New forum member from the Philippines

[tagalanao]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

thanks for the pics!!! love that sarimanok! just wondering tho; did you take those pictures of moro weapons inside the museum? if so do you have close-ups of those sandatas. would be nice if you can post them as well .

I can't take good closeups coz there's separating me and the blades.

Originally Posted by Spunjer

as you can see, the majority of us can just dream of being there. maybe the next time i'm there we can hook up? once again, i truly appreciate you finally becoming a member of this forum.

also, thanks for that little bit of history...

Yeah, sure! Whoever comes here and wants to go to Marawi / Tugaya, I can show you around. As long as you're adventurous and willing to take some risks.

If you open Cato's book, I personally know some of the people mentioned in the Preface. Jam Maridul is a Tausug who studied at the Mindanao State University in Marawi at the same time I was in college at MSU's Iligan campus. Cesar Padilla is publisher of the Mindanao Scoop, a weekly paper in Iligan that I edited from 1998-2003. Al Quirante, I accompanied him in coverages to Marawi when I was starting out in journalism in the late '80s fresh from college. He taught in Marawi in the 60s and 70s, I think, and thus fluent in the Maranao dialect.

Maybe if I were here in Iligan when Cato visited Lanao, I may be in his Preface, too. I started as a journalist here in Lanao in '87 until '92, then moved to Manila to write for a daily paper (if you heard about the Philippine Daily Inquirer) and to be with my wife, who was taking her residency and fellowship at a hospital in Manila. We came home in '97, and I resumed covering Lanao.

BobT