Shooting Mindanao: How the Press Reports Mindanao from a Photojournalist Viewpoint (Last of 5 parts

Last of 5 parts

[This piece was first published in the book, “Transfiguring Mindanao: A Mindanao Reader” edited by Jose Jowel Canuday and Joselito Sescon (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2022). The article opens Part V on “Mediating Truths, Contested Communities, Making Peace” of the book, which was launched on June 22 this year in Davao City. The Ateneo University Press granted MindaNews permission to share the article. Bobby Timonera is one of the editors of MindaNews.]

Read the previous parts – First, Second, Third, Fourth

The Fun Part
 
It is not all dangerous coverage out here in Mindanao, of course. There’s a lot of fun, too.
 
I loved the few times when Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific called me to do some projects for them. The Mabuhay and Smile magazines are tourism-oriented publications, and they make sure you’re set up in the best hotels, you eat the best food, get to enjoy the best destinations with the best company, including beauty queens. Ehem.
 
MobileMedia
 
But among my more memorable coverages sans the danger were with the MobileMedia Project of Businessworld Online. It was the brainchild of the late Michael Marasigan, the boss who hatched a way to go on vacation in the Philippines’ best tourist spots without spending a dime, and even getting paid for it.
 
We met at infotech coverages during my Manila days, and we kept in touch. When he conceived of MobileMedia’s Project E, focusing on the environment, he tapped me to be his man in Mindanao. My destinations for this assignment, in 2001 and 2002, were Marawi, the coastal area of eastern Misamis Oriental, Camiguin, Agusan Marsh, and Siargao Island, long before the tourists began going there in droves.
 
The most exciting assignments, of course, were in the areas I hadn’t been to, such as Agusan Marsh and Siargao, more so because it was the first time I was finally using a digital camera, albeit an entry level point-and-shoot I got secondhand from ebay, that had a digital card with a whopping 128 megabytes of storage! (By comparison, the camera I’m using now spits out raw images of 24mb each, or the equivalent of just five pictures using my old card.)
 
We were surprised at what we saw in the marshland. While most people were so used to everything mobile by then, from phones to tablets to laptops, we weren’t ready for the ultimate mobile device: the floating houses. We stayed in one for the night, in the home of the Belar family, with their two children and a dog.

_{One of the mobile homes in the Agusan Marsh. The occupants can just move their home anytime they want and anywhere within the marsh. Photo: BOBBY TIMONERA}

Those living in the mobile homes, which are built of light materials like bamboo splits for walls and nipa shingles for the roof, move anywhere they want within the marsh area and just anchor their house to anything stable, like a tree. The children roamed freely around the area aboard a 12-foot baroto, a boat carved out of solid wood, without outriggers, similar to the Indians’ canoe for easier maneuverability amid the water hyacinths that grew wild all over. I tried riding in one, but the boat kept flipping, and the kids laughed at me.
 
But I pitied the dog, who was made to run, but had so little space to explore.
 
When we toured the area, leaving the Belar house while it was still dark, the sunrise was a sight to behold. The fog was so thick, I could clearly see the roundness of the sun with my naked eye.
 
This was in the marshland in the municipality of Bunawan in Agusan del Sur, long before the capture of Lolong, the biggest crocodile in the world, that was held in captivity.
 
The main reason we went to Agusan Marsh was to check on the story of a big crocodile captured in a trap set up by fisherman Solitario “Boyet” Cabrillos, who got fed up with his dwindling fish catch, supposedly because of the crocodiles. We were too late, of course, as Boyet’s neighbors, who got to the crocodile first, beat the poor reptile black and blue—punctured its eyes, electrocuted, hogtied, and eventually killed it. We saw only the skeleton of its giant head.
 
Wildlife officials said it was about 19 feet long, just a foot shorter than Lolong. Imagine encountering one of those crocodiles on your leisurely boat ride around the marsh.
 
Siargao Island, back then, was my idea of nirvana. It was so quiet compared to the already crowded Boracay, with only a handful of resorts. We went island-hopping, walked around tiny Guyam Island where there was no one else but my group of four people. I saw a colleague’s recent photo of the same island lately; I don’t want to go back.

_{The empty Guyam Island in 2002. Photo: BOBBY TIMONERA}

Siargao has become so popular with tourists, many of them foreigners crowding the shoreline, as resorts are sprouting all over. It rose to even more prominence when President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a six-month closure of Boracay Island in 2018 for environmental rehabilitation. Many of the Boracay-bound tourists ended up in Siargao.
 
Way back in 2001, the local government unit and environment workers, both from government and private organizations, were already racing against time against the combined forces of tourism, illegal fishing, and other forms of environmental degradation in Siargao. I sincerely hope their efforts make headway.
 
Fiesta sa Mindanao
 
My engagement with Mobile Media extended up to 2003, when Boss Mike assigned me to cover Mindanao’s major festivals and sporting events all year round. Whoa! That was a dream assignment for me – going places and getting paid for it.
 
Every month, I’d pick a destination or two anywhere in Mindanao, then either drive there or fly. With Ford as one of the sponsors, there were a few times when I’d drop by their dealership office in Cagayan de Oro, leave my car there, and get a speedier 4×4 Ford demo pickup truck.

