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

An exclusive drive of an aerodynamically slick electric vehicle that looks to change the world, three wheels at a time.

 I’m accelerating and cornering — hard — on three wheels, little wisps of tire smoke curling out of the slender front wheel pants as steering is cranked in and “throttle” applied. And no, I’m not in an early Volkswagen GTI that hikes up its inside rear tire. Rather, I’ve been given a drive in the Aptera 2e, a soon-to-be-produced electric vehicle whose shape is slipperier than a Teflon-coated salmon on glare ice, and whose composite construction offers both light weight and impressive structural integrity. Better yet, the 2e is scheduled to begin rolling off the Vista, California, assembly line this October for an as-yet-to-be-determined price between $25,000 and $40,000. Charge it overnight from your 110-volt home outlet, and it’s claimed to have a range of 100 miles…in

Each part of our country has its own native drink to be proud of. The Tagalogs have lambanog to show off. The Ilonggos have basi. And, Cebuanos and Boholanos have the tuba, also known as “coconut wine” or “jungle wine.”

Although there are hundreds of commercial beverages to choose from, the tuba has made it to the top, for the tuba plays an immense role in Cebuano culture and history. As we all know, Filipinos gather in times of celebrations and commemorations. Most of the time, drinking alcohol and other beverages are some of the highlights of such gatherings.

So special is the role of the tuba in Cebuano culture that a festival in Argao is celebrated to honor not just the patron saint of the place but also to honor the tuba.

Pitlagong Festival Finale

A manananggot is a person who gathers tuba for a living. Do you know that having this work is difficult and tiring? You need care and concentration to avoid falling from the coconut tree to the ground. If you are not careful enough, you might fall and get injured. You also need to wake up as early as four or five in the morning to gather more tuba for more money. You may work with a group or by yourself, like Virgilio Abella, a manananggot who works by himself only. But, what really pushes a person to get into this dangerous work? It’s poverty—poverty urges them to really work hard even it’s hard and dangerous. Many manananggots even did not finish schooling because of this reason—poverty.

Being a manananggot also lies in blood. This means that this job is a livelihood handed down from the great grandfathers who

Tuba is naturally made from the sap of a young coconut bud. Like the coconut which is named as “The Tree of Life,” the tuba also has some medicinal uses or health benefits. Some of the health benefits of tuba are the following:

* It can help prevent respiratory ailments.
* The vinegar from tuba can lower fever and is used as disinfectant for dog bites and wounds.
* Tuba was used as the main food source during the World War II.
* The elderly and other people use tuba as food supplement.

Tuba can help prevent respiratory ailments.

Working in a cement factory often causes respiratory ailments. But, Roel Rigor, who is a researcher about tuba, said that the workers in a certain cement factory in Naga, Cebu, have only a small chance

Sharpening the Sanggut

Climbing the Coconut and Twining Its Bud

Slicing the Tip of the Coconut Bud

Collecting the Tuba-Filled Sugong

Filtration of the Tuba

Cleaning the Sugong

Pitlagong Dance by Colawin National High School

Students from Colawin National High School in Argao, Cebu, perform the steps of the Pitlagong Dance.

We cannot have tuba without getting it from its source. Tuba cannot just appear on one’s table from out of nowhere. The question that comes into my mind is how people extract tuba from the coconut tree. A manananggot—one who gathers tuba from the coconut’s bud—answers it all. The manananggot or the tuba gatherer extracts the tuba from a bungol or buluk—the unopened and young coconut bud that flowers into the fruit when it reaches its state of maturity. The whole process of collecting tuba is called dawat—a Cebuano term which means “to receive.”

But, how will the manananggot know if a certain coconut tree produces tuba? The only way to know is to test it. How does he test it? He slices the bungol and he waits a day in order to know if it can produce tuba. He’ll definitely know if it can manufacture wine