Rice: The Filipino Staple

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Podcasts. Conversations on Philippine History, Politics and Society. We are now in our finale episode. So, yes, pan sa mantalamong papalamong podcasts at our concurren season bagay-bagay objects of Philippine Life. Bermog ba balikame. Next year for our continuation of this series. We are your hosts. I am Lee Candelaria. I am Vekal Porha, and I am hostelito Ebro. They were talking about the most Filipino thing that never actually started here in the Philippines, no? Rice. Because the archaeological evidence shows rice only arrived in the Philippines around 1500 BCE. Brought by Austronesian migrants. Those charred rice husks found in Cagayan Valley. They tell us that rice has been here for around 3,500 years, no? But it was actually introduced from the outside. Yet, we have over 200 different words for rice across Philippine languages now. Palai when it's still in the field, big ass when it's milled, canning, when it's cooked, and bahaw when it's left over. Canning is the biggest. So, this is the crispiness of the parts at the bottom of the caldero. You can see it. 'Tasi ibatrek na tripyan eh ako din. Oh, na enjoy kyo to tung. Sabo nila wag nabob, kakaininin yung to tung, kasin mag-igimbo buka. Bako. (Rin) Pero na enjoy kyo to tunga. (Rin) Glamin mo mag-igimbo buka. Legit. Kalia mo yung di-bang di-bang sa paelia, yung sokarakak, yung to tung. Akin to tung yung na, no. Or yung sa, I think, Persian, meron pang Persian na to tung narais na peligang dish. Yeah, others like it, but, you know, some of us don't. Case in point. No, kami nivek, nina, ming in trip. But here's something wild, you know. The average Filipino consumes about 120 kilograms of rice per year, 120 kilograms. That passed the lawang kaban ng bigas. Ang kayaang kainin ng isang pinipino. On average, na. On average, na. Or panapag-a-kaw? Or panapag-a-kaw? In aro-araw mo ang alay sa mang insa. Pero yung average, na yun, that's around 330 grams every single day. And we are literally one of the world's biggest rice consumers per capita. But I think in Southeast Asia, the consumption of Myanmar is much better. At Vietnam, the rice. Yeah. Okay, saananong kaso. Unfortunately, karamihan sa ati mga bigas. Aini import natin, na. Like tons of it. In 2023, we're actually the world's number one rice importer at 3.8 million tons. Wow. So yun tanong. 20 pesos na banki do ng bigas. The million dollar question. I don't think so. So today, we're tracing how rice transformed from a prestige food that only elite could afford regularly. To something so essential that a bill without rice feels incomplete, for the violation of kara patang pantao. So yeah, we'll explore ancient terrises, colonial expectations, wartime surveys, and modern controversies that all revolve around this grain. Let's start with a reality check. In pre-colonial Philippines, rice was not the everyday food for most people. Actually, root crops, taagang, harimbao, taro, yam, sagopam. These were the real staples. Rice is something special. It was what you served to honor guests, what you offered to spirits, what you ate during festivals. Regular folks might have rice mixed with root crops, but pure rice meals, luxurian. And here are some of the findings. Most of the time, Dr. Stephen Acabado is an archaeologist. He's a great lawyer. He's a fossil of taro. Here in the Pacific, the taro or calo here, the staple of native Hawaiians, pre-contact Hawaiians. And I think, you know, there was a tradition connection. But the earliest evidence of the presence of rice in the Philippines is that there is a certain site in the Pacific. Where archaeologists found pottery with charred rice husks, dating to around 1575 to 1777 BCE. So, upland rice, it was grown in hillside clearings using slash and burnt techniques. And men with poke holes in the ground with dribblestics. Women would drop the seeds now. Very different from the flooded patties that we normally imagine today. Wet rice cultivation actually developed later. So, it ain't the first thing we've ever seen before. But maybe I think in the first millennium CE, common era, they developed wet rice cultivation. Here, farmers would transplant seedlings from seed beds into marshy fields. But, you know, water control was basic. Fields could flood or dry out unpredictably. The game changer actually was the carabao. The carabao, it was used as a beast of burden. It was introduced around 300 BCE. So, these water buffaloes became the tractors of ancient Philippines. So, pulling wooden ploughs through the mud of the fields. And by the time the Spanish arrived in 1521, the Philippines had thousands of traditional rice varieties. Massipa, the farmer's scientist network, estimates that there were over 4,000 district land races. Each adapted to a specific microclimates and local preferences. Yes. So, all of them were safe without they had the tinawan. So, it only grows once a year. So, it was quite special. There were a