(Please allow me to share with FilipinoVoices my post today at unitediriguenos.org – Abe)

During the past three weeks I have completely shut myself from the blogosphere (or my virtual community, so to speak) to go EB, or eyeball-to-eyeball. For the Irigueños (natives of Iriga City, Philippines) the latter exploit is also called magbinaydan (loosely, “seeing each other”). While the tradition is traceable to a 1993 reunion in New Jersey of Iriga expatriates, magbinaydan has begun to evolve only during Magbinaydan 2002 in Virginia, USA as a concept for solidarity and socio-economic endeavor among Irigueños in diaspora.

The Vienna, Austria organizers of the Magbinaydan 2008 (composed not only of native Irigueños and their families but also of Filipino supporters from different Philippine towns and cities who believe in the magbinaydan concept) have been unequivocal at the outset about what they set out to accomplish (following the successful Magbinaydan 2005 in Toronto, Canada and a grand reunion and summitry of Irigueños in San Diego, California in 2004):

Magbinaydan . . . has become a tradition, passed on from one group to another for one purpose: for Irigueños from around the world to meet in a different place each time. This momentous event has become a venue for friends old and new, families and acquaintances to meet, share personal experiences and viewpoints, plan socio-civic projects that will be implemented in the Philippines and see and enjoy the beauty of the host country.

Magbinaydan 2008 (July 7-12, 2008) has exceeded all expectations by any measure. “A tough act to follow,” according to most participants who’ve traveled across the Atlantic -Canada and USA, the Pacific – Hawaii and Philippines, the Middle East (Dubai) and from neighboring Euroland – Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and even UK.

As a meeting place for the international community, Vienna, the city by the blue Danube, has been a fitting venue for the global gathering of the Irigueño Diaspora outside of the Americas. Wien (as the Viennese call their town), a former imperial capital somehow still proud of the historical memorials of the Habsburg monarchy and once the hub of the greatest composers of all times, also loves to be dubbed as the United Nations city in the heart of Europe

The registration and initial fellowship among the magbinaydan attendees of 2008 took place at the suburban Europahaus where the guests were treated to a sumptuous Filipino buffet sponsored by the Bikol Society of Austria. After the sightseeing tour in the city of gardens and parks the following day, the welcome dinner party was celebrated at Safari Lodge by the Danube and highlighted by games, dancing, impromptu program and talent extravaganza participated in by local as well as “guest” talents. The Gala night was held at The Austria Trend Parkhotel Schoenbrunn. The hotel, built in 1907 in the immediate vicinity of the famous “Schonbrunn Palace,” was once the guest house of Emperor Franz Josef I and still evokes imperial ambience of the bygone era.

Among the most thrilling and indelible magbinaydan events were guided tours to world-famous and exotic tourist places like Prague, Czech Republic, Budapest, Hungary and Salzburg, Austria.

Certainly not to be outdone was the Magbinaydan 2008 Summit (for social, civic and economic projects) graced with the presence of least seven major Irigueño associations, namely: the Iriga Bicol Association of America (IBAA) (Bay Area and Northern California), East Coast Irigueños (ECI) (Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C.), Irigueños of Southern California, Irigueños sadi Canada (ISC), and United Irigueños, Inc. (UI ) as well as by Vienna Irigueños (and Friends), Irigueño Immigrants of Italy and smaller groupings from Dubai, Hawaii and New Jersey.

At the summit meeting, IBAA reported on the “Medical Mission 2007: Iriga and Vicinities.” The mission, accomplished in partnership with the Valley-Hi Lions of Sacramento, Ca, impacted about 5000 beneficiaries which also covered deworming, feeding and dental hygiene. Related initiatives involved micro-finance program, livelihood and sanitation training, disaster relief and tree planting (around 7,000 Narra, Mahogany, Acacia, Gemelina seedlings were planted).

ECI’s presentation focused on the Core Shelters project, a Gawad Kalinga version for among the poorest of the poor in Iriga, the indigenous people (IPs) or the agtas. The project already has built around 50 core shelters for the IPs in partnership with the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP).

The Irigueños of Southern California presented its Books for Tots and cognate literacy projects in collaboration with Iriga educators, parents and the National Bookstore Foundation, Inc.

The report of the Irigueños sadi Canada dwelled on the settlement problems of new Irigueño immigrants to Canada as well as on what appears to be an all-expenses-paid-for ISCs scholarship program in Iriga.

UI’s presentation touched upon an earlier medical mission (MM 2006) which served about 5,500 beneficiaries, on communal toilet and sanitation projects and funding for medical treatment and medication for the super typhoon Reming victims. UI has likewise been proposed to take on a “facilitating” role basically to aggregate the community’s shared and common projects and purposes for better planning, organization and implementation, and for greater impact and results.

My personal presentation at the summit conference was a bit politically philosophic. While acknowledging that our community has been forged in real time and space because of our Irigueño identity, one of the challenges I have posed considering our now dispersed and varied geography is how to ensure the community’s continuity both as virtual and face-to-face relationships. I then likened magbinaydan to a facet of globalization that’s acting as a counterforce to the globalization of power and control. Where the latter is seen as globalization from above, I’ve submitted that magbinaydan is globalization from the grassroots, one of fellowship and solidarity where such a phenomenon is essentially producing immaterial and uncommodified goods and services (relationships, compassion, caritas and agape.)

The meeting hopes to share the magbinaydan experiences to similar diasporic “townmate” associations so that our journey if meaningful could be duplicated by others.

Magbinaydan 2011 promises to be another great happening; consensus is afoot about hometown Irigueños serving as the next host . . . yeah, in Iriga, Philippines, with the Iriga Parish Council being tapped to be at the helm of the big event.

To Magbinaydan 2008 Chairman Edsel Angeles and the gang . . . Yes! Woo hoo! Way to go!

Please click here to view some of Magbinaydan 2008 images.

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