained, Bonifacio remained down-to-earth and approachable, never becoming a cultural snob.

Orteza says that in the 1980s, when she shifted from drama to television and film, not all of her contemporaries were happy with that move. Then she bumped into her Tita Amel at UP Faculty Center. When Orteza asked her mentor tearfully if TV writing was acceptable, the older lady replied: “Aba, Bibeth. Lahat nang napag-usapan natin sa klase, magagamit mo sa daan-daan pang ‘Iskul Bukol!’”

Orteza perhaps captures the sentiments of many who had come under Bonifacio’s wing when she says, “I miss the good woman already. I cannot thank her enough.”


Source: https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/377330/amelia-lapena-bonifacio-patriot-and-mother-who-used-theater-to-teach-values/#ixzz6jJXPdgKq



Topnotcher twice over: 1st as nurse, now as doc

November 27, 2020

By: Dexter Cabalza

Jomel Lapides —PHOTO FROM MU SIGMA PHI FRATERNITY

“This guy’s gonna top the board exam. Remember the name, Jomel Lapides.”

It was a friendly banter caught on video among Lapides and his batchmates from the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila after taking the board exams for physicians this November.

On Thursday, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) confirmed that Lapides has again topped the board exams, this time as an aspiring doctor. Nine years ago, he was first in the board exams for nurses, also as a UP Manila graduate.

“I am surprised and still in disbelief. We were only praying that I clinch the Top 10, but Lord gave me more,” said Lapides, 29. “It’s already a big blessing that I passed the board—it’s just a bonus that I was among the top.”

Lapides scored 88.67 percent, followed by Patrick Joseph Mabugat (University of Saint La Salle) and Adrian Emmanuel Teves (University of Santo Tomas) with 88.58 percent; and Tiffany Uy (UP), Hannah Chito (UP) and Chino Paolo Samson (Lyceum Northwestern University-Dagupan City, 88.08 percent.

Mabugat and Teves aced the 2014 board exams for medical technologists and physical therapists, respectively.

Uy holds the record for obtaining the highest grade in UP Diliman’s postwar history with a general weighted average of 1.004 when she graduated, summa cum laude, in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology degree.

75% passing rate

According to the PRC, more than 75 percent or 3,538 out of the 4,704 takers passed in the only board exams held this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The results were released a week after the last day of exams conducted in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cagayan De Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga.

Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM) in Cebu City was the top performing school with all of its 138 takers passing. It was followed by UP (98.63 percent), Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (98.6 percent), Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila or PLM (97.58 percent) and UST (95.61 percent).

Dr. Thelma La Rosa–Fernandez, a board trustee and a former dean of CIM, said the results of the exams did not surprise them.

“We have had a number of 100 percent passing rate in the exams for at least 13 years now. With all the efforts of the administration and the students, we got it again now,” she told the Inquirer.

“I think it’s the way we teach our students. Our faculty is also the best, plus we have the support of the administration,” she said.

‘Time management’

Asked for his secret on being a board topnotcher, Lapides coyly said it was all about “time management” and lots of prayers. “I just set a time where I will focus on studying so after that, I can do other things [like socializing with friends and batchmates] ,” he said.

At the start of the year, he began reading books to refresh his memory of the lessons he already took in his med school years. “Little by little I recalled them, and after succeeding months, I accumulated enough knowledge,” he said.

It also helped him that his study buddy was his girlfriend, a medicine graduate from PLM, who also passed the exams.

After acing the nursing boards, Lapides returned to UP Philippine General Hospital in 2012 and worked as a staff nurse at Sentro Oftalmologico Jose Rizal, its Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

He could have been a nurse working abroad and getting paid monthly at least ten times the salary he would be receiving here, but he said he was needed more in this country.

Doctor to the barrio

“I just wanted to serve in our health-care system, but when an opportunity for me to pursue medicine came in 2015, I decided to go with it. I was thinking that as a doctor, I will be helping more people with God using me as his instrument for healing,” Lapides said.

