Jayrald by Jp Eugenio

THE BEST OF ILIGAN CITY

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Tadman tallies the best of Iligan’s very best during THE CLASS OF 2014’s graduating year BY LEWEY JIMOYA

ligan has always been a city of variety. From pizza shops to street food, Iliganons can’t be satiated with just one kind – they must experience an entire array of the same thing. As a result, Iliganons have become connoisseurs in tons of stuff. I think this is precisely why the Iliganon lifestyle never becomes stale in spite of it being relatively idle. Here, life is not experienced as a routine: to the Iliganon, every day is an adventure! There are always new kinds of food to eat, new places to go to, new activities to engage in. Of course, within the diversity of products, the assortment of delicacies, the variety of tourist destinations, there are a few choices that are simply a cut above the rest. I took it upon myself, then, to handpick the very best that Iligan had to offer during your final year as an IITian. While I was not born and raised in Iligan, I too have acquired the same refined taste that all Iliganons share. I have lived in Iligan for a better portion of my life and have come to love and embrace Iligan’s vibrant “urban-rural” culture. I have been to a lot of Iligan’s tourist spots, and I’ve been to a majority of the city’s restaurants. In fact, I have rented over ten bedroom spaces and apartments in the course of my eight-year stay here! It is in this context that I feel I am qualified to handpick the very best of Iligan’s best in a multitude of categories. And in your final year, boy, were there a lot of really good options to choose from. Let me bring you back to memory lane as I enumerate the best party sites, the best barbecue stalls – heck, even the best milk tea brews – during 2013 and 2014, two very colorful years in Iligan’s history.

BEST MILKTEA

BEST HANGOUT

BEST STREET FOOD

BEST PIZZA

The AY 2013-2014 was the year when Milk Tea stores were all the rage in Iligan City. What stood out the most though were the excellent concoctions at Partea Partea, near Zoey’s Café at the heart of the city. Unlike most shops, their tea is brewed which makes the tea flavor stand out from the mishmash of ingredients. Their sinkers accentuate the tea’s flavor as well, making the final product’s tang rich and full.

Whether you’re just chilling or studying for your final exams, Coffeeworks, near Sanitarium Hospital, is the place to be. They have an outstanding menu of coffees, frappes, shakes and cakes. It also doesn’t hurt that the place is cozy and air-conditioned. Add to that their free Wi-Fi service, and you get the best hangout place in town.

Proben (sometimes spelled “Proven”) has gotten so popular in Iligan, it’s insane. It’s actually not absurd to see IITians around the city plaza lining up for a piece of that Proben action. It’s so named because it consists essentially of the proventriculus of a chicken, dipped in cornstarch, and deep-fried.

In terms of flavor, Pizzarella definitely is a cut above the rest. Their pizza almost always oozes with cheesy perfection, and is always served hot. Pizzarella also has one of the coziest and coolest restaurants around. Painted on their walls are murals depicting Italian lifestyle and culture, in keeping with their “L’Italia” motif.

RUNNERS UP: Centennial Park, Sportsbuck

RUNNERS UP: Tempura, Kwek-kwek

RUNNERS UP: Alberto’s, R. Kelly

RUNNERS UP: Lazy Panda, Cozy Cup

BEST INDUSTRY

BEST CLUB

BEST POOL

BEST WATERFALLS

Granex made headlines in 2013 when one of its coconut oil mills conflagrated into ashes in May. The fire raged for almost a week and cost the company 220 million pesos in damages. As a company, Granex Philippines has been an important component of the city’s developing industry. According to the Philippine Ports Authority, in 1979, Granex expanded the crushing capacity of its Iligan Oil Mill from 500 to 1000 MT, making it the “Biggest Coconut Oil Mill in the World”.

