PINATUBO

The great reckoning is only 3 months away but the Prophets and Dreamers didn’t care. They are going to the legislature or die trying.

It was not exactly a kink-free process especially for Bertong Langis. Many days before, he was part of a select group assigned to engage Project A+ along with She Man and the Dragon Lady. The first conclave is still fresh in his mind: a legend called RR to his right and a sweet smelling pregnant goddess to his left, both of them asking him from time to time just what the heck is being thundered from the podium.

Bertong Langis gave it his best as in every assignment. He should not have tried so hard. When the elders decided to disengage Project A+ after a series of blinding skirmishes, he found he could not let go. He really would not if not for the pleadings of the Godfather.

And so it was that the great experiment called Pinatubo (to grow from below, not Apo Mallari’s famous volcano) was begotten. It placed 17th but were 30,000 ayes short of a place in the legislature. Many like us believed we won and formed a group of 38 sore losers.



A thousand and ninety-five days later, the great experiment was again roused from oblivion. Another dream was hatched after an overnight ritual of political sorcery in a hidden cove of the Zambals. Perhaps, the potion was not fully brewed. Or Bertong Langis was sleeping during the incantation. What is clear is the Prophets and Dreamers had been had by the Snubbed Nosed Diva.

In his rage, Bertong Langis defiled (like a sex-starved maniac his amigos said) anything that sounded, smelled or looked like the great experiment. He had never felt so good after…

Profiles: The Churches of Bula and Pili in Camarines Sur

Bula’s first church was destroyed by fire in 1676 and the second one by a typhoon in 1700. The present church was completed in 1706, and repaired in 1876 and 1885. It has been extensively renovated since then.

The Church of Pili, Camarines Sur