The eldest among three siblings juggled being a night-shift nurse and a med student.

“My father’s pay as a construction worker is not that big. So I promised my parents that I will still provide for the family, and they should not worry about expenses since I would be funding my medical education,” Lapides recalled.

While waiting to take his oath as a licensed physician, Lapides said he was already preparing to go back to PGH’s ophthalmology department to take his residency.

He plans on serving in far-flung communities by being one of the doctors to the barrios.

“I need to be here. People would say that I still can serve if I go out of the country, but as of now, I think this is the Lord’s plan for me. The Filipino patients are here waiting to be served,” Lapide said. –WITH A REPORTS FROM ADOR VINCENT MAYOL AND CARLA P. GOMEZ

Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net





Thai alumnus speaks on the importance of a strong int’l alumni network

October 16, 2020

A discussion focusing on UPLB’s international alumni on Oct. 7 sealed the five-part webinar series that was held in celebration of the 2020 Loyalty Day.

The webinar featured Dr. Weerapon Thongma, 2019 UPLB Outstanding Alumnus and a faculty-administrator at Maejo University, Thailand, who talked about sustaining the alliance between UPLB and its international alumni.

Dr. Thongma, who earned his PhD Extension from UPLB, highlighted the growth of the UPLB Alumni Association of Thailand, which he currently leads as its president, noting that its membership has expanded to over 200.

He stressed the importance of strong and open lines of communication between UPLB and its international alumni. This connection, he said, begins with engagement to its international students while they are still enrolled in the university, and this shall be maintained even after they graduated and became alumni.

Dr. Thongma advocated for personalized communication of UPLB to the alumni, such as giving them updates about the university. Engaging the alumni on the university’s projects and programs, he said, will encourage the former to give back to the university.

“If they (the alumni) are part of the planning, they will be the ones to see the need for funding or other items, and they, especially the older alumni, will donate the funding voluntarily,” Dr. Thongma stressed.

He also offered his vision for UPLBAA-Thailand, which was to develop each member into “professional in globalizing agriculture and society innovation network” – a vision which webinar reactor Dr. Maria Corazon “Kuku” Lopez of the Development Academy of the Philippines cast into a comprehensive framework for operationalization.

Like Dr. Thongma, Dr. Lopez is also a graduate of the College of Public Affairs and Development (CPAf), where they were both previously awarded as outstanding college alumni.

Dr. Lopez identified the vision’s outcomes based on values as a “unified group of professionals who are leaders producing brilliant ideas towards relevant and responsive actions supported by the alumni association to achieve transformation.”

She also praised Dr. Thongma for his idea of “engaging the alumni before they become alumni” and cited studies that highlighted the importance of alumni relations in building one’s social identity and sense of belonging to a group.

Gracing the webinar was Dr. Jose V. Camacho Jr., dean of the Graduate School and incoming chancellor of UPLB, who assured support for stronger alumni relations with UPLB’s international and graduate alumni.

Joining Dr. Camacho was Rolando Bello, dean of CPAf and incoming vice chancellor for administration, who hosted the webinar that was organized by his college. The webinar was livestreamed on Zoom and YouTube.

The Loyalty Day webinar series, which ran from Sept. 23 to Oct. 7, talked about UPLB’s accomplishments; the experiences of a past national agriculture program; the bond of the university and its local alumni; and the possible partnership among UPLB, the Department of Agriculture, and the alumni. (Albert Geoffred B. Peralta)

Source: https://uplb.edu.ph/all-news/thai-alumnus-speaks-on-the-importance-of-a-strong-intl-alumni-network/

Chari Heredia-Reyes brings tastes of home to the US

September 22, 2020

By Carla Bianca Ravanes-Higham

Just like most Filipinos, Chari Heredia-Reyes grew up surrounded by everything sweet “in a full household where fruitcakes and pastries were lined up by the hundreds during the Christmas season.”