2013 is the year we see Midpark, Iligan’s newest and biggest party hub, come into existence. It’s huge, it’s glitzy, and it has everything we want in a bar and more. The entire place can be divided into three: the pastry shop (named Churvaloo), a huge open space for customers just wanting to chill, and a discotheque that caters to hardcore, dancing partygoers.

The Timoga chain of pools has some of the most popular diving destinations in Iligan City. Mimar’s, between De La Mar and Holiday’s, is a perennial choice for swimming getaways, and this year it is our surefire pick. Not only does it have more than five full-sized pools (with varying depths), it also features a natural free-flowing spring, untouched by the managers of the resort.

Iligan City is home to more than 20 pristine waterfalls, but Maria Cristina, standing 320 feet tall, is probably the most majestic of them all. It is Iligan’s premiere landmark, and for good reason: it is also the primary source of electric power for the city’s industries, harnessed by the Agus VI Hydroelectric Plant.

RUNNER UP: 11:49

RUNNERS UP: Maze Park, Pilmico

RUNNERS UP: Tinago, Mimbalot

RUNNERS UP: Holcim, Pilmico

NEWSMAKERS 2014 1 Hope amid the Storm Yolanda, one of the deadliest typhoons to ever hit our beloved country, pummeled everything on its wake on November 2013. With wind speeds as high as 170 mph, the storm wreaked havoc all over the archipelago, ravaging major parts of Visayas and taking the lives of at least 5,000 people, despite massive evacuation efforts by the local government. Our kababayan, fortunately enough, gained the sympathy of the international community after they saw the immensity of the destruction that the typhoon has caused. Help came pouring in, with countries like the U.S. and New Zealand pledging to provide financial assistance to the victims.

2 ‘Royals’ Becomes Massive Hit From out of nowhere, New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde took the world by storm when her debut single “Royals” slowly climbed the charts, eventually landing at No. 1 in multiple countries, and staying nine weeks at the US Billboard Charts. The song, which is intended as a “response to everything that’s on pop radio”, received international critical acclaim, winning an APRA Silver Scroll Award, and then Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. By the end of 2013, the track was listed as one of the year’s best songs by media outlets including Rolling Stone, Time and Spin.

3 The Filipina Rules 2013 was an unbelievably glorious year for Filipina beauty queens. Four prestigious beauty titles were won by the country this year, a feat no other country has ever managed to accomplish. The Philippines won Miss World (Megan Young), Miss International (Bea Rose Santiago), Miss Supranational (Mutya Johanna Datul), and Miss Tourism International (Angeli Dione Gomez). Ariella Arida, Bb. Pilipinas-Universe of 2013, also won 3rd Runner-up at the prestigious Miss Universe pageant.

4 Dota Excites with The Int’l 3 Dota has always been big in the IITian community, particularly with the male demographic. That is why when the annual Dota 2 “The International” (TI) tournament arrived last July, the entire community just got pumped up! Fan favorites and TI1 champions Na’Vi were expected to play hard and win big this time around, given their devastating loss against defending champions Invictus Gaming (IG) on TI2. In the end, it was The Alliance, headed by the legendary Dota player Loda, who took the aegis and the $1,000,000, the biggest cash prize in all of eSports to date.

5 ‘Inferno’ Sparks Controversy On 2013, mystery thriller writer Dan Brown, author of the immensely popular “The Da Vinci Code”, enraged Filipino readers everywhere by referring to Manila as the “Gates of Hell” in his latest book “Inferno”. Nevertheless, it became a critical and commercial success, with New York Daily News calling it a book of “harrowing fun threaded with coded messages, art history, science, and imminent doom.”

6 Hope amid the Storm On 2013, mystery thriller writer Dan Brown, author of the immensely popular “The Da Vinci Code”, enraged Filipino readers everywhere by referring to Manila as the “Gates of Hell” in his latest book “Inferno”. Nevertheless, it became a critical and commercial success, with New York Daily News calling it a book of “harrowing fun threaded with coded messages, art history, science, and imminent doom.”

