Kuta Wato

I traveled for about six hours to reach this city located at the mouth of the Pulangui River.

The Mighty Polangui River

 

Also known as the Rio Grande de Mindanao

The city rests upon a river delta where people of different faiths settle vis-à-vis yet are secured by guns, goons and ammunition courtesy of our country’s armed forces and also of the private body guards of prominent political figures and businessmen.

At first I planned to spend the weekend in Davao, but then there was a need for me to visit government accounts in Cotabato. I was worried that I might be wasting my weekend in Mindanao but then I got excited to travel to Maguindanao on a Sunday and visit the old city.

Some people are afraid to visit Cotabato City. I was worried too. I’ve read stories about how unsafe the place was and how the city suffered from years and years of trouble. I still remember that the city was hit by an earthquake in the 1970’s and consequently with a tsunami that brought the city down. I think I read about it in an elementary textbook.

I was actually excited to visit the place. They said it has a deep and rich historical value that dates back to 15^th century when Shariff Kabunsuan arrived in the area from Johore. From some other historical accounts, Cotabato was an old capital town of Mindanao, especially at the time when Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat ruled.

I traveled with my dealer, Lani and she said the city demographic is a mix of Christians, Iranon Muslims, and tribal groups with people coming from the island of Luzon and the Visayas as well as from mainland China. I was a bit surprised that majority of people speak Tagalog. This could have been brought by a massive migration of people from Luzon in the 1900s prior to World War II who decided to settle in the river delta.

I find Cotabato City unique. My reasons are:

1. Military men in full gear are visible in almost all major intersections and important offices or buildings. You could also see them inside fast food joints and restaurants.

Exhibit A

2. Personal body guards of politicians, head of clan, and of businessmen abound.

3. I saw several new models of SUVs and AUVs, some could not even be found in Manila or Cebu. I saw the latest model of TOYOTA Fortuner at Sinsuat Avenue and I counted at least five of such model.

4. Old buildings that withstood the test of earthquake, wars and floods are still in use.

5. Cotabato City voted NO in a plebiscite for inclusion to the ARMM. Thus, the city still belongs to Region 12. But, the Office of the Regional Governor for ARMM is located in Cotabato. How confusing is that?

The Office of the ARMM Governor

6. People spit everywhere: on a fastfood floor, restaurants, buses, sidewalks and anywhere concrete.

7. The Notre Dame University of Cotabato is said to be the oldest Marist educational institution in the country.

8. The last bus trip out of Cotabato City is 3pm. If you miss the bus, you have no choice but to ride a van for hire from Cotabato to as far as Kabacan, North Cotabato.

9. Almost all shops close a little past 6pm. It’s kind of a ‘ghost town’ at night.

10. The city smells odd. Though I was not quite sure if it’s urine or saliva or rotten things but generally, the city is very poor in the hygiene department.

We had a proper timing. When we arrived at Cotabato, the hotel rooms were almost fully occupied. The El Manuel Inn was already fully booked and so we were brought to the Diamond Hotel and luckily, we got the last vacant room. There were armed men in the lobby and they all stared at us. The ARMM governor was scheduled to deliver his State of the Region Address at the ORC  in Cotabato the following day and so the hotels are basically full.

I met Eugene at the hotel lobby, 2 hours after and he drove me and my dealer to Aling Precy’s at Sinsuat Avenue for dinner. Eugene was my dorm mate at Kalayaan Hall at UP. He’s presently working at a milling plant in Cotabato City for almost a year now. I was quite shocked when I learned that he accepted the job at the mill. It was our first meeting after so many years and we were quite surprised that it has been 11 years since we last saw each other.

With Eugene at Aling Precy’s

The good thing though about meeting Eugene is that we were able to do our sales pitch. Aside from the possible sales lead, we also got the chance to talk about the city. Eugene told us that even up to now, he’s still a bit scared to go out on the street at night. The streets of Cotabato may look peaceful but then one could never tell what lurks in the dark. He said a lot of people carry guns in the city and one must be careful not to spark some anger or cause any ire, enough for someone to pull the trigger of a gun on you.

