Hawili – Home of Indigenous Mangyan

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Philippines | Tuesday, January 8, 2013 | 5 photos

I'm Susan B. Viaña from Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, a Catholic and a coconut farmer. For 12 years I have collected quaint rocks and fossils.

The May 1982 National Geographic featuring the “Temples of Angkor” was my highly-prized vicarious experience of traveling to this ancient glory in stone. I had my memorable photos taken with the celestial dancer of Angkor Wat on April 16, 2012. Travel Photography is one for the books. Joining a global competition at 56 is just like looking into life at a different angle for the infinite possibilities to achieve something new through the lens' reflection of beauty and life's emotions. Hands-on with Jason Edwards while honing an aspiring travel photographer's potential into knowledge of skills would be a gift of a life time.

Exposure of Hawili would open a huge window to an extinct natural habitat of ammonites and bivalves. As a comfortably accessible site, I envisage it as an eco-tourism prospect. Enlisting the Mangyans would be indispensable because of vulnerability of fossil rocks to vandalism. Its recognition would be an efficacious political push to the government in prioritizing a poverty-stricken community.