JUNE 20 - JUNE 26, 2021 14 SHEILA MAE FLORES-BARDAGO HOW I KEEP FIT sheilamaebardago@gmail.com


What started your journey to fitness? What compelled you to make a lifestyle change? It was in 2014, I was always feeling weird. I would feel extremely sad, then I wouldn’t have the energy to do anything else. I was feeling anxious just about anything random, then I would have sudden crying episodes for no apparent reason. Then I would feel irritable at the slightest provocation. I couldn’t sleep well, and I continued to indulge in anything I felt like eating. Then my obstetrician- gynecologist explained to me I was going through post- partum depression; I had just given birth to my second son. I was definitely overweight at 100 kilos. I can’t imagine now how I got to that point that I weighed 220 pounds, like a giant panda. Just realizing that encouraged me to exercise.


How did you get to that point? How was your regular day like before? I n my college days, I was engaged in d ifferent kind s


spor ts .


was playing volleyball, I would go bowling, I would play softball, and even lawn tennis. I was very active but I was pabaya with my intake. That time, I also had a lot of vices such as


of I


EYE....FROM P. 6


We need to remind again everyone that ‘culture and the arts’ count. Cities provide ideal workspaces for artists and cultural managers and the local economy thrives because of it. Culture and the arts contribute to a more balanced and sustainable urban development, they are part and parcel of urban revitalization. It provides a formidable opportunity for personal development and social interaction, it can even provide individuals a chance to start their own businesses and catch up socially.


We need to remember that while it doesn’t literally feed our stomachs, it feeds our souls and minds.


drinking and going out with friends – which meant I was always eating even when I was not hungry. After doing that for years and years, you can imagine the neglect on my health. Then my husband,


a seaman who was based in Spain by the year 2015, suddenly suffered a fatal aneurysm. I was shocked! To think he was the one being health-conscious. I was more than devastated. I began to fear for my unhealthy way of life. I was so scared I was telling myself I need to be fit, healthy, and strong for our two kids; our second child was only 10 months old.


So what did you initially do to make some changes? That time I had one friend at Fit & Play gym who


THE WIDE READER By Ian Rosales Casocot T


here’s something incredibly rewarding in both the strangeness and familiarity you get as a package in a staycation. I’m not sure how I discovered the concept, but I’ve been doing this for a few years now in Dumaguete— and it has not lost its appeal every single time. It feels like a reward, a necessary change of place to reset without the hassle of travel, and a chance to rediscover your City once more, with the oblique perspective of being a tourist in your own place.


For sure, it’s a privilege. Not everyone has access to this chance, to this privilege—and perhaps in a better world we can strive for, all of us can be afforded this pleasurable opportunity to “get away” without exactly going away. I think it started for me as curiosity for the growing number of hotels and resorts in Dumaguete as well as in adjoining towns. Growing up


here in the 1980s, and coming to age in the 1990s, I never saw the hotels that were in existence then as areas where a local boy like me was welcome. These places felt like a refuge for the moneyed class, the hub of visiting friends who had cash to spare.


Crux of the matter I believe that in creating an innovative, green and just economy, our governments will need to play a dynamic role in positioning markets and the different sectors of society towards deep transformation. The aim is for industries to develop, cultivate and mainstream newfangled set of products, services and business models that can provide solutions to the problems that our society is being confronted today. To this end, public- and private-sector stakeholders must provide new alliance models and collaborative methods with a focus on shared intellectual property rights, a rebalancing of risks and rewards, and a priority towards sustainability and societal benefit.


The unexpected pleasures of staycations TO PAGE 9


alien world full of unknown pleasures.


We lived in the Bantayan/ Piapi area three times in the course of my family moving houses to rent through the years, and in the early years, my brothers and I, plus some neighborhood friends, would go to Silliman Beach to swim. Once, we had too much fun, and barely noticed that the sky was darkening towards evening. I remember that in the dimming daylight, we suddenly saw the lights of South Sea Resort—now The Henry—go up in spectacular sparkle. We heard music, we heard the hubbub of bright conversation. In the darkness of the shore, we spied on the people in the resort, and it looked to me like a completely


I cannot recall what I thought then. Did I respond with awe? Most likely. But I must have felt an inner wish to someday be part of that rarified spectacle—to one day be “someone enough” to stay in a resort or a hotel. It was a strange sort of aspirational wish only a kid could muster. I don’t think like that anymore—or at least I think I don’t. These days, I go and check in at local hotels to basically “reset.”


