PARADOXICAL
The faith chroniclesThursday, October 22, 2026
New Funny Word Alert: Esmeringhoy
From time to time, a word or expression arises from the middle of nowhere and suddenly becomes a part of our daily lingo because (a) it silently crept up into the mainstream culture through soft power or backmasking or (b) it became viral online through globalist Illuminati machinations. From recent years, there were random stuff like TOTGA, Pachamama, Peppa Pig, Shinaron, Roblox, performative, Marites, etc.
This week, the term esmeringhoy was suddenly on everybody’s flabbergasted lips, or FB post to be exact--apparently belonging to the second category of cultural transmission.
The, er, pioneering post I doom-scrolled past says, “Looking 4 ka-esmeringhoy.” Not being able to make sense of it, I ignored it. Until one by one, netizens began posting about it--within a few hours of each other. That is the virulence level of covid during the first wave of the plandemic! It has what they call the Baader-Meinhof effect.
What’s all that hulaballoo? Turns out a female guest in a runaway popular show on YouTube used the strange word while in the middle of narrating her complaint against her husband. “Ayaw na niya ng esmeringhoy,” she says, or words to that effect, to prove her suspicion that her husband might have another woman, to put it bluntly.
In particular, during an October 16, 2026 episode of "Raffy Tulfo in Action," the guest, named Evelyn Batuigas, appeared on the show to complain about her husband's suspicious behavior. While describing her attempts to reconcile or be intimate with her husband before separating, she casually said: "Bago tayo maghiwalay, mag-esmiringhoy muna tayo para last na lang na ano" ("Before we split, let's make esmiringhoy for the last time").
Host Raffy was absent for some reason, so when a totally surprised female proxy asked what "esmiringhoy" meant while obviously trying to restrain herself from breaking into laughter, Evelyn defined it as a colloquial or slang term for sexual intercourse, equivalent to "bembang" in Tagalog.
Clips of the unbelievably public exchange reportedly spread not just on FB, but also across the chismisverse: X (Twitter), TikTok, Threads, Reddit, and whatnot, turning the strange-sounding word into a massive internet meme, punchline, and reference point for dopamine-addicted netizens.
But the real elephant in the room is not just the newly heard word but this question: Why in the world, after all, would a woman want to have one last esmiringhoy with someone she was hating with a passion at the moment? The guy must be one lucky bastard despite himself for his wife to desire a last "isa pa nga" as souvenir from him, who is supposed to be just a walking relic of her sad past now? And, wait, what was she doing in that show in the first place? Shouldn't she sort out marital woes in the confines of a counseling room instead?
Nevertheless, the virality sparked discussions on the word per se because the word's actual Visayan or Cebuano roots differ from how it was used on the show: Online users adopted it as a playful, humorous code word or euphemism for sex, but regional language advocates and the Akademyang Bisaya noted that older Visayan usage actually referred to a person—specifically a kabit (mistress, paramour, or side piece)—rather than an act. Or so AI conveniently explained this part for me.
To me, a Pangasinense, esmiringhoy seems like yet another new portmanteau, a wild concatenation of esmi (colloquial or pabalbal term for misis or wife), meringue, and balinghoy (cassava in Bisaya). Strange bedfellows, I know, but that’s how Filipino mongrel culture has always been—take note of chop suey, halo-halo, jeepney, and the rest of what’s considered to be very constantly code-switching Pinoy. (I am also reminded of my late mother who often used invented words like “esmeringgoles” while talking nonsense to the latest newborn in the house.)
The thing is, even if you don't know what it means, this Frankenstein of a word comes off as funny, and to be used only in that context, when you are just nakikipag-unggoy-ungguyan or playing monkey with another.
How long this new linguistic coinage or adoption will stay in our lexicon until certain extinction is anybody’s guess. Gosh, I hate this vulgar euphemism already this early.
Oldest Family Photo
Oldest Family Photo
This is the oldest photograph in my family's possession. It is the photo of my mother's grandmother.
According to an aunt, her name is Maria Cappadocia Lazam-Borromeo† from Solana, Cagayan. She was the grandmother of Mildred Borromeo Simon-Odon† (my mother), and the mother of Leonila Borromeo-Peralta† (my maternal grandmother) of Aparri, Cagayan.
