Last August 7, 2011 I had an opportunity with other members of Iligan Bloggers Society to tour around the Iligan City Tourism Triangle. We met at Jollibee Aguinaldo and left at exactly 8:10 in the morning.
We head to the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade in Brgy. Maria Cristina. Just like us in IBS, the 2nd MIB has the same goal and mission and that is to promote Iligan City as a tourist destination.
It may be sad but true that majority of the people who doesn’t want or afraid to visit Mindanao is because of the over sensationalized news articles from the Media about Mindanao’s peace and order situation. A lot of Filipino’s most specially from Luzon and Visayas sees Mindanao as a war zone. And we here from Mindanao is dying to prove everyone wrong. Sometimes even if the chaos is isolated in Jolo, Media generalize it as Mindanao. And majority of the rumor malingerers were never been to Mindanao, which is very annoying.
IBS with the 2nd MIB Officials |
Any way going back to the topic, You will be travelling along the Macapagal Avenue and when you see 3 split road, you will access the road to Marawi City. Just before the welcome arc of Balo-i you will see the camp of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade. We arrive in the camp around 8:30 in the morning, and we we’re just right on schedule. As a courtesy call, we actually made a schedule with them prior to heading to the camp just to make sure that someone will be taking care of us while we are there.
Col. Aldred L. Limoso welcomed us in the Pagari Park of the camp. Sir Pat from the City Tourism introduced the group to him. His currently the commanding officer of the camp. Later on other head soldiers join us in a forum.
According to Col Limoso, the camp is open to the visitors most specially for educational tours or tourism tours. There are currently doing some renovations within the camp to cater visitors when you visit the camp. The camp has it’s own chapel, a mosque for the Muslim soldiers, a clinic for their Medical needs and Basketball courts,soccer field, tennis courts for leisure. Almost 70% to 80% of the soldiers in the camp are from Luzon and a few from Visayas. Majority of them can now speak Bisaya though. They occupied the camp last year and since then they’ve been selling how nice and peaceful Iligan City is to their families and friends from Luzon. Often times, they have friends visiting them in the camp to justify that Iligan is indeed safe.
Madali lang daw tong emaneho sabi ni Major. hehehe kasi automatic. So meaning pwede ako! lols |
What are the things we did there?
+ Explored the ATC Tank of the camp. They are actually housing 61 tanks
+ Tour the camp and take some pictures.
+ Mingle with the bomb sniffing dogs. We met Emma the German Shepherd and JR the Black Labrador Retreiver.
+ Check out the activities that they have in the camp.
+ Mingle with the soldiers
+ Experience how it’s like riding in a Military Tank.
+ Cam whoring every where (hehehe just like we did)
hwag nang magcomment sa tyan ko! alam ko na yan! lols |
If you plan to visit the camp you can coordinate with the Iligan City Toursims Office to help you book a schedule, to make sure that Military Officers will be there to assist you. And Col Limoso guarantees a cup of coffee for everyone. 🙂
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Photo credits to the owners/IBS Members
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– til next trip Purple Slipperz