This entry is cross-posted from my primary blog.

It’s been seven months since new high-resolution satellite imagery was released in Google Earth for the Philippines. So on May 13, Google updated their Google Earth data with tons of new and updated satellite imagery for our country via their usual question and answer blog posts.

Here’s a non-exhaustive listing of places that have new hi-res satellite photos courtesy of DigitalGlobe: Aparri, Cagayan; Tuguegarao City, Cagayan; Infanta, Quezon; Naga City, Camarines Sur; Masbate City, Masbate; Iloilo City, Iloilo; most of Guimaras; Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental; Surigao City, Surigao del Norte; Lake Sebu, South Cotabato; Sarangani Islands, Davao del Sur; Culion, Palawan; and parts of Romblon. Shown above is Silliman University in Dumaguete.

Here’s a history of previous satellite imagery updates to Google Earth with representative places:

• June 2005: Bulacan, Cavite, Pampanga

• April 2006: Cagayan de Oro City, Davao City, Cotabato City, Butuan City, Bislig City

• June 2006: Metro Manila, Laoag City, Pangasinan, Legazpi City, Cebu City, Bacolod City, Iligan City, Zamboanga City, Puerto Princesa City

• October 2006: La Union, Batangas City, Puerto Galera, General Santos City, and CitySphere image of Metro Manila

• February 2007: Magat Dam in Isabela, Tabaco City

• June 2007: Honda Bay in Puerto Princesa

• July 2007: northern Puerto Princesa

• October 2007: Batanes, large parts of Bicol, Cuyo Island

Among the monolithic malls I’ve ever seen, Festival Supermall has the best shape or building footprint, in my opinion. As you can see from the satellite image of the mall, its unusual shape is a far cry from the boring, blocky exteriors of most SM Supermalls. Festival’s sprawling shape is such that I mistakenly thought many years ago that it was bigger than SM Megamall. (Festival has 20 hectares of floor area while Megamall has 33.1.)

Festival Supermall opened back in May 1998 (happy 10th year anniversary!) and, as far as I know, is the only mall operated by Filinvest Development Corporation under their Filinvest Alabang subsidiary. The mall appears to be their flagship leasable real estate in their flagship territory of Filinvest Corporate City in Alabang, Muntinlupa. I think that Festival is a mid-end mall, catering to the middle class while Ayala Land’s Alabang Town Center to the west is for the upper class and Star Mall’s Metropolis Mall is for the lower-middle class. Well, that’s just my perception.

Photo by Doc Tony Comia.

Aside from the requisite supermarket, department store, and cinemas (Festival has 10 of them), the other major anchor areas of Festival Supermall are Pixie Forest, Gameworx, and X-Site. Pixie Forest is a vast children’s playground; Gameworx is a gaming area containing arcade games, billiards tables, bowling lanes, and a small indoor inline-skating hockey ring; and X-Site is a mini amusement park containing one of two roller coaster rides inside a mall that I’m aware of (the other is in Storyland of SM Southmall). Also worth checking out is the kiddie train ride at the ground floor of the mall.

If you want to learn more, you should go to the official website. (You can turn off the website’s irritating music by clicking on the “music off” button at the upper right corner.)

Download KML file (for Google Earth)

The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center or CPDRC, is the world-famous penitentiary institution that gave us the dancing inmates. These prisoners became a worldwide sensation when a video of them dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was uploaded to YouTube by Byron Garcia, the security consultant of the Cebu Provincial Government. To date, the “Thriller” video has garnered almost 15 million views to date. There’s even a Wikipedia article on the video itself!

Anyway, the CPDRC compound can be seen in Google Maps and is just barely obscured by clouds. In the thumbnail above, I’ve adjusted the contrast and you can clearly see the open-air courtyard where the inmates do their dances. Unfortunately, there’s no inmates performing the day this satellite image was taken.

Below, you can check out their latest video done last week. This time, they’re gyrating to the smash 1984 hit by Bonnie Tyler “Holding Out for a Hero” (popularly known as “I Need a Hero”) while paying tribute to peace heroes such as Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Philippines’ own José Rizal. (Read the Inquirer article.) I’m still bemused at the sight of a thousand men dancing choreographed moves. Hehehe.

Download KML file (for Google Earth)

Since Gota Beach is still closed for the public, would Capusan Beach (also spelled as Kapusan) in Cuyo, Palawan be to your liking instead? The beach is by no means a private beach since it’s right next to the town proper of Cuyo, but the sunsets here are beautiful and the place seems to have the vibe of a small rural town. And looking at the Google Maps satellite image, the sandbar jutting off into the Sulu Sea seems to be an excellent location to do stargazing at night.

Well, showing in theaters right now is the independent film Ploning starring Miss Judy Ann Santos. Ploning was shot in Cuyo and Capusan Beach is one of the main settings of the film. Watch the movie’s trailer below.

