HOME to rare underwater species, Mabini, Batangas was the location of the 6^th Anilao Underwater Shootout, mounted by the Department of Tourism (DoT).

AT THE University of the Philippines Fair early this year, April Hernandez had the lucky role of opening for the popular band IV of Spades. Under the stage name “TheSunManager,” she has just around 3,000 monthly listeners on Spotify while IV of Spades has a following of over a million.

What in the world is this nebulous construct called creativity, anyway? The mere mention of the buzzword can make even the most erudite tongue-tied. Vastly cited Italian behavioural scientist Paolo Legrenzi describes creativity as a justification of artistry. In his 2013 publication, Creativity and Innovation, he cites architect Vittorio Gregotti: “Every work of architecture seems to be justified by the term creativity, which by now is used to define every aesthetic act (diffused aesthetics has overwhelmed us) with which designers, advertisers, stylists, architects and many other professions justify their ‘artistry.’”

A HARMONIOUS string instrumental of “Habanera” from George Bizet’s opera, Carmen filled the living room of the Gaston Mansion in Silay City, Negros Occidental — considered as “the seat of arts and culture in Western Visayas.”

“STOP MASS TOURISM.” The bright red letters were stencilled on a tourist map sign near the Roman Wall ruins in Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella (Old Town).

AS THE crow flies, or an airplane would, Surabaya in Indonesia’s Java Island would just be two hours away from my hometown of Davao in the Philippines’ southern island of Mindanao.

CATANDUANES — located in the archipelago’s Pacific seaboard off mainland Bicol region — promises pleasant surprises and lives up to its moniker as “The Happy Island” despite its seeming obscurity.

FOR millennia, humans have sought for ways to preserve their dead, perhaps as a way for the bereaved to remember, and for the deceased to be remembered. Since the body also served as a shell for the spirit, it was also believed by many ancient cultures that a well-preserved body, possibly better and purer than it had been in life, guaranteed a person to live beyond death in a comfortable afterlife. An incorrupt body could also be seen as a reflection of the soul: in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faiths, the body of an extraordinarily good person that has been revealed to be intact after death just may place one on the path to sainthood -- a prerequisite being that this body has not been preserved through embalming, but by some miracle. Examples of these saints would be St. Bernadette and Saint Elizabeth, of the Catholic and Orthodox faiths, respectively.

AT first glance, Leyte’s Baybay City does not seem to be a sight-seeing destination. But a closer look reveals that it is emerging as Eastern Visayas’ hub for faith, farm, and eco-tourism -- with a bit of a push by the Department of Tourism (DoT).

By Michelle P. Soliman, Reporter PALAWAN’s Dimakya Island is a tiny green jewel floating in a sea of deep blue that turns a clear aquamarine...