The Ensaymada Project was born out of Reyes’ love for baking which had since grown into a business that brings comfort to Filipinos in America.

Coming from a family of eleven children, Chari took it upon herself to assist her mom’s seasonal undertaking of baking goodies and sending it to family during the festive season. This jumpstarted her passion for baking, one that she carried even when she pursued a career in Special Education after graduating Cum Laude from the University of the Philippines, then migrating to California to start a family with her husband, Chef Ramon. Despite an active teaching career and raising four children, Chari’s love for baking remained.

Inspired by her mother, Chari began recreating her childhood Christmas memories by creating food and desserts for her friends, this eventually led to the founding of her successful business, the Ensaymada Project.

“I’ve always enjoyed creating homemade meals and desserts to share not only during the Christmas season but for gatherings with friends and family as well,” she shared.

“I specifically chose to recreate my mom’s ensaymada from our childhood because there is just something nostalgic when it’s passed on from one generation to the next. It allows you to keep something relevant within your family that you can pass on to your children.”

Soon, friends and family began requesting to purchase Chari’s famous ensaymadas and what started as a hobby in her home kitchen turned into a successful venture that is now housed in a commercial kitchen. Filipinos from all over the United States now turn to Ensaymada Project to remind them of home and is now a favorite that captured the hearts of many. Today, Ensaymada Project ships fresh ensaymada all over the US.

The success can be attributed to Chari’s dedication to remaining true to the Filipino ensaymada we all grew up to love while offering new flavors. When asked where she gathers her inspiration and she says, “Inspiration is something that you can always take care of. You can always recreate yourself through these ensaymadas with many many flavors depending on the positive things that inspire you.

This specialty baker-cum-entrepreneur’s mother inspired her to recall her early childhood by exploring flavors.

“[One of the things that inspire me are] happy customers who enjoy each and every one of the 22 flavors — and counting — who take the time to reach out to let you know, that despite all the sleepless nights and hours of work, it is worth it.”

She then generously shares her advice to those who wish to start something of their own, “The simple advice is start off by creating something you love, something you are proud of. Everyone has the same perfectionist palate. Heighten the standards. You can’t go wrong with a product that pass your own personal high standards.”

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To know more, visit ensaymadaproject.com

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carlabiancaravanes.com

Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/09/20/weekly/the-sunday-times/filipino-champions/chari-heredia-reyes-brings-tastes-of-home-to-the-us/769693/

Google doodles Filipina artist Pacita Abad

August 5, 2020

By MARK CRUZET

GOOGLE on Friday paid tribute to award-winning Filipina artist Pacita Abad with a doodle of herself and her work.

Abad was born in 1946 in Basco, Batanes. In 1967, she graduated with a degree in Political Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City.

She traveled to the United States to undertake graduate studies but ended up becoming a visual artist.

Abad received various awards in and out of the country for her paintings. Her artwork was featured in over 200 museums and galleries, including 75 solo exhibitions, around the world for over 30 years.

Because of her colorful and distinct paintings, which are usually a combination of shapes, Abad has been tagged as the “woman of color.”

She also introduced the trapunto style of painting, a quilting technique of silkscreening, stitching and beading on large painted canvas.

The Ivatan artist was also known for taking on socio-political themes in her paintings.

Abad died of lung cancer in 2004 but her 5000 artworks are on display in public and private art galleries in over 70 countries.

Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/07/31/news/latest-stories/google-doodles-filipina-artist-pacita-abad/748424/

He discovered his career by accident and is now a top LA photographer

January 23, 2019

LOS ANGELES–If you’ve flipped through a fitness or health magazine, chances are you have seen the work of Filipino American Noel Daganta of Daganta Photography, who is a rising star in the photography industry.

Professional photographer Noel Daganta at work. CONTRIBUTED

The Los Angeles-based photographer, whose clients include actors, models, Hollywood celebrities and TV personalities,  has shot over 200 magazine covers, mostly on fitness, published in the U.S. and internationally. These include SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, Muscle and Fitness,  Oxygenand other US Magazines.

