THE MANILA CONVENING

They came draped in flags.

But the minister, she booked a Grab taxi to The Venetian but did not appear despite the confirmation of the Manila Meeting's condensed report.

So the session plan was reviewed before a final coordination was convened  over breakfast to address the missing shuttle and extend a pep talk on Just Empowering Transition before the setting sun set Manila Bay ablaze.

At the Manila Convening:

• the Phantom Biker discreetly glided through integrated inclusion huddles while posing for photos and expediting a virtual discussion on banning dirty coal to shift the spotlight to a feminist talk during mocktails;   
• the youth committed to reach for the stars and demand social accountability, require rare earth investors to regard the First Nations and tacticize why Greek food should not be served in solidarity dinners;
• single red hearts screamed with call to actions from a communique forged in an exit meeting.

In retrospect, Diwata's Pares Overload paired with the Sunset Bar's extra strong beers would have been the perfect reception dinner but imbing images of the Mall of Asia in ramen bowls of shoyu, Osaka-style Volcano, Nagasaki Champon, and tsukemen will do.

After all, Japan has been breached and booked, finally.

They all took off on Friday except for the Phantom Biker who stayed to monitor the post-convening chatter that indicated the initiation of an impact story development session in Manila in preparation for a South-South Project in Kuala Lumpur and the ensuing massive purge of an inbox. 

A credit card bill, not yet due, was impulsively settled to protest SOME THAI's misrepresentation of a beloved crab omelette, the bastardization of a spicy beef salad, and its Thai milk tea concoction that tasted like a laminated multi-layered sachet.

So much for a Bib Gourmand and much ado about a polysomnography that stole dsleep on the eve of St. Valentine's Day to finally retire a military cap...

THE MANILA VISITS AND MEETINGS

For a minute, the chlorine-laced pool froze into a powerpoint presentation as the 8th ASEAN Working Group squinted into the morning sun to etch their commitment on integrating GEDSI into national energy plans, promoting climate justice and mobilizing climate finance, ensuring rights in a digital age, translating the care declaration into action, and addressing the “Missing Middle” of social protection.

Ushering this annual ritual is a platter of multi-colored sapinsapin, sliced and served with an interim midyear report submission from an overcrowded table, a 6-minute walk to a red bento-box of belabored pansit and siopao meal that the week's frst Rizotril dose transformed into elevated karekare, kaldereta, and adobo to send off an old Sandugo flipflop and a buttonless cargo pants into retirement.  

Then came the inihaw na pusit, the grilled tuna belly, roasted liempo, and sizzling bulalo that stirred anticipatory action for the promotion of digital rights in the ASEAN as prophecied during dinner at the Ambassador's Reception in Magallanes Village.

Old Rockport was finally retired, reluctantly, as the Andrologist unlocked the Sleep Disorders Center, finally.

A second Bib Gormand was harvested at Morning Sun before a quickie at the ADB.

Two bottles of pinot noir, a flask of sake, and two glasses of gin tonic lubricated the egress of two visits and a meeting in Manila.

It was a stocktake from there: 

• Session 1 determined project progress under the watchful gaze of the Quezon Memorial Shrine's three mourning angels
• Session 2 looked into spending and burn rates as The Oblation looked 
• Session 3 distilled reflections over lunch at a cocktail table of the Salcedo Saturday Market
• Session 4 evolved action points during the changing of the guards at the Rizal Monument in Luneta

It is finished!

A 2026 ASEAN engagement plan was compiled to retire a fake Stan Smith after one final errand of picking up a prescribed PDE5 inhibitor during St. Paul the Apostle's morning sermon about the church's Millenial Saint.

In Quiapo, the exposed faithful prayed to the Black Nazarene for miracles while at the Golden Mosque, women must be covered with hijab and the skin peeled off the grilled fish. 

A lotto bet was placed somewhere along Calle Sacrista as mass was celebrated in both ends of the street --- at Sta. Cruz and Binondo that once ministered to the gentiles of Parian. 