lot of varieties, red and white. There were a lot of eateries. And because of that, the plants grew bigger. Because it's obviously Spanish. Because it has a golden color. So, in a way, golden because it has a variety of varieties. But I think it connects also to the fact that rice isn't just food. At some point, it was currency. In Pericoloniol barangayis or bayans, people pay tribute to their data in terms of cabans of rice, or sacks of rice, or a portion of rice. A pig might cost a specific amount of rice. For example, Chinese traders who visited from the 10th century onwards would demand rice as provisions for their return loyages. And labor required made it valuable. Laura Yungkura's research shows rice needed far more work than root crops making it a prestige food. Only those with enough dependence or slaves could actually produce surplus. Yes. There were a lot of things that came to an advantage of Neolithic revolution. So, it was very work-intensive when it comes to agriculture. It came from China, during around 18th century. An average farmer consumes and expands like 4500, 4500 calories araw araw. Right? Very work-intensive. Then, in the Philippines, rice was actually quite sacred. When I was a kid, I was a child. When I was a child, when I was a child, I didn't eat. Then, I had the money. I didn't buy it. When I was a child, I didn't buy rice. Because the spirits of rice were still there. Because I was so happy when I was a child. That's what they said. When I was a child, I think I developed unhealthy habit eating. Because when I was a child, when I didn't buy rice, I used to eat rice. Oh, my God. I had dreams before a grain of rice. A grain of rice crying. I ate all of them. They're more merciful. They're begging to be eaten. Oh, my God. Traumatic childhood. Traumatic childhood. The sacredness. We were in a scribe. We were reflected in it. In the indigene spirituality. That's what we saw a few episodes ago. Which were actually made to guard rice granaries. Yeah. That's right. There are some harvest and planting rituals in the communities. So it could go on for days. And the idea was, you know, you need to do these to please the ancestors to honor their spirits and, you know, gain their faith more. Ideally, we really treat every grain with respect. Also, because we know that that's the source of our strength. That's the source of our energy. That's what keeps us alive, you know. The biggest. It's central to our meals. To the point where we have the oil. Which I think the oil defies translation in other languages. Because the heat of. It's the worst of the virus. I really hate the term "vayan", you know. But because for us, oil is something you eat with rice, essentially. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, the rice is the main thing. Yes. No, it's not the other side. Because it's the other side. So, yeah. So for many communities in the Philippines, rice is so sacred. Some of them even don't step on spilt rice. Because they know this respect too. It's a very good thing. When the Spanish established colonial rule in 1565, they found rice fields impressive, but insufficient. Miguel de lauaca in 1582, and Antonio de Morgan in 1609, described irrigated paddies in Luzon. But they immediately started extracting rice as tribute. Yes. And the income and the system commodified rice completely. So, an adult in 1570s, Pampanga. For example, might owe several cabans, or caban, those big ass annually, in their income. So, the same caban is 50 kilos. But 50 kilograms of paddy rice. So, that's the standard unit of colonial taxation. Or in tributo. And what we saw as a rice producer at the time, are the friar estates. No, the church. The Dominican estates in Panga Sinanantara lack-operated, huge rice operations with hundreds of ten-and-families. Farmers who once gave tribute to their datus now paid rent to the friar's. The Spanish did introduce improvements, also, no? They promoted the plow more wildly, built some irrigation canals, brought in new-world crops like corn and sweet potato. That could supplement rice. But they also created problems. Variable problems. In 1884, famine in Panga cost mass deaths. And late 1790, saw starvation in remote corners of Luzon and Samar. And then by 1870s, the Philippines had shifted from occasional self-sufficiency to being a chronic rice importer. Because the farmers, the workers, the farmers, the cash crops, the export. So, the farmers were able to earn money from the community, the farmers, the farmers, the farmers, the farmers. Because the farmers, if they earn money, they won't be banned outside. The government documented that by the early 1870s, by the early 1870s, the colony was importing rice regularly from French, Indochina and Varma just to feed Manila. Between 1876 and 1880, average here, the imports were around 60,000 tons. Then came the Americans in 1898 with their scientific agriculture. They established the Bureau of Agriculture set up experiments stations, even founded