the densest city in the world, Metro Manila (2016, 2017) with Greater Manila Area alone spills out beyond the boundaries of this mega city and is reported to contain around 22.7 million people, which is already a quarter of the Philippines entire population. This is a personal project and view of an individual of how shifting economy, climate change, transportation, corruption, and over population affects the people, the environment and society adversely with the touch of true colors of Metro Manila.
Originally Publish:
https://explorepartsunknown.com/manila/christmas/
In a tiny shop built with metal wires and an old tarpaulin on the outskirts of Manila, employees are hard at work. It is October and Christmas is fast approaching, meaning the orders are rolling in for parols, traditional lanterns that are hung up throughout towns and villages in the Philippines.
Christmas season here starts as early as September and involves a massive network of balik bayan boxes sent from near and far, extravagant parties with colleagues, friends and family, and a whole lot of pig roasting.
Between 100,000 to 150,000 overseas Filipino workers return home to spend Christmas with their families. Those who can’t make it send gifts and money. In 2016, their remittances reached an all-time high of $28 billion.
Photographer Jilson Tiu roamed Manila, from the high end shopping malls to the night markets, to capture the atmosphere in his city during the holiday season.
Originally publish:
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/248100/tayumans-shelter-mercy/
Tayuman area in Manila is the hub for many illegal settlers who have no access to basic needs such as education and even toiletry. Some—both children and adults—resort to drug use and petty crimes just to get by. Every day, the homeless face abject poverty and go deeper into depression that goes hand in hand with living an unlivable life. Some of the elderly homeless have been abandoned by their families. Some of the homeless are young mothers who were victims of sexual abuse or domestic violence. They are often found traveling around Tondo with makeshift pushcarts made of wood and metal scraps fished out of trash bins and the nearest dump. Educational recreation for children at Arnold Janssen Kalinga sa Kapuwa Center. But every Thursday, there is a place in Tayuman that opens its doors to the impoverished; it is where children, young mothers, and the elderly can drop by for a little relief—the Arnold Janssen Kalinga sa Kapuwa Center (AJKKC).
It has been a year since the center, whose establishment was spearheaded by Fr. Flavie L. Villanueva, mission secretary and coordinator for justice and peace issues of the Philippine Central Province of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), started helping those in need. Primarily a feeding and hygiene (toilet and bath) center, AJKKC provides food, bathing and toilet facilities, education, and spiritual guidance to the less fortunate. People from all walks of life head to the center for some much needed physical, emotional and mental rejuvenation.
A day in a life of a community of mussel harvest in Cavite, Philippines.
A day in a life of the regular routine of the fishermen in a harvest of Shellfish in Cavite, Bacoor.
Mussel farms in Bacoor are generally owned by small-business operation, resulting to be passed on to their children as they learn to harvest shellfish at young age.
Fishermen on the way to harvest shellfish at morning.
Baby mussels showed by a fisher folk during a harvest from the shellfish farm.
A fisherman's child floats by the river where Bamboo floats to make fishing boats for harvesting shellfish to be sold in the market.
Fisher folk sleeps on a bamboo supply while delivering the woods to one station from the other.
Due to the proximity of these two towns to Metro Manila markets and the availability of land and water transportation facilities, marketing of oysters is not a problem but present demand for mussels still exceeds supply.
Cultivation of mussels in the country started in Bacoor Bay in Bacoor and Kawit towns in the province of Cavite.
Boats are made from "kawayan" or Bamboo collected by fishermen during the morning. These bamboos are also made for cultivating shellfish through stake technique.
Sales lady sprinkles water on the mussels at market place during after morning harvest. Mussels are sold in about 20-50 php per kilo depending how bountiful the catch is.
Child collects trash and odds and ends in the river, sometimes he finds trinkets and coins.
Fisherman separates the bad ones from the good ones after harvest
Hanging method - the cultches installed in the shellfish plots consists of mussels shells strung in ropes of a certain length depending upon the height of the water column where they are to be installed. Holes are punched at the centre of the mussel shells by means of a nail. The holes are just big enough for the polyethylene rope to pass through. The mussel shells are spaced at intervals of 12 cm by means of knots made on the line
Bamboo trunks serves as a stake for the mussels to cultivate. The tips of the stakes usually extend above the low water mark by about one-half meter
Bamboo stake with mussels, freshly picked and unharvested. Sadly the bamboo poles used in mussels farming accelerate the deterioration of the environment by acting as barriers to the free flow of silt.
The boat moves by short distance from one bamboo stake area to the other via pulling, performed by a fisherman.
Fisher folk harvest a net full of shellfish after a dive from the river, collected on the bamboo stakes.
Fisherman inhales air to go dive and collect the shellfish cultivating in the river. Stake method - the basal portions of mature bamboos are used. The length of bamboo trunks depends upon the water depth at the farm site. They are arranged at 1.0 m interval. The tips of the stakes usually extend above the low water mark by about one-half meter.
Fisher folk rises from the river harvested a net full of oysters ready for cleaning.
Fishermen going home for lunch and afternoon break after the morning harvest as they travel through the horizon of Makati Buildings.
Annual International Hot Air Balloon Festival, Philippines
The Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival is a gathering of Aviation. The fiesta is an opportunity to share and exchange cultures and traditions pilot visitors from all over the world. Given a taste of the Filipino hospitality and the fiesta spirit feel. Creating aviation awareness, educating people about aviation knowledge and encouraging people to work from the heart and do things with passion, the goal is to put the Philippine aviation industry in good position in the international flying community.
Batanes is an archipelago province in the Philippines situated in the Cagayan Valley region. The Northern beauty is a photographer's paradise due to it's picture-sq scenery with an ancestors of today's Ivatans descended from Austronesian who migrated to the islands 4000 years ago during the Neolithic period. Historic lighthouses were used during the war, it was a site of the American period telegraph facilities that connected Batanes with the central government until it was destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Army bombings at the start of World War II.
Batanes (Ivatan: Probinsya nu Batanes; Ilocano: Probinsya ti Batanes; Filipino: Lalawigan ng Batanes) is an archipelago province in the Philippines situated in the Cagayan Valley region. The Northern beauty is a photographer's paradise due to it's picture-sq scenery with an ancestors of today's Ivatans descended from Austronesian who migrated to the islands 4000 years ago during the Neolithic period. Historic lighthouses were used during the war, it was a site of the American period telegraph facilities that connected Batanes with the central government until it was destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Army bombings at the start of World War II.