I know nothing about my great-grandmother, except that she was a vendor of fruits in the public market.
It's my first time to hear this, but Cappadocia is an interesting surname--it's a Biblical word associated with a tourist region or town in today's Turkey or now officially the "Republic of Türkiye."
I wonder what year this photo was taken. Another old sepia photograph taken during her funeral indicates that she was born on October 21, 1893 (towards the end of the Spanish colonization) and died sometime in 1974, so this photo must have been during her prime in the early 1900s, as evidenced by her relative youth and attire.
With this photo, it occurs to me that I am related to entire branches of families I have never met or yet to meet: the Lazams, the Borromeos, and the Cappadocias of Cagayan. (I hope I got the spelling of Cappadocia right.)
Saturday, October 17, 2026
What is Happening in France?
- Scale of Protests: An estimated 550,000 people have taken part in demonstrations across major cities like Paris, Lyon, Limoges, and Saint-Étienne, uniting high school students, teachers, trade unions, and political activists. [1, 2, 3]
- Violence and Clashes: Demonstrations in several cities turned violent as masked groups clashed with riot police who deployed tear gas and water cannons. [1, 2]
- Damage and Destruction: Buildings, cars, and town halls have been set ablaze—including a major fire at the Limoges town hall that caused its clock tower spire to collapse—while shops and tourist offices have been ransacked or set on fire. [1, 2, 3] Casualties and Arrests: At least 1,200 people have been arrested across the country, over 150 police officers have been reported injured, and multiple protesters have suffered severe injuries.
- Root Causes: The unrest stems from weeks of student-led blockades over overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages, which have since expanded into a broader societal backlash against inflation, energy costs, and the government's budget policies as the country approaches upcoming presidential elections. [1, 2, 3]
- Government Response: President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu have strongly condemned the urban violence and looting, vowing that vandals will be prosecuted, while acknowledging some of the underlying economic and educational grievances. [1, 2, 3]
Thursday, October 01, 2026
Laguerta on Envy
Surviving Super El Niño
Surviving Super El Niño
Wasn't it just a few days ago that we've regarded rainwater as our frenemy? And yet here we are: treating it once again like some most precious commodity, something worth its weight in gold.
Now we have to deal with its opposite--and something at the extreme end of the spectrum too: too much heat from the sun and resultant drought.
Change is indeed the only thing constant in this world.
It's true what they say about the essentiality of water: a diamond has comparably no value when you are thirsty or trapped in the desert.
Now drought is nothing new. We've been through a lot of drought seasons before, and we survived them all, thank God: deep fissures on the ground, unbearable, energy-sapping heat, grassfires, banana trees withering, drying, and falling... What is new is how worse off this coming El Niño is supposed to be that it would be dubbed "Super El Niño," judging from media reports quoting at least a hundred scientists.
We're not so sure of everything at this point, but judging from what we've gathered so far, it seems to be the worst ever and therefore unprecedented. Whenever I read "climate change," though, I tend to be skeptical because I like to view things from a wide historical perspective. For example, a Yolanda-strength supertyphoon turned out to be not the first, per historical records. There were at least two before. The very name of Tacloban has something to do with such an enormous catastrophic kind of weather disturbance.
I just had to do some quick digital archaeology work on Super El Niño to get convinced. And this is what I've found: Anecdotal and documentary evidence say that the world has been through such severe droughts before (with a few years mentioned), and to put things into context, we humans only began scientifically measuring the warming of the Pacific Ocean in 1950!
Is a 3.6 degree rise in the warming of the Pacific Ocean a historical first? The jury is not yet in. Did hundreds of thousands of people die during the periods mentioned? No answer yet. Was there massive famine, one on a continental scale? No answer yet.
What probably has changed is the frequency with which these things happen, but how can we know for certain when we have just begun systematically studying these phenomena?
What we can do now is assume the veracity of the prediction, just to be on the safe side, and prepare for the worst, granted we still have time left to prepare. What is the worst thing that could happen within six months of this worrisome menace to our life and existence? My reflex reaction is to look at how people survive the desert.
Lessons from desert communities
Top of the mind are the Israelis who turned the Negev into farms using drip irrigation and through the kibbutz system of cooperation.
The Arabs of the "Middle East" are, of course, experts in this too. We must study their traditional architecture in warding off heat.