what became the UP Las Manias in 1909. They introduced new varieties promoted chemical fertilizers, and even sent agricultural instructors to villages. Yes, but there's a lot of rice demonstration. They travel to provinces with model-threshing machines. If we were to introduce them, if they were fresh, the problem would be that the very, very incidence of the Philippines. I don't know. I just don't think you should act like your expert in rice if you don't even eat it. I don't know. It seems that we will do all the research within the process to strip the rice of its nutritional content and value to introduce these nutrition issues. But not just that. Not just the scientific agriculture, but also the land policies introduced by the Americans, created new problems. The Torrents' title system enabled speculation and land grabbing. And by the 1930s, most of central ozone rice farmers were merely sharecrop personnel giving half their harvest to the landlords. By 1919, there would be the rise crisis after World War I. And it saw prices spike, and people protesting hunger. The government created the National Food Administration to buy foreign rice and sell at subsidized prices. Then in 1936, President Kezon established national rice and corn corporation. Well, to stabilize prices. Yeah, but none of this achieved self-sufficiency. And by 19 fourth, the production was around 4 million tons. But the import, it wasn't that bad. And average yield was around 1.2 metric tons per hectare. And then, by 1941, of course, December, the Japanese will arrive. World War II will start in this side of the world. Everything will collapse. The Japanese military confiscated the rice for their troops. Because we know a lot about that. It's a lot of things. In fact, the term "need for rice" and "for meal" is the same. Not me, Goku. Not me, Goku. The Japanese imposed quotas on every village. So the farmers had to hide their harvest or switch to root crops just to survive. So black markets also exploded. In Manila, by late 1944, people were dying of starvation daily. That's what I'm talking about. Because there are a lot of Philippines. Actually, it's not just about the war violence per se. Yeah. But Manila was the only one in the world. Yes. It's about the scarcity of resources. The Japanese occupiers also slaughtered about 70% of the caravopopulation. So either for me, or to deny them, they are in the guerrillas. And these actually crippled rice farming for years after the war. Because they are doing a lot of things. Estimates suggest that up to a million Filipino civilians died during the war. And many from famine, rather than combat. So, so people ate rice bran that normally fed to animals. So you can just imagine how, it's not just nutritionally the problem, right? It's a psychological impact of eating rice bran. You know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking about, right? And damning too big, right? For the stretch. And this crisis persisted even after the Second World War. Because rice production had fallen to 60% of pre-war levels. Irrigation was damaged, fields abandoned, no animals, no seeds. The hook that prevailed on the center of the zone was also partly about rice. Tenant farmers wanted land reform, and better lives. So, this time around this time, the president responded by passing the Agricultural Terrency Act in 1954, and then the Land Reform Act in 1955. But we know that this implementation has been limited and it has been convened by landlords in Congress. Because they have ways to protect their interests. By 1965, production had grown to about four million tons. So, maybe you know, yields scrapped up to 1.23 tons per hectare. But the Philippines still imported rice, whenever harvests failed. The 1961 rice shortage actually helped defeat President Garcia in the election. That's what he said. Who campaigned based on this rice crisis? Then in 1960, something revolutionary happened. The International Rice Research Institute opened in Las Manios, Laguna. Yes. So, in 1966, IRI released IRA or Miracle Rice. So, it was though I semi-dwarfed variety, which could deal four to five times more than traditional varieties under the right conditions. So, that then, I didn't fall over and have been heavily fertilized. That's why I believe it's been matured. And they respond dramatically to inputs, like fertilizers. Yes. So, Filipino farmers in irrigated areas started adopting Miracle Rice immediately. The Marcos government, later on, also promoted Miracle Rice aggressively. Average yields surge from 1.3 tons per hectare in 1965 to 2.5 tons by the mid 1970s. And your production doubled from 3.7 million to 7.7 million tons in just two decades. So, thank you very much, Marcos. For the first time in the 20th century, the Philippines briefly became a rice exporter. That's why Marcos apologizes to Golden Age. Maybe they probably refer to this one year. That's an increased rice exporter. Yes. What are your gains? The early part of your business. I