His clients include “Dancing with the Stars” winner Peta Murgatroyd, actor Michael Jai White from Tyler Perry’s movie “Why Did I Get Married,” and TV stars from “Survivor,” “Extreme Makeover” and “Glee.”

Daganta’s career in photography “just happened by accident,” he explained. While in the U.S. Navy, he earned two combat medals during the Gulf War and was chosen Sailor of the Quarter among a fleet of 8,000 soldiers. Back then, photography was one of his hobbies that he “never took seriously.”

Make it anywhere

Then one day upon leaving the military, a friend named James Ellis, who wanted to be a model, paid a photographer for a photo shoot to get started in the industry.

Noel Daganta came upon his career by accident. CONTRIBUTED

“Unfortunately, none of the photos from the shoot came out to what he wanted. He did not have a lot of money and I felt bad so I told him I can try to take some photos of him at the beach and hopefully we can get something that could get him started,” he recalls.

Ellis uploaded Daganta’s pics on MySpace, which was a popular social media at the time, and this led to an agency discovering Ellis and representing him. Within a few months, Daganta landed his first magazine cover.

“That got me a lot of attention as well since most of his photos in his social media were shot by me. Pretty soon, named models started getting a hold of me for shoots,” Daganta said.

“I had no experience and was competing with some of the best photographers in the world. LA is the most competitive market in photography in the world in my opinion. If you succeed here, you will make it anywhere,” he added.

As a top photographer in the LA area, he is in demand. He said Google helps him a lot by ranking his work pretty well in fitness and fashion photography, especially in Los Angeles.

Daganta has shot several Miss Philippines beauties in LA such as Miss Earth 2014 Jamie Herrel and Miss Globe 2015 Ann Colis. He has also shot for several Filipino LA-based designers such as Joey Galon and Alan del Rosario.

“What sets my images apart from other photographers is that my images are commercial and functional for whatever genre I shoot,” Daganta explained.

Daganta was from Roxas, Palawan before his family moved to Puerto Princesa City.  His parents are from Cuyo, Palawan. His mother was a full-time homemaker while his father worked for Philippine Airlines at Puerto Princesa City Airport.

“I grew up in a small barrio called Retac in Roxas where my grandparents owned a coconut plantation that extended to the beach. The barrio was so small that our elementary school comprised of only two classrooms, offering only grades 1-4.”

“As a kid I played with my cousins on the beach all the time and thought the whole world was like that. There was no TV and we would only listen to radio at night since the reception was usually better at that time,” he explained.

Pioneering spirit

Growing up in the ‘80s, Dagante said there were no beach resorts at the time. “El Nido Beach and most of Palawan were not very known as a tourist attractions as they are now.”

Daganta was an honor student in high school. With a state scholarship, he studied at the University of the Philippines and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Immigrating to the U.S. in 1991, he found the culture very different from the Philippines.

Some of Daganta’s Fitness photos. DAGANTA PHOTOGRAPHY

“The biggest adjustment [settling in the U.S.] for me is not physical but mental. We grew up in a society where as a kid conformity and following your elders are desired while American kids are taught to be individuals. We are very communal while Americans are very independent. The U.S. fosters individuality and pioneering spirit, which helped me achieve what I have.”

Like most Filipino Americans, Daganta used to remit money back to his parents at home for many years before he moved to LA. “Every decision I made was about them,” he explained.

He wants to be an example for future generations. “I hope to inspire Filipinos to pursue their passion and believe in themselves,” he said.

He owns two studios located in Los Angeles’ Fashion District. His web sites are www.ndpictures.com and www.proheadshotslogangeles.com.

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Source: https://usa.inquirer.net/19107/he-discovered-his-career-by-accident-and-is-now-a-top-la-photographer?utm_expid=.XqNwTug2W6nwDVUSgFJXed.1