4th Grand Alumni Home Coming - DCHS

The 4th Grand Alumni Home Coming of DCHS is scheduled on April 27 and 28, 2018. Hundreds of DCHS alumni around the world are expected to flock to Diatagon and reunite with each other. This Grand Reunion started last April 2010 and happens every 3 years. This is totally different from the yearly Christmas DCHS Alumni Home Coming.

I can still remember about 9 years ago, when this 3-Year DCHS Grand was conceptualized. Many of Diatagon.com furom members were complaining that they cannot attend the yearly reunion which happens every December due to conflict of schedule and their kids still have classes right after the reunion. I remember Sammy Ytac of batch 86 articulated the case of having a Grand reunion on summer. It was discussed, argued and later agreed: A Grand Reunion every 3 years was born. The rest is history.

This April 2019, DCHS Alumni will visist Diatagon. Many of them from abroad. Many of them have never visited Diatagon for decades. It will be the time to reunite, enjoy and reminisce the old "high school days". Every batch are expected to contribute to the make the reunion successful. Every participants are expected to enjoy it.

THE ROCK ISLANDS OF DIATAGON

There's really not much to talk about these rock islands in my home town of Diatagon, Lianga Surigao del sur, except perhaps its being unique.

I've climbed these rock islands before as a 12 year old boy. We hunted eggs of big brown birds we called "Lapay". We got more than a dozen eggs like the size of native chicken eggs, but their color were blue-green.

It was me who dared to pick the eggs on the top of the trees without fear. While hunted eggs, we were also secretly hoping to bump on some "Yamashita Treasures".

Those adventures were priceless for me. I'm not sure if I can ever climb these rock islands again. Its about an hour of walk in rocks, muds and sands with chances of getting stung by sharp sea urchins' torns. Or worse, by a venomous stone fish.

But at the back of my mind, I know I will find time to climb these rock islands again. Not just to take selfie in there but to revisit the "child" in me who onced climbed it for adventures sake.

Maybe I can also reflect in there, if the dreams I onced had as a child were realized or not. Because as far as Im concern, I'm a bit lost and not very sure were Im heading. All I know is that, I'm consumed by desires to chase fortune and fame that has nothing to do with living in peace and happiness.

If I look happy in my pictures, they aren't that deep happiness. Because worries and anxiety are always there. Fear of losing material things and love ones are just lurking in the dark alleys.

For now, I can take shallow happiness one day at a time. But long term plan includes climbing these rock islands and exploring nature as man with heart free from desires of material things and mind free from worries and anxiety.

Because my heart and soul belong to the country sides, to the hills and valleys, to the rivers and seas and to the people with pure hearts.

Diatagon Video

I have long been recording videos of Diatagon and relevant event for all Diatagonians around the world to see.

Sharing is loving, someone close reminded me.

Enjoy!

The Lianga Bay Story Part 4 (The Hospital)

Back in the 1960s, hospitals were rare and almost non-existent in the country side of the Philippines, especially in Mindanao. But in the province of Surigao del sur, Barangay of Diatagon, there was a well equipped, well manned and well managed hospital where the service was at its finest. Its called the Lianga Bay Hospital.

Believe it or not, Lianga Bay hospital was manned by the best medical professionals one can find in the Philippines. Sometime in late 1960's a man was stabbed several times with a long knife. He was hit in his stomach twice which went from his front through his back, not once but twice.

The man was brought to that hospital on time and he lived after the husband and wife Doctor Ben and Elena Tamayo took care of him. I should know this story, because the man who was stabbed was no other than my Father. He was still single that time.

I was also delivered in the same hospital attended by the same Doctors. Sadly, the said hospital was all gone except the building that's left to rot.

Still, the said hospital is worth writing, worth telling and worth sharing because many great stories, great lives and meaningful events happened there.

I

The Lianga Bay Story - Part 2 (Those were the days)

The Lianga Bay Logging Company in Diatagon was in full operation from late 1950's to early 80's under American leadership. Alvin Jacobson sold the company to Georgia Pacific sometime in early 70s. Georgia Pacific was among the top 3 logging company in the world at that time. More funds came in and more equipment were brought in and more employees got hired.

Lianga Bay had its own hospital equiped with the best medical equipment and run  by the best medical professionals headed by husband and wife Doctors namely Dr.Ben and Dra. Elena.

Lianga Bay employyes and thier families were all pumpered and taken cared of by its hospital. Free conaultation, free medicine and minimum cost for admission. Kids get admitted by simple fever or cough. Bottles of Tru-orange and box of sky flakes were the usual drinks and snacks for the sick. Dextrose bottles and hose being brought home after realese from the hospital to be soon used as water container (the bottle) and webbed bracelet (for the hose)

An army of nurses were ready to serve 24/7 whole year round all for the good of Lianga Bay employees. The husband and wife Dr. Tamayos were the best Doctors back then.