Everyday living can have its small horrors of over- familiarity. Being cooped up in one’s apartment can be suffocating. Sometimes one just needs to get away from all that to be able to refreshen. And sometimes, this gets compounded by the pressures and responsibilities we need to meet in the name of life and work. When I’ve done my part in meeting those, I long for just rewards: a feast at a good


restaurant, or a long massage at a good spa, or a staycation. Dining out and getting the spa treatment are the usual escapes for me—but a staycation is something I do once in a while. That way, it becomes somehow special, a rare treat to rejuvenate myself. On a good queen- size bed with just the right amount of softness, surrounded by fluffy pillows, the air-conditioning steady, the light fixtures brightening the unfamiliar room with just the right amount of bright yellow, I feel most relaxed and excited at the same time. But then again, I’ve always


liked hotel rooms. I like traveling for the most part— and settling in our temporary domiciles in strange cities after a long haul is always part of the pleasure.


the forefront in addressing social and environmental challenges. And not simply as a moral imperative – but as a commercial one, with inseparable links to continuing economic triumph and constructive public impact. Culture & arts


In one of their last photos together, Alan Cordova (right) showed his usual support for his classmate Dr. Michael Ozoa during the blessing of the Negros Polymedia Hospital


OZOA....FROM P. 11


Cordova was always always working on a good cause -- until his final day as he was lending his support to the Army for their advocacy, maybe unaware that he was actually riding his bike home to our Maker. Alan’s brand of service was unique in that he could walk with the high and mighty, and still comfortably sit and talk with the poor and lowly.


At any given time, Alan BANDAL....FROM P. 11


Our differences started last year because of certain issues relating to the CoViD pandemic. That is why I hate this CoViD. This has not only been physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially stressful,


tendency to break friendships. Ours started with the issue on the CoViD meals. We disagreed on how we should tackle the issue, and who should be held accountable. Yet despite all these, the bond of our friendship remained. That is how genuinely good a friend Alan is.


it also has the


Dumaguete lost a great leader when we lost Alan Cordova. We lost a good friend. We lost an ideal resident. But while Alan may have gone ahead, he did not leave us with nothing; he left us his legacy. Farewell, my friend. You might be gone now but your legacy lives on. Thank you for the positive impact you have made on our lives.


Michael Bandal


Dumaguete City Councilor


Alan Gel Cordova is a big loss for the St. Louis School Class of ‘84 and for the entire Dumaguete. We pray that his legacy of “humble service above self” will live on, long after he is gone.


Louis School Class of ‘84 love you. Farewell.


Rest in peace, Bai. The St.


Dr. Robert Michael Ozoa Urologist


do this. There’s one playwright I know who goes to a love motel (Victoria Court, if I remember correctly) to write the pieces he needs to submit for competitions like the Palanca. He almost always wins, so these love motels are a significant part of his creative process.


But a staycation can also be a refuge, not for pleasure, but for work. I find that I cannot really write in the comforts of my own apartment. My own bed is too familiar, too ready, and too near, and I inevitably find myself drawn towards it—so instead of working, I fall asleep instead. Going to a hotel


to wo rk so l v e s that because the unfamiliarity gives you a kind of edge. Sure, there’s a comfortable bed within your reach, but knowing that you’re paying for staying here somehow forces you to get right on the work.


I know many writers who


I go to hotels to do reports, to crunch grades, to read student papers, to write stories—and when I get hungry, there’s always room service to meet my dietary needs. On rare occasions, always


on weekends or holidays, I just want to feel like a tourist in my own City. Staying in a local hotel completes the illusion I need to take in that touristy vibe. After checking in and resting for a bit, I go out with my old and still trusty point- and-shoot digital camera to explore the neighborhood or street the hotel is on. Of course, I’ve seen these Dumaguete neighborhoods and streets a thousand times before, but never with this special scrutiny. I get constantly surprised by what I discover when I look at nooks and crannies for real, without the rush of merely passing by them in ordinary days, which blinds


us to these things: a wooden house tucked in a small lot with an overgrown garden you’ve always taken for granted before, an old fading mural on a wall you’ve never seen up close, an alley that leads you to the interiors of a block that teems with living you have no idea about. My rule has always been this: stay within the barangay of the hotel throughout the duration of my stay, which includes selecting restaurants in the vicinity when I want to dine out, and going for local sights when I want to go around. The limitation can be fun—and I get to discover new things I would normally not go for.


The pandemic—and the long lockdown—has been an exhausting period for a lot of us. Being cooped up in one’s house or apartment for days on end felt like a strange adventure at first—but I bet, eventually, the grind of familiarity has driven some of us mad. Which is to be expected.


Last November, when things relaxed for a bit in Dumaguete, someone tipped me off that Rovira Suites in Bantayan was offering a weekend staycation promo


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