Muningerzee

He grew up in Samar...the driver of the taxi cab I rode to work proudly told me…Eastern Samar…here in Manila, he said, if you own half an hectare of land, you are filthy rich…but in our place in Samar, he continued, no matter how big a parcel of land we own, we were still poor…the place was beautiful though…It has a rice field and we planted vegetables… it’s at the foot of the mountain with a forest so beautiful…only, rebel groups, particularly the New People’s Army (NPA) of the Philippines made that forest their base… their leader’s name—Efren   Martirez… he was related to that basketball player and comedian Yoyoy or Yoyong Martirez…bright kid that Efren and he was a professor of the University of the Philippines, I think…but he was a wanted man in Eastern Samar because he started the NPA in our province…I heard he had a nasty record…he killed 200 soldiers maybe more…Then the taxi driver paused…this was Marcos time…he even tried recruiting my father…but my mother tol...

Sometimes if you look hard enough, you'll find a gem the price of a value meal...Got this from an antique shop along Morato in Quezon City...a building torn by war…there’s a jeep on the lower left side of the photo …don't know who took this...but, there’s a memoir at the back of the photo. As stated, this was the Old Legislative Building or the National Museum we know today near Intramuros and Ermita in Manila. Some decades ago, picking up items like that picture gave me an excuse to go to the library and hit the books for information.   But now, I simply just google it.   And the stories I gathered glued me to the monitor.   The Legislative Building was initially designed in 1918 to be the country’s National Library.   However, due to its grandeur, influential personalities back in 1926 converted it to be the seat of Legislature.   Hence the name the Legislative Building.   Circa 1927 (photo credit: John T. Pilot's Photostream) ...

by: Ramona Nieva Just weeks ago, I wrote about the Beatles’ horrendous Manila experience.   How, after all of that, they vowed never to step on Philippine soil ever again.   Click this link for a peek  http://muningerzee.blogspot.com/2015/07/ely-buendia-kikstarts-beatles-campaign.html The Beatles, now with only 2 remaining members around, have kept their words.   They’ve managed to gig around Asia for decades without stopping over Philippines.   Even after they’ve disbanded, Philippines was never a gig destination for them.    So traumatic was their Manila Experience, it was reported, that even Paul McCartney stood up a press conference when he found out that the participating media were all from the Philippines.   Just how bad was this experience, you ask?   For one, the Philippine promoter refused to pay the Beatles what's due them for the Rizal Stadium gig.   The band’s hotel suites were barraged with bomb and death threats...

It has been nearly 5 decades when The Beatles first came to the Philippines.   July 4, 1966— a pack of Marlboro cost P1 , the dollar exchange rate was P3.90 to a peso,   taxi flagdown rate was .15 centavos while the minimum jeep fare was .10 centavos.  Beatles mania was at its peak in Manila and the band was scheduled to do a couple of shows at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.  Among the front acts were Pilita Corales, Raycards Duets (?) and D’ Downbeats, Pinoy Rock Icon Pepe Smith banged the skins for this band I think.  The gig was sold-out to more than 100,000 young kids and that’s just the number inside the stadium who could afford the P50 and P20 tickets. The next day, some uniformed men came and banged on the group’s door in Manila Hotel.   They claimed The Beatles was set to gig at the Malacanang Palace for Marcos and the First Family’s regalement.   The whole shenanigan at Malacanang was televised live.   But the ba...