Here’s the synopsis of Ploning from ClickTheCity.com:

The life of a small drought ridden town in Palawan revolves around a woman named Ploning, a thirty year old spinster renowned for her great beauty and her faithfulness to a love that she hasn’t seen in over a decade. When Ploning plots to seek out her love, the threads of tragedy begin to unravel in the small town.

Download KML file (for Google Earth)

Tired of going to the beaches in Boracay, Puerto Galera, and Palawan this summer? Then why don’t you try going to Gota Beach in Caramoan, Camarines Sur instead? Part of the 347-hectare Caramoan National Park, Gota Beach is composed of two coves, the Small Gota Beach (the southern cove in the article thumbnail), to which the road from the town connects, and the Large Gota Beach to the north, which serves as a jumping point for island-hopping.

Unfortunately, you can’t go this beach right this very moment. Why? Because, according to rumors (Inquirer article), the French edition of Survivor, Koh-Lanta, is currently filming in Gota Beach and a billboard saying that the beach is closed due to “massive developments” was put up on the road leading to the beach. A gag order was imposed on the whole town though leaks have been coming out. Filming will supposedly end today and the beach will be reopened in June. Here’s an article from the Caramoan Residents Association for more juicy details.

Photo of the Large Gota Beach by Ferdz Decena.

If you want to learn more about the sights at Gota Beach and the nearby islands, here’s a great blog post from Ferdz Decena, a blogger-acquaintance of mine (the photo above is his). This photo gallery hosted at the Ateneo de Naga University website, is also chock-full of pictures. Well, Gota Beach, surrounded by massive vegetation-covered limestone cliffs, is quite a picturesque sight.

Thanks to Filipinayzd for suggesting this sight to me.

Download KML file (for Google Earth)

Antipolo City in Rizal has a folk song called “Tayo Na Sa Antipolo” and the chorus goes like this:

Tayo na sa Antipolo
At doon maligo tayo
Sa batis na kung tawagin ay
Hi, hi, Hinulugang Taktak
At doon tayo kumain
Ng mangga, suman, kasoy, at balimbing
Kaya’t magmadali ka
At tayo’y tutuloy na sa Antipolo

English translation:

Let’s go to Antipolo
And there we will bathe
At the the stream that’s called
Hi, hi, Hinulugang Taktak
And there we will eat
Mango, rice bar, cashew, and carambola
So hurry up
And we will proceed to Antipolo

Photo from an Antipolo City website.

The song prominently features Hinulugang Taktak, which is possibly the most famous waterfall nearest to Metro Manila. Legend has it that during the Spanish Era, the local townspeople found the clanging of the local church’s bell during the noon Angelus too disturbing so the bell was thrown at this stream and thus “hinulugang taktak” which supposedly means the “place where the bell was dropped.” I know that “hinulugan” means “dropping place” but bell in Tagalog is “kampana” so I assume that “taktak” represents the bell’s sound.

Due to the falls prominence as a tourist destination and to help preserve it, the falls and the surrounding area has been declared the Hinulugang Taktak National Park by Republic Act No. 6964 in 1990. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped the stream from getting polluted by upstream wastes and so it is no longer safe to swim in the falls unlike a few decades earlier. The falls itself is just for viewing and a swimming pool was constructed instead within the park area. Good thing there are efforts underway to help preserve the falls and to reduce the pollution.

Want to learn and see more? Here’s are two blog posts by Bikoy and Ivan, and another one about the commemorative 1-peso coin depicting the falls. As always, there are plenty of pictures in Flickr including this photo of the National Park’s map.

Download KML file (for Google Earth)

Wondering what am I doing featuring the Payatas dumpsite in Vista Pinas? Well, today is Earth Day and instead of showing some ecological site (like the La Mesa Ecopark), I though that there’s no better way to drive home the point about the need to take care of Mother Earth than by showing you what is considered the largest dumpsite in the Philippines. Vista Pinas is not your usual travel blog and through the power of Google Maps and other mapping sites, we are able to virtually visit places that one would not normally visit in real life.

However, you might be surprised to know that lots of people do visit the Payatas dumpsite, which is located in Barangay Payatas in Quezon City. This is because the dumpsite, which has been in operation since 1973 (!), is a viable destination for people who are into humanitarian or environmental concerns. Why humanitarian? Well, the dumpsite is where a lot of poor scavengers earn their living by collecting and sorting garbage and selling them for recycling. In fact, there are thousands of families living in the vicinity, subsisting in the garbage industry.

