Aurora Day Parade

These pictures were taken during the benebens (main event) of the Aurora Week celebration, the Parade on February 19.



Used to be the people to finish the parade, Aurora's top officials are now the roadbreakers. Between the two umbrellas: Mayor Angara of Baler, Vice Governor Annabelle Tangson, Cong. Sonny Angara and Governor. Bella Angara-Castillo.



The Baler Association of the Midwest, USA. They were here for the celebration as well as the much attended three-day Medical Mission at the Baler Central School on February 21 to 22. Chica Go!



The evergreens, Nais Ng Ina, probably Aurora's oldest association. It was founded by no less than Doña Aurora Aragon Quezon herself.



The float of Ms. Casiguran leads all Wadi Lakke participants of the parade.



Ms. Dipaculao in a float that seemed to be inspired by all the woods and stuffs washed-out during the November flash floods. Seriously, its all about the Pagsibol thing.



The designers of Ms. Maria's float, anticipating a very sunny and hot parade, decided to add in a natural shade for their muse to save her all the agony of having to carry an umbrella throughout the whole gig.



Ms. Dinalungan's motto: "no to umbrella". It's high time for a tan. And to keep the tan even, they even put a second sun to take care of her backside.



Ms. San Luis is from Ditumabo. She even brought the famous waterfalls with her to prove it.



This year's winner for the worst designed float: Baler. This one is inspired by the popemobile.



Ms. Dingalan pretending to be a pearl in this "manglit" inspired float.



The veterans. An endangered species.



The street dancing winners from Baler Central School, streetdancing once again.



The golden girls from ASCOT showing their winning steps.



Ms. Aurora from Dingalan. They forgot to put a straw to that big "mura" beside her.



The majorettes of Baler National High School (i guess).



This is how the main road looks like. Notice the May 2004 campaign billboard still on a roof after 10 months.



This is the "mura" i'm talking about. This float won the best float award. It has a big kayuran in front and a dog-sized ant eating a panutsa. My picture of the whole float was too dark to be posted.



The stage after the parade. Up front were Señor Ricky Quezon Avanceña, Sen. Angara, Gov. Castillo, Cong. Angara and Vice Gov. Tangson. The guest speaker, Sen. Dick Gordon, failed to make it on account of bad weather.



Two of this year's four Dangal ng Bayan Awardees. Dr. Epitacio Palispis for Education and John Arcilla for Performing Arts. The other recipients were Sen. Edgardo Angara for public service and Jeho Bitancor for Visual Arts.



The kids donned in international attires.



The Governor



Señor Ricky Avanceña.



John Arcilla sings our Gov's favorite, The Impossible Dream.



Cong. Sonny Angara




Vice Gov. Tangson delivered the message of the guest speaker, Sen. Richard Gordon. It was a sunny day in Aurora, but a wall of dark clouds on the mountains prevented him from coming to the Province.



I love orange.



Dr. Epitacio Palispis, receiving his Dangal ng Aurora award.



Sen. Edgardo Angara delivering his acceptance speech.



Ceasar Cristopher Gonzales, Aurora's new tourism Czar.



The mayor of Dingalan with Ms. Aurora. That was Aurora's map painted on her banig skirt. And she's still wearing those coconut bras.



The Dr. Galban megged ASCOT chorale doing their thing to close the program.



Aurora's new battlecry "Bagong Sigla, Bagong Pag-asa" was literally launched into space.

Wallpaper

This wallpaper is donated by Olin Duaso. Just click on the picture to open the 1024 X 768 image.

Old Baler

Corrected caption (thanks to Poppo Olag): This picture was taken in Cemento Creek on 1921. The person with the guitar was Ka Eton Querijero and the one with a violin was Ka Jesus Ferreras. In between was Ka Upay Gonzales, Poppo Olag's father.

I'm looking for old pictures of Baler and Aurora like this one for a Batangbaler gallery of old pictures that i will setup online in a few weeks or so. If you have some pictures in your old lolo's kaban, have it scanned or digitally photographed and send it to me at batangbaler at gmail dot com.

