A BACKGROUNDER

For someone who wasn't born in Bohol and still claim a tag of being a "proud Bol-anon" is hardly conceivable but not totally impossible in spite of the spite Boholanos sometimes underservedly get for just being Boholanos, much like as it were in Biblical timeframe where Jesus was at times accused of and being mocked for being a Nazarene himself as the perception during his days run something like this, "Is there anything good coming out of Nazareth?" "Is there anything good coming out of Bohol?" That I've heard so many times many years back as a young person as if coming from Bohol or being a Boholano is a curse unto itself or, again, a tag that one needed to shy away from or be ashamed of. Even without academic evidence of scientific studies supporting such belief or claim but it's almost safe to say that there were those who avoided being teased upon or mocked (in a good way, if there's such a thing as good mockery?) in front of many that you knew you were at a wrong place at a wrong time. Of course, I known people myself who dreaded such a nametag that they even ended up lying, i.e., claiming a different domicile or region-of-origin when asked such a question. I never understood why but I had my suspicions why they did.

And here comes the innocent me, a totally different bred, one who never spoke a hint of Bol-anon before the age of five, who had never set foot on this beautiful paradise since the last time God first thought of him long way after the Garden of Eden drama (confused already? LoL), who in youthful innocense had no clue where his lineage orginated from, and whose dad and mom were still fighting over the idea whether raising children is best served somewhere other than the big city or in the city itself, even when in those years big cities, including Manila, were still relatively primitive in comparison to the current millenium's definition of an 'urbis.'

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BOHOL, AN ACCENT OF HEAVEN

"Bohol Paradise" by Brydon Borja Lungay

Continued from page 1

(August 23, 2009) - But Bohol today is altogether a different story and Bol-anons a different bred. Don't take it from me. Just you be keen and observant. And objective, too.

Anywhere you go on the airwaves today, be it the information highway, Filipino channels or some local stations, the endless praise and word-of-mouth account people and visitors alike on Bohol have gone way beyond imagining like thirty or so years ago. Bohol is nowhere near the Nazareth of Biblical long-ago or the domicile locals used to shylly acknowledged , but has become more of a household name, a celebrity locale, a destination one shoots for in a lifetime, and, for a deeply-rooted Bol-anon, a place and home that he or she takes pride in, not with what used-to-be-a-chip-on-one's-shoulder but rather a sweet-sounding-music-to-my-ear self-proclaimed conceit: "I'm a Boholano, a Boholana, from the Republic of Bohol."

BOL-ANON KO, 'NYOR!

To be continued... napod