At the big bike convention in Baguio

Our tonight’s special presentation on Straight from the Sky, we talk about how we can change our Old Ways for a Better Environment. With us is Mr. Joel Lee, chairman of the Cebu Permaculture Initiatives. Permaculture it is “Learning from, and Partnering with Nature.” The ideology behind this is to Care for the Earth, Care for People and the Sharing of Surplus.

Perhaps you may be asking yourself how you can help do things in your own home to help combat global warming? That means changing certain things that you’re already doing. For example, when you go to the market for your groceries, instead of relying on the supermarket’s plastic bags, bring your own basket, just like what your grandma or mother used to do. This alone would mean less plastic bags that would be thrown into the landfill, which by now you already know is filled to capacity.

Watch this very interesting show with Mr. Joel Lee on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00PM and learn what you can do to help restore Mother Earth, by changing some of our old ways of living.

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Manila: While Typhoon “Emong” was lashing the Lingayen Gulf last Thursday, our group the EasyRiders Motorcycle Club was stuck in our hotel in Subic where we hunkered down and rode out the storm signal no. 3 for Zambales. We also learned that Baguio City was only 30 kilometers south of the eye of the storm and power was switched off the entire city to prevent anyone from getting caught and electrocuted by fallen power lines. This was enough information for the group to cancel the ride to Baguio City and head back for Manila on Friday; after all, our personal safety is paramount.

But the brave group of Dodong Faelnar and Boni Suico decided to go for it and left Subic at 10AM and arrived in Baguio by nightfall of Thursday, right smack at the height of the fury of Typhoon “Emong”. They told me that it was to be one of the worse rides they had; the winds were so strong, they just had to stop riding because the bikes were literally blown off the road! They could not even leave their bikes parked standing on the side of the road. They had to lay it on the ground. I don’t know why they did it. It was foolhardy of them, but then that makes them a cut from everyone else!

So by Friday morning, just after we were preparing to leave for Manila, Boni Suico called up to tell us that the Marcos highway was passable. Another check with the weather showed that Typhoon “Emong” was almost out of Luzon. So we cancelled our hotel reservations in Manila and made our way to Baguio City. Again, we took that magnificent super highway from Subic to Clark to Concepcion, Tarlac. All told, it was a 70-mile (around a hundred kilometers) journey in the greatest roads ever constructed in the Philippines, something few Cebuano motorists will ever experience.

Perhaps the worse part of the road in our trip to Baguio was the two-lane road from Tarlac to Urdaneta and into La Union, which reminds me of most of our roads in Cebu, two-lane and clogged with traffic. But I’m sure that that freeway will be connected to these cities soon. Meanwhile the climb to Baguio was smooth and uneventful. Though we saw many trees that fell along the roadside, but they were small trees, not big ones that could block the road. But the weather was great, sunny and no rain.

We got into the Baguio Country Club and joined the guys at the Baguio Convention Center. Everything was almost perfect, except for the fact that my son JV had a bum stomach and had a fever, perhaps due to the rains. He couldn’t ride his bike, which we put on the trailer and I had to nurse him in the hotel for most of Saturday. But then the rains came to spoil the fun at the convention center.

It’s always good to meet old friends like Jose “Bonito” Singson and Ricky Rivas of the Vigan Heritage Motorcycle Club, Manolete Lamata and Richie Garcia of Thunderbugs, The Star Group’s Boging Palacios, Dr.Bobby Dabatos of Ormoc Tourers Club, the V-Max Owners Group (VOG) with Lando Ting and Atty. Bienvenido Mabanto and Mark Alino with the Cycluns. All the other Cebu Clubs were there - The Cruizers, Hero of Honda with my cousin Tony Segura, VOG and my old club, Cycluns MC.

Of course I have to mention the EasyRiders Motorcycle Club led by Ed Gonzales with wife Therese, Boom Fonacier, Bobby and Marian Aboitiz, Tony and Grace Lozada, Cheling and Susan Sala, Dodong and Loida Faelnar, Boni Suico, Joe Abellana, Art Tudtud, John Domingo, Lito Garcia, Joey Borga, Angie and Peter Spalding, and our cub rider, JV Avila. Why we do this every year? Because it’s always a great time to ride our bikes with our friends and their wives, and have fun, like when we took the SuperFerry to and from Manila.