VIGAN KALESA TOUR

I was always fascinated with the old charm of Vigan. Vigan for me is the land of Bagnet and Longganisa. Omg! They make me tulo laway! Ha ha ha! Yummy yum yum!  I had a wonderful time roaming around in Vigan aboard a kalesa or horse drawn carriage which you could rent for P200 -300 per hour depending on your tawad skills. I was able to rent one for P200/ hour @ Plaza Salcedo in front of the Vigan Cathedral.

My first stop is the Vigan Cathedral.

The Vigan Cathedral also known as St. Paul's Cathedral is one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. During the Spanish times (1525), the Spaniards chose Vigan as their center of government. It was called the Villa Hernandina then the Spaniards built the Cathedral on this site in 1574 (by Juan de Salcedo) and was damaged in the earthquakes of 1619 and 1627. A second was built here in 1641 and the present baroque-style church was built in the 1800's.

The Cathedral withstood many earthquakes, the latest was in 1990. The church is kept beautifully by the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia. They just recently painted the Cathedral and it stands great with it's fresh creamy-white  look.

 ARZOBISPADO DE NUEVA SEGOVIA

 The priest live in the convent beside the church.

 

Diocese of Nueva Segovia.

Celine Acut's Facebook Post against Sendong Victims in Mindanao

Screen capture of supposed Facebook posts have gone viral, angering Filipinos and fueling their drive to help victims of tropical storm "Sendong" (international name Washi).

 

The posts were supposedly written by a certain Celine Acut, a Filipino living in France, and a certain Van Carumba, a Cebu native living in the United Arab Emirates.

“According to the news, almost all of the victims are poor families, so its better that they all die this early…whats the point of living a life which is full of hunger, at least they are now resting with peace..they are worthless, they are unproductive and their lives has no value at al.. they are just making more problems to the society so as i said its better that they have died this early.. they don’t desserve a chance to live because they are poor, they are not VIP anyways,” Acut’s first post said.

“I even wish sendong to come back and flash away those remaining poor families over there,” said her second post.

Van Carumba, meanwhile, posted on December 19, “Buti nangyari yan sa CDO (Cagayan de Oro)…Di pa namamatay lahat ng tao jan.” One person commented on her post, saying “Wag ka naman ganyan, di lahat ng taga-Cagayan de Oro may kasalanan sayo.”

An screen capture of a post written by Van Carumba on Facebook. It has been shared almost 600 times as of press time.

Acut’s Facebook profile has since been deleted, but the page was cached by Google on December 20. Screen captures of her profile posted online show that she studied at Mindanao State University-Iligan; lives in Le Petit-Paris, France and is engaged.

Carumba’s Facebook page is still active, but all her wall posts have been hidden aside from the controversial one she posted on Monday.

Acut and Carumba are now the subject of angry posts on social networking sites such as Twitter and Tumblr, and the screen captures of their posts have been posted on several blogs as of press time. Pages have even been created on Facebook specifically to bash them. 

One page on Acut had 1,544 likes, while the other had only 138. A page dedicated to Van Carumba had 451 likes as of press time.

Neither Acut nor Carumba could be reached for comment.

It is not certain if Acut is a real person or a figure created by people seeking to involve others in efforts to help the victims of tropical storm Sendong.

According to Camama Marwah from the Registrar’s Office of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, they have no records of a Celine Acut graduating from their school.

Online searches of her name yielded only social networking site links to the screen captures of her posts, and a search in French phone directories such as Pages Blanches and 118218.fr also came up negative.

Celine Acut's Facebook page, cached December 20, 2011. The account has been deleted.