was raised in 1980s. Correct. You were born in 1977-1970. That's the year of the exporter. To our neighbors. And I won't be surprised if you didn't have that much money. Your Marcos. You know my friend. And I agree. If you have a meal, you don't have money. You have a lot of money. I agree. Right? You have a lot of money, right? It's kind of weird. We have a lot of money. I mean, I have a french fries in my meat. When I cook in my meat. Honestly. I have a lot of money in my meat. I mean, meat is life, you know? Yes, dog. Yes, dog. And you know, even our language proves how centrally rice is. You know. Let's see what's in the intro. English has just one word for it, right? But Philippine language is, there's a lot. No. Palai in the field, bigaswin meal, canine when cooked, baha when it's left over, or manameg. To tongue for the crispy bottom. Sinangan when you fry it. Kakanin, kapag matamis. Nami. When I cook in the American friends, that can't be real. That's what I mean. Because we have a lot of preparations. We can eat it. So, we have a lot of money. So, we have a lot of money over something. There's a lot of money. I think. Idioms are revealing too. Isang kahig, isang toka, or like one scratch, one peck. Means living hand to mouth. Literally scratching for each grain, like chicken. Well, canine doesn't mean no rice. It means, well, ampecain, right? No food at all. Yes. For other Filipinos, if you don't have bigas, it's like, you know, it's a very big wrap. It's a wrap. If you eat a lot of plantains, or you want to, or you want to eat a lot of it. If you're during rice shortage, it's terrible. Then, what are your metaphors? Or, what do you want to say? I think that's why you're always there. If you're outside of, you're outside of metronome. You know, you're very busy. You're busy. You're busy. So, you know, you know, it's like you're busy. When you're tired, because you're tired, you're tired. You're tired. So, you're tired. You're tired. You're tired. You're tired. You're tired. You're tired. You're the one who's working on the manual. I mean, you're the one who's working on the manual. -We just do it. -We just do it. And which goes out to show how even Catholic traditions perhaps absorb this rice symbolism. Animawa na lang i-mang pesta-pesta na exalisidinudabrador na patron saint of farmers. Karabau sa made-to parade through towns. And rice talks kept less in churches. -Interesting. -Yeah, people offer suman, or stick your ice cakes at altars. -Rigial preferences reveal identity as well. Elocando surprise their fragrant dinurado. With science, mixed corn grits with rice because of scarcity. Well, even today, some prefer that texture. In Mindanao, they have these special varieties making puso, the diamond shaped hanging rice. -Sarap known. -Correct. -So, yung colonial period, we can say that it created lasting associations. Arimawa, yung brown rice, pang mahirap do yung, kasi, hindi, hindi sa yung super-refinding. As opposed to the white powest rice, para sa mga mayaaman. -Kait na yung debah? -Yung mga lolot lola natin. Ina-identify nila, yung brown rice sa gera sa wartime. -Ah, nila kai, nila, kasi, it reminds to move hard times. -Takoy, yung lolot loko to lga, very specific yung luto, yung mga kanin. Ayaw yung yung sobrang lambot, or yung moshi. Kasi dawit, remind her of the low-quality rice. Lata available lang, or dati. So, napalup ako nang natin, kasi nang magalina ko mga luto ng mga kanin tapos. -Nag sa-yung. -Nalotat. -O, nalotat. -Lumatat. -Lumatat. Fahan nangin, na nangin ng lukonging bigas from the outside, you know, I don't know. Hit no yung hit, yung init ng. I just do it. Na, na, na, na, na, na, nalail ako lang yung asingin ng gamit sa ice cream, anyways. Ti ba, o kay? Yung nga, in bro, di ba? Yung asingin ng gamit sa ice cream. Tawas kina-gamit ng shabigas. So para mboth cold and hot, pala may. Napat pala may asin episode din, din tayo, eh. No, anyway. (Rin) Ironically, though, atong brown rice ngayon, is a health food na, no? And it's become like a symbol of, you know, the middle class, the health conscious. Na, kasi yung white rice is essentially, anyway, parang sugar na yun, it is directly in the last few days. Mata siyang rice yung rice index, eh. Rice farming shaped community values, as well, no? Well, we're known for bayanihan, and this tradition of neighbors, helping each other, will also be applied to rice cultivation. Parang similar sa Japan, no? Yung practice din ang kapag nagtata ni. Everyone would help transplant one family's field, then move to the next. And then the host would cook a huge pot of rice to feed the volunteers. Yes, at yung farming calendar, yung schedule, the trail is structured Filipino social life. So, Halimbawa saifugaw, they have a specific month's name for each cultivation stage. Tapos yung ibang mga community events, talik, kalibawa ka sa alwedding. Ineschedul niyan, dun sa mga buwan between planting and harvest, kasi hindi visi yung mga tao masyado. And gender roles were