According to him, people live simple lives in Cotabato. There are no movie houses, no disco bars, no late night shops. Business activities happen during the day. Almost everyone are in their respective homes already at the strike of 8pm. Our conversation with Eugene had extended until almost 10pm.

The following day, we visited the DOST and BFAR offices in Cotabato. The current ARMM governor Ampatuan had scheduled his SORA (state of the region address) at the government complex at almost the exact time that we were there .

After visiting the our public accounts, we took photos of the ORC on our way out.

Near the entrance to the government complex

DOST ARMM

Where Gov. Ampatuan delivered his SORA

Surely its a different experience. The way I saw the city, Cotabato may just be a misunderstood place. People seemed to live normal lives, in spite of the fact that there’s a strong military presence in the area. Outsiders like us may have at some point pictured a negative image of Cotabato. An image that somehow made us believe that the city is a war zone, an unlivable place, a lawless field run by gangleaders or a mob.

I must admit that the city’s charm may have been lost due to incidents of kidnapping, friction between different beliefs and some neighboring strife, yet it still manage to hold its people together. Cotabato has been a venue for Muslims and Christians and other indegenous tribes who live and interact without having to use guns or fists. It has suffered from the acts of those who may not be from Cotabato but perhaps from nearby towns. The trouble they caused had put the city in a set back.

It used to be a very progressive city. But now it couldn’t catch up with other urban cities like Davao or Cagayan de Oro City in terms of growth and devlopment. But personally, I could sense the city’s desire to live in peace and their desire to move on and progress.

I think its time to give Kuta Wato a chance to redeem itself.

Salambat

Luckily, the weather wasn’t that bad although at some point, the rain came down long and hard. It’s Saturday and I was still in Davao City. It was just 5.30 pm but the sun was already out and the sky’s pitch dark. I waited for my friends from Global Diagnostics at Café Transcend on top of Ponce Suites.

The rain fell hard on the roof of Café Transcend. The weekend has started with a downpour. I waited for Aireen, Nelly and Tata, my dealer’s employees at the café. Every time I’m in Davao, we would plan a Saturday night out but the plans often would not push through. The night out that we had in mind was a trip to a gay bar in the city.

Several months before, we planned such kind of a ‘city experience.’ One time, my friends from General Santos came to Davao for my dealer’s birthday celebration, after which we went around the city to look for that specific kind of bar. Our taxi brought us to an intersection near the public medical center, only to find out that the bar had long been closed.

Our taxi driver then took us to Lanang district, only to discover that the lights were out, literally out. There was power failure in the area. Much to our dismay, we asked the driver to ask other taxi drivers thru radio if there are other bars around. We somehow toured a big portion of the city way past midnight but the search went down to nothing.

We found ourselves sitting in the Autoshop instead. The lights were restored hours after midnight. It somehow lifted our hopes of watching some ‘exotic/erotic’ performance. We left the Autoshop in a flash, hailed a taxi and hurried for Lanang. When we got there, the bar’s just minutes before closing time. We negotiated with the lesbo guard to let us all in without having to pay any entrance fee but she ‘shooed’ us away and told us to hit the road and go home. We saw the male dancers hanging out of the bar. They were perhaps ready to go home.

The very next time that I was in Davao, I planned another night out with my friends at Global Diagnostics. It fell again on a weekend. After our meeting in downtown Davao, we split up and agreed to meet at a mall after 3 hours. Minutes after 8pm, the weather suddenly turned ugly. Rain came pouring down heavy and loud. The streets were flooded.

There was heavy precipitation. I still took a bath and I changed into my street clothes, hoping that the rain would stop anytime. Luckily, it didn’t. I waited for a moment but the rain continued to pour on. I decided to call up Tata and she told me that she too was disappointed at the weather. We just called off the plan and we agreed to try it some other time.

