Friday, June 5, 2015

№ 198. Masbate: Frontier Life at the Wild, Wild East


Masbate lies almost at the farthest end of Bicol region. It serves as Luzon's link and crossroad to Samar, Leyte, Cebu and Panay, farther to the south and deeper into the Visayas. Because Masbate’s frontier islands are also niched at the typhoon corridor of the Philippines, leaps of miles away from the country’s economic hubs, they are blessed and isolated by the seas surrounding them.

To be sure, while our seafood can often be abundant, our supply chain of goods and services is keenly dependent on clement weather, the nautical highway and once-a-day flight.


Dried seafood from Saud or the weekend market



These crossroads have come to be reflected in Masbate’s people, food and language, as well. By inhabiting the fringes of imperial Manila and the queen city of Cebu, we Masbateños have learned to cultivate a happy, sometimes confounding, influence of tongues and temperaments borrowed from our neighbors and quietly adapted to the life and rhythm of these islands.