At the height of the recent heat wave in Europe which killed thousands of people, Al Jazeera's Basel Ghazoghli advised everyone to study the following tricks from the ancient world before the advent of electric fans and air conditioning systems:
- Yemen's brick tower villages were made out of thick mud but with windows that allowed air to enter. The buildings were packed together, creating sheds of cool air below, and painted white to refract or deflect red-hot solar radiation. I am reminded, however, of chronic news of massive destruction of such mud structures in Iran and Afghanistan after a particularly strong earthquake. Maybe these structures should have been reinforced with steel. Anyway, Metro Manila, with its hellish heat islands and heat index, should take note.
- Iran's ancient windcatchers called badgir were towers that funneled fresh air from outside and released humid air inside even without the benefit of wind.
- India's jaali, pierced or carved stone wall screens, blocked sunlight and heat while inviting cold air to enter the tower.
- Egypt's brick towers with domed roofs avoided direct hit from the sun.
- Ancient Granada's (in Spain) channels and fountains kept water constantly moving, pulling heat from the air and cooling the surroundings. Sounds much like Hiwata fans to me.
The problem with these desert solutions is that our country is not a desert for the most part. It has a rainy season, visited regularly by around 26 alphabetically named typhoons (and at times earthquakes of various magnitudes and intensities). Maybe our very own traditional bahay kubo and bahay na bato could point to better ways in our own context. After all, they have their own features that similarly ward off the tropical glare and oppressive heat, such as the use of light construction materials, cross ventilation, porous structures like calado panels, adjustable swing-out windows, rolling window panels, ventanillas, Persiana louvre windows, awnings, an airy silong (understory), etc. Porosity is a strong point, as anthropologist Fernando Nakpil Zialcita once pointed out.
But over time, we preferred using materials and architecture that, though sturdier, are built like heat traps and necessitating costly electricity and air-conditioning. This needs a new set of adjustments.
- Moreover, Middle East countries survive the desert by using desalination plants to make seawater fit for human use, so this is something we can look into if funding is not a problem.
Practical and doable actions
- Okay, let's wake up from dreaming, shall we? Maybe pumping and purifying water from our rivers is far more doable? I don't know. If we could easily purify tap water and turn it into "mineral water," then perhaps we can do the same with the Agno River water at least in our province of Pangasinan. (Whatever happened to all that recent excess runoff anyway?)
- On the personal level, a practical solution that is doable is to adjust our choice of clothing: it should be made of cool fabric, loose instead of tightfitting, and white or light-colored. I suddenly remember how Arab men don't wear any garments underneath their blinding white, freely flowing robes. Presko talaga! (Noted on that.)
- Staying hydrated is essential, but this presupposes adequate supply of water at any given time.
- Common sense: Avoid wasting water. Conserve H2O. The elevated areas of our town, for one, experience regular water interruptions, posing a problem to many residents.
- Recycle used water for cleaning the house and watering the plants.
- Construct giant water tanks or buy big drums to store water or collect the remaining rainwater expected to fall. A typical concrete water tank, however, can set you back for around P45,000.
- Trees are our best friends in these suffocating times.
- Vegetation or foliage in general is a significant shield as well. According to architects, moss, grass, shrubs, and loose gravel on the ground refract heat, absorb it less, and ward it off easily better than solid concrete pavements and pathwalk.
- I've heard about this air moisture harvesting technology, so we can look into that too.
- On the municipal scale, build rainwater impounding areas in catch basins.
- Last week, the national government mandated all LGUs to create a task force to find ways and means to deal with the coming threat through localized adaptation and mitigation plans.
Climate Change Commission
Speaking of government... Surprisingly, there is a government agency called the Climate Change Commission. The solutions it has broached so far include:
- Adjust school and work hours to avoid the 10:00 am to 3:00 pm window.
- Plant alternative crops--those that are not as water-intensive as palay. But what exactly are these alternatives, and would they have ready markets in a rice-eating country? Would greenhouses and hydroponics technology help?
- Use solar-powered pumps for irrigation.
- Put up hydration facilities.
- Advise senior citizens and other vulnerable sectors to stay indoors.
- I might add: Educate people about the warning signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. What other afflictions suddenly rise in incidence when it is hot? Let us remember that food spoils fast in humid weather.