Passage

Aurora lost a great person when Mr. Lauro Bihasa passed away more than a week ago. Ka Lauro, who hailed from San Luis will be remembered as a great teacher, musician and a model Auroran. Loved and respected by many, he was survived by his wife, Mrs. Lading Villas Bihasa and their two children. He was interred at the Baler Cemetery on Tuesday, March 1, 2004. He was 52 years old.

Also, one of Carrasco St. originals. Ka Rolan Buen passed away more than a week ago. He will be missed.

Baler The Bountiful

While waiting for the updates, take time to read this Philippine Star article about Baler and the recent Aurora Day by Alfred Yuson. It's a great read:

Baler the Bountiful. " Somehow you’re grateful the overland trip takes at least six-seven hours via Cabanatuan, with at least a couple of those on dusty, winding rough roads. Otherwise, Baler might well be swamped with tourists foreign and local, meaning Metro Manilan. There’s a remarkable bounty of attractions all over Aurora province. But you want to be selfish about it, go sotto voce only among close friends: Hey, you should try it, guys – beach and mountain, mountain and beach, spectacular sweeping views, old-growth forests, waterfalls, ravines and rivers pristine. The food’s good, and the people all seem like long-lost family. "

Batangbaler Down

For those of you who can still access Batangbaler via this blog, the main BB server is down because it has reached it's bandwidth limit for the month. It means that the main website cannot be accessed including the guestbook, messageboard and all pictures located in the server. Things will be back to normal by March 1, hopefully with new updates. Please inform other regular Batangbaler visitors about this. Most Akaws using the www.batangbaler.net will only get a "bandwidth limit exceeded" message. If you can read this, it means that you are using the www.batangbaler.blogspot.com address. This blog is still working because this is not located in the Batangbaler server but some pictures will not be available.

Batangbaler has a 5 GB bandwith allocation per month, the highest in the webhost package. Usually the average 300 to 400 visits per day on the site does not even consume half of this bandwidth. But because of horny Pinoy's frantic search for the Ethel Booba video, traffic to BatangBaler now reaches more than 1000 visits per day, more that double the average. And that's because Ethel Booba once had a show here in Baler that BB covered. BB don't have the Booba videos. That coupled with legit visits to see the latest Aurora Day 2005 pictures used up all of BB's bandwidth.

So see you on March 1 peeps. Hang on tight. We have tons of updates for you.

Volunteer Switch Still On!

Batangbaler and Volunteers for Aurora are still in volunteer mode and we're still working on our next project (on our own pace). We're still receiving donations. Thanks to our latest donors from US and UK:

Ms. Anne Roberts and friends and families from U.K.
All State Insurance Employees c/o Mr. Lauro Poblete from Chicago
Ma. Nympha Poblete also from Chicago.

Rock Aid

100% of the profits will be going to UNICEF for their relief efforts in Quezon, particularly the towns of Real, Infanta, Gen. Nakar, Polilio Island (Quezon Province) and Dingalan (Aurora Province).

Read the Philmusic article.

Aurora Day 2005 Summary

The gig went well and all events flowed smoothly. Not as pompous as the previous Suman Festivals (this year the festival for the suman was officially dead). With a relatively modest budget of 1 million pesos (according to the Philippine Star report posted below) this one looks like all those bucks went where they really should belong. Kudos to the Governor and her officials as well as Mr. Christopher Gonzales, the new Tourism Officer and the Chairman of this year's celebration.

Here are some pictures from the week-long celebration:




The opening of the 9th Aurora Surfing Cup at the Labasin Beach on February 15. The new watchtower was also inaugurated.



Also on February 15, the Agro Industrial Trade Fair was opened at the Capitol Grounds. A Beach Bazaar was also opened at Labasin.



The Batangbaler booth at the Beach Bazaar - sun, sea, and shopping. Most of the booths were food shops and there were three tattoo shops but the top grossing store was the unofficial Ka Siming's sari-sari and turo-turo.



Aurora Pop Superstar. The best singers and dancers competed during the Tuklas Talino contest at the Capitol on the night of the 15th. With the program title I first thought it was a quiz bee.



Students competed for two days at the TESDA Provincial Skills Olympics held at the Municipal Plaza and the different colleges in Baler.



The audience during the CAT and Drum and Lyre Competition at the Capitol on February 16.



