November 21, 2011

As a journalist, Kara David has been everywhere in the Philippines. She has already conquered the highest peaks and traversed some of the farthest barrios.

This Monday Kara continues to go deeper into the country’s terrain. This time, her mission is to uncover the mystery of one of the deepest caves in the country.

“Ang Mundo sa Ilalim” will feature a dangerous cave known as “Robin’s Cave” in Las Navas, Samar.

The cave was discovered in 2004 and was found to have a depth of 161 meters, just two meters short of the recorded deepest cave found in Sagada, Mountain Province.

But in 2006 Italian spelunkers learned that it might break the record set by the Sagada cave as new passages were revealed.

Today, the spelunkers are back in Samar and Kara David joins their exploration.

Are the mysteries of “Robin’s Cave” ready to be unravelled?

The waves that the October winds bring have made its call on its faithful disciples. And they came flocking to the tip of Eastern Samar to show their respect. It’s “Swell Season!” Filipinos from different surfing spots in the country are all eyes on the Pacific side of sleepy Calicoan Island, pitching their tents at the beach, bonding over bottles of beer, doing what they do best— waiting for a moment with their perfect wave.

Surfer Paolo Soler introduces Reel Time audiences to the world of surfing like no other insider. Surfing is not just about the sport- it is a world of its own! And now locals of Calicoan Island are starting to look into the promise of surfing. Among the hopefuls for this year’s competition are the island’s best bets: Cindy Balbuena and Alvin Marquito. Both surfers learned their skill by practicing on surfboards donated to the community by foreign surfers.

For Paul-Paul, Cindy’s 10 year-old brother, the sea is his playground. As he switches between his shy and gentle smile and his quick and energetic surftricks, elder surfers of Calicoan put their hopes high on this 4-footer. But it is not all play and competition. What Charlie Balansay considers “home” is the hut which is headquarters for Calicoan’s Surf Club. Here, young and old surfers alike share their passion for the waves.  For Charlie, every day is a day for surfing, whether or not he is out there at the waves.

How will these locals fare against experienced surfers of Siargao, La Union and Quezon? Find out more about surfing, the highs and lows of riding a wave, and the bond between surfers on this Reel Time documentary hosted by Paolo Soler.

All over the Philippines , there is a hunt in areas where Japanese soldiers were last seen. Treasures, they are. But not your regular treasures of Buddha, gold bars and coins. These treasures do not shine and glitter. They are bones— bones of dead Japanese soldiers.

At the helm for Northern Luzon searches is Santos Bayucca, an Ifugao bone hunter. Santos belongs to a non-profit Japanese organization whose goal is simple: send these Japanese soldier bones, their esteemed heroes, back to their homeland.

Rain or shine, through rivers and mountains, Howie Severino follows Santos and the bone treasures he and his hunters dig up. These bones are silent testament to war stories of yesteryears.

But in remote Brgy. Wangwang in Tinoc, Ifugao, silence is broken when reports of stolen bones come out. The community is disturbed. Who dares desecrate their dead?

Mariano Cutiyog, a Kalanguya who lost two sets of bones of his relatives, could not point blame at anybody. He’s safe-kept the bones of his dead family in a number of burial caves for years now, and with this loss, he worries on the security of supposedly remote parts of the Ifugao mountains. The old man stares silently at what was left of one of his burial caves: a piece of his aunt’s skull.

Is it possible that Filipino bones were labeled as Japanese soldier bones?

Sixty years after the Japanese Occupation, rumors of gold left hidden in the Philippines still live. In Cagayan Valley , one of the last strongholds of the Japanese during the war, there is a city of tunnels – an intricate network of underground passages that were built by locals in search of hidden treasures.

Kara David meets Tatang Ago, 82 years old, a living witness who claims he carried highly valuable and secret packages for the Japanese before the war ended. He recalls being instructed never to look at the contents of the mysterious packages which he believed were tucked away in their town.