7 No Stopping the Heat Because of the conspicuous lack of a Filipino-starred boxing match in 2013, basketball, the second biggest sport in the country, was thrust into the spotlight. And on that year there was a matchup that the entire country did watch together – the NBA Finals 2013 featuring no less than the Miami Heat, vying for a back-to-back championship win, and the San Antonio Spurs, consisted by a much older and more experienced Big Three: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. After seven heart-stopping games the fan favorite Heat defeated the Spurs, becoming only the fourth team to win the NBA Title by coming back from a 3–2 series deficit. LeBron James won Finals MVP.

7 No Stopping the Heat Yolanda, one of the deadliest typhoons to ever hit our beloved country, pummeled everything on its wake on November 2013. With wind speeds as high as 170 mph, the storm wreaked havoc all over the archipelago, ravaging major parts of Visayas and taking the lives of at least 5,000 people, despite massive evacuation efforts by the local government. Our kababayan, fortunately enough, gained the sympathy of the international community after they saw the immensity of the destruction that the typhoon has caused. Help came pouring in, with countries like the U.S. and New Zealand pledging to provide financial assistance to the victims.

7 No Stopping the Heat From out of nowhere, New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde took the world by storm when her debut single “Royals” slowly climbed the charts, eventually landing at No. 1 in multiple countries, and staying nine weeks at the US Billboard Charts. The song, which is intended as a “response to everything that’s on pop radio”, received international critical acclaim, winning an APRA Silver Scroll Award, and then Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. By the end of 2013, the track was listed as one of the year’s best songs by media outlets including Rolling Stone, Time and Spin.

7 No Stopping the Heat 2013 was an unbelievably glorious year for Filipina beauty queens. Four prestigious beauty titles were won by the country this year, a feat no other country has ever managed to accomplish. The Philippines won Miss World (Megan Young), Miss International (Bea Rose Santiago), Miss Supranational (Mutya Johanna Datul), and Miss Tourism International (Angeli Dione Gomez). Ariella Arida, Bb. Pilipinas-Universe of 2013, also won 3rd Runner-up at the prestigious Miss Universe pageant.

7 No Stopping the Heat Dota has always been big in the IITian community, particularly with the male demographic. That is why when the annual Dota 2 “The International” (TI) tournament arrived last July, the entire community just got pumped up! Fan favorites and TI1 champions Na’Vi were expected to play hard and win big this time around, given their devastating loss against defending champions Invictus Gaming (IG) on TI2. In the end, it was The Alliance, headed by the legendary Dota player Loda, who took the aegis and the $1,000,000, the biggest cash prize in all of eSports to date.

7 No Stopping the Heat On 2013, mystery thriller writer Dan Brown, author of the immensely popular “The Da Vinci Code”, enraged Filipino readers everywhere by referring to Manila as the “Gates of Hell” in his latest book “Inferno”. Nevertheless, it became a critical and commercial success, with New York Daily News calling it a book of “harrowing fun threaded with coded messages, art history, science, and imminent doom.”

THE TADMAN

NEWS MAKERS 2014

he IITian in the A.Y. 2013-2014 witnessed many great things both locally and internationally. Indeed it was a year of diametric opposites – stories of hope and despair, of triumph and loss, all astounded and shook the IIT community in more ways than one. A death in South Africa is mourned. A plane vanished and the whole world went looking for it. A dance move is simultaneously celebrated and condemned. A new hope is found for a seemingly incurable disease. Surely the events that took place between June 2013 and March 2014 helped inform the collective consciousness of the MSU-IIT Class Altiora. As such, in defining the place of this particular Class in the annals of MSU-IIT’s history, it is necessary to describe the bigger moments that surrounded it. Let us relive humanity’s greatest victories, the most noteworthy events and the most significant personalities around the world during the Class’ final year in MSU-IIT.