And then the moment finally arrived, two months after.

We decided to push through with the plan. At 7pm, the girls came up to Café Transcend for dinner. It would be our first time to go to a gay bar so every one was giggling and at the same time excited. We do not know what to expect from the bar.

We hopped on a cab, and giggled our way to the city. We wanted to check out a bar at Torres St. but it turned out to be a videoke bar. I decided to hail a cab and asked the driver to take us to Lanang. I completely forgot where that bar is, but I was quite certain where to find it.

All I remembered was it’s just a couple of blocks away from the Damosa Gateway because I could vividly recall that two months ago, we walked a couple of blocks to the coffee shop after we were denied entry at the bar. I asked the cab driver to slow down and find a corner with a dirt path pointing away from the main road.

There’s an old sign that caught my attention and from that time on, I was certain that it’s what we were looking for. A signage of SALAMBAT pointed us to the where the fun was.

We were one of the earliest customers that night. It was still 9.30pm when we sat down on an old couch nearest to the stage. My friends were a bit tensed and afraid but I could sense that they were excited for the show.

The show had already started. A guy with cut-off jeans, high boots and torn shirt was gyrating to an Aegis song. At the center of the stage stood a steel pole which the guy used as an axis of rotation. He moved around the pole with his hands on the metal shaft and his boots literally pointing perpendicular to the mirrored walls. He landed on his knees and, moving up and down, he twisted his torso like a worm.

There were about sixteen dancers that night and there were quite a few stand-outs from the roster of male strippers.

There was this young stripper who gyrated and danced the entire time with a hard-on. We saw his cock head jutting out of his trunks. My friends could not understand why it remained hard all the time.  They couldn’t quite believe why the head was all violet and swollen.

There’s another guy who’s got muscles in the right places. Yet he looked like our pambansang kamao. He was the star dancer. He was the star for the night because he showed his priced possession in its full glory. For props, he brought two lighted candles for his dance. At some point, he poured the melted candles on his erect penis and on his pumped up breasts. It was painful to see him do it but then, it’s the most that a star dancer could do.

Then there’s this slightly heavy dancer with long hair but with a hairless tummy. He’s not at all cute and cuddly. He kept on kneeling and hitting the stage floor with his hands. Then he would grind for a while only to stop in the middle of his performance and approach the customers. He moved from my friends lap to another. When he was about to grind in front of me, I moved back and asked him to spare me. He went back to the stage and resumed his banging and grinding and whatever you call it.

Not all dancers looked like Manny Pacquaio. Some looked pretty cute but then we could not tell if they look really cute at daytime. I could only tell that they were paid so low, about 150 pesos for a night of dancing like an epileptic or with muscle spasms. No wonder they all wanted to be picked by a client. They were all hungry for a tip. But I was too intoxicated to even care.

 Nelly & Takeshi

Tata & Aireen

After consuming a couple of beer, I decided to leave the bar. My friends and I went out at 1pm, after seeing 6 different ‘manhoods’. It’s still drizzling outside. We didn’t care. We were visually satisfied. After the show, we headed to a fastfood joint and made ourselves sober.

Weekend Worries

At first, I planned to stay in Davao City for only 5 and a half days. But my boss called me up to have me set a meeting with him and my dealers next week. And because of this, this Mindanao trip must have to be extended for 3 days more. So what am I to do with the rest of the days?

My primary worry is the coming weekend. I’m basically a visitor in this southern land though blessed with good weather, durian and a no-nonsense city mayor. I don’t have relatives here, nor have I any close friends. Spending a weekend here might just be more like a self-exile or house arrest. I fear that I’ll be limiting myself with something.

I brought just enough clothes for this trip. Well, it’s barely enough now. I’ll be running out of shirts to wear next week. I made a quick inventory of my clothes and I realized that not only do I lack shirts I would be also running out of undies.

