Welcome 2006

Howdy! I went out of Baler for a while. I just returned yesterday. The only passable road to Aurora is in a really bad condition. The road is in a comma and about to die. Going home is not a trip...it's a torture. I hope that the planned construction project will push through this year. There was a buzz at the Cabanatuan central terminal yesterday that a D' Liner bus fell off a cliff in the Canili-Pantabangan road and more than 30 people were killed. I later learned that it was even reported on local radio. It turned out to be a chismis. Whatever happened to fact-checking? Last December 29, Mike Enriquez reported on Channel 7's 24 Oras that Baler is "lubog sa baha". I wonder if they're source is the same person who reported the bus accident.

Casiguran is still not accessible by land. The only way there is via sea. A "pump boat" was reported missing the other day but it was later found by Navy helicopters. All passengers were safe (from Channel 7).

Here's the inq7.net's news about the recent flooding in Casiguran.

Wassup with BB this year?

I'm currently rewiewing all of last year's BB posts. I'm planning to come up with a Batangbaler's Best of 2005. I'm also in the process of migrating BB to Wordpress and hosting the posts in it's own server instead of piggybacking on blogspot. Target date is before 2010 :-).

I will also revive the Batangbaler Videos. Hopefully BB can come up with original videos or short clips to be hosted on Google Videos. I tried posting a sample video last week and it's now live. Check out a low-fi 4-minute vid of Villa Aurora a month after the 2004 disaster.

Thanks

Thanks to Banot and Donna Costa and to Ate Gay Avellano for my Christmas gifts/pasalubong.

Congrats!

On the wedding of BB regular Connie Bayudan last December 27 and for the upcoming wedding of Enod Buen. Spread the Balerian genes!