- Does good old cloud seeding to make artificial rain count?
***
- Meanwhile, I've read somewhere that people in a Chinese city spend life underground to escape the heat. Apparently, they had the foresight to dig tunnels and build an alternate community there, complete with maybe movie houses, bowling alleys, and shopping centers.
- I remember how ancient Christians in places like Cappadocia escaped purges and persecutions by building a livable complex of tunnels and dungeons deep into the bowels of the earth. Not to mention the Vietnamese strategy of evading American forces during the war using interconnected tunnels.
- Another idea to escape the heat without breaking the bank in case of a power failure, which most likely will happen: Won't camping be fun at night? I mean, sleeping in tents outdoors--maybe with pre-charged JisuLife e-fans, or under the stars--with mosquito nets.
***
Furthermore, I wonder how we can put this coming delubyo to our advantage because, like fire, the light and heat from the sun also means energy and quick-drying capacity. One wonders what business opportunities intense drought and dryness could bring aside from the usual culinary offerings (halo-halo, ice cream, ice candy, etc.). Umbrellas? Solar-powered anything? Emergency cooling capsules?
In Pangasinan, there's this expression, "matalag nen say delap," which means "rarer than flood." If intense flooding has always been a rarity, what more intense droughts like this oncoming one? May they always stay that way.
How I wish climate change is not real, or is not here to stay. Denial is an effective defense mechanism, you see.
Rotating brownouts are an especially scary prospect, but running out of water would be catastrophic on all levels: residential, corporate, agricultural, industrial. (Imagine firemen having nothing to douse neighborhood fire with, for starters.) Like excessive hydration, it could be a matter of life and death.
What else can be done? All helpful suggestions are welcome. Let's all come out of this alive and well, in God's mercy, amen.
(Note: The above text is 100% *not* AI content.)
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
October 2026
October is supposed to a chilly month for us, to the point that our skin turns dry and scratchy. But it was noticeably not this time around. A rarity.
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"Indonesia's cash-for-photos scheme turns villagers into wildlife protectors."
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HERO! >>> "Indian national Cpt. Smit Machchhar has been identified as the FlyDubai pilot who was stabbed by his co-pilot on the way to Israel and fought back. He reportedly managed to open the cockpit door after he was stabbed, allowing passengers to enter, subdue the co-pilot, and provide medical attention to Machchhar." ... "Machchhar was taken to a hospital after the plane carried out an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia."
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"The oceans are warming at an alarming pace, bringing far-reaching consequences for which the world is unprepared, according to a report by more than 100 international scientists." 450,000 plus deaths are reportedly expected.
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"EJ Obiena delivered the Philippines' third gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games after dominating the men's pole vault final . The Pinoy pole vault ace also set a new Asian Games record after clearing 5.91 meters."
***
Former Philippine Prime Minister Cesar E.A. Virata died.
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"A 28-year-old laboratory researcher named Daria Shipilova died in Russia from a suspected pneumonic plague infection following a reported lab accident."
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The increasing incidence of robots dancing like humans is unsettling to say the least. Don't you just hate robots dancing as much as you hate AI-generated videos, songs, graphics?
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The pope released something about AI creating art.
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Random finds:
Study: Your body treats your tattoo as permanent immune system threat.
Claim: Melon seeds contain squalene and loads of Vit. E.
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New terms encountered lately: glocalization (global+local), hyperlocal.. Reminds me of rurban to refer to mixed rural-urban land use.
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"The Vatican has issued new theological guidance saying that seriously harming nature can be considered a 'sin against Creation and against the Creator.'"
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"Final resting place of Noah’s Ark found to hide man-made object, new study claims."
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Whatever it was, the Patrick Garcia-Jennylyn Mercado issue was all over the news.
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Hypertensive Vice! >>> "Reina Mercedes, Isabela Vice Mayor Harold Respicio was involved in a highly publicized confrontation during a Sangguniang Bayan (SB) session." ... "The incident escalated into a shouting match when Vice Mayor Respicio heavily questioned local barangay officials over the utilization of projects funded by the municipality's tobacco excise tax share. Tensions broke during the open forum as Respicio pounded on the table, explicitly called a barangay official a "magnanakaw" (thief), and engaged in a series of heated exchanges, which ultimately required police intervention to diffuse."