Lianga Bay also had its own big grocery store operated the Lianga Bay and Community Multi-purpose Cooperative Inc. Or LECCA. The employees call it "kantena" which letirally means canteen. Probably because it was full of something to it other than RTWs and house appliances. Employees were given "credit card" which was a piece of paper covered by transparent plastic where all the goods they get were listed to be deducted to their payroll later.

"Over draft" and "Over Deduction" were a common terms those days for employees who can't control shopping at LECCA. Sacks of rice, cartoons of Tanduay, dozens of sardines, kilos of sugar and salt were the most common goods bought by employees.

Every month, there was a day called "Timbale" when the store is full of new stocks and employees swarm LECCA for shopping thier needs. The big "American Bread" was the star of "timbale" days. No timbale is complete without that big brown "American Bread".

The Lianga Bay Story - Chapter 1 (The beginning)

Sometime in the early 1950's, an American businessman named Alvin Jacobson was granted a logging concession of about 69,000 hectares in the jungle within the province Surigao del sur in the northern part of Mindanao. The Philippine government granted the concession to the Americans by virtue of law which allows Americans to harvest our natural resources and spur economic activity in the country. The country was still suffering from the ravage of World War 2 at that time. It was also a way of the Philippine government to "thank" the Americans for "liberating" us from the Japanese invaders.

Alvin and his wife Christine together with other partners set up the logging company in the town of Lianga, Barangay Diatagon. The place was pure virgin forest. No road connects Barangay Diatagon from the main highway at that time. Access was by the sea from Lianga town proper. Diatagon was almost uninhabited then. Only the natives who are Manobos settled the forested area. A legend has it that a Manobo tribe leader named "Tawidi" ruled the place. But I'm not so sure about that.

Alvin Jacobson started the company at about 1954. He hired an army of  the best engineers, surveyors and professionals he can get. One of them was my uncle Enyong Pesical who he pirated from PICOP in Mangagoy. My uncle said his friends named Guazon and Ombat lead the survey of the 69,000 hectares of jungle. They hired Manobos and surveyed the jungle for several months to know where the thickest logs were located so they can prioritize making roads leading there.

Lawaan, Yakal, Narra, Apitong, Molave were among the tree species that mostly occupied the forest. Alvin Jacobson brought heavy equipment worth millions of dollars to Barangay Diatagon by boat. He built an airport, a port, a camp, a gym, a church, a school, a hospital, a power plant and basic facilities to make sure his army of professionals and employees live and work comfortably as he prepares to harvest the tens of millions of cubic meters of logs in the Jungle of Diatagon.

By 1960s the Lianga Bay Logging company was very prosperous employing about 800 strong regular employees. Lianga Bay Logging Company was the second biggest company next to San Miguel Brewery at that time. The minimum daily salary wage back then was only P4.00 a day and was considered more than enough to provide for one single family.

The employees of Lianga Bay mostly lived a happy and prosperous lives being able to cloth, feed and send their kids to the best colleges in the country particular Manila and Cebu. Diatagon was the one of the most prosperous Barangay in the entire province of Surigao del sur and Region 11.

The Americans were good managers and employer. They provided the best benefits, best support and moral support to there employees to make them happy and productive. Diatagon was a paradise and a perfect place to live and race a family in 60's and 70s.

- Jun Abines

Tulo ka pulo

If a picture paints a thousand words, this one here is the most memorable, unforgettable and emotionally attached to any true blooded Diatagonian.

These three rock islands (pulo) are not only mysterious and mesmerizing, they also remind us of our past. They haven't changed a bit and looked the same 30 years to 40 years ago. Almost all of us have our childhood black and white or colored pictures with these islands as the back ground.

Back with the Lianga Bay logging Company Inc was still in operation and prosperous, Causeway beach is the refuge of families every weekend. Families have picnics on the rocky beach bringing with them lupak, sinugba, biko, pansit bihon and beer or tanduay. The kids tirelessly swim and bath with the waves of clear blue water as their parents set up a temporary shelter made of blanket and straws. Those were the days.

Today, Causeway beach have changed a lot. The diving boards are gone. The turbo propeller cesna planes are gone. The hanger that house the planes are gone. The big gasoline tank is gone. The guards in the hangar are gone. Even many of our love ones are gone. But the view of these there remained the same.

One day, we will all be gone, but these three islands will remain the same in the next hundreds or thousands of years. They are the silent witness in this world how mortals like us have come and gone. They are like stars that look so near and yet almost unreachable. I bit 99% of Diatagonians have not come near these islands before.

Personally, I am proud to say I have climbed two of the these rock islands back with I was 12 or 13 years old. They are actually huge and full of big birds we call "Lapay".

One day, I'm going to come near these Islands again to take a selfie. Or I may even climb them again if time permits. For me, they our very own mount Everest and only few dared to come near and climb. Glad I was able to come near them, touch them and climb them. Its something only few Diatagon can say "I've done that."

- Jun Abines