Beautiful photo by suvajack. (CC-BY-2.0)

The Payatas dumpsite is also notorious for the Payatas landslide on July 10, 2000. Prior to that day, rains from tropical storms had weakened the mounds of garbage. Finally in the early morning of that fateful day, the unstable garbage all came crashing down, burying more than a hundred shanties with families inside. Subsequent rescue efforts recovered around 200 bodies but the actual death toll may never be known.

Since that day, the conditions at the dumpsite had improved a lot and there had been no major accident, but the garbage problem and the poverty are still major problems. If you’re interested, you might want to see this webpage containing tons of pictures of the dumpsite with informative captions showing how the scavengers make their living.

Anyway, before I started researching for this post, I had no idea where Payatas was. So when I found it on Google Maps, I was simply shocked to find out that the dumpsite is located less than 500 meters from the La Mesa Dam Reservoir, which is the main source of water for Metro Manila! Are you shocked as well? Maybe now is the time to start thinking about really helping save the environment, eh?

Download KML file (for Google Earth)

Magat Dam in Ramon, Isabela used to be the largest dam in the Philippines back when it was built in 1983. The controversial San Roque Dam (featured previously) has since eclipsed it in both structural and reservoir size in 2004. Magat Dam generates 360 megawatts of electricity (with a water head of 81 meters high) and supplies irrigation water for approximately 85,000 hectares of farmland in Isabela and surrounding areas.

The dam was constructed at a cost of 6.5 billion pesos and consists of 3.1 kilometers of rock-fill construction. The dam and its watershed is managed by the National Irrigation Authority (NIA), while the National Power Corporation (NPC) managed the hydroelectric plant, before the plant was turned over to SN Aboitiz Power Inc. in April 2007 as part of the privatization of power plants under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001.

Photo from the Department of Tourism webpage on Isabela.

Like the San Roque Dam, Magat Dam had its share of controversies, issues, and problems. For one, the reservoir inundated the traditional lands of the Ifugao tribes. Second, the useful lifespan of the dam was shortened from 50 years to around 35 years because of increased sedimentation in the reservoir (aggravated by the massive 1990 Luzon earthquake) and damage to the dam itself. Finally, Magat River, which is the river dammed, forms the boundary between the provinces of Ifugao and Isabela. Well, you can correctly guess that there’s a dispute between Ifugao and Isabela regarding with the dam: Ifugao is contesting the tax proceeds from the privatization of the hydroelectric plant and the compromise reached was that the two provinces would share equally in the tax revenue.

Magat Dam is also one of the prominent tourist spots in Isabela. The Magat Dam Tourism Complex promotes ecotourism with various watersports activities in the Magat Dam reservoir.

If you look at the Google Maps view of the dam, you can see the extent of the reservoir (4,450 hectares). And if you look about two kilometers downstream (east) from the dam, you can see Maris Dam, a subsidiary dam that helps regulate water level below the main dam for hydroelectric purposes. Why Maris? Well, Maris stands for Magat River Irrigation System.

Download KML file (for Google Earth)

Almost exactly two years ago, I posted about the first Jollibee branch in the United States, the Daly City branch, which opened in 1998. A slew of openings followed that and there are currently 12 Jollibee branches in the United States, the recent being the Las Vegas branch. In an aggressive move to further capture the Filipino-American market, several more stores are expected to open this year throughout California and also in New York. Anyway, among those 12 existing stores is the first Jollibee branch to open in the San Diego area, which is the National City Branch. National City, a suburb of San Diego, is one of those communities that has a sizeable Filipino population.

Screenshot from Google Maps Street View.

Based on my research, the National City branch seems to be either the 6th, 7th, or 8th branch in the United States and it likely opened back in 2000. (I can’t find the real history.) But fortunately instead, Google Maps has this Jollibee covered with their Street View images (read my blog post about Street View), which lets you view panoramic photos of streets in Google Maps. Thus, you can “visit” this Jollibee branch by following the link on the photo above, which will direct you to the Street View of this Jollibee. Try to spot the plastic mascot at the entrance! Even better, try to locate Aga Muhlach in his Chickenjoy poster.

Store information:
Address: 1401 East Plaza Blvd., National City, CA 91950
Tel. No.: (00-1-619) 474-0973
Services: with Drive-Thru

Download KML file (for Google Earth)

Yay! Vista Pinas has reached more than a hundred subscribers in less than a year since the re-launch. While there are certainly quite a number of blogs that have achieved more than 100 subscribers in much less time (like Brian Gorrell’s blog, hehehe), achieving this milestone is still a cause for celebration. I think that 95% of all blogs have less than a hundred subscribers so if you have 100, then you should be happy.

Anyway, I’d certainly appreciate some feedback on how you think things are going so far for Vista Pinas. I suppose that out of 100 subscribers, a few would be brave enough to rise up from the passiveness of reading and actively share their thoughts. By the way, in case you missed it, you might want to read back on the 100-sight milestone back in September 2007.