DILG Sec Jonvic Remulla expressed displeasure, and the whole thing ended in heckling, drug test, and a GCash transfer as reimbursement.
Next to Cong. "Meow-Meow," Respicio is a new interesting character to watch, to say the least.
***
Our very own mayor trended after explaining her new look: "I just want to be skinny."
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The world's most arid desert - Atacama in Chile -- bloomed. "The Desierto Florido (Flowering Desert) is a rare, spectacular natural phenomenon in Chile’s Atacama Desert—the driest non-polar desert on Earth. Every few years, when unusually heavy winter rains (often linked to El Niño) trigger the germination of millions of dormant seeds, the barren landscape transforms into a vibrant carpet of over 200 species of wildflowers. The bloom typically occurs between September and November, blanketing thousands of square kilometres in shades of purple, yellow, pink, and white."
***
Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson won the coveted 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her bold and inventive ouevre that, in playful dialogue with a classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature,” the Swedish Academy announced.
>>> One critic says this win prove contemporary literature is dying.
***
"Galit na galit kayo dahil nagpa-picture si Leni Robredo kasama ang Ambassador ng Israel."
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"Muling nagkaroon ng minor eruption ang Taal Volcano noong October 8, 2026!"
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"Torrential rain hit Chile’s capital, triggering mudslides that swept away cars through the streets and flooded homes, hospitals, and schools. Residents were forced to evacuate and at least six people were injured, according to authorities."
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"Nagkaroon ng malakas na pagsabog o moderately explosive eruption sa Bulkang Kanlaon sa Negros Island nitong Oktubre 10, 2026, ayon sa PHIVOLCS."
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"The Philippines ranks first among 193 countries in the World Risk Index 2026 due to its high exposure to natural hazards and vulnerability."
"Edrieza Rimbang, ex-solon, was allegedly linked to the P3.5-B shabu from Laos."
China mulls sanctions, oil and fertilizer cuts vs Philippines — report
Scientists Discover What Can Trigger Cancer Cells to Self-Destruct : being mechanically compressed or confined for prolonged periods of time
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Testing the Kids' Hyperlocal Knowledge and Pride of Place
Testing the Kids' Hyperlocal Knowledge and Pride of Place
Someone wisely said that, "Whoever has children has the future."
I had this in mind when I was assigned once again to formulate a new set of questions for a Tourism Month quiz bee--my third so far.
This meant another shot in the dark, as I wondered if kids today still knew and cared about the things that I believe should make them proud of their hometown.
So my theme for this year's quiz bee experiment is anchored on the question, "What makes you proud as Bayambangueño?"
It was question made out of personal curiosity.
To those in the know, this question was taken from an educator, Dr. Efren Abulencia, after asking it on a post published on our culture mapping FB page. But I didn't tell anyone my hidden agenda, except for our head, of course: to educate the latest batch of young ones on the various points of pride for our town--both old knowledge and new discoveries.
To avoid any leakage and get real results, only four select people knew about my questions and, of course, they were sworn into secrecy. The queries were thrown at random to give a feel of, statistically speaking, a random sampling method. I avoided questions that had already been asked in the past two quiz bees. Though education is about repetition, our local history and culture is too rich to bore ourselves with constant repetition.
Grade 4, 5, and 6 students from 20 local schools participated, a huge turnout compared with last year.
Do local learners--the academic cream of the crop, at least--still know about their own town's history and traditional culture, and do they care about current events--despite these things never being taught in school? In my youth at those ages, I knew nothing about Bayambang or its history, not even the name of the capitan of our barangay and that of the mayor.
I am happy to report that, against all expectations, the kids do know a number of things I believe they should know as local residents.