complementary, but distinct. Men plowed and repaired dags, women had the skill job of transplanting seedlings in perfect roles. During harvest, women carefully cut each stock while men bundled and carried. Just reminds me of Fernando Amor Solo Paintings, no? Depicting the Filipino Maiden with the grains of rice and oil. Or harvest time, you really see the women here. And women controlled household rice storage and rationing. Work songs actually made labor bearable. It's a song I think rooted in this tradition, "Pagkantahabang nga aani ng palay" or "Nang tatanim ng palay." It's not fun, of course it can be fun, but I think it captures the hardship. And also the pride. What we do is not the joke, it's something serious, it's hard, but it's important, it's honourable. I think at the lyrics describe the farmers bent back under the burning sun, and the fact that every Filipino child sings this at some point in their lives is in a way honoring that tradition, how dependent we are from farmers in Vietnam. Yeah, where do we get our rice, essentially, right? Yeah, it's one of the objects of homesickness, it's the OFW, the big ass. That's the reason why it's so good, but before, if you buy a supermarket, you buy a big ass, it's like a cornstarch, it's in a kilo. You don't have to buy 50 kilos to buy it, we'll buy it later. So that's what the Asian grocery stores say. It's a very good thing, of course, the Philippines, Korea, so yeah, they're really good at it, right? They're really good at it. I know, I'm really happy that they're really happy to be in America for his, I think, Master's or Page D, they're really good at rice cookers, because they're really good at cooking. But they're not, maybe because of the UN, in Mexico, I think, but because they're more tortilla, they're good at it. They're good at it, they're good at it, so they're really good at it, so they're really good at it. So imagine that they miss it. Today, the Philippines produces about 20 million metric tons of Palai annually, making us the world's eighth largest producer. And we have 2.4 million rice farmers working at an average of just one hectare each. Yeah, the average farmer is 56 years old, with an annual household income of around 100,000 pesos, or 8,000 pesos monthly, so this is just barely above poverty level. You know, the people who work, they're earning away from farming. Because they're really good at it, and they're really good at it, right? But it's just an influencer. Yeah, I think so. Well, yeah. I think it's better to say that. But I think it's important to look at that. And especially recently, particularly in 2019, when the rice tariffication law changed everything. I think at some point, our shortage of fries just became so chronic that the government saw it as a stopgap measure to remove import restrictions altogether, which was the intent of the import restriction to protect the farmers from cheap price flooding the markets. But what's the reason for the rice tariffication law? The importation of this law changed everything. So anyone can now import rice by paying 35% tariff from Asian countries. So rice imports, no, surge. Consumer prices dropped from like 45 to 50 pesos per kilo to 35 to 40 pesos. Well, it's great for consumers. But of course, we can see that it's not on the other side. Because farmers lost about 12,000 pesos per hectare per season. I think that's not what the Philippines government is saying about this classic economic management. Because during the 90s, our tariffs on food items like prutas or gulay, we should compare it to our neighbors in Southeast Asia like Thailand. So we don't protect the local agriculture. So it's great if we compare it to Thailand, right? This is what we do, we don't protect the farmers. I mean, this is just a sub-government work. In response to this, the government created a 10 billion peso annual fund from 30 revenues. So it's very important for the farmers to modernize, provide new machinery, and train it, right? But what they're saying is they're just telling these new subsidies and the distributed. Because what they're saying is that the tariffs are another source of fund for the government. And the service that we provide for farmers is that they have contractors, so they have an equation of corruption, they're asking for money. They're asking for the money that they're asking for. And what happens here in Japan is that they have a lot of money. Like they have a lot of money, as in double the price. I think the 5 kilos of money is 10,000 yen. Which is around 5,000 pesos if they don't have enough money. So it's a lot of money. Because it's a failed harvest season, it's a cycle. And because they don't have enough money, the rice from the outside here. But what they're saying is that they have a sense of trident with their rice. Not that they will use rice from other countries because of this problem. They will still not. Because they don't like it. It's just the same. It's just that they're asking for the money