Kaputian Beach Resort at Island Garden City of Samal

Though the Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS) or commonly called as Samal is just a one hour ride from Davao City, I didn't get any chance to visit the almost bottom part of the former which is the Kaputian. Kaputian is the last stop of the bus coming from Davao before it goes back again to its route.

If you don't have your own service, you can ride a bus which parks in front of Magsaysay Park (Magsaysay Avenue, Uyangurin, Davao City). Each bus differs depending on your destination so just read the big signage placed in the bus' window. The bus will head to Sasa Wharf and will be carried by a barge going to Samal. It will take one to two hours before you reach Kaputian depending again to the speed of the bus and flow of traffic especially during at night wherein people and cars are now rushing in to go back to Davao.

Upon arrival, you will see the resort's signage just in front of the gate. Entrance fee for kids is P5.00 each, adults is P10.00 each and those who brought domesticated animals, owners also need to pay P150.00 each. Small cottages cost P400.00 and big ones are P800.00 each. There also rooms for those who want to stay overnight. Tree houses are P500.00 while family rooms are P200.00. Good thing with this resort is they don't collect corkage if you bring your own food and drinks since the resort itself doesn't have any restaurants available except for a mini sari-sari store. 

The white sand is sparkling and the blue sea water is shimmering against the scorching hotty Mr. Sun. You can tell that the water is really clean since there are still a lot of sea water creatures below such as crab and sea urchins. Don't worry, it is still safe to swim or dive there. A good recommendation if you wanted to visit places like this is you should have a water-proof camera or DSLR so that you can also capture wonderful views below the sea.

Sea urchins.

There is also a display of a preserved sea cow or commonly known as Dugong in a hall beside the entrance gate.

Aside from this, the only amenity that they have is a beach volleyball court. You can rent a ball from the resort management but it would be better if you bring your own. For the frustrated singers like me, they don't have any karaoke for rent available so it is up to the discretion of the visitors/customers to bring his/her own one. Yet, since it is a hassle to bring television set, microphone and speakers in a travel, you can bring medium-sized speakers instead then just plugged it to your Ipod/MP3 player and enjoy the music while feeling the sea breeze.

There is also some rasta men providing tattoo and henna services inside the resort. The picture below is my cousin's chosen design from their samples. The cost relies to the size so the bigger the size is, the higher the price.

Henna Tattoo

The number of people going here depends upon the day which is if it's weekends or summer, obviously family trips usually head to beaches and expect for a lot of them there. However, it doesn't mean that it would be too crowded.

And don't forget also to throw your garbage/left overs in the trash bins/baskets and not anywhere to save our environment. :)

Some Things Are Worth Fighting For (Quasi States)

Territorial disputes, self-determination, recognition, genocide, civil war and many more are just few of the many issues which are still incessantly cycling up around the international community for many years. These words have been constantly present in media, internet and even in the streets which also signified the tears fell from the cries, blood dropped from the killings, wounds that can’t be healed and memories that were being tried to bury despite of the long years of struggle. And with that struggle, many people sacrificed their selves even it was a matter of life and death.

As time went by, quasi-states have been continuously escalating. These states that still tried to fight for their respective sovereignties have different motives. It could be to protect their ethnicity, culture, language and to be free from the exploitation and maltreatment from the first and second-class states. And so no one could blame them for having such kind of reveries. But this matter about the limbo world can still be resolve in different ways depending upon the situations that are encountered. 

First thing is a referendum must be applied so that the voices of the people in a certain territory would reign. It should be their decision if they want to become an independent state or to remain as an autonomous region within a certain country since the state should be for the people and by the people although this is exceptional for the territories who do not uphold democracy. Just like how the new established state of Southern Sudan underwent a referendum. According to the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, there were 98.83% or 3,792,518 voters who agreed for secession. This was a big step for the Sudanese people to achieve their goal for independence. However, referendum like this has its own limitations too. Not all voters have the capacity or knowledge to make decisions about the issue at stake and not all of the votes that are being casted would directly mean that these represent the whole people. 

Secondly is to follow the Montevideo Convention or the declarative theory of statehood including the recognition from other states. Although it is being adopted nowadays, yet there is no any strict implementation of it. The qualifications for an entity to become a state must be observed strictly and there must be certain standards that should be met. This is for the reason of preventing the incessant occurrence of the so-called failed states. Like for instance, the Sovereign Order of Malta. Yet even though it has its own people, government, territory, sovereignty and recognition, the international community had not provided any clear basis for such qualifications which eventually making such state as one of the failed states. That’s why, Malta is still currently dependent with the different aids given by Western countries like Monaco such as medical and humanitarian programs since they still have the hard time to improve on their own. 

Furthermore, the UN Security Council should firmly observe its functions as what the chapter five of the UN Charter stated. Such body has an important and critical role in resolving different issues specifically in maintaining international peace and security. The UN Secretary General must strengthen their role as mediator in international issues. One of their achievements was the Resolution 1244 that they made for Kosovo and Serbia in order to prevent further casualties on both sides although Kosovo’s desire to be independent didn't happen.

Not all territories can be real states. Some would take different processes first before it happen whereas some would dare to struggle even risking their lives just for the sake of protecting their will, believing that they could achieve it someday. However, eradicating these problems is too far from the reality but it could be lessen if the parties involved would cooperate in maintaining peace and to highly discourage immense hostilities with each other. As what Ronald Reagan highlighted, peace is not the absence of conflict but the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

Reference:

EISA. (2011). Sudan: 2011 Southern Sudan Referendum Commission. Retrieved from:

http://www.eisa.org.za/WEP/sud2011ssrc.htm.

Sovereign Order of Malta. (2011). Latest Interventions. Retrieved from:

http://www.orderofmalta.org/?lang=en.

Sovereign Order of Malta. (2011). First Concert Hosted By the Prince and Princess of Monaco is Held in Support of Humanitarian Works of the Order of Malta. Retrieved from:

http://www.orderofmalta.org/news/50918/first-concert-hosted-by-the-prince-and-princess-of-monaco-held-in-support-of-humanitarian-works-of-the-order-of-malta/?lang=en.