Philippine Islands – Discover the beauty of its 7,107 islands

Almost 1,000 Black Nazarene devotees were injured during the procession in Manila Monday,(1/09/12), as millions of devotees gathered to celebrate the feast despite a terrorism threat.

Latest reports said emergency volunteers treated at least 921 people after devotees pushed and shoved to get near the sculpture of the Black Nazarene during the traditional procession.

1000's of people gathered in Feast of the Black Nazarene

The Philippine Red Cross has treated 421 injured devotees, while the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and other rescue and first aid units have treated around 500 people.

big crowd in the Black Nazarene procession

News footage of the procession showed a steel railing being toppled right after the Mass celebrated by newly installed Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Tagle at the Quirino grandstand. An elderly woman

Why is it called the banana island? Is there a banana plantation here? No! I don’t know why they called it the Banana island, but the island is so beautiful. The beach is so clear with thousand of marine life living in the beautiful corals.

Banana Island, officially named as Dicalabuan Island, one of the jewels of Calamianes. It is one of the islands, and islet belongs to the Calamianes group of islands. The Calamian Group of Islands, also called the Calamianes, consist of over 80 islands and islets. Some of them are still deserted and unpopulated.

Clear water in the beach

It cost you more or less two hours of travel to Banana island by boat from mainland Coron. The island boasts of fine white-sand beach on clear water, a sandbar that submerges during high tide, a good coral area perfect

Talagang napatunayang epektibo ang slogan ng Department of Tourism na “It’s more fun in the Philippines” matapos mapili ang Pilipinas bilang ika-walong “friendliest country” sa resulta ng HSBC Expat Explorer Survey.

Sabi ni Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigal Valte, pinatutunayan lamang ng nasabing survey na hindi gobyerno ang nagtaas sa bansa bilang ika-8 sa “friendliest country” kundi ‘third party assessment’.

“We’re also happy to note that in one of the surveys conducted by HSBC, the Philippines ranked as one of the… the eighth friendliest country out of most of the countries rated in the world. And this is why we believe na talagang it really is more fun in the Philippines,”sabi ni Valte.

Sa nasabing survey, tinanong ang nasa 3,385 expats sa 100 bansa sa mundo kung saan naging pang-walo ang Pilipinas.

Ang ranggo ng mga bansa ay ibinatay sa mga sumusunod na kategorya: kakayahan na makipagkaibigan sa mga locals o mamamayan;

Dozens of fish falling from the sky amid heavy rain Friday morning (1/13/2012) puzzled residents of Loreto town in Agusan del Sur as they witness the incident.

Some said the fish might have fallen from a passing aircraft. Yet some believed the incident was a sign that the world is coming to an end.

But fish falling from the sky is not supernatural nor is it doomsday’s beckoning. It actually has a name: Lluvia de Peces.

Residents of Loreto town in Agusan del Sur experienced this phenomenon Friday morning when dozens of 3-inch-long mudfish rained on them. PAGASA-Butuan Chief Engr. Lolit Binalay told Bombo Radyo a similar incident had happened in Lake Mainit in Agusan del Norte a few years back.

The same thing happened to a village in Powys, Wales in 2004  and to Folsom, California in 2006, among reported others.

How does it happen? Whirlwinds over water develop into waterspouts and become

In 1981, Mr. Berto Morales, a farmer working as a bulldozer operator in an irrigation project in Surigao struck gold. He discovered a treasure trove of gold ornaments while bringing down a hill to collect filling materials.

The discovery, previously unknown to the public, is among the largest collection of Philippine archaeological gold in the country as well as in the rest of the world.

Recovered in association with 10th to 13th century Chinese’s ceramics, the gold ornaments show similarities in form and iconography with artifacts of other cultures in the region. Experts believe the discovery will rewrite history.

Nothing of this scale and magnitude and magnificence has ever been seen before, says Dr. Florina Capistrano-Baker, former curator of the Ayala Museum, of the gold find.

Gold specialist Dr. John Miksic of

Last June 8, 2008, ABS-CBN televised a well-researched documentary about our ancestral gold or better yet – ancestry.

The title is “Gintong Pamana” literally pointing to the gold jewelry pieces, which were buried in Surigao. Well, I don’t exactly remember the places where it was dug but the person who lucky to find this gold jewelry named Berto Morales. He was the one who first discovered the Surigao gold treasures.

Berto Morales was a bulldozer (scraper) operator for flattening a dug ground for an irrigation project of a government agency – NIA (National Irrigation Administration). It was then when he realized that there was a shiny stuff on the ground that he went down from his truck and inspected it. It was a belt that he first saw. At first, he did not know that it was gold but since pinoy have an innovative way to check things, he went to