The Bogo Times

Bogo City -- its people and its leader is a story of romance. It was long time ago when Bogo was just an unassuming virgin hidden far from the glamorous capital metropolis, Cebu City. She was just sitting there very much content of the meager attention, economic activity and physical adornment. She was yet to become the head turner beauty of the north. On the other hand, a young man, whose umbilical cord was buried under the bogo tree by his late father, turned to manhood and noticed her. Bogo fondly calls him as Junie Martinez. His filial affection with the innocent lady, Bogo , sparked into a flaming passion of love and conviction that Bogo will soon rise into the pedestal of beauty coveted by many. In his young masculine strength and irresistible charm , Junie wooed her and won her love and devotion. The years of romance born a lot of progress, stability, dignity and unprecedented metamorphosis wherein the lowly little girl, Bogo, emerged as the glamorous and virtuous woman of th...

I remember the first time I visited Bogo in January of 1990. I met my pen pal, Miss Fe Jumao-as Alarde of Libertad, Bogo, in Manila at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. I arrived on Northwest Orient Airlines flight at 9:00 p.m. and was very anxious to meet the person with whom I had corresponded for more than 6 months. We had exchanged more than 300 letters and we had fallen in love through our letters to each other. I sent Fe a red T-shirt with my "Farm Tours" logo on the front and was wearing one myself so that it would be easy to see each other at the at the airport. I have to admit that I didn't sleep much on that 17 hour flight from L.A. via Tokyo and was always re-reading her latest letters and looking at her beautiful photo. I had been through a painful divorce a year earlier and her letters to me were like a "drink of cook water on a hot summer day". Sharing my feelings with her was the beginning of a much needed healing process for me. He...