Sarangani

Sarangani Bay Festival 2015: The Philippines’ Biggest Beach Festival

Posted on May 28, 2015

With an annual attendance of more than 120,000 visitors, the Sarangani Bay Festival is the biggest beach festival in the Philippines. And it gets bigger and better every year! The Sarangani Provincial Tourism Office invited me to attend the 10th year of the two-day festival held last May 15 to 16 at Gumasa Beach, one of most beautiful beaches in the country and what I’ve considered the best in mainland Mindanao. The Sarangani Bay Festival – popularly shortened to SarBay Fest – started in 2006Read More→

Scuba Diving in Maasim, Sarangani

Posted on October 17, 2013

A white leaf scorpionfish (Taenianotus triacanthus) rests of red fan coral When it comes to scuba diving in the Philippines, Mindanao rarely gets mentioned. I got certified in Punta Bilar Dive Center in Surigao City, and was looking forward to exploring lesser-known dive sites in the southern Philippines. Last August, a friend from Davao del Sur invited me to join a weekend dive at Sarangani Bay – one of most bountiful bodies of water in the country. A white-eyed morayRead More→

Sensational Sarangani

Posted on February 1, 2012

This unedited article is for a commissioned travelfeature in SMILE magazine of Cebu Pacific Air. By some stroke of luck, an invitation for lunch with Manny Pacquiao dropped on our laps as soon as we arrived in the seaside town of Glan, where the world boxing icon spent his early childhood. “Manny is nice, lovable, and very simpático – you should meet him!” prominent resident Luz Margarita Ruiz-Yu beamed, segueing from an intriguing preview of antiques salvaged from the RuizRead More→