The Filipina Rules the World, the Universe, and Others 2013 was an unbelievably glorious year for Filipina beauty queens. Four prestigious beauty titles were won by the country this year, a feat no other country has ever managed to accomplish. The Philippines won Miss World (Megan Young), Miss International (Bea Rose Santiago), Miss Supranational (Mutya Johanna Datul), and Miss Tourism International (Angeli Dione Gomez). Ariella Arida, Bb. Pilipinas-Universe of 2013, also won 3rd Runner-up at the prestigious Miss Universe pageant.

Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’ Sparks Controversy From out of nowhere, New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde took the world by storm when her debut single “Royals” slowly climbed the charts, eventually landing at No. 1 in multiple countries, and staying nine weeks at the US Billboard Charts. The song, which is intended as a “response to everything that’s on

HOPE AMID THE STORM Yolanda, one of the deadliest typhoons to ever hit our beloved country, pummeled everything on its wake on November 2013. The 170-mph typhoon ravaged major parts of Visayas and took the lives of at least 5,000 people, despite massive evacuation efforts by the local government. Help came pouring in aftewards, with countries like the U.S. and New Zealand pledging to provide financial assistance to the victims.

A TELEVISION CLASSIC COMES TO AN END After five jaw-dropping years, Breaking Bad, dubbed by many as one of the greatest television dramas of all time, came to an end on September 2013. The series, which is a story about a dying man who decides to take control of his destiny by inadvertently turning to a life of crime, starred Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul in what was probably the greatest roles in both of their careers.

A Newborn Is Functionally Cured of HIV A toddler born to a mother infected with HIV was, after two years, functional cured of the disease at the University of Mississippi Medical Hospital in 2013. Expert pediatricians used a combination of three anti-HIV drugs to shed the baby of its viral load. This victory is considered a step towards completely eliminating HIV, giving the infected victims a fighting chance if the disease is caught early enough by doctors. Dota Excites with The International 3 Dota has always been big in the IITian community, particularly with the male demographic. That is why when the annual Dota 2 “The International” (TI) tournament arrived last July, the entire community just got pumped up! Fan favorites and TI1 champions Na’Vi were expected to play hard and win big this time around, given their devastating loss against defending champions Invictus Gaming (IG) on TI2. In the end, it was The Alliance, headed by the legendary Dota player Loda, who took the aegis and the $1,000,000, the biggest cash prize in all of eSports to date.

Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’ Sparks Controversy On 2013, mystery thriller writer Dan Brown, author of the immensely popular “The Da Vinci Code”, enraged Filipino readers everywhere by referring to Manila as the “Gates of Hell” in his latest book “Inferno”. Nevertheless, it became a critical and commercial success, with New York Daily News calling it a book of “harrowing fun threaded with coded messages, art history, science, and imminent doom.”

The Plane Everyone Went Looking For On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) went missing at 2:40 A.M., less than an hour after takeoff. The aircraft carried 227 passengers from 14 nations. A joint search and rescue effort, later reported as the largest in history, was initiated. On 24 March, the Malaysian government confirmed that “beyond any reasonable doubt” the aircraft had gone down in the southern Indian Ocean with no survivors. The Plane Everyone Went Looking For South Africa’s first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela died on December 6, 2013 at the age of 95. Known affectionately by his clan name Madiba, he is considered one of the greatest human rights activists to have ever existed. After becoming imprisoned for almost 30 years, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Filipino Fire on Ice From out of nowhere, New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde took the world by storm when her debut single “Royals” slowly climbed the charts, eventually landing at No. 1 in multiple countries, and staying nine weeks at the US Billboard Charts. The song, which is intended as a “response to everything that’s on pop radio”, received international critical acclaim, winning an APRA Silver Scroll Award, and then Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. By the end of 2013, the track was listed as one of the year’s best songs by media outlets including Rolling Stone, Time and Spin. Filipino Fire on Ice From out of nowhere, New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde took the world by storm when her debut single “Royals” slowly climbed the charts, eventually landing at No. 1 in multiple countries, and staying nine weeks at the US Billboard Charts. The song, which is intended as a “response to everything that’s on pop radio”, received international critical acclaim, winning an APRA Silver Scroll Award, and then Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. By the end of 2013, the track was listed as one of the year’s best songs by media outlets including Rolling Stone, Time and Spin.

