PP Lear San Buenaventura speaking for the JCI MAKATI 2013 Board of Directors Planning Session held at the JCI Makati 2013 President Huebert Cua residence at Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

JCI Makati, JCI Makati Princess Urduja,JCI Sydney, JCI Melbourne exercises sisterhood in Pinoy Olympics, held at Payatas Quezon City. Sister chapters along with the kids enjoyed showcasing our Filipino Culture through our Filipino games. From Pico to Patintero, As sister chapters, we enjoyed keeping our culture alive through Filipino games

“Gatas para Malakas” Got milk? JCI Makati, JCI Ilo-Ilo Ilang-Ilang, and Abbott Laboratories strengthens JCI Week giving free milk to children age one to five.

Together with Kids Foundation and to support their medical mission, JCI Makati extends its “Gatas Para Malakas”  project series to Kids Foundation

From JCI Makati with kids foundation, posted by Hubert Tomas Qua on 5/18/2011

JCI Makati and JCI Bocaue extends the "Gatas Para Malakas" feeding program to fire victims

Last November 5, 2010, The members of JCI Makati and friends took a different challenge. We decided to end the JCI year with an environmental awareness project and went on to climb Mount Pulag in Benguet where we did our annual clean up project. Mt Pulag is Luzon’s highest peak at 2,922 meters above sea level, and the third highest mountain in the country next to Mount Apo and Mount Dulang-Dulang.

JCI Member VP Louie Zamuco who happens to be a member of the PLDT MOCI (Mountaineering and Outdoors Club Inc.) chaired the project made the necessary arrangements for registration, transportation and other transfers while JCI Member VP Mikkel Reyes co chaired and made sure we brought the basic equipments and other essentials and was in charge of documentation. The rest of the climbers took charge of the food and water and other necessities for our weekend getaway.

Friday night we went up to Baguio City to spend a few hours to rest and double check necessary equipments at VP Louie’s house. We arrived there around 1am of Saturday. At 5 am, we were on our way to Benguet via rented jeepney. We never thought this jeepney ride would be a tough, long and a memorable one. The first half was smooth, while the rest was otherwise as we were literally being thrown off our seats on the latter part of the ride. To say that the second half is a bumpy ride up the Benguet mountains is an understatement.

Three stops before reaching the summit, 1st is the Ambangeg Protected Area Office where we were received by the DENR people headed by Ms. Emerita “Ate Mering” Albas, Superintendent for Mt. Pulag National Park. There she gave a 15-minute lecture on what is expected of our journey to the summit as well as the do’s and don’t to ensure safety of all climbers as well as the privacy of the locals of the community. Again we continued with the jeepney ride adventure until the 2nd stop, the ranger station. Here we met with our tour guide and 2 porters to help us with our equipments. Yes, like all first timers, we were over packed that our supplies could last for a week.

From the ranger station, it’s a 7.5 km hike to the summit of Mt. Pulag with our heavy backpacks. So the Ambangeg Trail which we took, considered the easiest trail to the summit, was not so easy after all. At around 12noon the adventure begins. The HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_people”indigenous people of Benguet consider the mountain to be a sacred place so the group was well kempt all through out although we were laughing and having fun as we mock each other during the climb. Thanks to the humor of VP Mikkel, Member Dennis and ET. There are some parts of the trail where the view is already spectacular. Fortunately, the weather was perfect during our hike.

3rd stop before reaching the summit, the Camp Station, it was 430pm. After 4.5 hours of hiking steep trails of the national park, its time to set up our tents. Last time I set up a tent was back in high school and that was tedious. With newly innovated tents now, its as easy as making a paper plane. After setting up our tents, next agenda was preparing dinner. We combined all our stash to come up with a big bounty of canned goods and other junkies but best of all was the steak that Liza brought for everybody. Steak at Mt Pulag? That was very pleasant surprise!

At 8 pm we were done with dinner and it was freezing cold to about 10 deg celsius. Multiple shots of Jack Daniels did the trick of keeping us warm within so don’t ever say no to Jack when in Pulag. Ma papa “wow!” ka sa init just like the Banayad Whiskey of Tito Dolphy.

At 9pm we were all at our respective tents as we plan to climb the rest of the 2.5 km at 4am to catch the sunrise at the summit around 6am. After a quick breakfast of spam with steamed rice, and coffee, we were back on the trail at 430am, running a bit late. It was a dark hike but the spirits were high as we anticipate something magnificent when the sun begins to rise. We were approaching the highlight of our climb.

As the rays of the sun begin to shine our path, we can see Pulag’s Summit just a few meters above us, but with quite a steep incline the rest of the way. We didn’t want to miss the perfect moment and would like to capture the perfect shots so I felt like we were literally racing for the sun. A few minutes after, we arrived our destination. The view was magnificent. We witnessed the infamous “sea of clouds” phenomenon. All of our pupils were dilated, adrenaline was definitely in our circulation during that time. It was time to take the photos, to capture the moment. It took about 2-3 hours to complete our photos and enjoy the 360 degree view from the top. We could have spent more time up there but there is work left down below, brunch, the trail going back, the violent jeepney ride and reality. Not to mention, JCI Member Dennis hurt his right ankle on the way down and had to be carried tied to a bamboo stick so as not to add further injury in what we thought was a fractured ankle. Good thing it was just a strain and he even managed to travel and watch Pacman live at Dallas, Texas the weekend after the climb. It was indeed a special weekend getaway for JCI Makati and friends, not your typical weekend getaway. Check out the pictures we took and see for yourselves. You are welcome to join us on our next adventure.


From Mt. Pulag’s Team Huuuuwaaaw! tugs tugs tugs tugs tugs! =), posted by Mikkel Dion Reyeson 11/10/2010