_{Davao City’s Kadayawan Festival in 2003. Photo: BOBBY TIMONERA}

I drove to as far as Lake Sebu in South Cotabato for the Helobung Festival to witness the celebration by real tribal people, not just students in costumes. I saw the beautiful white beach in Cagwait in Surigao del Sur where the faithful celebrate the feast of St. John the Baptist. And the regatta of colorful vintas in Zamboanga is a sight to behold. I asked my friends who among them had the free time to join me in a joy ride and visit beautiful places, for free, because my wife wouldn’t let me go alone on long drives. I had a steady list of volunteers.
 
But towards the end of the year, the enthusiasm and the excitement began to wane. I noticed that in some cases, the costumes, the music, and the dance steps had become similar. Apparently, some enterprising choreographers had toured the island to coach street dancing participants, for a fee of course, even bringing with them costumes for rent.
 
Nevertheless, I collected quite a lot of images worthy to be framed and displayed on the wall. In 2004, I was invited to mount a photo exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Not bad, considering that in most of those assignments, I was using a three-megapixel point-and-shoot.
 
MindaNews Coffee Table Book
 
In 2011, MindaNews ventured into publishing a coffee table book on Mindanao. It would have two sections: events of the century’s first 10 years, and places to see in all its 26 provinces.
 
We have a vast collection of all the major events of Mindanao from 2000 to 2010. But we lacked pictures of some of the provinces. How to fill in the gaps? Long drives, and more long drives. It was my first time to travel along Mindanao’s eastern seaboard, from Davao City all the way to Surigao City, enjoying the long coastline facing the Pacific Ocean, and savoring the fresh, exotic seafoods in restaurants by the shore.

_{The joy of travelling along Mindanao’s eastern seaboard. Photo: BOBBY TIMONERA}

It was scary, though, seeing signboards that read: “Road leading to safe area in case of tsunami.” But it was also on this trip that I first saw with my own eyes the devastation wrought by the mining industry; the mountains of Surigao were being flattened for ore, and the pollution was seeping into the once pristine Pacific Ocean.
 
Mindanao is indeed a beautiful place, with so much to see in this vast island. If only we could preserve its beauty.
 
The Future
 
The future promises to be exciting, and hopefully safer, for a photojournalist covering Mindanao.
 
For one, the highways are getting better, a lot of roads are now paved. We can get to remote destinations faster. For instance, Iligan used to be part of Central Mindanao or Region 12, with Cotabato City as the regional center. But how to get to Cotabato from Iligan? There used to be a flight from Balo-i in Lanao del Norte to Cotabato, but these were not regular, and even less so after the crash of a Philippine Airlines flight in Lanao del Sur in 1987. To travel by land, one has to drive to Butuan, then to Davao, then to Cotabato City if you want the more comfortable, paved roads. Otherwise, you have to endure the rough roads of Lanao del Sur all the way to Maguindanao, and risk encountering armed rebels that roam the highways. Sometimes, the MILF even put up checkpoints. Or you could take the bus to Pagadian and from there get on those old rickety wooden boats to Cotabato crossing Illana Bay.
 

_{Moving around MIndanao is now much easier, thanks to the much improved road network, like this highway in Talakag, Bukidnon, which opened only recently. Photo: BOBBY TIMONERA}

From a technology standpoint, digital cameras are now so advanced that camera manufacturers are having difficulty adding new features. Combine that with the ever- increasing number of cell sites that can handle 3G or 4G (5G is coming, right?), and sending photos from the field is now much faster.
 
I was so amazed at the combination of these technologies while covering the BARMM plebiscite in January and February 2019, and the elections the following May. After photographing voters during the opening of the precincts in Matungao, Lanao del Norte in the early hours, and later, the arrest of suspected bombers in Marantao, Lanao del Sur after the balloting had closed, I transferred my photos from my digital camera to my smartphone wirelessly, and then emailed them to the office right there and then, sending my pictures almost in real time. If only we had this technology during my firing squad shoot in 1997, my pictures could have landed on page one the day after. But that was 22 years prior.
 
Safety wise, it is now easier for news agencies to monitor the whereabouts of their people in the field. A tracker can be installed in one’s cell phone, and leave it running while roaming the remote areas. As long as there are mobile phone signals, the office can see on a map where in Mindanao their people are.
 
Maybe I just got older, but I now find it easier to cover the military. Their officers and rank and file are more approachable compared to the “good old days” when I was doing reportage fresh out of college. I documented the NGO Balay Mindanaw’s engagement with the military from 2009 until 2018 where they taught soldiers how to deal with civilians without scaring them away. Froilan also initiated safety training for journalists in partnership with the 4ID in Cagayan de Oro and in some camps under it in Northern Mindanao from 2007 to 2018.
 
With these developments on all fronts, these are exciting times indeed!

“Transfiguring Mindanao: A Mindanao Reader” has 34 chapters with 44 authors mostly coming from Mindanao and highlighting broad topics covering the historical, social, economic, political, and cultural features of the island and its people. The book is divided into six parts: Part I is History, Historical Detours, Historic Memories; Part II is Divergent Religions, Shared Faiths, Consequential Ministries; Part III is Colonized Landscapes, Agricultural Transitions, Economic Disjunctions; Part IV is Disjointed Development, Uneven Progress, Disfigured Ecology; Part V is Mediating Truths, Contested Communities, Making Peace; and Part VI is Exclusionary Symbols, Celebrated Values, Multilingual Future. Edited by Jose Jowel Canuday and Joselito Sescon, this book is a landmark in studies on Mindanao.) 

Get your copy from the Ateneo University Press, Shopee, or Lazada.

Watch the book launch here.