Together with Tatang Ago’s son “Ben”, Kara David begins her own search for hidden gold and discovers an old balete tree that hides a tunnel underneath. They discover chambers inside the tunnel, and markings believed to have been left by the Japanese. Tatang Ago and his son are convinced that the treasure is within their reach, but will they finally find it?

“The Last Japanese Soldier”

Japan surrendered in 1945, ending World War II. But the war continued for another 29 years in the mind of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese intelligence officer assigned to Lubang Island off Mindoro . When he finally emerged from the jungle in 1974 and returned to Japan , he was celebrated as a devoted soldier.

Howie Severino and his I-Witness team retrace some of Onoda’s steps in the rugged forest of Lubang and imagine his life in the wild. But they also discover some ugly truths about what he did to survive and persist in his mission.

When the Allied Forces returned to Lubang Island in 1945, the Japanese military had no choice but to retreat. Hoping for a Japanese counterattack, Onoda and his men did everything to survive in the jungle and prepared themselves to fight till the end. Surrender was not an option.

For many years since World War II, Lt. Hiroo Onoda and his three Japanese soldiers lived off the resources of the jungle and of the residents of Lubang Island – armed with warrior instincts of survival, force and intimidation. For 29 years, going to the jungle was no easy task for the residents because somewhere in that expanse was Lt. Onoda, the lone surviving Japanese guerrilla who continued to carryout his military orders. For 29 years, some Filipino lives were lost for a war that no longer existed.

Howie Severino and outdoorsman David Tajan enter the jungles of Lubang Island to retrace the trails of Lt. Onoda. How did this environment define the hero that Lt. Onoda now is? And where do the casualties of war, the Lubang residents, fit in a war that is only imagined?

Noynoy Aquino won the presidency by a landslide with over 15 million votes. But millions more did not vote for him, including nearly 10 million who voted for the disgraced former president Joseph Estrada, who presumably captured a big part of his usual constituency among the poor.

Can Noynoy be president of the entire country, and not just to those who voted for him? And will he also be president of the poor despite his privileged and wealthy background, and the Aquinos’ traditional base among the middle class?

To get a sense of the mood of the poor towards Aquino, Howie Severino and his I-Witness team focus on two communities where Aquino was not expected to win, Navotas City and Hacienda Luisita.

Many of the Erap supporters who provided warm bodies for EDSA Tres and stormed Malacanang came from Navotas, while farmers on Hacienda Luisita have long been fighting for the distribution of land owned by the Cojuangco side of Aquino’s clan.

What they found and the people they met in these communities surprised Howie and his team, a harbinger of a truly fresh start for the nation.

Lean Rey Francisco is almost 3 years old, but unlike many kids his age, he cannot play, walk, crawl, nor sit up. His malnourishment is so severe that the simple task of rolling over requires tremendous effort from the child. His grandmother is the only adult taking care of him and his two other siblings in Pasacao, Camarines Sur.

Lean has never tasted milk from his mother but fed on rice coffee for most of his 3 years.

In Pasacao, 80% of the children weighed were severely malnourished and all of them are coffee drinkers. Because of poverty, most people in Pasacao believe that coffee is enough to feed a child. But how much nutritional value does coffee really have?

What happened to Lean?

Kara David’s search for answers takes her to Bulacan in search of Lean’s mother, then to Manila where medical records show Lean was once a healthy baby. As the child’s history unfolds, Kara discovers how coffee became a great determinant of Lean’s condition.

Forced to live under the shadow of another Mangyan Tribe, for years the Bangons escaped notice from the lowlanders. They retreated to the mountains of Mindoro and avoided modern influence.

As more and more lowlanders explored the hinterlands, things drastically changed and threatened the traditional ways of these elusive people. With no other place to run to, they are slowly forced to assimilate and accept modern influence.

However, things were not easy for the Bangons. The desire to hold on to their own culture has made them the target of discrimination from those who know little of them. This has forced some to accept new ways of life and slowly let go of their unique and colorful tradition. The few who remain steadfast in staying true to their culture are said to have retreated even deeper into the mountains.

Kara David attempts to locate this elusive group and uncovers the true meaning of being Bangon.