There was also a weeklong sportsfest among the different government agencies of Aurora



A foot trail was made for the Heritage Tour of the different historical spots in Baler. It started from the Church and ended at the Quezon park. The mystery of the footprints solved.



A local thrasher showing his stuff during the Aurora Skateboarding Cup 2005 at the Municipal Plaza.



Ms. Mary Joyce Cindy L. Zapata from Dingalan, the winner of the Bb. Aurora beauty pageant with Gov. Castillo, Cong. Sonny Angara, judge Azenith Briones and last year's Ms. Aurora. Other prominent judges were Ma. Isabel Lopez, Jean Saburit and a Pinoy Pop Superstar finalist. The pageant was hosted by John Arcilla and Ms. Melissa Lyn Amarillo.



On December 18th, a one day shootfest, the First Governor's Cup, was held at the APSA Firing Range at the Aurora Trading Center compound.



The parade of the participants of the Street Dancing Competition. This year, all teams were required to interpret an original composition titled Pagsibol.



The ASCOT team won the grand prize even though they didn't smile a bit during their entire performance. They also did not wear colorful costumes, just painted their bodies gold.




San Miguel Beer erected a stage on the highway for the street party. The Street Party, though I saw nobody partying- just drinking beers, featured performances by local bands like Ginger, Kwak-Kwak (in the picture), and a "famous" band from Manila called Workstation. I swear Ginger played better.



A surfer from Siargao, Carlito Nogalo, bagged this year's Aurora Surfing Cup. Last year's winner, Okoy Rojo was not even in the top 12. Must be the new girlfriend. On the picture were some of the top 12 surfers of the contest with Gov. Castillo, Cong. Angara and Cong. Pichay who donated 100 thousand to the event. The Governor gave away more than 150,000 pesos in prizes.



A grand fireworks display was staged in front of the Capitol on the night of the 18th. This one beats the Phillippine-Spanish Friendship Day fireworks by a blast.



The street dancing winners during the grand parade on February 19.



John Arcilla receiving a Dangal ng Bayan award from the Governor. He was the first recipient for the performing arts. Other awardees were Sen. Edgardo Angara for Leadership and Public Service, Mr. Epitacio Palispis for Education and Mr. Jeho Bitancor for Visual Arts.

More pictures to come.

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Notice: Heck, that Ethel Booba scandal nearly used up all of Batangbaler's bandwidth for 1 month. Based on the stats Batangbaler is now getting 600 to 900 hits per day instead of the usual 300 to 400.I have an Ethel Booba article and all those web searches for her sex video keeps driving unwanted traffics to this site that in a day or two Batangbaler will stop serving contents to your computers. If that happens, i'll try to redirect some traffic or you can wait 'til March when BB's bandwitdth will reset.

Back On It's Feet

from the Philippine Star. Calamity-ravaged Aurora back on its feet. Less than three months after killer typhoons brought its people down on their knees, this third-class province has made a triumphant recovery, celebrating its 26th founding anniversary with pomp, pageantry and glamour amid the recent devastation.

As if to announce that Aurora is back on its feet, provincial officials led by Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, Vice Gov. Annabelle Tangson and Rep. Sonny Angara joined their constituents in a week-long festivity filled with fun, merriment and hope.

There was a festive atmosphere in this capital town, highlighted by a fireworks’ display and street dancing, lifting the spirit of local folk who, in late November, reeled from the typhoons’ swath of destruction.

Ms. Aurora '05

Last night's winner of the Bb. Aurora 2005 Pageant is Ms. Dingalan, again. What the town lacks in forest cover it makes up with beautiful girls. I think half of all Ms. Aurora winners since 1987 were from Dingalan. With two wins in a row everyone were shouting - Tong-Its! That's the expression used by Tong-its (a kind of card game loved by Aurorans) players when a player wins two in a row - a slang of "two hits". Ms. Baler won Second Runner-Up, and Ms. San Luis, 1st Runner-Up.



Ms. Dingalan in her pink swimsuit. I don't know her name yet.



The winners with Governor Bella Angara-Castillo. More pictures to come next week.

Beach Bazaar

Check out the BATANGBALER booth at the Beach Bazaar on February 14 - 19, at Labasin near Bay's Inn. This is in line with the Aurora Day celebration and the 9th Aurora Surfing Cup. Lots of "original" Batangbaler and Pasirit tshirts as well as other stuffs will be available. It's official - Batangbaler is being pirated! We're famous!