Soft rain punctured two cups of overrated coffee as marathon weddings occupied the San Agustin Church and pushed back tourists to an ancient restaurant for an early lunch of kangkong with garlic and seafood canton (halal), and classic asado and lumpiang shanghai (haram).  

It's TRYP not Microtel but the heavy yellow luggage is ours... 

THE PHANTOM BIKER UNMASKED

Alas-9 ng gabi,
umuugong ang antok na dumuyan sa iginagayak na midyear interim report

Ala-1 ng madaling araw,

unang gising at ihi, pahabol na sulsi sa binibihisang Meeting at Convening

Alas-3:30 ng madaling araw,

pangalawang gising upang magpaantok sa panonood ng Manila Visit sa TV 

Alas-5 ng umaga,

matapang na kape ang malabnaw na uhog ng mga kuwentong barbero sa ALT

Alas-6 ng umaga,

kumagat sa manipis na social protection ng basurero ang ngipin ng amihan

Alas-7 ng umaga,

nagbaba ng maskara ang nakabisiklesta upang mahuli ang amoy ng YOSAS 

Huling Sabado ng Enero,

sa Bakal 2 napulot ng namalengke sa Munoz ang mga milyahe na sininop ng mekaniko ng botika sa Guimba

na sinuhulan ng sunog na mani at ginayat na tokwang nasagip  ng plantsador sa lingguhang sanggunian

Unang araw ng Pebrero,

ang pagsusumamo sa Mahal na Birhen ng Lourdes ni San Husep na ipagtanggol ang mga may karamdaman 

at kay Padre Pio sa mayamang bahagi ng Libis, ang pintakasi ng pagpapagaling, ng pagdurusa, ng kirot

mga pagdiriwang at pag-aalay ng masaganang dulang at Amor Del Mar mula sa kusina ng mga Tausug sa Morato

ONE BLACKED-OUT SATURDAY IN TARLAC

Once upon a time in 1945, the returning Americans with Filipino guerillas and Aeta warriors pounded the Japanese invaders into submission at the Battle of Bamban Hills to secure Clark Airfield and push the Tiger of Malaya deep into Northern Luzon, into Balete Pass, into his operations center that culminated in the Battle of Bambang and his eventual surrender in Kiangan.

"The first 4 Filipinos killed by the Japanese in Bamban are from San Jose in Nueva Ecija," revealed the curator of war relics.

"My ancestors avenged them in Bambang where the retreating Japanese were anihilated and burried in the mass graves of Almaguer," said the Phantom Biker who wondered if the boxcars that used to ply PNR's Tarlac-San Jose Line were the same as those that transported POWs to what is now the Capas Death March Monument for interment at Camp O'Donnell, a tragedy now marked with a 73-meter obelisk of peace at the Capas National Shrine. 

The Phantom Biker --- he chased a parade with a flat tire at 56 kilometers/hour to nudge an agenda and a procurement in the name of the Manila Trinity (Visit, Meeting, Convening) that also got a contract amendment signed finally despite a continuing platform glitch and the ensuing barrage of virtual meetings to initiate a midyear interim report preparation.

The Ironman --- he got a consultancy recruitment live at a cost of chicken done two ways: sinampalukan and litson with aged pinikpikan and popcorn on the side. 

Prayer to the Peacemaker and 

Patron of the Holy Souls

"Lord, you worked miracles of healing and comfort at the hands of St. Nicholas: hear all who cry to you in distress, in sickness and in every danger of soul and body, and save them in your mercy.

Almighty God, your glory shone upon the Church through the holiness and miracles of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. In answer to his prayers, keep your holy people in peace and unity. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."

SLEEPLESS (almost) AT 56

56 is a plea heard and a covenant with the Great Architect of the Universe.

56 is the angel who encouraged adaption to changes, staying positive, and heeding spiritual signs and guidance.