Based on the answers to the questions fielded, with not a few calculated to border on trivia, today's schoolchildren know about Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo's stay here, the Matalunggaring Dance Troupe, the Varsitarian dance group, the name of the town's first lady vice-mayor, that the father of Philippine cycling was also a renowned media man, that the local parish is 412 years old, that the world's longest barbecue on Guinness World Record is 8.016 kilometers, that the giant St. Vincent Ferrer statue in Prayer Park is in Brgy. Bani, that 'JKQ' in JKQ Medical and Wellness Center stands for Julius K. Quiambao, that we have a dairy farm in Brgy. Mangayao, that the LGU built a new school in Brgy. Ligue, that the foremost Filipina feminist is named Sr. Mary John Mananzan (who's from here), that the father of universal tertiary education is Prospero de Vera, that Rusty Lopez is synonymous with a local brand of leather shoes, that national scientist Carmen C. Velasquez pioneered in parasitology, that Col. Edwin Ramsey's aide-de-camp is named Claro Camacho, that a local martial art is called escrima or arnis, that there used to be a huge American military camp here called Camp Gregg, that an issue or issues of "La Independencia" were once published here, that Aguinaldo's daughter is named Flora Victoria, that a president (Ramon Magsaysay) once held a cabinet meeting in Mangabul, etc. etc.
I am not surprised, of course, to find out that they haven't heard (yet) about National Artist Napoleon Abueva as the sculptor of the Emilio Aguinaldo statue, that a certain Prof. Rufino Menor formed the Pangkat Kawayan, that the town has produced a Secretary of Labor named Onofre Guevara and an Assemblyman (today's Congressman) named Dr. Raymundo O. Camacho, that before Halloween and trick or treats, there was a local indigenous practice called panagkamarerwa, that we currently have six Rural Health Units, that MTV VJ and actress Donita Rose has roots here, that there is a diparan or Pangasinan saying that goes, "Aga untitit so bulilit no aga napildit." (Hindi iingit ang daga kapag hindi naipit.), and so on and so forth.
Still, I believe that our humble social media campaign in this regard, fueled by passion, with lots of research work on the side--and held throughout the years at no cost to local government--has not gone to waste.
Note that these topics can hardly be Googled and thus beyond the reach of AI so far. There is no subject in school called Introduction to Local History, Culture, and Arts after all, and there is a paucity of materials outside of it.
With such a lecture wrapped in quiz bee format--in categories of questions classified as 'easy,' 'average,' and 'hard,' with the 'clincher' round as tie-breaker--I hope these knowledge of our town's history and culture have strengthened even more today's young learners' pride in their hometown of Bayambang--which is the real agenda of the whole exercise.
Sunday, September 20, 2026
The World in Folds
The World in Folds
In the beginning, the world was flat and paper-thin.
When the paper god was designing the world, he chose a 10-20 cm x 10-20 cm paper as basic building block. "Let there be straight lines, folds, and creases," he said.
"Mountain folds and valley folds. Reverse folds and flaps. Pleats."
The flat, inanimate material was--with sleight of hand--slowly transformed into an ecology of genetically diverse forms and silhouettes, and the world was papered over with simulacra of life.
It's an endlessly creative world made out of flatness.
I enter this world enticed by animal figures I never figured would emerge out of almost nothing: first the jumping frog, then the crane.
It is the beauty of the form of the crane that would get me fascinated. I get obsessed with it. I do crane after paper crane, using printed words as guide until YouTube videos come about.
It seems simple at first until you try it for yourself and find certain steps difficult. It requires practice. Or several repeat plays. Thank goodness for changeable speed settings on YT.
It is easy to get frustrated, exasperated, irked, insulted, if you don't get things right. "How come my folds are not the same as those in the video, like it's some false advertising?" I retrace my steps to find out which steps I missed.
I collapse some flaps. I smooth out some edges. I fold, then unfold, then squash certain folds. I nip and tuck, so to speak without cutting out anything. Using scissors is verboten, one might as well cut out toy soldier figures in neat silhouettes like some newborn child.
Why do I do what I am doing? I think that's because I feel calm and relaxed doing it--my state of anxiety is reduced.
While it's true that mistakes irk me so easily, I exercise the virtue of patience and perseverance along the way. In my experience, certain origami animals are an extra-challenge: the double-humped camel, the squirrel, certain dog varieties, certain beaver variant... These really tested my patience.
Every minute expended is a way of saying thanks, honoring life in minutes received, being grateful that I am still here, producing at least a thing of beauty no matter how trivial.
I started out with the easy ones: the peace dove, the fish, etc.--all kid's play. Then I slowly graduate to the medium or average, then to the difficult and complex three-dimensional ones that sometimes require structures they call tessellation.
I am now dealing with the really challenging ones. Sometimes I emerge victorious, oftentimes not.