NEWSMAKERS 2014 Filipino Fire on Ice The Philippines made Olympic history in 2014 when Michael Martinez, a 17-year-old skater hailing from Muntinlupa, finished at 19th place during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Martinez is the first skater ever from Southeast Asia to qualify for the Olympics. Upon returning home he was warmly welcomed and received by his kababayan, who were astonished that for the first time a tropical country such as ours was able to produce such prodigious talent for ice skating.

Apple Amazes with iOS7, Two New iPhonest In 2013, Apple was the biggest player in the field of gadgetry and computing, and was actually the most valuable company in the entire world. This is why it is not surprising that Apple didn’t need to shuffle things up that much to get people hyped in their 2013 releases: this year they released the iOS7, giving Apple’s mobile devices an updated, sleeker and more minimalist look. They also released not one, but two iPhones this year: the iPhone 5S, which featured the first fingerprint scanner in a mobile device, and iPhone 5C, the first iPhone with a plastic body.

T H E

G R A D U A T I O N

S O N G

READY TO GO BEYOND Music: Samuel V. Bongcac Lyrics: Samuel Bongcac & Arnulfo P. Supe

How will I know If I can go farther from where I am If I don’t push myself to make my dreams do come true For years, I fought and struggled It shook my brain and spirit This time, I deserve a break, even just a smile Mama, look at me now with that same loving care What I’ve become is the fruit of what you sowed Papa, thank you for the many sacrifices Your guidance and patience made me who I am Chorus: (I’m now ready and prepared to face the world Am ready to be, world class Armed with the knowledge from IIT Am ready to go beyond) 2x

To my friends who accepted me for who I am For years, we shared together the laughter and the tears I’ll never forget you all, you are tattooed in my heart Thank God, I have you guys To always complete my day How can I forget my thoughtful Ma’am and Sir Their tireless nurturing helped me fulfill my dream I bow to my Institution, IIT I take pride to tell the world I am from IIT Adlib/ Instrumental … Repeat Chorus (Oooh Oooh, I made it Oooh Oooh, Thank you IIT I take pride to tell the world I’m from IIT) 2x I take pride to tell the world I’m from MSU-IIT

Arts ADVOCACY “The Arts have always been on the peripheries of our concerns…” - Steven P.C. Fernandez during a Good Morning Boss, Cultural Review: “Kaisa sa Sining” ng CCP interview

ABOUT MAN

With the Humanities often dismissed as irrelevant in this period of scientific thought and economic crisis, IIT continues to stress the role of the Culture and the Arts in holistic development BY Floraime Pantaleta

he Iligan Institute of Technology of the Mindanao State University is known for its excellence in Science and Technology. The Institute’s Seal of Excellence testifies to our commitment to this—“technological advancement”, “The need for expansion, advancement, and excellence in technology is projected by the lines directed outward of the triangle, the symbol of stability.” This is what IIT is. What IIT aims to be though, to be true to its commitment to the holistic formation of the individual and society, is a university that also believes in and upholds the Humanities. For the solely scientific mind is but a manifestation of Western influence, some of us would even dare call it “hegemony”. Humanities, Art—these help us build a collective narrative that we can tell our grandchildren and our grandchildren’s grandchildren about when they prepare to go to IIT themselves in the future, when IIT has become more than what it is today. It will be a narrative composed of music, dance, theatre, painting, photography, and literature. These will help us account for what will become our History. It will help us remember the stories that resound among these halls that bear witness to all that we have struggled through to wear that maroon robe at the end our stay in this institute. We need more than science. We need the humanities. Christine Henseler used theatre as a metaphor for our life saying that we all live in “tightly defined parameters”: “Each time an element in these and other parameters change, the entire world begins to change with it on what seems like an ever-moving stage of events.” The Humanities help us discern empathy by putting us in the shoes of another person through Art. We learn that there are many ways of looking at things by learning about how the peoples before and with us have seen things. We come alive when we find something that resound with our own lives. I would like to use to describe the Humanities the words of Dr. David N. Almarez, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance during the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) Pre-commencement exercises: “’One asks,