It’s a choice between buying a couple of shirts and undergarments or to hand-wash my dirty clothes. On my second day in Davao, I decided to rush into the nearest ‘sari-sari’ store and purchased a ‘putol’ of detergent bar. Now, two of my undies are hanging inside the bathroom, along with my maroon company shirt. With this concern already resolved, I turned to my other worry: what will I do with the coming weekend?

It would be very impractical to return to Cebu this Sunday and then fly back 2 days after. It’s somehow cheaper to book myself in a hotel for the weekend. The problem is, Davao City is experiencing high occupancy rates and it has been very difficult to get a room. I’m just fortunate enough to get a room at Ponce Suites but then, I have to check out on the 18^th because the room has been reserved for someone on that day.

Comes Sunday, I would have no hotel room for myself. So where will I go? What should I do?

Should I go to my dealer’s house at Fortune Executive Village and tap on their doors and knock on their hearts for mercy to allow me to stay in their house for 2 days?

Should I drown myself with alcohol and when I get drunk to keep myself from worrying about the weekend or should I call my boyfriend and tell him how much I miss him and how much I love him?

Or should I call anyone I know and have them arrange a nature trip to Samal Island?

Should I go on a Mindanao exploration of my own by taking a bus to Mati or Digos or Kidapawan?

Or should I worry at all?

I wonder.

Le Blues Novembre

This is the home stretch. The final push before the year comes to a close. And I’m anticipating the end of 2007 with my new set of eyes. By then, I’ll see the world through my blue contact lens.

I wanted to buy the gray or the hazel colored lens but then I was lucky enough to know that the shop ran out of stock for the 175/175 vision. And so I chose among the available colors and decided to try their sample lens before picking the ultimate color for my balls (er eyeballs).

I tried the light blue lens on my left eye and the aquamarine on the other. My right eye resembled that of a cat and so I told the shop attendant that I’ll get the light blues instead. Minutes after, I walked the corridors of the mall in blue colored eyes.

It was in April this year that I last wore soft lenses. I decided to stop wearing contacts upon the prodding of my mom who happened to read that time an article in the newspaper about the negative effects of wearing contacts. Mom almost always believes everything that is written in the papers.

At one time, Mom threw away all the rock salt, coconut oil, MSGs and even food made in China. She always nagged dad about his smoking habits. When she read the article about a study on the downside of wearing contact lenses, she immediately asked me to dispose all of my soft lenses, go to an optometrist and come home wearing a new set of eyeglasses. I know my mom sometimes overly reacts on so many things but then I just let her have her way.

I wore glasses for most of 2007 but then I wanted to have some cool moments before we moved on to another year. Eyeglasses sometimes are a burden. You could not engage in some physical activities if you carry a pair of lens on your nose. It is so hard to play any games when you have something attached to your temples. It has been my burden since.

I started wearing glasses in college. I had no choice. I flunked a major exam in my Unit Operations Class because I misread the test questions written on the board and I was seated in the last row. Wrong data lead to wrong answer and so when the test results were announced, I got a very score. It was only then that I realized that my eyesight has failed me.

I think my eye defect started when I got hooked with mIRC. I got addicted with internet during my third year in college. After classes, I would go directly to the internet cafés and had my face glued to the monitor for several hours. I sometimes come home early in the morning. I overused my eyes and I wore them down.

Since third year college, my eyesight went down hill. From 50/75, my vision is now 200/200 and I have become totally dependent to lenses. I couldn’t go out of the house without wearing any. I started with hard lenses and once in a while I would shift to extended soft lenses for months.

Now I have some cool moments for at least 6 months. These blue Japanese eyes on a brown face would be greeting 2008. I wonder how mom would react to this Frank Sinatra eyes. I wonder how my officemates would react too. I wouldn’t care. I would just be cool about wearing these at work and until these contact lenses would expire.