of the big guys. So for them, it's just a lot of money. It's okay for them to know what they're saying. But what they're saying is that they're protecting farmers. Yeah, exactly. But we see this example of, for example, of harvest failing or planting season failing. Because also of climate change, it's really threatens everything. The Philippines in particular, we are at the brunt of the threats of climate change. We face rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, stronger typhoons, sea level rising, affecting coastal rice lands. Isang supertaifun ng kaydangan, noat, masisira lahat yung hundreds of thousands of tons of harvest. So imagine kung ganukana kaya impakmeron yan. Pugut pa jan, noat. We're losing agricultural land in. So about 100,000 hectares of farm land disappearing every decade to subdivisions and malls. The prime water I joke, the prime rice lands in central Luzon and Kalabarizon keep shrinking. Kalabarizon at Las Pinyas. So, ang isas ang mga ginagalang remedio. And I think, no, I have no problem with this. Because if you're just looking at this, the GMO, right? The Golden Rice, we're going to modify some nutrition, it's okay. It's the first approved GMO rice for commercial planting. Tapos, they're also developing drought tolerant and flood-resistant varieties. Yeah, just with the technologies, in practice, drones for spraying, apps for farming advice, kung mag-inotomate na yung planting, no. But technology can't really solve everything, no? Because ultimately, the problem is, I don't have the technology. I don't have the same input. Many farmers can't afford inputs, rural credit, remains predatory. Informal lenders charge 3 to 5 per cent monthly interest grab. It's a very serious loan practice, no? Ang talang kawawa, ito ang mga mga mga mga mga saaka. Da masagana 99 legacy of massive defaults. Actualy made banks reluctant to lent to farmers. So, kawawa yung mga farmers. A good example would be the cordial yera tereses symbolizing how these challenges appear, no? Like up to 30 per cent of banawis tereses are abandoned or lie abandoned. Because of effogaus, migrating to cities for easier work and, another, influence modernization. When tereses aren't maintained, walls crumble and centuries of engineering erodes away. So, the innovation that they do is towards the heirloom varieties. Like, if you have a stina one, it will be better maintained. The help of urban foodies, or in export. So, these are organic and specialty rice varieties. They fetch double or triple regular prices. So, what do you do about your business? But the fundamental question remains. Should the Philippines pursue rife self-sufficiency at all costs? Or do we just accept that it is important for us to make sure we are at least the price of our business. I think every administration promises affordable rice and support for farmers. But, usually, they make conflict in their goals. Because, for you to support farmers, it means you can't just go to the market to get the gas from outside. Because you want to support the farmers, you want the prices to be advantageous to them. But, when you flood them with imported rice, like during the time of the tarte, the rice tariffication law, the tarte can proudly say, "Hey, don't forget the price of the gas!" But, ultimately, that's a sound bite for him to claim. That's the legacy. But, what are the things to offer for the Philippines? The conflicts in the goals. But, looking ahead, rice will probably remain central to Filipino identity, well, even as consumption slowly decreases. For example, for capital consumption, it dropped from 128 kilos in 2008 to about 110 kilos now. Younger urbanites eat more bread and pasta. Some even follow low-carb diets. Yes, but still, cultural inertia is actually really strong. I mean, it's just centuries from the stable of Kanan because, so, unless climate change really forces us to adopt drastic changes, rice will continue binding Filipino communities. So, it's a bit evolving, but I think it's here to stay. So, rice in the Philippines is indeed a story of transformation, from pre-storic introduction to prestige food, to colonial commodity, to a modern political flashpoint. And I think it's great that we ended our current season with the rice, although, as we mentioned earlier, we're going back to our next year. We're going back to the future. Because, we realize there's just a lot of objects we can still talk about. And we barely scratch the surface. When we talk about the Filipino life, the Filipino identity, and that we can do anything that we want to do. So, next year, we'll go back to you for perhaps another set of objects of Philippine life. So, what do you think? Until then, check out our website, podcast.org, and our social media pages. Revisit our older seasons and episodes. So, maraming salamat se pag-subay-byes, as he saw an "bagay-bagay" objects of Philippine life. I am Veckel Porha. I am Nikandilaria. And I am Hoselito Ebru. And as always, have a good day.