Piso fare to all destinations!

Yes, you read that right. Piso fare to all Philippine and International destinations! Today is the last day of the seat sale promo, actually. But unfortunately, Cebu Pacific Air seemed to be fully booked already on the first day of the promo. I know that because I tried scheduling a local flight during the first day of the promo, since it'll only cost around 300-400 Php, but it was really hard to get through their site probably due to traffic overload. 

But even though it says Piso fare, there are a lot of additional costs or the flight, such as taxes. My friend booked a flight for Singapore. The ticket costs Php 17.00 but the taxes summed up to around Php 15,000. I know, it's not much of a treat afterall.

I know that this is really a heartbreaker. And I'm so sorry if I let you guys keep your hopes high. It's just really hard to purchase tickets during seat sale promos as big time as this. Anyway, to keep yourself updated with such promos, you can subscribe to Cebu Pacific. Just click HERE!

Get to Experience San Jose, Occidental Mindoro for only PhP88!

The title pretty much says it all. So let me just expound how to avail the super cheap price and what the place has to offer you.

Cebu Pacific, famous for having Piso Fares, offers low fares, again, to selected domestic and international flights. And one of their cheapest seat sale only costs 88 pesos! Imagine that not even half of your daily allowance can already bring you somewhere cool and ozzum!

So, to start with, San Jose is a small but first class municipality in Occidental Mindoro which is just an hour flight away from Manila. This municipality houses White Island and Ambulong Island, where you can find solace in the middle of your not-so-good-year.


Just a map to guide your lost soul to its path toward San Jose.

The travel period of the promo is on April 1 to April 15 of 2012, so this is a great chance to hit the beach at a very affordable price! Here are some photos to tease you on what the Mindoreños pride, the loving town of San Jose, has to offer us on an early summer getaway!



Go San Jose postcards!


The biologist in me can't help but love those flowers bracts.


So this is where the good stuff comes in. Yey for Ambulong's white sand!


Just some cool resort you can stay in.


And be ready to experience romance in San Jose's sunset.

So there you have it. San Jose, Occidental Mindoro to fulfill all your fantasies at a very affordable rate!

For more information, bookings and more promos, check Cebu Pacific's official website. Just be sure to hurry, promo lasts up to February 2 or until seats last. Hope I can get a slot, too. Better yet, I hope someone will come with me. Forever alone mode again here. HAHAHAHA

Calancan Bay Seeks For Attention

Instead of finishing my first draft for my thesis proposal, which is due later, lemme just share a bit of something of what I'm working at.




Calancan Bay, Marinduque Island, Philippines

Marinduque Island, known to harbor the largest copper reserve in the Philippines, has started its mining copper operations since 1969. This mine reserve which has been operated by Marcopper Mine Corporation is known as the Mt. Tapian ore deposit whose mine tailings were discharged into Calancan Bay. For 16 years, Calancan Bay, being the dumpsite for an estimated total of no less than 200 million metric tons of toxic mine tailings, was contaminated, thus resulted to destruction of Marinduque’s river system as well as lead contamination of the populace. Metal contamination and chronic lead poisoning of victims remain untreated until today.

On 24 March 1996, the Marcopper Mine broke into global news due to a mining accident at their Marinduque mine. This has been regarded as one of the Philippines’ largest mining disasters to date. The toxic spills immediately caused flash floods affecting five villages with about 4,400 individuals with their sources of drinking water contaminated with chemical elements from the mine tailings and fishes killed (Esguerra, 2003).


Detection of Heavy Metals in Calancan Bay

Although mining operations in the said area have stopped at the beginning of the 21st century, mining pollution history still results to the presence of heavy metals in the vicinity. High heavy metal, such as total copper, total lead and total zinc, concentrations were detected in the water and soil samples obtained from the waterways of Marinduque, particularly around Calancan Bay. The heavy metals concentration detected were higher than the standards prescribed by the government, the DENR, for Class SB waters – this is the classification where bodies of water which are suitable for commercial and industrial use, including ecotourism and recreational activities, are under. The occurrence of the high concentrations in the area may be due to the strong water currents which may possibly be held responsible for the enhancement of distribution of the pollutants or the heavy metals. However, levels of heavy metal concentrations vary in the soil and water samples collected, these differences observed may have also been associated with the presence of organic matter in the samples (Marges, 2011).