56 is a Korean-inspired sinadag in Angeles City, a breakfast of kiniing done 2-ways (dinakdakan and pinikpikan) along the dacquel nga carayan in Almaguer, and a watwat lunch of boiled and grilled pork in the mountains of Itogon.

56 is the number of pinuneg slices served with both birthday meals.  

56 is when sleep descends before 9 PM in Bakal 2 and leaves between 1-2 AM long after the din of a garage modification has faded, and escapes early still despite trapping it with beer-infused litson manok and fried luncheon meat.  

56 is when the Phantom Biker rode his bike in gratitude and supplication to the saints, wide awake and loaded with trimmings for the Manila Meeting and Convening, notes from the usual weekly meetings, and a requested ASEAN briefing; haunted by a partners' platform glitch, and chased by a branding requisition, the Global Programs Hub, and a system approval from another project.

56 is a chimaek combo for starters, a full gogigui for the entree, and a dessert of Aling Lucing's sisig and buro just after the gateposts of Fort Stotsenburg.

56 is passing through Balete Pass to pay homage to Almaguer where it all began, to curtsy at the church in Bambang where maidens danced with the Sto. Nino to summon the memories of old Hogwarts --- the gateway to Barat and Salinas that was breached for the first time.  

56 is an abrupt trip to Kayapa to partially scratch an itch, a pit stop in Ambuklao Dam in remembrance of a social studies teacher who a long time ago spoke about a traditional watwat in Itogon, and passing through Baguio where the Phantom Biker, still sleepless in Bakal 2, was conceived in 1969.

THE MONUMENTS MEN (AND WOMAN) OF BIAK-NA-BATO

On the day before the Baptism of the Lord, an all-Bakal 2 squad of the MFAA Section was inserted where the Balaong River broke through a boulder.    

They are not soldiers but neigbors, curious why a bolo got stuck in a Tagalog historical marker instead of the nearby Spanish stone anvil where Carlos "Botong" Francisco probably forged a mural depicting the establishment of the Republic of Bak-na-Bato in 1897.  

These monuments obviously needs polishing at the scale of a floor tile replacement and a roof repaint as initiated in Bakal 2 during the first Monday catch-ups of 2026 to nudge the Manila Meeting and Convening, with a prayer of round grapes enabling a Mariwasa year that will exceed Boysen's prosperity in the Philippines and the crispiness of a hurriedly fried tilapia.

Aguinaldo had Bonifacio killed and would lose the 1935 presidential election to Quezon who declared Biak-na-Bato as a national park in 1937.

Quezon City and Bonifacio Global City are hosts to St. Luke's, no relation to Aguinaldo but the nodes that delivered a monumental relief so welcome it made impact story gathering, branding, and a policy toolkit handover look, smell, and taste like crunchy boneless chicken feet.

The Phantom Biker crashed while submitting the first claim for 2026 but his happiness is such that he qualified for a picnic of broiled pork ribs and steamed tilapia in Maligaya.

Buliran was something else, for a night at least, aside from being a gateway to the Aguinaldo Cave, to "La Mesa de Aguinaldo"where Mi Presidente signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, now sealed by a buhay na bato and submerged in water...

...while at the Hospital Cave, the spectre of Trinidad Tecson, the "Mother of Biak-na-Bato", tended to the ghosts of the sick and wounded who were immortalized in the modern day graffiti of a film crew who stored their equipment at the Imbakan Cave...

...the arsenal that armed new recruits after their initiation into the Katipunan at the Tanggapan Cave, and were subsequently trained to determine and attack the enemy in the darkness of the Ambush Cave by the sound of their boots.

The Monuments Men of Bakal 2, they were a happy lot and opened beer cans to toast the relics of Biak-na-Bato and salute the memory of Gen. Mariano Llanera who joined Aguinaldo's exile in Hong Kong.  

Llanera is from Cabiao but he may have owned a house in Lumang Gapan, might have been a devotee of La Virgen Divina Pastora, and perhaps had a snack of halo-halo and palabok at Luz Kitchenette afer attending church.