hehehe! and if my memory serves me right, both of you (bai hubag and mareng isles) spent some time in bacolod in your yesteryears?
the truth: i was there for the first time to cover the papal visit of pope john paul II. i chose bacolod so i could avoid cebu, where i felt things could be worse. aaahhh, those were energetic times, when one was very young and backaches were ages away.
considering my purpose, i was given a pass only to the media center. there i experienced being in the midst of those awesome contraptions of cameras and what-have-you while all that i had was a small instamatic camera, a small tape recorder, and a notebook. (that was the stone age, so there were no computers then. even our own national coverage on television wasn't instantaneous; the mailing section of the media center was glutted because tapes had to mailed ahora mismo.)
the japanese group had the most sophisticated contraptions. but there was the vatican press who were naturally special though they didn't behave as such. people like me were on the fringes, so to speak. (the japanese were very formal; it's those westerners who were the flirts.)
the security control was tight (naturally) but nothing kept me off the streets when the popemobile passed by. it was heaven to see the pope inside his bulletproof ride, right hand bestowing blessings, just a mere 3 meters away from where i stood! i kept jumping and shouting 'totus tuus!' to catch his attention (as if...
).
years later all i did was make bacolod my stopover for a change of bus in my land trips from cebu on my way to sipalay, where i worked briefly for a mining firm.
i don't know about hubag.
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