THE MONUMENTS MEN (AND WOMAN)

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.