Let us join and support the “Earth Hour Philippines 2009”. Said activity is a major call to every individual, government and business to take action to help ensure a sustainable future of our planet. The Earth Hour is a message of hope and collective action to fight global warming which is very important concern facing us today. With this undertaking, our country will again join millions of communities around the world which will unilaterally turn out the lights for ‘Earth Hour 2009, in collaboration with the Department of Energy, The Green Army, and SWITCH Movement nationwide, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao aiming for the participation of at least ten million Filipinos.

In what aims to be world largest mass participants event, Earth Hour 2009 will be the culmination of one billion people in over 1,000 cities from a round the globe represented by business, government and communities uniting to send a message to world leaders for 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark that we need a commitment of ACTION to reduce greenhouse gas emissions soon.

On March 28, 2009 at 8:30 PM, our country will once again join millions of communities all over the world in this symbolic act. Among the highlights of this Earth Hour Philippines 2009 are the Earth countdown live concert and entertainment events to be held in key provinces and cities from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm on (Saturday) March 28, 2009.

Long time no update on this blog, got busy with my other blogs. I’m inviting any relatives out there with the same surname of mine who loves to write or have something to write to blog on this site. The subject will be anything about Cagayan de Oro, histories, relations and others. If you are interested email me or just leave a comment below this post and we’ll keep in touch to give you access account on this blog. If your new to blogging and internet for that matter, no problem I’ll give you a brief tutorial on how easy it is.

Cagayan de Oro City is a bustling city in the south of the Philippines that is becoming a mega city. Investment is pouring over like the recently biggest investment of the country the Hanjin Ship building, the ongoing International airport and the operational International Container port Cagayan de Oro City is booming. The boom in the city comes also the good investment in the real estate properties which is the value is sky-rocketing every day. A new website to guide you in investing real estate in Cagayan de Oro city was launched, the CDORealEstate.com is your reliable guide about Cagayan de Oro real estate.

The Abonitalla family thanks those who extend to us on our grief in the wake of Inday Cecil who died last December 21, 2007 of Cancer at the young age of 41.

City Mayor Constantino G. Jaraula (far left) leads city officials in laying down the time capsule, highlighting the groundbreaking rites of the McArthur Marker at the old pier in Barangay Macabalan, Cagayan de Oro City, Feb. 1. Assisting the mayor are 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, City Councilors Dante Pajo, Roger Abaday, and Alfonso Goking, Macabalan Chairperson Gertrudes Beja, and Historical Commission member Nanette Roa. Once completed, the marker would serve as a reminder that Gen. Douglas McArthur once passed by Cagayan de Oro enroute to Australia from Corregidor when Japanese imperial forces invaded the Philippines during the Second World War. (Cagayan de Oro City Information Office/PIA-MisOrOccCam i-Net)

By Dr. Antonio J. Montalvan II, Ph.D.

Place name explanations often border on the fantastic and the comical. Intramuros, for instance, was said to have been named “so that the Moros will not entra.” Arnold Azurin (1995) calls this cultural malpractice the abuse of folklore in our national culture, coining the term “fakelore.”

What is the folklore and fakelore of the name “Cagayan”?

The usual recourse is to cite the local legend that ascribes the name to a love story between a beautiful princess and a vanquished warrior. It was said that a slave-raiding party of Maguindanao warriors descended upon the town. The town datu, however, sends instead his beautiful daughter to meet the Maguindanao chief, Rajah Moda Samporna. Captivated by her beauty, the rajah marries her and settles in the town. Instead of conquering them, the Maguindanao warriors were conquered. They retreated in shame, traumatized by the turn of events, calling it a “place of shame.” In Binukid, “kagayha-an” is “place of shame.” Later Spanish mispronounciation, the usual much-abused alibi, is said to have then evolved into the name “Cagayan.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Mike Baños

In the center of Wadhu’s Quality Store stands a 1931 NCR cash register, bought by the store’s founder by mail order from Sears & Roebuck in the United States 71 years ago. During the world war two, the owner wrapped it in grease and buried it in his backyard. After the war, he dug it up and it still serves the same store now run by his grand son Wadhu John.

That cash register is the living testimony of the traditions that has made Wadhu’s Quality Store Cagayan de Oro’s oldest surviving retail store, a tradition established by the store’s patriarch and carried on by the third generation who now runs it.

Seventy one years ago, Wadhu Dharamdas Uttamchandani set up in Cagayan de Misamis (as Cagayan de Oro was then known) ‘Wadhu’s Home of Quality’ near Plaza Divisoria, the town’s social and commercial center.

Mr. Wadhu arrived as a 12-year old boy from India in the Philippines in 1924. He was employed at the Indian Bazaar owned by his uncle Nebhraj Ramchand Buhdrani in Zamboanga City for 12 years where he gained his basic knowledge and business savvy in the retail trade. Read the rest of this entry »

By Gwendolyn Ramos-Garcia

I have long pondered the question because of the vast number of transplants who have decided to stay and make Cagayan de Oro “home”.

Some understandably uprooted themselves from their hometowns and settled here because they married into local families. Prime examples : Segundo Gaston of Silay and Dionisio Fabella of Pagsanjan who married my grandfather’s 2 younger sisters, Celerina and Rosario Neri, respectively; Diego Imperio & Crispin Joaquin to Celerina’s & Rosario’s younger sisters, Gracia and Violeta, Jose Montalvan of Belmonte, Cuenca, Spain to Concepcion Corrales y Roa (my great grandmother’s sister), Dr. Francisco Xavier of Antique to Dolores Roa ( my grandmother’s sister), Valente Camacho of Bataan to Luz Chaves y Neri, Benjamin Denosta to Enriqueta Garcia y Corrales, Casimiro Tamparong of Ozamis to Felisa Neri, Silvino Maestrado to Josefa Chaves y Abejuela, George Willkom of Ohio to Maria Ramos (cousin of my grandfather, Lucio), Dr. Jose Marfori to Carmen Neri, Justininiano R. Borja of Bohol & Ilocos to Dulce Valdehueza y Roa, Monico Gacula to Nena Montalvan y Corrales, Manolo Jaldon of Zamboanga to Flora Yamut, Hernando Pineda of Manila to Trinidad Reyes y Roa, Fernando Torres to Victoria Avancena, Rosauro Dongallo of Cebu to Didi Valmores, Mike Siojo to Naty Tabique, Jaime Munoz & Johnny Wilson to sisters Soly & Editha Corrales, Bernabe de la Fuente of Cotabato to Mercedes.Velez y Xavier (actually, 3 de la Fuente brothers, all boarders at the Ateneo de Cagayan, married 3 local belles – Mercedes Velez, Dulce Bautista & Violeta Fernandez). and the list goes on & on.

But what about those who did not really have close ties to this town ? What magnet drew them to Cagayan? Was it a new job assignment or a business venture? Or perhaps just a Read the rest of this entry »