‘And what do we do with all these things? For what good is all these knowledge about man?’ The answer may be another question: ‘For what good is everything that we create and we make possible FOR Man, if we do not know ABOUT Man?’” Dr. Steven Patrick C. Fernandez, Artistic Director and Founder of the Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG) and the main proponent of the Cultural Studies program expected to be offered by the Institute in a few years asserts in his lecture entitled “Why Establish a Cultural Studies Program?” during a colloquium sponsored by the English Department of CASS that there is money in the creative industries and that it only needs to be honed. According to him, it has been articulated by the Chancellor himself, Sukarno D. Tanggol that there is a need for such a program. It is in the Humanities that we see a bigger picture and realize that the lenses we are looking through are just lenses. We learn important perspectives that affect us. We zoom out of the picture to see where we really are in a certain context. Because of the Humanities, we do not act blindly because we understand many things around and within us. Stanford University gives concrete examples for each area in the Humanities in their “Why do the humanities matter?” in their Stanford Humanities Center website: “Investigating a branch of philosophy might get you thinking about ethical questions. Learning another language might help you gain an appreciation for the similarities in different cultures. Contemplating a sculpture might make you think about how an artist’s life affected her creative decisions. Reading a book from another region of the world, might help you think about the meaning of democracy. Listening to a history course might help you better understand the past, while at the same time offer you a clearer picture of the future.” In this age where scientific thought has dominated most aspects of our lives, where we believe only in the things that can be proven by tangible evidences, where the ability to solve complex mathematical equations

are given a higher merit than the ability to write good poetry, where very little time is left to ponder about the things that are not of practical value, the Humanities need to make an assertion of its own relevance not only in and to the present time but to the entire existence of humanity, to the present generation and to the future generations. MSU-IIT has achieved a lot in the Culture and Arts arena. It is a home and birthplace to distinguished artists and groups in Mindanao, the Philippines, and even the world. The first that comes to mind is the world-acclaimed Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG), the resident theatre company of IIT, its Artistic Director and Founder, Steven Patrick C. Fernandez being one of the most unconventional minds that ever walked the halls of IIT. Professor Christine Godinez-Ortega, currently the Head of the National Commission for Culture and Arts-National Committee on Literary Arts (NCCA-NCLA) and a professor of the English Department, is a poet, fictionist, and essayist whose advocacy in promoting “the literatures of the regions particularly that of Mindanao” serves as just one of her many feats as a cultural worker. She is also the Director of the Iligan National Writers Workshop (INWW) where the Mindanao Creative Writers Group, composed of some of the country’s renowned poets, fictionists, playwrights, and essayists, share their knowledge and expertise with writers from all around the country who flock to join the said workshop. IIT has also been home to Jaime An Lim and Anthony L. Tan, award-winning writers who have been faculty members of the Department of English. Ralph Semino Galan, another established writer, is a graduate of the AB English program of the Institute. IIT is home to German Gervacio who is currently a faculty of the Filipino Department of CASS. The Institute is home to the 8va: The Octava Choral Society which has been recognized in international chorale competitions and continues to perform inside and outside the campus. Lastly, IIT has the Kalimulan Cultural Dance Troupe. IIT has collaborated with the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in many projects. Now, IIT is on its way to establishing its Cultural Studies program, the first ever in the country.