Aurora Day

Most Aurorans know Doña Aurora Quezon only from her statue at the Capitol. Here's her real picture side by side with the sculpture. Can you see the striking resemblance?

On February 19, 2005 Aurora will celebrate it's 26th Foundation Anniversary and the 117th birthday of our lola, Doña Aurora Aragon-Quezon. The event has always been billed as a double celebration. But do you know that Aurora, the province, was not really founded on February 19 and on that date this year, Aurora will be 5 months and 24 days short of it's real 26th anniversary. Batas Pambansa Blg. 7, the law that created Aurora Province was actually signed by President Ferdinand Marcos on August 13, 1979. Maybe there's a resolution somewhere in the vaults of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan moving the date of Aurora's Foundation anniversary celebration from August 15 to February 19. I'm only in my historian mode and that ends my lecture.

Aurora Skateboarding Cup 2005

The Aurora Skateboarding Cup 2005
February 16, 2005 @ 6:00 PM
Baler Municipal Plaza
Price money: P5,000.00

Sponsored by:
243 Support
The 9th Aurora Surfing Cup

contact martenpersiel@yahoo.com for more details

9th Aurora Surfing Cup

The 9th Aurora Surfing Cup
February 15 - 18, 2005
Sabang Beach and Cemento Reef, Baler, Aurora

Sky

On the way for an overtime this morning. The clouds caught my attention. This is the last curve before ASCOT at Dicaloyungan. The large tree is a narra.

Fireworks

Last friday (feb. 4) aroung 9:30 pm, while i was working on something on the computer (it was the cover for the Aurora Day souvenir program) when i heard loud cracks that sounded like stones hitting our roof. I stood up to check it out when rapid burst of shots that sounded like fireworks stopped me from looking out. For a long time it sounded like an Iraqi assault outside and I thought i was being raided (for typing maybe). It stopped after about 5 minutes and i managed to take a peek outside. The road was full of smoke and the air reeks of gunpowder. It turned out that a house about 20 meters from ours (we live in Buhangin, near the cemetery) was assaulted by some people. I was able to check the house the next day and it was a total wreck. It's like one of those houses being shown on CNN during the height of the Afghanistan invasion. All glass windows were shattered and the walls were riddled with bullets. Everything inside the house were wrecked and there are two motorcycles outside that are full of holes. I heard one person was wounded and no one was killed. I don't know what's behind this thing and I don't listen to local radio anymore. Let's see if this story will seep in to the national news and into the net.

Aside from that, things are pretty normal here in Baler. They even started decorating the streets for the upcoming Aurora Day.

Kahapun ng Tanghali

Cemento Cove. Kuha kahapon ng tanghali mula sa Ermita Hill, Baler, Aurora. Pasensya na sa dalawang nagde-date na naabala ku.

Aurora, Nueva Ecija governors deny illegal logging raps

Let's read some news:

Santiago identifies RP's 'big-time illegal loggers'. She identified our present Governor and our last 2: Bellaflor Angara-Castillo (2004-07), Ramoncita Ong (2001-04) and Edgardo Ong (1998-2001).Here's the Senator's Top 10 Illegal Loggers.

Aurora, Nueva Ecija governors deny illegal logging raps. AURORA Governor Bellaflor Angara-Castillo described the statement of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago linking her to illegal logging as "stupid" and "untrue." In a phone interview, Castillo said the Angara clan "has never been or will never be engaged in illegal logging." "What proof does (Santiago) have? Where did she get her information?" the governor asked, saying she wanted to get a copy of the senator's speech."No one in Aurora," she added, "will ever believe (Santiago's) claim."

This is an interestiong read:
This developer burns money and cuts trees. Perhaps the biggest of all his businesses is Green Circle, which has a special private land timber license (SPLTL) covering 28,000 hectares of land in Aurora and Quezon, an area much bigger than Quezon City and larger even than Batanes. It is the biggest privately owned property in what Roxas has called the country's "Wild, Wild East." Green Circle's timber area is spread out over the towns of Dingalan, Aurora and General Nakar, Quezon, and is one of only five timber license holders in Aurora.

All news are from inq7.net