BREAKFASTS AT DUSIT THANI (The ASEAN Gender Week)

After the minster was cleared of foreign exchange traders, the laicized cleric instructed from the mountain in the Town in Heaven that "GEDSI must be embedded in energy project design and delivery to drive gender equality and inclusion in energy employment, and build capacity on socially inclusive and gender-responsive energy transition" --- words so esoteric that the spy, instead of gathering intelligence for the Phnom Penh Workshop, opted to usher a welcome dinner at The Pantry, consecutive breakfast buffets so tedious that Lawson's was obliged to host the Last Supper. 

The Secretariat proposed during a huddle that Dusit Thani's breakfast buffet be reimagined as Aling Sosing's freshly grilled pork liempo that can be chopped into an Amorsolo sisig after the morning shift, that its noodle station be exclusive for displaying Japan Town's ramen selection.  

In Little Tokyo, the geishas of Ramen Nagi and Misaki seduced the Phantom Biker with an overpriced sashimi breakfast platter and ramen bowl that hinted of cold sake and two mugs of Suntory highball instead of The Pantry's nubile roving barista, all that for a hefty P4,18 price tag that coud have covered a seat at Michelin-selected Umu.  

Breakfasts at 5-starred Dusit Thani are overrated.

Indeed, the bachelors of Bakal 2 and their dogs preferred slurping balut and penoy higop with inutak at San Roque's church in Pateros to start the day, or a double plate brunch of Nanay's Pancit Malabon with the traders and merchants gathered at San Bartolome's massive church, or even grill an imaginary gilik-flavored bangus for the devotees of San Jose de Navotas' universal church.

Breakfasts can be Maundy like a birthday present of tokwa't baboy and litsong manok wrapped in the Bali Procurement --- 17 years in the Craft celebrated with a Black lager and merlot --- or even an Easter kosher dinner for a vigil to keep an 83-years old soul from wandering and guide him into the spirit world...

A SHORT IMPACT STORY

Comms is a portrait in a landscape of plastic flowers, ceramic bowls, and a cache of strategic tools for an early sacramental extra-strong beer that drafted storytelling skills into a communications plan. 

The impact, though strong and strategic, must be sweet like a morning iced tea.

It should be infused with developed ethical content despite its being caricatured for an ice breaker. 

An impact story, when refined and shared, will be a perfect fit for the first version of a narrative.

Almost like the ballad of The Hague about how a blockage hostaged the Kuala Lumpur Forum until a Financial Administrator intervened to trigger Step 07; so unlike the Jakarta narrative that is ready to be gathered at the ASEAN Gender Week in Manila through a registration link for a breakfast meeting with the Line Manager whose  payment request was confirmed by a footprint report to have been disbursed, but not for the Bali Assembly procurement nor a 3rd session on business development or financing a coal phase-out advocacy. 

In Bakal 2, the plot is about a pair of litsong manok in the bike trail crowing the impact of an unmasked opthalmic loveliness that inspired a partial credit card payment. 

An impact story can be a sad tale of unrequited young love, of Normita who bequeathed herself to a rich heir in Paniqui, of Leah who married an older man from Mapandan, of Leonor Rivera whose regrets resonate in the abandoned spaces of the Maria Clara House in Camiling. 

It can be the account of two fishermen whose bangus catch from Lingayen Gulf were sold as packs of kinilaw, sisig, inihaw, and sinigang at SNR-Calasiao.  

Another angle is how the Binmaleys built a church for Our Lady of Candles to commemorate the purification of the 40-days old Christ, and Apo Baket "calling" (mantaoag) a farmer to build her a church that is now the abode of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag.  

The real story however is that although the cost of pale pilsen has not increased, the chreap sisig sucked...    

THE YEAR OF THE RED HORSE

The Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers, collectively, is the Red Horseman of the Apocalypse who with a Lakota Chief waged war in the Battle of the Greasy Grass amidst the din of Philippine rock music. 

All are associated with the Fire or Red Horse who at 6.9% alcohol by volume will make 2026 a year of Tadalafil-induced vitality and passion, and Rivotril-tempered nocturnal dynamism and radiant energy. 

But in lieu of the Happy Horse's extinction, a faction of the Thursday Group opted for Barreto, Roxas, and Kiene's tamer pale pilsen brew to welcome the Year of the Fire/Re Horse.  

Whereas a pale lager dinakdakan evolved an agenda for the Bali Assemby and moved money for the Kuala Lumpur Forum vis-a-vis an extra-strong lager adobo that telephatically inserted the Ironman of Bakal 2 into the dreams of the Night Hag during Witching Hours for a sinuglaw.

Actually, the Phantom Biker is a Red Horse on a blue bike, the central character of a developing impact story, the first session of a business development marathon, and the first hour of a boring training on project closures that will be featured in the Footprint Report app of a task force's biweekly meeting about the Santa Marta Conference.   

For his sake, the bike trails opens at daybreak depsite the absence of fresh sayote shoots and a headlamp as provided by two reviewed papers from Phnom Penh that were emailed to the Senate of the 20th Congress and to ASEAN Watchers as Docusigned requests for payment.

There was a concern about low burn rates that screamed of headlines from the Manila Convening, preliminaries to a line manager's induction to the new Cigna Health Benefits+ app that the Phantom Biker QR-coded for someone's aspiration in New Zealand.

Then there's Bacolor, an old town buried in lahar.

There is a half-buried ancient church dedicated to San Guillermo, the faithful's safeguard from calamities, and host to the Shrine of the Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario – La Naval de Bacolor.   

 

There's the contemporary Sunken Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes whose image arrived in Cabetican in 1906, also buried in lahar and partially excavated.

We came to pray, to plead for divine intercession.

And there's lunch.

Plain hot rice with kilayin, tidtad, and fried hito and buro rolled in fresh lettuce leaves would have been perfect because Bale Kampampangan's adobong balot exudes a stong feathery taste, the sisig has the texture of coagulated oil, and the pindang damulag glistens with the hue of a Red Horse. 

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 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.