I am afraid to do the advanced 3D ones that are monumental in dimensions. After all, I have limited resources, not just time. I do this in between important things, during my resting hours. I also originally set out to use just scrap papers, nothing store-bought.
The origami animals I produce have been essentially from trash, until a kind-hearted soul gifted me with proper store-bought origami paper. It ruins my unintended intention to recycle trash through arts and crafts, but I don't mind gifts from the big-hearted.
Pretty soon, I am able to create an entire paradise of creatures in abstractions, hundreds of them and all sorts of genera and species: duck, rabbit, lion, flamingo, toucan, kiwi, Pomeranian, tiger, worm, fly, hermit beetle, possum, aardvark, other Amazon organisms, other African savannah creatures...
After finishing a creature, I stare at each one in appreciation of the form, not too mindful of the miniscule errors. There is an utter beauty in the symmetry, from the exact mirror images generated through all the angle bisectors. There must be a God, no question about it--one specializing in divine architecture and design, a geometry genius behind each silhouette. How magical that each one, each complicated structure, could be so created--out of nothing, out of thin air--or in just a series of high-precision folding and unfolding, to be exact--no cuts. How transformative, how endlessly creative!
They say this ancient Japanese artform is all about mathematics, with practical applications in engineering, medicine, especially surgery, aerospace, and other fields. If you think about it, a foldable umbrella is an example of origami in day-to-day application. The possibilities of paper are infinite.
But it's not with the practicalities I am obsessed with. With origami as a form of faith in cost-free pleasure, papered over by surprise from all of the right angles, I return again and again to the fold.
Friday, September 11, 2026
Adventures on FB Messenger
Adventures on FB Messenger
In 2016, I applied as a writer in the LGU and was eventually designated as a 'Public Information Officer.' Among the many tasks I didn't expect to have is answer messages from the people--directly--through our Facebook page, whether they were entered as comments or PMs (private messages).
In a town of an estimated 120,000 population, there were so many people, so many messages to handle. This alone was a humbling and exhausting work, and I was almost alone at it.
I received all sorts of complaints. Many of those were about the services of the power provider, water provider, telecom companies, local district hospital... I answered as politely and empathetically as I could--after all, their complaints were my complaints too. But I felt bad that I had to answer at all for a lot of concerns, particularly these ones outside LGU jurisdiction.
I couldn't blame the people either. I myself didn't know before I became PIO that some areas were outside LGU jurisdiction, and this includes, I found out, national roads and provincial roads and bridges along those roads. The best we could do is coordinate with those agencies politely and relay the complaints from our people. (It didn't occur to a lot of people that they can, in fact, complain directly to all those agencies mentioned.)
The other complaints fell under different LGU departments' responsibility, and these were duly relayed to all the heads and staff concerned. So early in the morning and I was already exhausted dealing with someone whose neighbor had a stinking pigpen or a chicken hatchery overrun by flies.
Understandably, many messages were about local government services and ayuda systems: how to avail? what are the requirements? For this, I am thankful for our Citizen's Charter. Procedures and requirements are actually similar nationwide.
Speaking of ayuda, the bulk of complaints was about why this or that person is a beneficiary (4Ps) and he or she or his or her own father or mother or sister or brother is not. Another concern outside jurisdiction. (It's DSWD's this time.)
Messages come in at all times of the day and in all days every single day. Answering messages felt like it required 3 shifts, just like in factories!
There were times when I had to give updates and sometimes used my personal account for follow-ups. Big mistake. To my chagrin, I often ended up having total strangers as chatmates, with our kilometric 'convo' ending into the dead of the night. Gone was my precious energy, my limited time.
From time to time, there were messages asking for emergency assistance--even when we had an official emergency hotline fully equipped with responders of all kinds. I understand. Messaging through FB costs nothing, compared to making a phone call through landline or cell phone. Because I am too kind-hearted, I would answer anything of emergency nature and relayed whatever I received to proper authorities. Good thing Facebook eventually had a feature in which we can indicate whether the page is closed or open to messaging services.
In this task, I am particularly grateful for the screenshot feature (PrtSc) of my laptop and smartphone, while being mindful of confidentiality. (Confidentiality is a challenging legality to navigate: A lot of complainants prefer not to be identified, and we respect that, but this becomes a problem when there is a need to reveal identities. What's the name of the 'office' again?)
