SLEEPLESS (almost) AT 56

56 is a plea heard and a covenant with the Great Architect of the Universe.

56 is the angel who encouraged adaption to changes, staying positive, and heeding spiritual signs and guidance.

56 is a Korean-inspired sinadag in Angeles City, a breakfast of kiniing done 2-ways (dinakdakan and pinikpikan) along the dacquel nga carayan in Almaguer, and a watwat lunch of boiled and grilled pork in the mountains of Itogon.

56 is the number of pinuneg slices served with both birthday meals.  

56 is when sleep descends before 9 PM in Bakal 2 and leaves between 1-2 AM long after the din of a garage modification has faded, and escapes early still despite trapping it with beer-infused litson manok and fried luncheon meat.  

56 is when the Phantom Biker rode his bike in gratitude and supplication to the saints, wide awake and loaded with trimmings for the Manila Meeting and Convening, notes from the usual weekly meetings, and a requested ASEAN briefing; haunted by a partners' platform glitch, and chased by a branding requisition, the Global Programs Hub, and a system approval from another project.

56 is a chimaek combo for starters, a full gogigui for the entree, and a dessert of Aling Lucing's sisig and buro just after the gateposts of Fort Stotsenburg.

56 is passing through Balete Pass to pay homage to Almaguer where it all began, to curtsy at the church in Bambang where maidens danced with the Sto. Nino to summon the memories of old Hogwarts --- the gateway to Barat and Salinas that was breached for the first time.  

56 is an abrupt trip to Kayapa to partially scratch an itch, a pit stop in Ambuklao Dam in remembrance of a social studies teacher who a long time ago spoke about a traditional watwat in Itogon, and passing through Baguio where the Phantom Biker, still sleepless in Bakal 2, was conceived in 1969.

THE MONUMENTS MEN (AND WOMAN)

On the day before the Baptism of the Lord, an all-Bakal 2 squad of the MFAA Section was inserted where the Balaong River broke through a boulder.    

They are not soldiers but neigbors, curious why a bolo got stuck in a Tagalog historical marker instead of the nearby Spanish stone anvil where Carlos "Botong" Francisco probably forged a mural depicting the establishment of the Republic of Bak-na-Bato in 1897.  

These monuments obviously needs polishing at the scale of a floor tile replacement and a roof repaint as initiated in Bakal 2 during the first Monday catch-ups of 2026 to nudge the Manila Meeting and Convening, with a prayer of round grapes enabling a Mariwasa year that will exceed Boysen's prosperity in the Philippines and the crispiness of a hurriedly fried tilapia.

Aguinaldo had Bonifacio killed and would lose the 1935 presidential election to Quezon who declared Biak-na-Bato as a national park in 1937.

Quezon City and Bonifacio Global City are hosts to St. Luke's, no relation to Aguinaldo but the nodes that delivered a monumental relief so welcome it made impact story gathering, branding, and a policy toolkit handover look, smell, and taste like crunchy boneless chicken feet.

The Phantom Biker crashed while submitting the first claim for 2026 but his happiness is such that he qualified for a picnic of broiled pork ribs and steamed tilapia in Maligaya.

Buliran was something else, for a night at least, aside from being a gateway to the Aguinaldo Cave, to "La Mesa de Aguinaldo"where Mi Presidente signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, now sealed by a buhay na bato and submerged in water...

...while at the Hospital Cave, the spectre of Trinidad Tecson, the "Mother of Biak-na-Bato", tended to the ghosts of the sick and wounded who were immortalized in the modern day graffiti of a film crew who stored their equipment at the Imbakan Cave...

...the arsenal that armed new recruits after their initiation into the Katipunan at the Tanggapan Cave, and were subsequently trained to determine and attack the enemy in the darkness of the Ambush Cave by the sound of their boots.

The Monuments Men of Bakal 2, they were a happy lot and opened beer cans to toast the relics of Biak-na-Bato and salute the memory of Gen. Mariano Llanera who joined Aguinaldo's exile in Hong Kong.  

Llanera is from Cabiao but he may have owned a house in Lumang Gapan, might have been a devotee of La Virgen Divina Pastora, and perhaps had a snack of halo-halo and palabok at Luz Kitchenette afer attending church.

WITHIN AND BEYOND THE SEA OF COUDS

Humanity is the Middle Kingdom, a thin place caught between the collision of the Divine (heaven) and the Material (earth).

Such is Binuangan where at 850 meters above sea level, the celestial waters break through the firmanent, copulate with the terrastrial ecosystem, and ejaculate an overcast layer of stratocumulus clouds over the Caraballo Mountains. 

It was this Sea of Clouds that parted to finally expose the mystery of Belance, 823 meters above sea level, a place so often heard in Almaguer where heavy duty upland-designed jeepneys passed through once a week before the paving of the Malasin-DM Junction Road.    

There was Muta (774 above sea level) and Antutot (706 above sea level) in Kasibu, erstwhile lair of communist insurgents, a pensieve that kept the memory of a young boy crossing a stream with his father to a sawmill, to a carinderia that is also a pondahan, once upon a time in Bambang before the emergence of the Edralin Falls. 

And there was Malico, contested by Nueva Vizcaya and Pangasinan at 1,248 meters above sea level, that claims to be the Home of Clouds --- clouds that were absent at Salacsac Pass and the fields that bore strawberry-flavored ice cream at the box office of the M4 Sherman Tank curio.

SNR-Cabanatuan is the Mother House, the crowd that squeezed out a merlot and a camembert from Mariwasa ceramic tiles to incubate prosperity with 12 round fruits, 100 pieces of newly minted 20-peso coins, a red salted egg, and two versions of patatim.  

No, the baked pork ribs and chicken for 2026 were not reheated like the lumpiang shanghai and crispy pata of 2025: it represented the Phantom Biker riding away from the old year to greet the new one but without the usual fireworks.  

After the clouds have cleared, blood was drawn to rinse the inbox of a nuclear imaging test that revealed the severed heads of soured mahi-mahi and red snapper from Goshen, a place where the Israelites lived in Bamban that is indeed "little" but does not resemble Rome at all.

This was the keynote address delivered at the 19th installation rites of the Craft where beer and wine tasted like the delayed serving of lechon baka.