Banana Plantation

This is the Lapanday Banana Plantation, outside of Davao City.

Mindanao Roundup for Monday April 30, 2007

It’s Monday here in Mindanao!  Ah, the weekend passed too quickly!  On our local front at the Martin house, we were visited yesterday by the Jackson Family from Ontario, Canada.  The Jacksons have been “virtual” friends for more than 10 years now, and we met in person for the first time yesterday.  We really hit it off!  So, let me shout out a big hello to Gary and Jeany, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Mindanao!

In the news, over the weekend, the US State Department issued a newly updated travel advisory about travel to Mindanao and Sulu.  The warning for Mindanao is stronger now than ever, with US Government employees being required to seek permission from the government before visiting here!  This is a pretty drastic step, in my opinion.  I can see them putting this restriction on employees traveling to Sulu, but all of Mindanao?  One thing that I found questionable in the warning was that the State Department said that a kidnap for ransom group had abducted two American Children from their home in Tagum City in January 2007.  Now, I never heard of this incident, and I keep up with this kind of thing!  In addition, PNP Spokesman Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao said that the PNP (Philippine National Police) had no reports of such an incident.  I wonder where this information came from?

The Department of Trade and Industry is staging the “Yamang Mindanao 2007″ trade fair in General Santos City from June 29 to July 2.  This event will be the 2nd annual holding of the festival, and will feature Mindanaoan products for sale and for the business owners to meet with interested retailers and exporters.  I may try to go down for that, it should be an interesting show.

Residents in Maguindanao are learning that it is not a good idea to throw junk car batteries into the Liguasan Marsh, as they have been doing for years now. A lot of people in that part of Mindanao power their homes with car batteries, since a big part of the area does not have electricity.  When the batteries can no longer hold a charge, they have been throwing them into the marsh!  Well, the acid from the batteries has been playing havoc with the water there, and also has been very unhealthy for the migratory birds that come there yearly.  So, war is on in this area, which has been notorious as a kidnap group hideout, and a center for Moro-wars in decades past.  This war, though, is against pollution caused by car batteries!  Let’s hope they can clean up the problem!

Photoblog reader Richard Hogg

Here is a photo of Mindanao PhotoBlog reader Richard Hogg posing with his sweetheart Gingging. If you are a reader and want to have your photo published on the blog, just e-mail it to me!

Replanting of Banana Trees

This house is up in the hills beyond Mandug. The things that you see in the yard are banana trees that have been prepared for replanting.

Taking a Jeepney Ride

Taking a ride on the Jeepney. What a beautiful day, and what friendly people!