You can just imagine what it was like for me answering all sorts of frantic messages during the COVID-19 pandemic--all at the same time and one after another without fail. (I have written on this separately.)
I am thankful that the hiring of additional staff eventually solved the problem of the super-human amount of workload just in this part of the job. (All other departments experience the same feeling of being overwhelmed, I know, that our constituents are not even aware of, with some department heads likening it to drowning.) Now, I can focus on other equally important work, like hunkering down on the day's write-ups and coordinating with the newsmakers: public officials and the heads of any random department or agency with an important event or two. (This is the reason I get to chat with dozens and dozens of people from all walks per day.)
What I'd like to dwell on right now, though, are the most unusual and most unforgettable requests I got.
I can't quite forget the temerity of this person asking the mayor to shoulder her daughter's debut (birthday bash) or something like that. I double-checked and the person didn't look indigent to me. I had to do a quick review of the actual mandate of a local chief executive, whether it includes throwing away birthday parties for free. I realized I had the power to say no merely by ignoring messages I thought didn't deserve a response.
I also can't forget that wife who asked where her missing husband could be while hinting at domestic trouble. Could I help her, please? I referred her to the Local Civil Registrar. There were cases of lovers' quarrel too, which I was too inept to handle.
There were times when I would feel like the town's Google search engine or telephone directory, whenever someone asks whether this or that kind of establishment exists in Bayambang, or how to get from here to there. This has opened my eyes a bit to which services or business enterprises can and cannot be found in our locality, and how to get around from our town to other places. Among the things I noticed missing or woefully inadequate at the time are ENT specialists, dermatologists, allergy testing center, hearing testing center, other medical specialists, certain drugs (medicines), certain medical tests and procedures, cashew cream de-wart clinics, specialty cuisine restos, and so on.
Complex legal issues always put us in a quandary and were best referred to the Legal Department.
On rare occasions, I had to deal with mental cases, which are, of course, best ignored.
The worst case is downright criminal. One day a female staff--she was still innocent and single then--reported that a guy showed her a photo of his erect phallus while communicating.
For other obviously criminal incidents such as neighborhood altercations and physical violence, I direct complainants to the local police page, but protocol dictates that complainants coordinate with the barangay first.
The truth is, a lot of concerns can be solved at the barangay level and need not be relayed to our level, such as videoke time past 10 PM; tall coconut trees right beside someone else's fence, giving a clear and present danger; dogs leaving poo at the gate, etc. So I routinely advise complainants to raise the issue first with their Barangay Hall, out of due respect to the latter or in observance of the principle of subsidiarity. I am often rebutted with an irked comeback: "That is why I am directing the concern to you because I was ignored at the barangay hall in the first place!"
People sometimes forget that there is a real human being behind the PMs and lose their sense of common courtesy. But as a public servant, I had to keep my cool at saintly levels you could never imagine possible, considering how impatient I can get.
OFWs in distress were the most challenging to handle, emotionally speaking. Addressing their calls for help also requires a lot of back-and-forth and inter-agency liaison work. What if someone told you she was in jail in China and they shaved her hair? Or if someone informed you that she was being raped by her Arab employer at home just because she took a bath, which was wrongly read as an invitation to have sexual intercourse?
With this form of assistance, our office is not only an LGU’s internal media and public relations arm, but something else that every LGU is required to have: a PACD or Public Assistance and Complaints Desk—or an online version of it.
Now one of the most valuable lessons in this ‘adventure’ is to be wary of the pitfalls of the incomplete or inaccurate story, if not tall tales. A lot of complainants come to us bearing their version of a narrative. A careless frontline responder like us can easily get carried away by their stories particularly when it is about a story or injustice such as public servants allegedly treating them bad. But years of experience has taught me never to believe anything at face value, to get the other side or sides of the story until a more and more complete picture emerges. As much as highly stressful this job can get, it requires calm, evenhandedness, and equanimity just as much.
I had to shed off the natural impulsiveness carried over from my youth to get this job done right.
On the other hand, I realize that people with incomplete stories are not being dishonest in the middle of anger; it is just that their vision of reality is often warped by high emotions.
I wonder if these tens of thousands of people messaging us day by day realize how much they should be grateful to the kind, accommodating, and hardworking keyboard warriors behind each helpful answer and informative response they receive with the convenience of digital technology.
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